The power dynamics among the characters in each story are striking. Even in modern times, those perceived as powerful are those with money, social capital, and other markers of wealth. Those with money, social capital, and other forms of societal power the top dogs in any society, whatever society it may be. However, in these stories, especially in “The Story of How One Russian Peasant Fed Two Generals,” the power dynamics are challenged. In this story, the wealthy and powerful depend on the peasants in a multitude of ways. A quiet power that the peasants hold becomes obvious as both the powerful and the powerless are described in these two stories accurately.
In “The Story of How One Russian Peasant Fed Two Generals,” this power the peasant holds becomes apparent as the generals meet him on the island. Although the generals have fancy garbs and reminisce of their elaborate meals back home, they can’t do anything themselves. Early in the story, this becomes obvious when the two of them can’t find the cardinal directions, which one would assume generals could do. They are unable to feed themselves, and rather than learning how too, they feel it would be easier to find a peasant on a sparsely populated island to do this for them. This desire to be waited on struck me, as it already shows how the wealthy upper-class needs their poor peasants for survival. As the story progresses, the generals refer to their peasant as “lazybones,” when it is quite the opposite. However, the generals expect that the peasant would help them, and to not do so is lazy.

The inability of the generals to do anything that would be beneficial to their survival shows a lack of power. They are not in control of their survival, but the so-called “lazybones” peasant is. The peasant has a sort of power over these generals, although no party would say that out loud. The exacerbation of the generals’ ineptitude may be part of the story, but the general ideology behind it is real. Without the poor, the rich have no way to continue on living.