At least that is what he thinks. When I read this originally I just thought it was too fantastical. The language he uses is just too advanced. I've read books before where the character is supposed to be a kid or teenager, but they would never talk like that. But the more we talked in the class the more and more he made sense. He's just a kid that doesn't want people to know he is one. The problem is he is one and people are quite aware of that. That is pretty typical. I know when I was fourteen I didn't want to be called kid.
His relationship with the kids around him and the way he talked to adults was annoying from the start, but in class with other ideas floating around I started making sense out of it. It said in the beginning that his mother went around trying to please everyone so they would like her son, but that would have backfired by kids thinking he was a mommy's boy. That didn't work though, because he actually was a stronger kid and kind of a leader. I think it is just in his nature to be a leader, but at this odd age he realizes he has power over younger kids, so he is experimenting with that power. It has worked up till now, so that got him a little too big headed so he is taking it one step further and trying it on adults. That's why he is going around talking to the adults in the market the way he is and getting them to start thinking and arguing about nothing. The scary thing is it kind of worked in that one scene.
The biggest problem I had with the kid is him holding onto that dog that long while the kid is dying perhaps partly of guilt. Why did he wait so long? I have a hard time believing even this little booger is that vain. I suppose it's good he was starting to realize that. Also I found the whole declaration of love thing with Alyosha, to be a little weird. I mean I could see Alyosha wanting to help this kid, because that's what he does. I mean it's everything the kid hates about people, being mushy and everything.
I didn't put it at the beginning, but I can't have a post without saying it. This section is what frustrates me. We had two readings that were all about the business and the issue at hand, while with new characters of course, but you would think things would start wrapping up. I mean up till now it seemed everything happened over the course of a couple of days and now all of a sudden it's two months later? And the beginning of this book starts like a journal entry almost? I don't know it'll be interesting to see how this character fits into anything in the future or if he does at all.
3 comments:
I think there are a lot of good observations here, and I'd like to comment on one in particular. You had said that Kolya seems to be trying to impress adults in the same way that he tries to impress his peers, and you implied that he wants to subordinate them in the same way.
I disagree with that idea, and for one big reason. That reason is that Kolya is lonely. He has a lot of kids his age that worship him, but none are his "equals". No one among the other students can he confide in, because he doesn't feel that any can really understand him. I feel that Alyosha is someone who Kolya hopes will understand him. All of the mutual love stuff that happens at the end of the reading is Kolya's earnest wish that Alyosha and he can be friends and equals, for the sole reason that Kolya doesn't want to be so lonely.
I found that your post seemed to highlight something that I found striking throughout Book X, that is to say the role reversal that took place between the youth and adults in this particular reading. Book X follows the story from the viewpoint of Aleksey and seems to largely demonstrate the adult population of "our little town" to act in an almost childish manner. In contrast the youth, with Kolya at the head, seem to conduct themselves with a sense of foresight and planning. Much of this may have to do with the bias of Kolya's perspective, but on the whole I think it captures a valid point about the differing structure of Russian society. As an aspiring member of the intelligentsia it seems that Kolya has aggressively sought to raise himself from the rank and file of the common Russian citizenry. His pursuit toward separation has ultimately left him without the ability to develop a true friendship in any sense of the term, something that Aleksey seems to accomplish with relative ease. Kolya may be seeking out Aleksey as a mentor to help him develop what his voracious intellectual and social-advancing appetite seems to prevent.
Kolya definitely struck me as a stereotypical 14 year old. I have met and known kids to speak the way he does, but if you pay close attention to what he says, there really is not much substance to it. All he says is for show, but when the underlying issues and concepts arise, Kolya changes the subject or brushes it off.
I couldn't help but think the same thing about Kolya and the dog. It is understood that he was angry with Ilyusha, but it was not as if his decision to see the dying boy when he did was a split second decision. Everyone seemed to be under the impression that reuniting the dying boy with a dog he thought he killed would be a certain cure, yet no significant strides were made to attempt to bring them together.
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