The Student, by Anton Chekhov (1894)

 Rating: 6/10


 I hadn't had much interaction with Russian writers before, so this short story was another fresh contact to Russian writings. The story was about Ivan, who meets two widows and tells them about Peter's denial. By listening to the story of how Peter denied Jesus several times and finally realized his awful mistakes, the two widows were moved and their eyes shed tears. After observing their reactions, Ivan walks away with satisfaction. His feeling of peacefulness shows by the description of the background as Ivan walks home.

 To interpret this story through Hero's Journey, I personally don't see the point where any of the characters take part as a 'hero'. Throughout the story, the only character who 'can' be called a hero is Peter from Ivan's story. For Ivan and any other characters such as widows, I personally don't see any action which can be step 5, 'crossing the threshold'. As I believe it would not be precise or exact to consider Peter as the 'hero' of the story, I think this story doesn't fit into one of the hero's journeys.    (181 words)

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  1. Garrioch2022년 3월 9일 오후 5:11

    Good to see you've kept up a bit but DO NOT STOP. Keep up. You write well so this shouldn't be too difficult. As for the "Hero" aspect don't take it too literally. A main character is essentially "a hero" even when they aren't. What the Journey does is show you the arc and change that usually helps understand a story. As we see with Gooseberries, it doesn't always have much impact. Keep up your journal now that you've started.

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