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.