{"id":942,"date":"2020-04-05T21:15:29","date_gmt":"2020-04-05T21:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/?p=942"},"modified":"2020-04-06T03:38:14","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T03:38:14","slug":"natures-cycles-of-life-and-death-in-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/edowd\/natures-cycles-of-life-and-death-in-will\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature&#8217;s Cycles of Life and Death in &#8220;Will&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\u201cWill\u201d by Lydia Zinov\u2019eva-Annibal had many complex symbolic undercurrents whose significance I could not fully grasp. \u00a0One interesting image that came up in multiple places throughout this text was that of the spring \u201cearth\u201d. \u00a0Zinov\u2019eva-Annibal first uses it in a literal sense when our main character takes her horse out of the barn. \u00a0She describes the \u201cspring grove\u201d saying that \u201cthe swollen, rich earth thrust up the first tiny rays of green grass\u201d (180). \u00a0This image, especially the use of the word \u201cswollen,\u201d depicts the earth as the birthplace, or a mother, of the new spring growth. \u00a0The next image of the \u201cearth\u201d occurs when the main character\u2019s carriage gets stuck in the spring mud; she describes her predicament saying, \u201cYou can\u2019t hold back the earth in spring, it\u2019s like a quagmire with no bottom. \u00a0The earth opens\u201d (181). \u00a0The earth described here is very different from the earth that \u201cthrust up\u201d the grass on the page before; instead of a creator, it is a swallower.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The significance of these two sides of the spring \u201cearth\u201d is made more clear when our main character finds out that her friend Alena has died in childbirth. \u00a0When the main character first walks into Alena\u2019s hut, she describes what sees, saying, \u201cOn the floor, on the hay \u2014 a body. \u00a0The legs are bent sharply up at naked knees. \u00a0The head is thrust back. \u00a0The face is gray as earth\u201d (182). \u00a0The use of the article \u201cthe\u201d instead of \u201cher\u201d in reference to Alena\u2019s body parts immediately stood out to me in its dehumanization of her dead body. \u00a0The comparison of her face with the \u201cearth\u201d recalls both meanings of image that I discussed earlier. \u00a0Alena has created life as she just gave birth, but she is all becoming a part of the all-subsuming \u201cquagmire\u201d in her death. Zinov\u2019eva-Annibal emphasizes the importance of this image as she uses it two more times to describe Alena\u2019s dead body just on page 182. \u00a0The impersonal description of her body and the inclusion of her death with the earth\u2019s natural cycling indicated to me that Zinov\u2019eva-Annibal\u2019s idea of mortality mapped on quite well with Tolstoy\u2019s as depicted in \u201cThe Three Deaths\u201d. \u00a0Her \u201cearth\u201d and his \u201ctree\u201d symbolism seem to both suggest that although death is sad, it is natural and makes way for new life. \u00a0One aspect of \u201cWill\u201d that confused me in this respect, however, was the main character\u2019s reaction to Alena\u2019s death. \u00a0I would be interested to hear all of your ideas on this subject, especially as it relates to Alena\u2019s baby.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWill\u201d by Lydia Zinov\u2019eva-Annibal had many complex symbolic undercurrents whose significance I could not fully grasp. \u00a0One interesting image that came up in multiple places throughout this text was that of the spring \u201cearth\u201d. \u00a0Zinov\u2019eva-Annibal first uses it in a literal sense when our main character takes her horse out of the barn. \u00a0She describes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unit-9-the-silver-age-and-revolution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}