This novel by Gorky looks through the eyes and thoughts of Pelagia Nilovna as she grows from a smashed woman, who is regularly abused by a drunk husband into a strong character that follows her son's intellectual and practical path of fighting for the rights of the working class - the true agent of change..
“Not even an ocean of blood can drown the truth”.
The book is about the concepts of work, evolution, thought, education, rise against injustice, camaraderie, and rejection of a complete social order..
"Thousands of people can improve their life if they wanted to, but they continue to live like animals, and accept it too. What virtue is it to work and eat today, work and eat tomorrow, and so on for all life... Spent working and eating, so he can manage and have children to amuse him till they need food.. and then he becomes angry and starts cursing them: Grow you pigs, it is time for you to find jobs. He wants to make them his pets, but they start working for their own bellies, spending their lives as a piece of gum... with no pleasure to the heart or the soul"
"Deserving the title of humanity are those who vow their selves and lives to destroy the chains that capture man's mind. "
"She loved to listen to his talks, and used to imagine that the fiercest enemies of the people are those who trick and savagely oppress them. They are short men, with fat bodies, red faces, thieves, cruel, evil and greedy.If the ruler pushed them too far, they encouraged the people to revolt, and when the ruler is gone, these little men used their smart tricks to hog the power and throw away the people, killing hundreds of thousands if they try to resist."
"Nicolai greeted his sister holding her hand, and the mother was intrigued by that calm simplicity that ruled their relationship. They don't kiss, or over-show affection, and yet they care about each other with much compassion and love. Where she had lived people always kiss and praise, but they never cease biting each other like hungry hounds"
"They destroy lives with work. What for? They rob men of their lives. What for, I ask? My master--I lost my life in the textile mill of Nefidov--my master presented one prima donna with a golden wash basin. Every one of her toilet articles was gold. That basin holds my life-blood, my very life. That's for what my life went! A man killed me with work in order to comfort his mistress with my blood. He bought her a gold wash basin with my blood."
"Man is created in the image of God," said Yefim, smiling. "And that's the use to which they put the image. Fine!"
"Yes, a bit of happiness is good for everybody."
"But there are no people who want only a bit of happiness," remarked Nikolay; "and when there's much of it, it becomes cheap."
"In one book I read the words 'senseless life.' I understood them very well at once. I know such a life. Thoughts there are, but they're not connected, and they stray like stupid sheep without a shepherd. They stray and stray, with no one to bring them together. There's no understanding in people of what must be done. That's what a senseless life is. I'd like to run away from it without even looking around--such a severe pang one suffers when one understands something!"
“Not even an ocean of blood can drown the truth”.
The book is about the concepts of work, evolution, thought, education, rise against injustice, camaraderie, and rejection of a complete social order..
"Thousands of people can improve their life if they wanted to, but they continue to live like animals, and accept it too. What virtue is it to work and eat today, work and eat tomorrow, and so on for all life... Spent working and eating, so he can manage and have children to amuse him till they need food.. and then he becomes angry and starts cursing them: Grow you pigs, it is time for you to find jobs. He wants to make them his pets, but they start working for their own bellies, spending their lives as a piece of gum... with no pleasure to the heart or the soul"
"Deserving the title of humanity are those who vow their selves and lives to destroy the chains that capture man's mind. "
"She loved to listen to his talks, and used to imagine that the fiercest enemies of the people are those who trick and savagely oppress them. They are short men, with fat bodies, red faces, thieves, cruel, evil and greedy.If the ruler pushed them too far, they encouraged the people to revolt, and when the ruler is gone, these little men used their smart tricks to hog the power and throw away the people, killing hundreds of thousands if they try to resist."
"Nicolai greeted his sister holding her hand, and the mother was intrigued by that calm simplicity that ruled their relationship. They don't kiss, or over-show affection, and yet they care about each other with much compassion and love. Where she had lived people always kiss and praise, but they never cease biting each other like hungry hounds"
"They destroy lives with work. What for? They rob men of their lives. What for, I ask? My master--I lost my life in the textile mill of Nefidov--my master presented one prima donna with a golden wash basin. Every one of her toilet articles was gold. That basin holds my life-blood, my very life. That's for what my life went! A man killed me with work in order to comfort his mistress with my blood. He bought her a gold wash basin with my blood."
"Man is created in the image of God," said Yefim, smiling. "And that's the use to which they put the image. Fine!"
"Yes, a bit of happiness is good for everybody."
"But there are no people who want only a bit of happiness," remarked Nikolay; "and when there's much of it, it becomes cheap."
"In one book I read the words 'senseless life.' I understood them very well at once. I know such a life. Thoughts there are, but they're not connected, and they stray like stupid sheep without a shepherd. They stray and stray, with no one to bring them together. There's no understanding in people of what must be done. That's what a senseless life is. I'd like to run away from it without even looking around--such a severe pang one suffers when one understands something!"
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