Dr. Zhivago is a novel that none of its 840 pages (my book) failed to disappoint me. Futile Russian vulgar.
The novel is named after its protagonist, Dr. Zhivago is a novel that none of its 840 pages (my book) failed to disappoint me. Futile Russian vulgar.
The novel is named after its protagonist, Yuri Zhivago, a physician and poet, and takes place between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and World War II. The plot of Doctor Zhivago is long, intricate, and hard to follow for two reasons. First, Pasternak employs many characters who interact with each other throughout the book in unpredictable ways. Secondly, he frequently introduces a character by one of his/her three long Russian names, then subsequently refers to that character by another of the three names or a nickname, without expressly stating that he is referring to the same character.
[image] Character map of Doctor Zhivago
Despite numerous praises and Nobel Prize-winning, the plot is corrupted, inconsistent, and meaningless. I think the novel is only popular due to its anti-Soviet concept, following its censorship in Communist Russia. Lara, Zhivago's mistress, is portrayed as an uncorrupted and “saintly” woman, while her vulgar begins at age 17 with an old man. I didn’t see any valuable characteristic in her who was introduced as the woman of "chaste." How can an affair while being married be justified? The CIA realized that the novel presented an opportunity to embarrass the Soviet government. Realizing the book's great propaganda value, the author won the Nobel Prize, and the novel became part of the Russian school's 11th-grade curriculum since 2003.
Pasternak tears families apart in the name of "love," and in coldness, he purifies immoral actions and justifies them by, “disillusionment with revolution ideologies and inevitable chaotic social situation.” However, there are some interesting things to mention about this book. First, is the meanings of the characters' names and their relations with their roles:
Zhivago (Живаго): the Russian root zhiv means "alive". Larissa: a Greek name suggesting "bright, cheerful". Komarovsky (Комаровский): Komar (комар) is the Russian for "mosquito".
Second, and more interestingly, was the curiously similar fate of Dr. Zhivago and his father. The Zhivago's father was once a wealthy member of Moscow's merchant gentry but left his family and has squandered the family's fortune in Siberia through debauchery and carousing. He died after falling off the train tracks while being drunk. Similarly, his son falls from dignity, lives in misery, and dies after falling from a tram due to a heart attack. Lara develops drinking habits and disappears, believed to be arrested during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge and dying in the Gulag, "a nameless number on a list that was later misplaced." Not feeling sorry for their fates, I wonder if the tragedy symbolizes of Russia's fate in contemporary history....more
The Gambler was the first book I read from Dostoevsky, and I have to admit the comedy-tragedy theme of the novel was really intriguing. It seemed to meThe Gambler was the first book I read from Dostoevsky, and I have to admit the comedy-tragedy theme of the novel was really intriguing. It seemed to me that the author tried to depict how life, love, and gamble are alike. Dostoevsky himself was a life-long gambler, and his experience had a great effect on narrating the story....more
Parmida R. A.
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russian-literature
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