Happiness, Suffering, and Meaning
In “Gooseberries,” Ivan Ivanych is highly skeptical of those who pursue happy, comfortable lives—he believes that suffering is the precursor to a meaningful life, and that chasing happiness is the wrong path because it leads to stagnation and complacency. Most of the story is a frame tale (a story within a story) in which Ivan and tells his friends Alekhin and Burkin about his brother Nikolai, who spent decades of his life saving up…
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Wealth and Status
In “Gooseberries,” Ivan Ivanych tells his friends the story of Nikolai Ivanych, his younger brother who lives an extremely frugal lifestyle for decades in order to save up for a plot of land in the countryside. Nikolai does this at the expense of his own well-being and his relationships, and once he’s achieved his goal, he becomes pompous and entitled. Watching his brother transform from a civil servant of modest means to a “fat…
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Modernity, Isolation, and Nature
City-dweller Ivan Ivanych feels plagued by the isolation that he believes is inherent to modern lifestyles. In late 19th-century Russia, where the story is set, it was becoming increasingly common for people to live in cities or to be able to own land. And while Ivan rails against the idea of rural living—that is, relegating oneself to an insular plot of land in the countryside—throughout the story, he also reveals that he’s miserable with his…
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