My First Goose, By Isaac Babel - 957 Words

Traditional expression of gender emanates from various origins: society, culture, and history. However, the strongest motivation for gender expression comes from one’s self. When wishing to exemplify the ideal gender characteristics, one relies on mirroring the actions of others. The imitation of others leads to extraordinary measures to prove one’s gender abilities in order to reach a state of acceptance within one’s community. In â€Å"My First Goose,† the narrator attempts to mirror masculine traits by using dominance and violence. Isaac Babel intricately plays with traditional ideals of gender through the protagonist’s difficult journey for acceptance by questioning how one develops power and respect through masculinity. One arriving in a predominantly male community, the narrator quickly realizes his physical characteristics exemplify the opposite of masculinity. Men of strong statures swarm the community in which the narrator has arrived. The commander of the men epitomizes the strong, burly masculine expression. The narrator describes him as having, â€Å"long legs looked like two girls wedged to their shoulders in riding boots.† Using their heavy stature against the narrator, the Cossack men begin to taunt and tease the newcomer. One of the men uses force to taunt the narrator: a young fellow with long, flaxen hair and a wonderful Ryazan face walked up to my suitcase and threw it out into the street. By using force and their bodies against the narrator, the Cossack menShow MoreRelatedThe Darkness of Isaac Babel’s The Red Cavalry 801 Words   |  3 Pagesmany short stories and during the time of the Polish ­Soviet war,spanning February 1919 until March 1921. The more short storie s in this novel that you read, the more darker and gruesome they become. Being that this collection of stories is based upon Isaac Babel’s own diary of his experiences as a propagandist and a war correspondent, it only seems fitting that things would become significantly darker in nature the longer he had an inside view upon the real war. As it appears, the novel was written initiallyRead MoreSymbolism And Symbolism Of Russian Literature2115 Words   |  9 Pagesversion by Maria Carlson who used variety of colors as a form of symbolism. He finished this poem in the year of 1918 after the third Revolution and Russia’s failures in World War I and the arisen of Civil War and it caused people the felt of horror. First of all, the title of the poem was symbolism too, it was a powerful phrase of what he was saying of the entire poetry. Blok mentioned that it was not a happy town by his description. Also, he began the poem with, â€Å"Black night, white snow. ImpossibleRead MoreConcision and Repetition in Babels Collected Stories2461 Words   |  10 PagesConcision and Repetition in Babel’s Collected Stories With laconic power, Isaac Babel tells short stories that are at once cold and full of exultation. This effect arises as much from his prose style as from the wrenching content of his narratives. In this paper, I will explore several techniques that compress his prose to the lapidary and one that is more expansive and cuts against his impulse to concision. One of Babel’s most striking tools for reducing his text to essentials is the simile (and