Pelagea Has Become a New Person

had no use, while at the gates beggars stood shivering, waiting in vain for a few coppers to be dropped into their outstretched hands. She had seen all these before—the rich churches and the gold-brocaded vestments of the priests, the hovels of the poor and their shameful rags. But then she had accepted it as a natural state of affairs, while now she found it intolerable, and an insult to the poor, who as she knew, were closer to the church and had more need of it than the rich. …And involuntarily she remembered the words of Rybin: “They’ve fooled us about God too” 235 She has come to a remarkable realization that religious institutions are used by the rich and powerful to control the masses, to delude the people so that they are kept passive and enslaved. She notices her own changes—she has acquired the intellectual capacity to question anything now. Now she has the intellectual tools to analyze the phenomena of her surroundings. Her being intellectually progressive, with regards to the idea of the movement, is revealed by Gorky when she questions herself after the funeral of Yegor, one of her comrades: “Yegor didn’t believe in God,” she thought, “and none of these others do.” She did not wish to pursue the thought, and she sighed, trying to free her soul of a great burden. “O God O dear Jesus Can it be that I too—like this….” 258

4.2.1.8. Pelagea Has Become a New Person

While she has accepted the idea of socialism that Pavel and his friends bring, she comes to a contradiction that is unfortunately brought by the cause, namely the question about the existence of God. But as her understanding and intellect grows, she finally reacts calmly to this contradiction as revealed in her firm belief that is reflected in her answer to Tatyana’s question about God, after she sees Pelagea not PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI praying: “As for God—I’m not sure. But I believe in Christ. I believe in his words: ‘Love thy neighbours as thyself.’ I believe in that” 302. She has achieved her fullest development by being able to cope with the contradiction about God calmly and resolutely. By this time, she is not merely a simple and traditional mother, but also a militant activist who is fully involved in the struggle—taking journeys to villages, distributing books and leaflets and stirring up people. She is basically pleased by her life among Pavel’s comrades. She has a firm belief about the cause as seen in her calmness in accepting Pavel’s exile to Siberia. In the end of the novel, she has become a new person as summarized by Gorky’s description: She felt it was no longer that same woman who had been so full of fears and alarms for her son… That woman no longer existed. She had withdrawn, gone somewhere far away, or perhaps been consumed by the fire of her emotion and this had purged and refined her spirit and charged it with new strength. 369 She has conquered her fears and found a meaningful and colorful life. She has departed from her initial stance and gone so far away into the world of meaningful struggle. She bravely challenges the authority by agitating people and stirring them up until she gets beaten to death by the authority. All of Pelagea’s reactions are primarily due to her realization of and reflection on her past life—that she was miserably oppressed by her husband, until she barely noticed the growth of Pavel, her own son. In addition, her acquaintance with Pavel and his comrades also contributes to her reactions or changes. She also acquires PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI significant understandings about the life of working people from her closeness with Pavel and friends. In specific, Andrei Nakhodka, or the khokhol, plays a significant role in developing Pelagea’s understanding. His smartness, calmness and friendliness somehow comfort her. Pavel and his comrades give significant knowledge to Pelagea so that she finally understands that the hardship of her and working people’s lives is derived from the oppressive authority of feudalism. In general, her close association with Pavel and his comrades makes her aware of the true condition of working people and finally changes her attitude, beliefs and personality. Those reactions somehow portray Pelagea’s reactions toward the existing political situation that happens in the factory settlement in which she lives. She gains new understandings about what is really happening in the settlement. She gains understandings that her and others’ miserable condition is derived from the existing oppressive authority which treats them cruelly. She finally becomes one of the comrades who struggles to challenge that authority and who seeks justice and restores dignity of workers. 4.2.2. Pelagea’s Reactions as the Depiction of the Working Class’ Social Consciousness Necessary to Build Gorky’s Model of Revolutionary Society The previous section has been devoted to looking at the changes within Pelagea Nilovna. Those changes are, in essence, the reactions towards Pavel’s movement. In other words, Pelagea’s reactions manifest in her personal changes throughout the story. To gain better understanding about how Pelagea reacts towards the political condition in the novel and why such reactions are revealed by the author, Maxim Gorky, it is important to see the significance of her reactions or changes. Through applying Marxist literary approach, this section reveals what is hidden by the author by reanalyzing the first section. The aim is to see the novel not as an independent object, rather, as an object highly dependent on the author’s socio- political backgrounds and the socio-political and economic conditions of the time and place in which he wrote the novel. In addition, this section applies the theories of Marxism consisting of Marxist view on class and class consciousness. The analysis of Pelagea Nilovna’s reactions basically reveals three interesting significant points. The first point deals with Pelagea Nilovna’s role in the movement. The second point deals with her social consciousness. And the third point deals with Maxim Gorky’s conception