I found the short stories and poetry, as well as a few of Brodsky’s paintings, to effectively show a connection between emotions and settings. In much of the art and literature, the setting, not just the places but also the seasons, act almost as characters in the story. They are powerful settings, filled with images that evoke strong reactions in the reader.

When you are a kid, summer is a world not forced into the regular confines of adult society. You are content to wander the mysterious world, giving yourself over to impulses and fleeting thoughts. Tolstaya puts it well in On the Golden Porch when she says “In the beginning was the garden. Childhood was a garden. Without end or limit, without borders and fences, in noises and rustling, golden in the sun, pale green in the shade…”. There is also a sense of unpredictability about summer, a strange haze that changes the way you see the world. Like shortly later in the short story when a naked man appears out of the lake.

The Scent of Apples elicits a similar sentiment. Bunin starts the story with feelings familiar to anyone who has experienced the magic of a late summer. “In August there were warm and gentle rains – rains that seemed to fall deliberately to help the sowing.” There is a reason that this sets the tone for the story so well, it is easy to connect to and instantly calming. The narrator keeps describing the idyllic surroundings: “I remember a fresh and quiet morning… The air’s so clear it seems there is no air at all” This aura is also well represented in Isaaak Brodsky’s painting “Golden Autumn”. It is colorful and nostalgic, and though its leaf’s visibly changing colors may signify the end of something, they also imply and remind us of the intensely familiar cycle of a year.

I imagine that this idea of setting and climate evoking strong reactions and connections from the reader in art and literature will prove to be important throughout this course, as it shows that a humans connection to nature can be universal, and that nature can foster feelings that people of all different cultures can share.