Gooseberries: Genre 1 key example

The following passage, which comes during Ivan’s extended monologue about his brother Nikolai, demonstrates Chekhov’s intentional inclusion of realistic details in the story:

“Our father, Chimsha-Himalaysky, was a cantonist, but he earned officer's rank in the service and left us hereditary nobility and a small estate. After his death, the estate went to pay debts, but, be that as it may, we spent our childhood in the freedom of the countryside. Just like peasant children, we spent days and nights in the fields, in the woods, tending horses, stripping bast, fishing, and all the rest.”

Cite this Quote

In this passage, Chekhov notes that Ivan and Nikolai’s father was a “cantonist,” meaning that he was the son of a career soldier and was trained to join the army from childhood (paid for by the Russian government). Chekhov also captures the reality of working-class people at the time by describing how Ivana and Nikolai’s father left them no money after paying off his debts. Chekhov also describes the everyday realities of peasant children in Russia in this time period, noting that it involved spending “days and nights in the fields” and woods, taking care of horses, fishing, and “stripping bast” (a common practice in Russia at the time that involved stripping the inner bark of the linden tree to use it in the construction of roofs, wagon covers, and shoes).

Here, and throughout the story, Chekhov depicts the lives of his characters realistically in order to make the story more relatable to his Russian audience, thereby challenging them to take the social critique and themes in the story more seriously.