of revolutionary society. According to Daniel Werbach, although Mother portrays Pavel as a hero, the central point of the novel is his mother, Pelagea Nilovna, and her increasing affinity towards the revolutionary movement. Further, he adds that the characters in Mother are highly depersonalized in order to only represent those of revolutionary characteristics. Clark, as cited by Werbach, maintains that by reducing the characters to merely “functions of their roles,” Gorky tries to build, in the novel, a model of society which is based on “community of workers” “Literary Models for Alternative Social Development in Russia”. Knowing that the characters in Mother function in their own roles in building a revolutionary society, it is interesting to note Pelagea’s role. From the analysis of her reactions, Pelagea Nilovna can be said to represent a certain inherent role in the movement, namely a traditional and ignorant person belonging to the working class, who has undergone a change in social consciousness. This role is an essential part in the success of the movement since it represents the most unfortunate element of society under an oppressive authority of feudalism, namely, women and families of workers. This simple and traditional person becomes aware of the fact that the workers are miserably oppressed. They are dehumanized in such a way that they live in constant fear and hopelessness. They are exhausted by the monotonous hard work in the factory. In addition to being a representation of simple and traditional people, it is interesting to note Pelagea’s role as a mother in the novel. Although she has acquired social consciousness, she is still a mother of her own son, Pavel. During her life time with her husband, Mikhail Vlassov, her role as a mother is highly reduced to a mere slave for him. Her hardship of life caused by Mikhail’s ill treatment somehow forces her to leave and forget her duty as a mother, namely, raising her son, taking care of her son, educating him, supporting, love and caring about him, and so on. Therefore it is interesting to learn that her neglect on Pavel is derived from her hardship of life with Mikhail. However, Mikhail’s terrible behaviors are derived from his hardship of life as being a factory worker. He, like every other worker in the settlement, is hopeless, full PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI of anger. He is exhausted and bored of hard and monotonous work. As revealed in the beginning of the novel, the factory workers in his settlement are like lifeless humans whose strength has been drained by the factory machines. Their lives are moved by factory whistles. And as a consequence of their hopelessness in life, they find relief in getting drunk and beating women and children, who are, in fact, physically weaker. Therefore, Pelagea’s hardship is indirectly derived from the very system that forces the working men in the settlement to become hopeless, cruel and inhuman. Thus, Pelagea and all the people in the settlement, specifically women and children, are victims of a highly dehumanizing system, which is, in the novel, called feudalism. In the case of Pelagea, she is highly dehumanized so that she fails to become a mother for her son, Pavel. She fails to notice the growth of Pavel. Positioned as weaker than men, Pelagea has no power to overcome her hardship. It seems to me that Pelagea and all women in the settlement or in Russia at that time are conditioned by a paternalistic social system to function merely as slaves for men. However, because this social system has been internalized or forced in the society for a long time, it seems that the way Pelagea and other women live is just natural— life is to serve and please men. The system develops some kind of stability in the society in which Pelagea lives. It is seen specifically when Pelagea was proposed by Mikhail, her father simply urged her to accept the proposal since he thought that it was lucky for her to have a man who wanted to marry her. It seems that women are merely products to sell, not independent humans who have capacities to think and have free choices. Thus, Pelagea is trapped in a system of society that degrades women. And Gorky’s account in his novel is to honor mothers and try to reveal and surface the issue of women’s rights in the middle of a paternalistic system of society. Moreover, Pelagea also interestingly serves a unique role in the novel, namely, as a symbol of mother in Pavel’s revolutionary movement. Not only is she a mother for Pavel, but also she becomes the mother of all Pavel’s comrades her comrades. During hardship of life, children usually seek for their mother who is able to give comfort, support, love and caring. Interestingly, Pavel’s comrades find a symbol of mother whom they long for. In their hard struggle for justice for working people, they find support, love, caring and comfort from Pelagea. They find a new and fresh strength to overcome their challenges. Pelagea fulfills the missing part of the movement. She provides emotional comfort to the comrades. She becomes their mother. In addition, Gorky also reveals Pelagea in the movement in order to promote the roles of woman that are neglected in the paternalistic society. He wants to give opportunities for women to contribute to the development of the revolutionary society. Through the character of Pelagea, Gorky reveals equality between men and women. In the movement, everybody, man or woman, can contribute something based on his or her own capabilities. It is revealed by Gorky that the movement involves women as important players. There are Natasha, Sophia, Sasha and Pelagea. Each of them has a unique role and task, not merely because they are women, rather because the tasks fit their capabilities. For example, Pelagea is able to spread leaflets PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI in the factory and distribute books and leaflets in the villages far away from her home. She thus challenges the authority of men. The second significant point gained from the analysis of Pelagea’s reactions concerns her evolving social consciousness. This social consciousness is in line with the Marxist idea of class, since the concept of class involves collective consciousness of the working people. It is also parallel with the Marxist concept of class struggle, which happens when there is an opposition among classes, primarily because one class in the novel, bourgeois class benefits from expropriation of another class working class. In summary, Pelagea’s reactions thus validate the ideas of social consciousness and class struggle. