GOOSEBERRIES

Analysis

Gooseberries as felt is an incomplete tale where the author examines two of his
favorite themes within this tale: social injustice and the quest for fulfillment.
Apparently the story potrays the hypocrisy of landowners who ignore the suffering
of those less fortunate than themselves an attempt by the author to criticizes the
banality of land proprietorship. The author raises a subtle issue that class divides,
as we see when Ivan asserts the futility of personal achievement. Ivan believes that
successful people are blind to reality because they believe they are insulated from
misfortune. What Chekhov strokes with proclamation life will show him her claws
sooner or later" comes like a sting in the tail and jolts us out of complacent
neutrality. We are forced to question whether life is something to be sailed through
without the expectation of encountering problems or setbacks, or whether it
provides us with an opportunity to grasp "something greater and more rational"
than happiness. A philosophical query "How much land does a man need?" is
bulldozed by the author, when Ivan emphasizes that man requires only the freedom
to roam the globe, where he can "have room to display all the qualities and
peculiarities of his free spirit."
In real life, we also have to hypothesize about what drives people's actions. The
author in fact highlights idiosyncrasy in order to flesh out the personalities of his
characters when we read that the "oppressive smell" of "stale tobacco" emanating
from Ivan's pipe prevents Burkin from falling asleep. Similarly, we are shown how
the water around Aliokhin turns brown because he has not washed in a long time.
Ivan Ivanich speaks for Chekhov when he declares that young people should avoid
self indulgence and should dedicate their lives to good works which do make us
ponder the very fact that this piece of literature is wriiten during Chekovs old days.
Critic from one school of thought interpret "Gooseberries" as a clash between
illusion and reality, with Ivan Ivanich representing the demands of the realist and
Nikolai symbolizing a happy but stupid existence. The memory of the gooseberries,
the smell of Ivan's pipe in the bedroom, and the rain that never stopped makes
"Gooseberries" an ironic double edged tale with a clear message: "What is
happiness? inviting us to answer but eluding the basic structure of human nature as
an instrument playing tricks on itself. Some people view stress and pressure as a
bad thing while other people think that pressure and stress can actually be highly
beneficial. "Gooseberries" deals with the every day stress and the plans that people
make to counter them. Chekhov proves that the supposed stress-free events prove
to be more trouble than they appear to be.
The relevance of this story is not just out in the open. The man who lived with his
precious gooseberries is the brother of the narrator of this story. The narrator only
tells this story because he and a friend were out in the rain and the only shelter was
in a place similar to that of the gooseberry man. When they see the owner of this
land, he is covered in pure filth. The man even talks of not having bathed in many
days, and is complaining of reeking like a pig. Living under such conditions can not
be good for ones stress level; greeting your guests in dirty clothes and an even
dirtier self. The man was also just coming from the fields and doing some hard
laborious work. No one would want to spend their stress release time like that. This
man, and his dirtiness, are a key point to the story. The reader thinks about the
brothers way of life, and think that they would never allow their dreams to become
that stressful. Then, this man and his filth show up and the reader realizes that he
has turned out the same way. This poses a question for the reader; "if they turned
out this way, and they knew what they wanted, who is to say that I cannot?" These
men all thought that they were ready to relax and just watch the stress fly away like
a bird. This story proves that people can get more stressed out living their dreams
than working for them.

Chekhov's story is about a man who had a dream. This man wanted to live in the
country, and have a nice quiet peaceful life. This man made the common mistake
that people have made over and over again; they set their goals and dreams so
high that they are one ladder rung away from being attainable. This man worked
very hard during his early years, and he saved almost all his money. He lived under
extremely meager conditions so not to have to spend much money. People would
view his situation and think he was having hard times, so they would give him little
donations. Rather than spend this money on the new clothes or some extra food,
which he really needed, he would put it away. Finally, he felt he had enough money
to accomplish his dream(it lacked the gooseberry bushes he yearned for so badly).
This was everything he wanted, because he planted his own bushes, but yet he still
was not happy. His life was more stressful than ever before and this was supposed
be his stress relieving time.

