direct path to constructing God,” which was highly opposed to Lenin’s stance Werbach, “Literary Models for Alternative Social Development in Russia”. It is
also opposed to Marx’s idea that religion and God is highly parasitical since it causes “illusionary happiness” Marx, “Contribution to the Critique of Hegels Philosophy of
Law” qtd. in Marxist Internet Archive: encyclopedia page, from www.marxists.org. In addition to this opposition, Gorky also severely criticized the Bolshevik
revolution and the way Lenin suppressed literature to be merely a tool for propaganda. It is no question that Maxim Gorky’s works received much censorship
from the Lenin’s government since the literature had to be subjected to state control. This led to the bitter disagreement between Gorky and Lenin. He left Russia in 1921,
and then lived in Italy again and did not return to Soviet until his sixtieth birthday in 1928. He accommodated himself with Joseph Stalin ever since until he was
assassinated on June 14, 1936 De Laine, “Maxim Gorky”; Marxist Internet Archive.
2.3.2. The Social Setting in the Novel
The story of the novel is primarily taken place in a poor factory settlement in Russia, in the period after the 1905 revolution and 1917 Bolshevik revolution. This
period of the early twentieth century Russia is the period of the emergence of Russian revolutionary ideas. The settlement is inhabited mostly by factory workers whose
lives are driven by factory whistle every morning which makes the air in the settlement greasy. This settlement is quite far from town. The area is chilling in
November, and in most of the story, snow and coldness are dominant. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
The life of the workers is utterly passive, monotonous, static and in a state of fatigue and depressed, but powerless, since they “have been devoured by the factory,
whose machines sucked up as much of the workers’ strength as they needed” 10. The only release of this condition is alcohols, fighting to each other and domestic
disturbance. Beatings to their wives and children are regularity. The workers spent their evenings to get drunk, and their Sundays and holidays to sleep until afternoon.
There are a number of taverns in which people get drunk and play accordion. People in the settlement are afraid of new ideas and differences. They are
weary of people who are not like themselves. The hardship and bitterness of life and the hopelessness that accompanies them makes people die at the age of their fifties.
And they regard this life as a normal life. They hold that any change would only increase their hardship.
Thus lives Pavel Vlassov, the son of Pelagea Nilovna, the mother and the main character of the novel, whose different and unusual attitude and behavior would
eventually change the thought in the whole settlement, including his own mother. Pavel and Pelagea live in a poor condition in a house of three rooms that is used as
the gathering place of Pavel and his comrades and indeed the center of the struggle and the socialist movement. Pavel is behaving differently, specifically after his
father’s death. He always comes home sober from the factory. Instead of getting drunk, he reads a lot of “forbidden” books and has discussions with his comrades
until late night in his house. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
He organizes a strike and a huge May Day celebration that leads his to be jailed and at the end of the story, exiled in Siberia. This work of stirring up people
impresses his mother, Pelagea. And after some inner conflicts, she finally becomes fully involved in the struggle and undergoes a massive shift in her life.
2.4. Theoretical Framework