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note how Gorky reveals Pelagea’s consciousness and how she undergoes a massive change from being a simple and ignorant woman into being a militant activist. Gorky tries to explore the possibility of a man or woman changing their initial position beliefs and attitudes to something that is completely new. However, quite possibly, through revealing the consciousness of Pelagea, Gorky wants to explore the rising of women in specific. Gorky reveals the transformation of a woman from being a simple mother to become a revolutionary activist. The interesting thing of Pelagea’s social consciousness is that she acquires this consciousness not merely from spiritual search or reflections of her condition, but also derived from her motherly feelings and senses. Her consciousness is primarily derived from her sensing positive feelings that appear during her acquaintance with Pavel and his comrades. She senses a firm belief in Pavel and his comrades. She admires their friendship, kindness, calmness, helpfulness, supportiveness and togetherness. Those all positive feelings are contradictory to everything she has experienced: hardship of life of workers, brutality of her husband, oppressive authority police, and so on. Thus, she begins to be attracted, and finally involved, in the movement because she senses those positive feelings. And those feelings arouse because she is a mother who carefully watches the growth of her children. Although, Pelagea acquires social consciousness primarily through her being a mother who senses the positive feelings of Pavel and his comrades, it is also inevitable that she acquires consciousness from her reflections and recalls of her past life with Mikhail. In addition, she also acquires substantial understandings about working people from the explanation of Pavel and other comrades, especially Andrei. Her close relationship with Andrei contributes to her understanding of working people’s struggle. Therefore, Pelagea also develops intellectual and critical thinking gained from her learning with Pavel and his comrades. The third significance gained from the analysis of Pelagea’s reactions deals with Gorky’s conception and model of revolutionary movement and society. The analysis of Pelagea’s reactions hints Gorky’s model of revolutionary movement and society which is unique and, in some ways, different not to say contradictory from Marxist ideas brought by Marx and Lenin. This is specifically true when seeing that Gorky adds spiritual and emotional fervors by internalizing the character of Pelagea PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI into the movement. In addition, Gorky also portrays Pelagea as a symbol of mother in the movement. Gorky’s stance, therefore, is quite different from Marxist idea of class consciousness, which maintains that worker’s consciousness is not gained from spiritual search. Pelagea, on the other hand, is pictured by Gorky as full of spiritual and emotional spirit throughout the novel. As a mother she senses the suffering of others. She acquires social consciousness primarily due to her stance as a mother who is able to sense positive feelings of her children Pavel and friends. Although she lacks of religiosity, at the end of the novel, she still maintains that Pavel’s movement resembles the Christ’s movement. She also endorses the Christ’s teachings, as she says to Tatyana, “As for God—I’m not sure. But I believe in Christ. I believe in his words: ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’. I believe in that” 302. Therefore, Gorky tries to merge some religion’s teachings with revolutionary doctrines. The combination of spirituality, emotional qualities and revolutionary ideas is very likely derived from Gorky’s conception of “God Building,” which was totally rejected by Lenin. Explained in Chapter Two 21, Gorky was building his own conception about God, namely bogostroitelstvo or “God Building,” which maintains that God is created by people and that Bolshevism was directed towards building its own conception of God. In short, instead of nullifying God, Bolshevism is also searching and building its own God. This idea was bitterly condemned by Lenin and lead to his opposition. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI In addition, it is interesting to note that Gorky’s account about God in the novel is not as radical as Marx’s account to abolish both God and religion. Marx once said, “To abolish religion as the illusory happiness of the people is to demand their real happiness” “Contribution to the Critique of Hegels Philosophy of Law” qtd. in Marxist Internet Archive. Here Marx maintains that religion and God are parasitic and must be abolished since they result in “illusory happiness.” However, Gorky describes in Mother that Pavel’s cause resembles to the Christ’s cause. And in the novel, he never completely abandons the spiritual and emotional qualities, as is shown in Pelagea’s sensing a firm faith in Pavel’s movement that somehow comforts her. The change of Pelagea from being very religious to less religious somehow justifies Gorky’s conception about God too. Pelagea’s progress into being less religious implies that she also develops skepticism about the prevailing conception of God and religion, especially the authority of churches. In line with Gorky’s God Building, Pelagea seems to struggle to find her own perfect conception about God. She undergoes inner struggle to finally merge some religious teachings with revolutionary ideas that she has endorsed. Therefore, instead of completely nullifying God and religion, as in Marx’s position, Gorky, through