Gooseberries

It was a gloomy afternoon with dark clouds ready to rain in any moment, Ivan and his friend Burkin were tired of walking so Burkin suggested that they go to a friend's house nearby. Alehin was glad to see them and he invited them to the house warmly, after changing their clothes with clean and warm ones Ivan began to tell his story which he wanted to tell Burkin the early afternoon. "I've got a younger brother named Nikolay, as I went for learning surgery Nikolay started to work in a government office, years passed and my brother was tired of his every day work in the office. He gradually felt a great desire to buy a little farm into the country and live happy there, as time passed by he became more greedy; he didn't spend his money but saved it up to buy his dream house. After years passing the same, I've heard he married a rich widow, sadly he deprived the poor woman of her own property and saved that for his own object, 3 years later the miserable wife died and he inherited all the money. All his concern was buying a big house with a lot of servants and of course with gooseberry bushes; he was very onsessive with having gooseberries. Finally he bought an estate, not quite as he had always imagined but it was apparently satisfactory. Last year I went to visit him, he had grown fatter and wrinkled, we hugged each other then he led me out to show me his estate. I asked him how you are getting on, and then I realised how self-conceited he grew, his tone was much more like a prime minister than the worker who once was afraid to have any views of his own in the office. In the evening, the servant put a bowl of gooseberries on the table which Nikolay had planted them and they were gathered for the first time, he ate them with great happiness but I noticed that they were sour and unripe. From taht meeting I realised my brother was pretending to be happy only because he didn't want to accept his failure to reach his goal and find happiness. I tell you this, there is no happiness and this is not the object ofout life my friends. Doing good is greater and more rational."

The protagonist in this story is Nikolay whose character is dynamic, since in the begiing of Ivan's story he was a simple government employee who couldn't air his own views publically, but as soon as he developed the idea of becoming rich and happy he grew more and more self-centered and became a prejudiced wealthy man. The narrator of the short story is author himself but from the moment Ivan started telling his story it changes to be Ivan's voice. Ivan's character is static due to the fact that his traits and behaviours don't change over time. Finally Burkin and Alehin have stock and flat characters because throughout the story they remain the good and kind friends who exist in every stories.

Ivan and Burkin in the short story "Gooseberries" are walking in a nearly dark afternoon when Burkin suggests visiting a friend in the way. At the friend's house Ivan starts telling the story of his brother having a dream he longs to reach, and about all the efforts he made and that what he would gain at the end and his reaction to the present situation, Ivan then explains about the real meaning of life according to his brother's story.

In my opinion the theme of this short story is to condemn man's greed and that how this trait leads him towards thinking and doing evil. In other words, the writer is trying to imply that the meaning of life is something beyond possessing unlimited money or estate or any of these ephemeral concepts, it has to be something more valuable and satisfactory as Ivan mentioned in the end doing good is one of the aims of life that will not fade or lessen, because it hasn't relied on objects. Whenever we rely on temporary concepts in life to make us happy, we always fail.