Pains and Pangs in Anton Chekhov’s Story Vanka

The present paper explores and analyses pains and pangs in Anton Chekhov’s Story Vanka by the means of critical discourse analysis for pedagogical purpose. The study paper was carried out by using secondary resources. In Vanka , with his simplicity and minuteness of details, Chekhov reveals his sense of man's inhumanity to man. Poverty, widely discussed in Marxist ideologies, is a curse to majority of school age children. The school age child Vanka is not exception anyway.


Introduction
The present paper is a reading between lines in Anton Chekhov's Story Vanka for exploring and analyzing sufferings and poor conditions of a little boy of school age. Analysis of the text is done by the means of critical discourse analysis for pedagogical purpose. This study paper, intended to apply the Marxist ideologies in the short story Vanka, deals about pathetically poignant conditions of majority of children in the world. SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH e-ISSN: 2582-3574 p-ISSN: 2582-4406 VOL. 8, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2020 www.ijellh.com 2 Language is a method of communication and literature can be the content being communicated. It is a set of gestures and words and phrases with meaning behind them, and literature is the manipulation and use of those gestures and words and phrases. It makes human closer to his/her demand. Cook (2008, p 1) says, "Language is at the centre of human life. We use it to express our love or our hatred, to achieve our goal and further our careers, to gain artistic satisfaction or simple pleasure or to blaspheme".
In literature, language is meticulously and artistically crafted. It is not just to inform a reader but also to persuade him, to play and poke at his mind. There is demarcation between theory and practice. In theory, with the right rhetorical devices, we can write one thing but make a reader think something else. Literature is a lot more complicated than the ordinary language being used. Povey (1972, p 191) says, "Literature will increase all language skills because literature will extend linguistic knowledge by giving evidence of extensive and subtle vocabulary usage and complex and exact syntax." (Cited in Brumfit & Carter 1987, p 191).
Literature is an artistic human creation by the tactful and playful dictions expressing experiences, ideas, feelings, emotions, opinions, etc to depict social realities. There are many purposes behind creating art-beauty (aestheticism), truth, pleasure, realism, fantasy, The study of literature makes literature itself the content or subject of a language course while the use of literature as a resource draws on literature as one source among many different kinds of texts for promoting interesting language activities. Clearly if it is the study of literature which is our aim, then developing the 'literary competence' of our students is crucial. (Lazar, 1993, p 14) Lazar (2009, p 24) writes, "Literature is a useful tool for encouraging students to draw on their own personal experiences, feelings and opinions. It helps students to become more actively involved both intellectually and emotionally in learning English and hence aids acquisition." Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian writer. He was noted for crafting the "psychological" short story. Therefore, in his tales, we often find that the setting resides in the minds of the characters and dialogue. It is often a stream of interior monologue between only snippets of conversation. In his stories, action is minimal and conflict limited to cross purposes of characters registered in their feelings and suspicions.
His hundreds of short stories made him a master of realistic short story in the nineteenth century. Chekhov usually wrote about man's essential loneliness and frustration, and the dullness and stagnation of Russian life in his day. He shows both sympathy and realism towards his characters. In Vanka, with his simplicity and minuteness of details, Chekhov reveals his sense of man's inhumanity to man.

