Comparing and Contrasting the Writing Styles and Themes of Two Russian Authors and Two American Authors: Pushkin and Dostoevsky, and Whitman and Melville
The works of two leading late 18th and 19th century American writers, the poet Walt Whitman and the novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky; and two leading Russian writers of the same period, the poet and short story writer Alexander Pushkin and the novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, respectively, sprang from distinct social, economic, and intellectual environments, as well as from different political and cultural milieu. For example, during the 19th century when Russia was still a Tsarist monarchy (and at the time, just beginning to finally more beyond the feudalistic serf and master agricultural way of life), America was celebrating its first full century of democracy. The writing styles and thematic content of these Russian and American authors, respectively, in many ways reflects such distinctions. In short, the Russian authors write more pessimistically about society and the human condition; while the two American authors write (in general at least, although not entirely) about society's and humanity's more promising and positive aspects. For example, the works of Pushkin and Dostoevsky, the Russians are deeply fatalistic, and, especially in Dostoevsky's case, darkly rebellious, as well, against social inequalities within Tsarist
Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground" is (if possible) even more pessimistic in its tone and content, but with none of Pushkin's characteristic, occasionally relieving irony and humor. In this work, Dostoevsky's narrator first introduces himself as "a sick man . . . a wicked man . . . an unattractive man". He is, already, almost completely paralyzed by self-hatred and a seething disrespect for the society around him. Later, his self-propelled interactions with former friends and even a would-be sympathetic prostitute turn sour: he simply can no longer connect personally, or even on a purely intellectual level, with anyone or anything. He yearns for the Romantic days of "the beautiful and lofty", which no longer exist, and have been replaced by the relative utilitarianism of an increasingly mechanistic and therefore uninspiring Russia: there is no longer a comfortable place for him in such an artificial, un-beautiful new atmosphere. Further, the Underground Man has no control over any of this - indeed, in the end, after he decides to stop writing, even his writing itself continues on, beyond his control. The styles and themes of both Pushkin and Dostoevsky, the Russian writers, however, are decidedly different. In the earlier piece, Pushkin's "The Queen of Spades", especially in comparison to Melville's "Billy Budd", none of the characters are sympathetic or even likeable. All are e
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Approximate Word count = 954
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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