Tuesday, August 5, 2008
"The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world."
When I heard that Alexander Solzhenitsyn had died Sunday, I immediately thought of the professor I took for World Lit I last semester. The last work that we studied was Solzhenitsyn's short story, "Matryona's House." Dr. McKinney described the tragic circumstances that Solzhenitsyn surmounted, how he was unjustly sentenced and imprisoned under Soviet rule, how he was exiled from his country, how he affirmed Christianity throughout and despite all. Our professor gave us the profound, essential goodness of Matryona and a tearful benediction to end our course. I loved that class, and Solzhenitsyn's story completed it in the most deeply appropriate way. Yesterday, I watched this piece on the life of Solzhenitsyn, and was glad that such a person had lived.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I caught the Plath quote hidden in the Loma title...
I skimmed Matryona's House. Interesting reading. Why exactly was Solzhenitsyn jailed? The video did not say.
The key to "Matryona's House" lies in the very last lines; the entire story builds to them, and when viewed in this context (probably preferably on paper), they're almost unbearably beautiful.
Solzhenitsyn was imprisoned solely because of a veiled, obscure criticism he made of Stalin in a letter to a friend. Just amazing...
Post a Comment