The contemplation of personhood within this text is so interesting! The shed in this story becomes more than a storage place, but an animate being whose feelings and actions are relayed to us. The level of personal awareness in Number XII is amazing. Pelevin writes:
The Night after the painting (when he had been given his Roman numeral, his name–the other sheds around him all had ordinary numbers), he held up his tar-papered roof to the moon as he dried. “Where am I?” he thought. “Who am I?” (48)
These questions guide the story, as Number XII tries to find more meaning in his life than just being a storage unit. The distinction of the shed’s name, color, and use from the other storage spaces emphasizes the shed’s individuality. When Number XII talked with the garage, Number 13 and 14, he realized that they were pessimistic and squandered Number XII’s thoughts and aspirations. Number XII also saw difference in how he was used: to store bicycles and other hardware, where the others housed food and other agricultural products. I think it is another interesting point that Number XII dreams of being a bicycle, to rush along deserted highways into the sunset– to be in constant motion. This contrasts from his companions, who believe it is a ridiculous dream and want nothing more than to stay sedentary–without motion. Number XII’s fight to retain his individuality is intensified when the other sheds constantly criticize and talk among themselves. This is further complicated when the bicycles are replaced with a barrel of pickled cucumbers that are wheeled through Number XII’s doors. Slowly, Number XII’s mind is transformed by the stench of fermenting cucumbers, in which he is changed to be more like Number 13 and 14. Once again, Number XII provides insight to his personal thoughts, stating:
On the one hand, he felt himself the equal of Numbers 13 and 14, and yet on the other hand, buried somewhere deep inside him, there remained a sense of terrible injustice about what had happened to him. But his new existence’s center was located in the barrel, which emitted the constant gurgling and crackling sounds that had replaced the imagined whooshing of tires over concrete ( 54).
I think the questions and thoughts that Number XII’s story conjures is an important one. One may be drawn to self-reflection; are we true to our goals, or are we shaped by our environment?
I think to a certain point, we can be driven by our goals, but after that point, there are outside forces that create an environment that isn’t conducive to our original goals. At least, that’s how this story comes at me. I think the lofty goals of equality and brotherhood were represented by the free spirit of the bikes, but the harsh reality of later soviet actions were represented by the woman ordering the shed to be filled with pickles and oil. A nation can only keep its identity as long as the administration allows for that identity to be expressed, and once taken away, it will fall into the grumpiness and sedentary attitudes that 13 and 14 expressed.
I think that choice and freedom play a large role in the struggle between one’s goals and their social environment. The Shed’s early conception of its identity and its goals set forward the idealism that individuals can choose to follow their aspirations rather than conform to the limitations of society. The woman who fills the shed with pickles demonstrates how one’s free will can be subject to the constraints of one’s environment. And while these constraints may not directly destroy an individual’s goals, they can lead to the loss of morale and sense of self which is necessary to achieving idealistic dreams. I think that the story, as an allegory for a socialist state, argues that it is a lofty yet theoretically possible dream, severely limited by societal pushback and the passion and dedication of its administration.
Evie, you bring up a really interesting point about the role of choice in a socialist state. Just as Shandiin mentions, the shed must choose whether or not to deviate from his peers and strive to reach his goal of becoming a bike. While you are correct to say that this story serves an allegory for a socialist state, I believe it is more accurate to say the shed represents citizens within the state. In a society where uniformity and being a member of the masses is revered. Only in death/suicide is Shed Number XII able to attain his dream. He sacrifices himself for the sake of his dream. This story contains religious undertones. Not only is the shed’d name reminiscent of Jesus’s twelve apostles, but the concepts of sacrifice and salvation are key elements of Christianity. This name choice and the personification of the shed reveal the ways in which individuals that choose to practice their faith within the soviet state are othered and forced to either fall in line or die in their efforts to reach salvation.
Thando, another great comment! I’d just like to add that the very few lines of the story clearly invite us to consider its religious themes: this is a creation story (of a new Soviet world) that begins just like the creation story in the Old Testament: “In the beginning was the word.” The Soviet experiment is the outgrowth of words, theories (those of Marx, Engels, Lenin, etc.) that give rise to a new kind of person and a new reality. Ironically, this is supposed to be a materialist, anti-religious reality–but, as we have discussed in class, socialism in fact shared with Christianity its teleological understanding of time and history. (And by the way, the number 12 points not only to the 12 apostles, but also to the 12 months of the year and the 12 hours on the clock, both of which alert us to temporal cycles.)
The pursuit of the definition of self and purpose are classics of Russian literature. One thing I contemplated when it came to defining self in the text was the idea of the barrel. The barrels were storage units themselves. However these barrel, from what I recall, don’t have a voice themselves. I wonder why the barrels were given no personification when the shed was. Was this lack of personification what frightened the shed? Was the shed afraid that he might become the barrel: That is a place were things simply ferment. A place where the only thing that mattered was the inside of the container not an appreciation of the whole process?
Another great discussion! There is so much that is worthwhile here: questions about self-determination, the role of free choice and environment, religious themes in the story, and of course, the story’s allegorical meanings regarding the nature of personhood in the Soviet Union. Colby, I personally think that the threat of the barrel is similar to the danger of calcification and entropy in Zamyatin’s essay. In my view, the barrel full of fermenting pickles represents the unhealthy stagnation of any sense of self within the mass identity of the socialist state (think of the images of enormous crowds applauding or saluting in some of the political footage in the film “Anna”!)–the creeping , suffocating force of uniformity, which essentially pickles one’s identity and removes all sense of purpose and agency from life… If you happen to know Orwell’s 1984, you can also think of the way Winston’s spirit is broken at the end and he accepts the Party and learns to love Big Brother. He becomes one with the pickle barrel, in other words. 🙂