The Student-Anton Chekhov

The power of religion

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Juice Koo

             After reading “The Student”, written by Anton Chekhov, the short novelist and doctor in Russia, I felt that the religion impacts the roles of humans. As I can easily notice from this short story, the author mainly wanted to deliver the importance of religion. In the short story, one student met two women. He introduced a story from the bible and the one of the women cried because she was impressed by the content of the bible. The story is small and simple, but the clear theme comes to the readers: The power of religion.

            

             Before I move on to the reasons about why religion is powerful in this theme, I want to write about the situation of Russia. At that time, the Russia was one of the most poor countries in the world. Most Russians were serfs(like slaves or tenants)of wealthy landowners. Moreover, communism was spread among Russia. Therefore, Russia was in economic crisis. Therefore, the last Russian Czars were not very smart, such as Czar Nicholas II. These two reasons caused Economic Depression. As a result, the Economy was destroyed, but taxation was increased. So many people lived in a hard life.

            

            Now I want to move on to the reasons for the theme. As the subtle story of the bible was about the betrayal of Jesus, Vasalisa, one old woman at the campfire, cried. I do not know the exact reason why she cried, but I can assume that the story was a main reason.

           Also in the story, I can easily recognize that the bible was really a common book. The student was just walking and then met two women. If the book was rare, he would not relate it. By this situation, I can notice that the Russians used relision for the sake of making people feel comfort. This is the main reason why religion has power. The Russian government could not make people feel comfort, however, the bible did it.  Therefore, the author wanted to announce the power of religion.