The man was so worried about money that he only hired the absolute minimum
number of people he needed to help him. He had to do the rest of the work, and this
is one factor that leads to his high stress problem. He was constantly worrying over
his precious gooseberries, that he never really got to look around and enjoy his
country living. That is not any way to release the stress that built up over all those
years; doing back-breaking labor and constantly worrying about little things will not
lower ones blood pressure. If this man had set a more reasonable goal, or perhaps
waited until he was more ready financially, he may have been able to relax and
truly revel in the fact of attaining his true dream.
Dreams are meant to be the thoughts that get people through their mundane and
almost trivial jobs. Dreams are supposed to be relaxing, fun, and stress free. Goals
are what people spend their lives trying to reach, and when they are finally attained
the person feels born again. They have already conquered their biggest obstacle,
and felt total relief from stress. Once they reach these goals, people can start all
over again, totally relaxed and ready to stir up more life. People might see this story
as pointless when they look at it on the surface, but deep down it rings a bell and
people know that the clock is ticking.
OH! THE PUBLIC
Oh! The Public!, is a story told by a self-critical drinking ticket collector- Podtyagin
working on a train. One of the passengers argues with him, saying he is sick and
dying and wants to sleep. In truth, he has no ticket. This repeats. Finally, the
collector goes back his compartment to have another drink. As a critic the ploy used
by Chekhov to illustrate how alcohol instigate the conscious of a disinterested ticket
checker whose conscious pricks at him for his sluggishness and he decides to give
his best to the job but since he is in a state of heavy drunkenness his attentiveness
goes overboard. His acrid obedience is not well received by the travellers and
doesnt extract the kind of response he had hoped for. This assiduous urge to be
attentive and pretentious hardwork which is not accoladed by the public makes him
believe that there is no point working hard.
The punch line that Chekov manages to pull is what I term Spirit of Law-at
discretion of oneself. A school of thought says rules are black and white -- but we
have to know when to apply them and when not to. Another protagonist school of
thought say rules are made to be broken. The story aptly portrays todays so called
System wherin the rules are fixed but if every rule was actually enforced then we
would have an impossible situation. The author emphasises on honoring the spirit of
the law, but the rules have to include a human element. Chekhov is right in enlisting
the cocophony that when something goes wrong we conveniently blame officials for
not doing their duty.
Oh! The public indeed is a very poignant story characterised by Podtyagin who is
overcompensating in trying to make up for all the time he was neglecting his duty.
This of course leaves him in a no-win situation which becomes a vicious cycle -- the
more he wants to do -- the less effective he becomes. The imbalance potrayed by
Chekov is so aligned with our lifestyle that Podtyagin potrays. But in one form or
the other either as parents, teachers, citizens, officials - whatever we are we
behave like Podtyagin. We all feel we should do a better job and get rid of our bad
habits, make a New Year's resolution and go Gung-ho about our task but usually we
find ourselves going back to our old habits until we we start again on the path of
reformation. That he goes back to drinking in the end and so he would be feel bad
at some point for this escapist attitude of his scored by actions that he drinks too
much and doesn't do his job and so will be into the viscious cycle to repeat this
story again and again.
THE SHOEMAKER AND THE DEVIL
The Shoemaker and the Devil is a humoristic morality tale about a shoemaker
who dreams about selling his his soul to devil in return of becoming rich.

Be careful what you wish for.

The poor shoemaker makes a bargain with the devil.

He becomes rich and the devil gets his soul.

But quickly the shoemaker realizes that what he wished for might not be what he
really wanted.

Being rich has responsibilities and obligations which he doesn't want to deal with.

The grass is always greener on the other side.

Being happy has nothing to do with being rich or poor but with how well you handle
your inner self.

Of course, we all want to fantasize about being rich and having all the benefits we
imagine comes with wealth. However, if like this story we became rich in an
instant -- without truly earning it -- we'd feel just as unsatisfied as the shoemaker.

Studies repeatedly have shown lottery winners who became rich overnight -- their
happiness quota doesn't in fact go up in the long run. They'll eventually be just as
happy or unhappy as they were before hitting it big.

I think if you do become rich because you worked hard and truly made it with your
sweat -- then you'll probably enjoy what you made -- but real happiness depends on
love -- friendships -- family -- intangibles that money just can't buy.

Sounds naive and childish to think that money can't buy happiness -- we'd all love
to be handed millions -- but the truth is if you want to be happy then work on being
happy -- not on envying the rich or anyone else -- develop your inner being -- and
then your happiness will be genuine and not measured by how many cars you own
and no one will be able to take it away from you.

Still -- if you have a few million to spare -- as long as I don't have to sign anything --
no -- forget it.

That hurts.

There's a side to us that no matter how much we realize that money won't buy
happiness -- won't believe it.

And that's why this story hits home.