Literature Review
Marxist criticism views literary works as reflections of the social institutions from which they originate. Marxists believe that literature itself is an institution. They say that it has a specific ideological function, which is based on the background and ideology of the In these first few sentences, Chekhov establishes Vanka's goodness of heart and desperate situation, not only from what Vanka writes but because he is writing a letter. The reader sees implicitly that Vanka is trying to make a connection. What's more, it is unclear that the letter will ever reach his grandfather in the end. That Vanka's efforts may prove to be a useless gesture underscores his innocence and sincerity. The purpose of the letter also serves to remove the reader a step from Vanka's circumstance; this has the effect that Chekhov describes as follows: "When you describe the miserable and unfortunate, and want to make the reader feel pity, try to be somewhat colder--that seems to give a kind of background to another's grief, against which it stands out more clearly. Whereas in your story the characters cry and you sigh. Yes, be colder....The more objective you are, the stronger will be the impression you make." (--To Lydia Avilova, March 19, 1892& April 29, 1892 The letter provides a middle ground between objective reporting and direct access to Vanka's thoughts. Chekhov uses this device to subtly give the reader a wider perspective ('a kind of background'), and hence, a more complete understanding of Vanka's grief.
Anton Chekhov employs flashback sequences of Vanka's former life with his grandfather. In his mind's eye, Vanka daydreams of a jovial patriarch with whom he had delightful times. He is described as a "nimble old man of about sixty-five whose face was always crinkled with laughter" who cracked jokes and gave snuff to the dogs. Later, Vanka recalls happier times with his grandfather at Christmas getting a Christmas tree and being taught to read and dance by a young chambermaid. These scenes of blissful contentment are in stark contrast to his current plight and add to the background of his grief, accenting it.
Chekhov also incorporated the flashback sequences into a masterful use of symbolism. It is emphasized that Vanka's reveries was a dog called Viun, which wriggles and followed his grandfather around. Having finished writing the letter to his grandfather, Vanka is hopeful that his grandfather will surely come and take him back to village. He folds the sheet of writing-paper twice, and puts it into the postal envelope he has bought the day before for a kopeck from the last of his meager savings. Vanka has learnt that dropping the letter in a letter box takes it to its destination. Ignorant of his grandfather's address Vanka reflects for a while and addresses the envelope To Grandfather in the Village. He scratches his head, thinks a little, and adds his grandfather's name: Konstantin Makarich. Then he runs out on the street and posts the letter in the letter box.
We, the readers, know that this letter, addressed in such a way, is not likely to reach his grandfather in some distant remote village. But Vanka thinks that his grandfather will get his letter and know that, after reading it, his grandfather will surely come to Moscow to rescue him, free him from his tyranny and life of slavery and take him back to the happy life in the village. Lulled by the sweetest of hopes, Vanka goes to sleep with these happy thoughts and dreams that his grandfather is reading the letter and his dog Viun is wagging his tail.
Vanka's situation was not abnormal or a rarity where poverty and slavery were common occurrences. From the world's history, we have read that illnesses and death often left young children alone to defend themselves. Forced to work at a young age, Vanka did not receive a formal education. Vanka had his downfall because of his lack of education. He had been sent for apprenticeship because of the lack of education. We know that his grandfather SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH e-ISSN: 2582-3574 p-ISSN: 2582-4406 VOL. 8, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2020 www.ijellh.com 11 will never come and rescue him because of his lack of education. This condition of his lifelack of education and ignorance-creates an ironic parallel between his life and his freedom.
The unaddressed letter never reached his grandfather. His grandfather did not know of his grandson's living conditions.
An additional bit of irony can be found in the religious aspects of the master and his family.
As brutal and harsh people, the family, both the master and the mistress abuse and take advantage of Vanka. It is ironic in the story that they attend church for religious purpose after causing the child so much pain and torture.
Inspired only by the pleasant memories of his grandfather and his dog Viun, Vanka tries to make a better life for himself. This can only be achieved through his departure from the shoemaker's house to his grandfather's. The letter is simply addressed-"To Konstantin Makarich." The reader is left to wonder if the letter addressed as so will ever reach its proper destination. The matter of his emotional purging is the one thing that will keep Vanka's frame of mind intact. The idea that his grandfather will receive the letter really comforts Vanka immensely; this in turn will give Vanka a reason for going on in life.
In the story "Vanka", we can see Vanka and his master are playing roles sitting in their rank as apprentice and the shoemaker but master and his family misuse and take benefits of having such hierarchy. In Michel Foucault's opinion, power is not something that can be owned, but rather something that acts and manifests itself in a certain way; it is more a strategy than a possession. Power must be analyzed as something which circulates, or as something this only functions in the form of a chain. Power is employed and exercised through a netlike organization. Individuals are the vehicles of power, not its points of application. This way of understanding power has two key features: a) power is a system, a network of relations encompassing the whole society, rather than a relation between the oppressed and the oppressor; b) individuals are not just the objects of power, but they are the locus where the power and the resistance to it are exerted. The relational of power, meaning that power is always a case of power relations between people, as opposed to a quantum possessed by people. (Foucault, 1980) We can see in the story "Vanka", the power relation and the impose of power between Aliakhin and Vanka. Aliakhin got power because he is master and owner of the shoe shop.
Vanka is an apprentice of the shoe shop. However he must do all the work of shoe shop as well as house hold what the master and his family orders. It seems that power relations can obtain only among human beings because they possess volitional and rational capacities that set them apart from other animals.
In the story "Vanka", we find power abuse, domination and sufferings upon a child by cruel master. He is misusing the power. Here, we can see that Vanka was dominated and abused in these lines. In these sentences, Vanka told his sorrow to his grandfather in the letter, one day before, his master took Vanka outside to beat him. Vanka was accused of falling asleep while rocking the family's child. This was not a job for an apprentice; however he did odd jobs to appease the lord of the house. Being unhappy also he stayed for he had nowhere else to turn.

Conclusion
Vanka is a case for misfortune and exploitation attributing to the millions of children in the world. They are deprived of education, happiness and pleasure, family love and attachment. Misuse and abuse of power over children of school age is commonplace in our world. It occurs in homes, schools, churches, government, etc. And sadly, we can find such things in therapist's practices and healing workshops. Any position of power, for example the shoemaker in this story, carries with it the temptation to abuse that power, which is in the case of Vanka. Children, selling newspapers or doing household works, may be late for school and punished by teachers, without knowing the truth. It is our responsibility to learn how people form their relationship with power, how power should be used, how power should be relevant, and how power should be fruitful for welfare of children (in present case of this paper). We should be responsible to learn how power is misused and abused in our work, and how we can help to heal the relationship with power in ourselves. We should be responsible towards children for their rights, dignity, freedom, and other essential requirements.