Pelagea, stresses that questions about the existence of God is an irresolute matter. Some qualities or teachings of Christ are in fact necessary to build people’s own conception about God. That is why, although Pavel and his comrades are all non-believers, they still resemble the divinity of Christ. Pavel, in the beginning of the novel, even put a picture on the wall that shows Christ’s journey to Emmaus. And later Pelagea asserts that Pavel’s movement resembles to the journey. It is said that when Christ took a journey to Emmaus after his resurrection, he was barely noticed and anticipated by his followers who very much longed for him. This depiction by Gorky shows that people can build their own belief without regarding who the symbol is. This position of building God is justified by Werbach in his celebrated essay, “Literary Models for Alternative Social Development in Russia”. He argues, “Pavel and his comrades are not only liberating themselves from oppression; they are creating a replacement for Orthodox Christianity and for the very concept of God” Werbach, “Literary Models for Alternative Social Development in Russia”. Therefore, Gorky tries to combine some of Christian teaching with the Marxist revolutionary qualities. As portrayed by Pelagea, Gorky’s model for building a new revolutionary society is thus not ignoring the spiritual qualities. Only, the spiritual qualities that is added to the movement is not purely from religious or Christian teachings, rather, it is highly hybrid and contextual. We choose ourselves the best things that support the revolutionary movement. In Gorky’s account, we even unconsciously choose and build our own God in the society. Furthermore, the past experience of Maxim Gorky, which was miserable so as to be worth committing suicide, enriches his account on the developing and exploring characters. In the case of love, Gorky’s upholding its presence in Pelagea as one kind of unchanged personality, pretty plausibly because he wants to add emotional zeal in the revolutionary movement so that it does not lose humane qualities. It is interesting to note that Gorky’s child and youth life was so much miserable as he became an orphan who did not receive proper attention and caring from her family. His grandfather forced him to work while he was a child. Therefore, Gorky’s account on Pelagea’s personality of loving, quite possibly resembles his own longing for motherly love. Love to Pavel and his comrades considerably makes the movement livelier. Furthermore, he reveals the character of a mother to further emphasis the importance of love as a source of power too. Gorky skillfully reveals the character of mother in Pelagea so that he is able to portray that revolutionary ideas are not merely learned from books and agitations, rather it can be grasped from the positive attitudes and feelings that even a mother can sense. Through the simplicity, ignorance, and illiterateness of Pelagea, Gorky intends to arouse a possibility that ordinary people, specifically women, can be a vital element of the revolutionary struggle. Their consciousness, as Pelagea’s, is the motor of the cause that plays a definite part to the success of the struggle. Gorky thus tries to reveal Pelagea’s struggle to finally accept Pavel’s cause rather intensively and interestingly. In summary, Mother was itself a criticism towards Leninist doctrine which was highly authoritarian, specifically with regards to his absolute control of literary writings. That is why, although Mother was highly praised by Lenin, and became Soviet Realism model, it was subjected to extensive state censorship. The life of Pelagea Nilovna represents the life of working people and their meaningful and dedicated struggle for justice and freedom. In addition, the life of Pelagea also portrays the struggle of women in general to overcome their oppression in the middle of a highly paternalistic society. As a mother, Pelage also serves the important role in the revolutionary movement since she adds emotional and spiritual fervors. She becomes Gorky’s important tool to present that revolutionary ideas can be grasped and internalized through positive feelings and attitudes that are sensed by a mother. The life of Pelagea Nilovna represents the life of working people and their meaningful and dedicated struggle for justice and freedom. Physical pains are no longer seen as a constraint of their pure efforts to bring liberty into reality. The dream of a society that is free from oppressions is overwhelming so that nothing can stop them from progressing. And finally the dream is pursued at all cost, even their lives. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 74

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS, SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The last chapter consists of three parts. The first part deals with the conclusions of the analysis which answer problems formulated in Chapter One. The second part deals with the suggestions for future researchers who will conduct analyses of Maxim Gorky’s Mother. The last part presents some recommendations for English instructors who will implement the novel as a teaching-learning resource. The recommendations include a teaching-learning activity for writing during a university student’s second semester by using parts of Maxim Gorky’s Mother.

5.1. Conclusions

After analyzing the two problems, namely Pelagea’s personality and her reactions towards the political condition in the novel, there are three points that can conclude the analysis. The first one deals with the portrayal of Pelagea as revealed by Maxim Gorky in his Mother. The second one summarizes the reactions of Pelagea towards Pavel’s movement. And the last point summarizes the significance of the reactions. The second and the third points reflect the reactions of Pelagea towards the political situation in the settlement in which she lives. Gorky’s portrayal of Pelagea can be seen from her personality. The various personalities of Pelagea can be inferred mainly from Gorky’s personal description PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI