Book Report on “Fathers and Sons” by Ivan Turgenev Essay

Fathers and Sons is, perhaps, the most interesting book by the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev, which gained international recognition. It has been first published in 1862 and concurred with a multiform period of Russian history, known as the Great Reforms. Abolition of serfdom, reforms of administrational system, industrialization and raise of ultra ideas caused profound changes in the Russian society and in the minds of people. Turgenevs book is devoted t this dramatic mental and psychological break.Fathers be old generation who plowshargon conservative views and sons are youth, dreaming of revolution and demonstrating nihilism and disrespect towards traditional values. The narrator of the story Nikolai Petrovitch Kirsanov, is a son of a general, who has been a hero of Napoleonic wars. His life is quite an unremarkable. Being unable to serve in the army because of the childhood trauma, he has married and lived happily with his wife till her early last. After that he devoted all his life to his sole(prenominal)(prenominal) son Arcady.The novel opens when the senior Kirsanov stands before the door of his dominion waiting for his son returning from the university. lastly the son comes back, but he is not alone, he is accompanied by his new university fri break off Yevgeny Vasilevich Bazarov. Soon Nikolai Kirsanov take ins out, that his son has alone fallen at a lower place influence of Bazarovs nihilistic and factualistic views. He dreams of bloody revolutionary changes and disputes with Kirsanov about the future of Russia Aristocracy, liberalism, progress, principles, said Bazarov. Just venture what a care of foreign . . .and useless words To a Russian theyre no good for any liaison , regulates he. Further along the novel Bazarov continues to play a character of a revolutionary demon. He is pretty charismatic, so such(prenominal) miserable people as Sitnikov and Kukushkina fall under his influence. Those two are represent a sort of forward t hinkers whose progrogressism comes to be reduced to absurd. They are ready to admire any new nihilistic ideas being completely unable to think of them critically and add any own cogitate to them. Bazarov openly contemns Sitnikov and flirts with Kushkina to allay his boredom.What is really interesting for Bazarov are his disputes with Pavel Petrovitch Kirsanov, older chum of Nikolai Kirsanov They feel antipathy from the very first moment of their acquaintance. Pavel Kirsanov speaks of Bazarovs nihilism as of an unfounded doctrine existing in vacuum. Bazarovs mien of thinking is purely utilitarian We act by virtue of what we take as useful, went on Bazarov. At present the most useful thing is denial, so we deny. Pavel strongly disagrees barely allow me, began Nikolai Petrovich. You deny everything, or to put it more precisely, you destroy everything .. . But one must construct, too, you know. 33 But Bazarov remains sure, that to construct slightlything it is first necessary to Clean the ground. peradventure this dispute surrounded by Pavel Kirsanov and Bazarov puts forth the basic idea of the book involution of conservatism and revolutionary doctrine. In order to iron out the differences between Pavel Kirsanov and Bazarov Arcady tells Bazarov the story of Pavels life. Once Pavel was a luminous officer, but complete to a woman, duchess R ruined his life and left him completely drained. Pavel only retained his sophisticated taste, fair manners and Anglomania.Although she is not present in the novel, duchess R seems to be one of the characters because even afterwards years she continues to retard Pavels actions. He asks for satisfaction from Bazarov, when he sees him kissing Fenichka, but the real reason is not Bazarovs behavior, but that Fenichka somehow reminds Pavel duchess R. eon men in the story are symbols of social classes and positions, women represent something, what git be called normal life, whether it is duchess R a symbol of Russian ma gnificent nobility, Fenichka a symbol of common sense, or Mme Odintsov.Mme Odintsov is a very special character. On the one hand she is perfectly educated and progressive woman, on the other she does not in any way share Bazarovs enthusiasm about social cataclysms. She is sure, that society is to be bettered by bettering of human, but not by reconstruction of its formation. She asks Bazarov a unbelief which he is unable to directly answer And you suppose, said Anna Sergeyevna, that when society is ameliorate there go forth be no longer any dumb or wicked people? 56 Bazarov starts explaining that a proper society will make no difference, but inside he feels, that Odintsova is right. Love to a woman is so contrary to Bazarovs views, that he is unable to demand it, putting cynicism on himself, and then leaving her house. He attempts to find some occupation for himself, flirts, fights at a duel and tries to speak about his ideas with peasants. The peasants are in fact those, who a re to be enthusiastic about the revolution, at least as Bazarov thinks. So he is unhappily surprised to find out, that peasants do not want to understand complicated teaching and think of him as of a cheat.Bazarovs ideas collapse he finds no incite both with educated and common people, so he has to recognize, that revolution is actually unnecessary to anyone and that it is nothing more, than a fashionable game. Pavel Kirsanov is right doctrines of Bazarov exist in vacuum. It is not clear whether Bazarovs death was a suicide, but his behavior itself is suicidal, and he accepts the certainty of death calmly. The only thing he wants is to say farewell to Odintsova. At his deathbed he openly confessed, that all his prod ideas went knock down to the pan.He continues to speak of himself as of a giant, but now the only task he puts for himself is to die with dignity. Six month after his death the two couples married Nikolai Kirsanov to Fenichka and Arcady to Kate Odintsova younger sist er. The normal life continues even after Bazarovs death, and Arcady, his former confederate, becomes a wealthy landowner, representing an antithesis to Bazarovs views. Bazarovs lumbering is almost forgotten, and only his parents sometimes come to shed tears oer it. Although Fathers and Sons is a novel about pre-revolutionary Russia, its lesson is useful for all generations.Sons perpetually rise against their fathers, willing to change this world and create a on the whole new one for themselves. And Turgenev demonstrates how mental dissoluteness and spiritual weakness sack destroy even the most sharp-minded person. The whole revolutionary fervor of Bazarov is ruined by romantic love the real motivation of the world. At the end of his life the demon feels lost and betrayed, while conservatism triumphs over his grave. kit and boodle cited Ivan Turgenev (1998) Fathers and Sons. Oxford Oxford University Press