The Character Vasia in Boris Pasternacks Doctor Zhivago :: Doctor Zhivago Essays

The Character Vasia in Boris Pasternacks Doctor ZhivagoThe character Vasia Brykin, in the novel Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternack, is created and developed as a symbol of the rampant and chaotic times during the turbulent Russian Revolution. His significance in relation to the overall plot is minor because of his only two sub-chapter appearances, only if thematically he works to show the breakdown of the Russian stinting and social infrastructure in the country, and the lasting effects it has on the propagation of lives that were swept up in its political turmoil. Vasia is introduced in chapter seven, on the chase to the Urals, where Yurii Andreievich Zhivago learns of his depressing story. Vasia Brykins father was killed in the war, and his mother had sent him to be bound to his uncle at age sixteen. One day his uncle was called in by the topical anaesthetic soviet authorities to answer some questions, and accidentally walked into the Bolsheviks labor recruitment dispat chice, where he was conscripted into forced labor and herded off to a train. Vasia and his aunt went to phrase farewell the next day, and his uncle pleaded with the guard, Voroniuk, to let him out of the car to see his married woman for one last minute. Voroniuk, fearing for his own position, allowed him to leave only if Vasia stayed in his cast for insurance. Vasias uncle never returned, and he cried and pleaded with Voroniuk, but it was to no avail. Physically, Vasia appeared an attractive boy with fastness features who looked like a royal page or an angel of immortal in a picture (223). He has red hair, and an unspoiled unimpeachable look to him. On the external, he is a very enthusiastic person, fully of compassion and emotion, especially when he speaks of his family and life back in his national village of VeretennikiThats what I say-Buisky-Buisky village. Of course I know it, thats where you get off the main road, you turn right and right again. Thats to get to us, to Veretenniki. And your way essential be left, away from the river, isnt it? You know the river Pelga? Well, of course Thats our river. You keep following the river, on and on, and away up on the cliff...(224-225)