Synthesized answer
The narrator initially responds to the master’s demand to stand “like a statue” with a grimace and by scratching his vermin-covered hands, and he even boasts about having stolen [Passage 1]. The master’s calm threat—“if you rob me of boots or money, I will have you put in prison, and kept there for the rest of your life”—immediately frightens the narrator, making him “not like him any more” [Passage 1]. This threat reshapes his understanding of the “world” by revealing that the master’s authority is backed by the real power of the state, turning what the narrator saw as a mere “prank” into a life-altering danger.
The narrator’s fear deepens as he later observes that the assistant and Sascha actually steal from the master, yet he feels “alarmed” because he remembers the master’s prison threat [Passage 3]. This shows that the threat has made him see the shop as a place where theft is not a game but a risk of imprisonment, even though others seem to get away with it. The passages do not explicitly describe a broader philosophical shift in the narrator’s view of “the world,” but they show that the master’s calm words introduce a new, frightening layer of consequence—prison—that makes…
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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…
live, but I could not write; my hands could not be used at all. I would try to find a way of getting out of the place. The silence of the night became more intense every moment, as if it were going to last forever. Softly putting my feet to the floor, I went to the double door, half of which was open. In the corridor, under the lamp, on a wooden bench with a back to it, appeared a gray, bristling head surrounded by smoke, looking at me with dark, hollow eyes. I had no time to hide myself. "Who is that wandering about? Come here!" The voice was not formidable; it was soft. I went to…
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…
s several times, and I suddenly found myself in debt to the shopkeeper for the enormous amount of forty-seven copecks. He demanded the money, and threatened to take it from my employers' money when they sent me to make purchases. "What would happen then?" he asked jeeringly. To me he was unbearably repulsive. Apparently he felt this, and tortured me with various threats from which he derived a peculiar enjoyment. When I went into the shop his pimply face broadened, and he would ask gently: "Have you brought your debt?" "No." This startled him. He frowned. "How is that? Am I…
, and looked into my eyes, saying in a tone of astonishment: "I see you are rebellious. That, my lad, won't suit me. N-o-o." I thought that I should be sent away for this, but a few days later he came into the kitchen with a roll of thick paper, a pencil, a square, and a ruler in his hands. "When you have finished cleaning the knives, draw this." On one sheet of paper was outlined the façade of a two-storied house, with many windows and absurd decorations. "Here are compasses for you. Place dots on the paper where the ends of the lines come, and then draw from point to point…
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"?
- 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?