Synthesized answer
The master’s response reveals a hierarchy of values where theft is condemned only when it threatens his own property, while past stealing from others is dismissed as a “prank.” When the narrator admits to having stolen before, the master reacts with shock but then says, “I look upon that as nothing but a prank” [1]. However, he immediately threatens, “if you rob me of boots or money, I will have you put in prison” [1]. This shows that the master’s moral outrage is not about theft itself but about protecting his own business interests.
The passages also expose hypocrisy, as the master and his senior employees routinely steal from the shop. Sascha and the assistant “robbed the master,” hiding boots in the stovepipe and slipping them into their sleeves [2]. The narrator notes that “in that class of life they all steal, and even the master liked to take what did not belong to him” [4]. The master’s threat to imprison the narrator for stealing from him contrasts with his own tolerance of theft by trusted insiders, revealing that the “first-class shop” values appearances and loyalty over genuine honesty. The passages do not fully explore whether the master knowingly overlooks his…
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From the book
t were, stealthily. "You are serving in a first-class shop in the main street of the town, and you must not forget it. The door-boy ought to stand like a statue." I did not know what a statue was, and I could n't help scratching my hands, which were covered with red pimples and sores, for they had been simply devoured by vermin. "What did you do for a living when you were at home?" asked my master, looking at my hands. I told him, and he shook his round head, which was closely covered with gray hair, and said in a shocked voice: "Rag-picking! Why, that is worse than begging or…
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…
believed him, and I began to be sorry for him. I knew that he lived, half-starved, with a woman who knocked him about. However, I asked him: "And if he told you to poison a person, I suppose you would do it?" "He might do that," said the shopman with a pitiful smile; "he is capable of it." Soon after this he asked me: "Listen, I have not a farthing; there is nothing to eat at home; my missus nags at me. Couldn't you take an icon out of your stock and give it to me to sell, like a friend, eh? Will you? Or a breviary?" I remembered the boot-shop, and the beadle of the church,…
es. If the floor of a shop had to be laid again, I had to remove earth from the whole area to the depth of one arshin. The dock laborers were paid a ruble for this work, but I received nothing; and while I was thus occupied, I had no time to look after the carpenters, who unscrewed the locks and handles from the doors and committed petty thefts of all kinds. Both the workmen and the contractors tried in every way to cheat me, to steal something, and they did it almost openly, as if they were performing an unpleasant duty; were not in the least indignant when I accused them, but were…
to steal, and I agreed to hand him the goloshes through the window. "That's right," he said calmly, without enthusiasm. "You are not deceiving me? No, I see that you are not." He was silent for a moment, trampling the dirty, wet snow with the soles of his boots. Then he lit a long pipe, and suddenly startled me. "But suppose it is I who deceive you? Suppose I take the goloshes to your master, and tell him that you have sold them to me for half a ruble? What then? Their price is two rubles, and you have sold them for half a ruble. As a present, eh?" I gazed at him dumbly, as if he…
More questions about this book
- 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.
- Analyze the immediate establishment of power dynamics between the narrator and his master, and then between the narrator and Sascha. What do these initial interactions suggest about the social hierarchy and expectations for the protagonist?
- 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?