Synthesized answer
The initial establishment of power dynamics shows the narrator's subservient position to both his master and Sascha. The master's authority is implied through the narrator's fear of his threats and the instruction that he "is to obey him; he is older than you both in years and experience" [2]. The master's dominance is further evidenced by his capacity to scold Sascha, even if Sascha is a junior assistant [3, 4]. Sascha, in turn, asserts his power over the narrator, as he was instructed by the grandfather to help and teach the narrator, and immediately declares, "He will have to do what I tell him" [2]. Sascha demonstrates his seniority and power through scolding and ordering the narrator about with threatening gestures, despite the narrator being taller [1, 4].
These interactions suggest a clear social hierarchy where the narrator is at the bottom, expected to obey those above him. The grandfather's decree that the narrator "is to obey him [Sascha]; he is older than you both in years and experience" establishes Sascha as a figure of authority over the narrator due to age and experience [2]. Sascha's behavior, such as imitating the senior assistant's movements and demonstrating…
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From the book
d man had really been making fun of me, or had been sent by my master to try me. I did not want to go back to the shop. Sascha came hurriedly into the yard and shouted: "What the devil has become of you?" I shook my pincers at him in a sudden access of rage. I knew that both he and the assistant robbed the master. They would hide a pair of boots or slippers in the stovepipe, and when they left the shop, would slip them into the sleeves of their overcoats. I did not like this, and felt alarmed about it, for I remembered the threats of the master. "Are you stealing?" I had asked…
t there for the rest of your life." He said this quite calmly, and I was frightened, and did not like him any more. Besides the master, there were serving in the shop my cousin, Sascha Jaakov, and the senior assistant, a competent, unctuous person with a red face. Sascha now wore a brown frock-coat, a false shirt-front, a cravat, and long trousers, and was too proud to take any notice of me. When grandfather had brought me to my master, he had asked Sascha to help me and to teach me. Sascha had frowned with an air of importance as he said warning: "He will have to do what I tell…
d advise him. "I--I'm all right," Sascha would mutter, putting his head down. But the master would not leave him alone. "Don't butt; the customers will think you are a goat." The assistant smiled respectfully, the master stretched his lips in a hideous grin, and Sascha, his face flushing, retreated behind the counter. I did not like the tone of these conversations. Many of the words they used were unintelligible to me, and sometimes they seemed to be speaking in a strange language. When a lady customer came in, the master would take his hands out of his pockets, tug at his…
ions of his seniority and power over me, scolding me in a bass voice, and ordering me about with threatening gestures. I was taller than he, but bony and clumsy, while he was compact, flexible, and fleshy. In his frock-coat and long trousers he seemed an important and substantial figure in my eyes, and yet there was something ludicrous and unpleasing about him. He hated the cook, a curious woman, of whom it was impossible to decide whether she was good or bad. "What I love most in the world is a fight," she said, opening wide her burning black eyes. "I don't care what sort of fight it…
ace?" "Do you think that I am afraid to?" But a second later he said, with a frown: "No, I can't say it to her face. She may really be a witch." Treating every one with the same scornful lack of consideration, she showed no indulgence to me, but would drag me out of bed at six o'clock every morning, crying: "Are you going to sleep forever? Bring the wood in! Get the samovar ready! Clean the doorplate!" Sascha would wake up and complain: "What are you bawling like that for? I will tell the master. You don't give any one a chance to, sleep." Moving quickly about the…
More questions about this book
- How does the master's seemingly contradictory response to the narrator's admission of past stealing versus the threat of future theft reveal the underlying values or hypocrisies of his "first-class shop"?
- The narrator initially makes a grimace and scratches his hands with defiance. How does the master's subsequent calm threat of "prison" reshape the narrator's understanding of the "world" he has just entered?
- What is the significance of the master's command to stand "like a statue" when contrasted with the narrator's hands being "devoured by vermin"? Explain what this stark imagery communicates about the narrator's new reality.
- Considering all the characters and descriptions in this first chapter, what initial impression does Gorky create of "the world" through the protagonist's eyes, and what specific details contribute most to this feeling?