Gooseberries: Style 1 key example

The majority of the story consists of a tale that Ivan tells to Alekhin and Burkin about his brother Nikolai’s obsession with gaining wealth and land. In this section of the story, the writing style becomes more conversational, though it remains literary. Ivan uses a mix of metaphors, similes, and imagery in his speech in order to capture the attention of his listeners, and to ultimately convince them of his moral positions (as contradictory as they may be).

The following passage—which comes as Ivan laments his wealthy brother’s happiness—captures the writing style that Chekhov employs when speaking from Ivan’s perspective:

“At the door of every contented, happy man somebody should stand with a little hammer, constantly tapping, to remind him that unhappy people exist, that however happy he may be, sooner or later life will show him its claws, some calamity will befall him—illness, poverty, loss—and nobody will hear or see, just as he doesn't hear or see others now. But there is nobody with a little hammer, the happy man lives on, and the petty cares of life stir him only slightly, as wind stirs an aspen—and everything is fine.”

Cite this Quote

Ivan uses an extended metaphor in which happy people (like Nikolai) are buildings with doors that need to be hammered “to remind [them] that unhappy people exist.” Ivan also metaphorically turns life into an animal with “claws” that can attack happy people at any time. Later in the passage, he uses a simile when describing how “the petty cares of life” only stir happy people “as wind stirs an aspen,” meaning that, in reality, happy (privileged) people can ignore the suffering happening all around them. The conversational nature of Ivan’s speech also comes across in the writing style here, as seen in the many commas and em-dashes that capture the way a person might pause for breath or interrupt themselves as they speak.