The Hero of Our Time

11/15 Introduction/thesis. Is the thesis clearly stated? Is it insightful
and unique?
10/10 Summarising. Is the summary appropriate in length and selection of
details? Is it suitably integrated into the text of the paper and does it
support the paper's thesis?
12/15 Does each paragraph (or two) have an identifiable topic sentence? Are
there at least 3 main points?
9/10 IS there supporting evidence for each main point?
14/15 Does each topic sentence relate to the thesis?
3/5 Transitions. Are the transitions from one point to another, from one
particular to another, and from one paragraph to another logical and
comprehensible?
10/10 Conclusion. Relate to main pont? Summarise/tie together arguments?
4/5 MLA style
12/15 Spelling, grammar, punctuation.

TOTAL 83/100 [B]



THE HERO OF OUR TIME

                                                             Anuar Orumbayev
                                                                   English I
[ENG121]
Kenneth Ziegler
Arapahoe Community College



Feb.27.2004
                            THE HERO OF OUR TIME

    This  is a Russian novel by Lermontov about  the  life  of  the  Russian
officer of XIX century, his personality and actions shown as  life  of  hero
of that time.
   I think this is a psychological novel, because the idea and plan  of  the
novel is not related to some events, they are related to man's  personality,
and his spiritual life. This is why psychological legasy  of  the  novel  is
presented as an image of some 'hero of the time period'. Thru difficult  and
contradictionary character of Pechorin Lermontov states his main  idea  that
explaining and analyzing everything is impossible and useless, that  there's
always something in life that's deeper than  thoughts  or  ideas,  something
that can be understood only by feelings and  not thru analize.
   The novel describes  not  only  Pechorin's  constant  travels  throughout
Georgia, but it also opens the window into his world,  and  psychology,  his
highly contradictionary and dissapointive personality.
    In first parts of the novel the  author  describes  Pechorin's  actions,
showing how indifferent and cruel he is to surrounding people, shown  either
as victims of his ambitions or cold calculations. You can think that  egoism
and desire for power rule Pecherin, who  says  'Why  should  I  -  traveling
officer- care about happines and woes of people?'  But  things  are  not  as
simple as they might look, the hero is not so uniform. At the same  time  he
is an emotional and deeply suffering man who's afraid  of  shame.   Pechorin
understands his psychology: 'There are two men inside of me,  one  literally
lives, and the other one analizes and judges him.'  [page #]Later he  states
his life credo: ' I compare suffering and happiness of others  with  my  own
as a food supporting my spirit…' [page #]Based  on  that  Pecherin  develops
his own theory of happines that in order to  be  happy  one  should  be  the
cause of suffering and happines for the others, although he  has  no  rights
for that. For him being happy is being proud.  But  then  Pecherin,  knowing
what causes happines, should be happy since he is restlesly  and  constantly
trying to enjoy his pride of himself. But somehow his  happines  can't  last
forever making him even more dissappointed and bored.
   Pecherin debates with his fellow soldier Wulich about  predestination  of
human life, questioning him: 'If predestinations are true  then  why  do  we
have will and mind?' Pecherin tries to change Wulich's mind  insisting  that
one should not let his fate be created by somebody else. Such  debate  leads
into series of events: Wulich tries to commit  a  suicide  but  failes,  and
suddenly gets killed by a drunk soldier,and  Pecherin  fights  and  captures
the murderer. Such event saves the novel  from  tragical  ending.  Pecherin,
who dies in the middle of the novel, not  only  saves  himself  from  almost
certain death, but also for the first time  makes  something  good  for  the
others. Funeral march turns into greetings of victory  against  death:  'The
officers were congratulating me - yes, I deserved it.'
   The hero laughs at those who believe that hunman's life  is  predestinied
long before he was born by someone  above,  someone  supreme,  but  he  also
envys them, since every believe has its own good side. His pity is  that  he
doesn't have own believe, nothing is ideal or holy  for  him;  he  questions
goodnes of all and the world by itself. He is a smart and  energetic  person
but such diebelieve creates only inertion or useles actions that  bring  him
nothing else than but mental torment.
   Showing his hero's bravery, Lermontov also states how important it is  to
fight for freedom of your personality. Freedom is one of the most  important
things for Pecherin, and can't be traded  for  anything.  But  such  freedom
without any humanistic ideals has its own  sadness  and  weakness.  Pecherin
always tries to shut down his inside voice, and  feelings:  'For  long  time
I've been living with my mind, not my heart'
   I am not sure that Pechorin is  some  kind  of  a  self-satisfied  cynic.
Although he acts like an executor and axe of destiny, he sufferes from  such
role as much as his victims. The entire novel is a hymn to a  prejudise-free
personality and at the same time requiem to a genious  who  wasn't  able  to
understand his real role and destiny.


Lermontov M.J. 'The Hero of Our Time'.
Moscow, Pravda, 1987.