This paper is a review of "Vanka" by Anton Chekhov. Chekhov was a nineteenth-century Russian writer whose grandfather had been a serf and became famous as a playwright ans as a writer of short stories. The short story "Vanka" is about youth and adolescence and adopts a limited point of view, because the nine-year old Vanka sees the world through the eyes of a child; less experienced and less knowing.
This young boy, Vanka had been apprenticed to Alyahin the shoemaker for the past three months. This story seems to take place in a town near Moscow, Russia. The writer looks through the eyes of Vanka and therefore has a limited point of view. The central character's perception of the world he is living in is limited. This is a child who is exhausted and abused; he is making a desperate cry for help on Christmas Eve as he writes his grandfather and pleads, "Do come, dear Grandaddy...for
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. Oil on canvas. From the c...
Anton Chekhov's Birthhouse in Taganrog, Russia
Anton Chekhov and Olga Knipper, 1901Christ's sake, I beg you, take me away from here (para )." He has a perception of the life he came from living in the master's house when his mother was alive and he really has a limited understanding or knowledge of why his life had to make such a dramatic change.
Vanka's master and mistress and the journeymen have gone to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve so he decides to write his grandfather, Konstantin Makarych a letter. In this letter, the boy explains the dreary conditions in which he lives and begs the grandfather to come and rescue him.