The Short Stories of Mikhail Zoshchenko Literary Elements

The Short Stories of Mikhail Zoshchenko Literary Elements

Genre

Short fiction.

Setting and Context

“Poverty” and “The Galosh” are set in Soviet Russia.

Narrator and Point of View

"Poverty" and "The Galosh" use the first-person narrator.

Tone and Mood

Hilarious, discontent, amazement, and informative.

Protagonist and Antagonist

In "Poverty," a tenant (the narrator) is the protagonist, whereas light is the antagonist. In "The Galosh," the galosh owner is the protagonist.

Major Conflict

The conflict in "poverty" relates to electric light, which reveals the deprived conditions of the narrator and other tenants. In "The Galosh," the conflict relates to the displacement of the narrator's galosh.

Climax

The climax in “Poverty” occurs after the effective installation of electricity, resulting in the publicity of ‘dirt and decay.’

The climax in "The Galosh" occurs when the narrator recovers the galosh that he had lost in the tram only to mislay the other galosh outside the tram.

Foreshadowing

N/A

Understatement

“Poverty” understates the magnificence of light. The landlady laments, "What…should I shine a light on such poverty for?"

“The Galosh”: The narrator understates the galosh’s worn-out state: “The thing is the galosh is practically new. I’ve only been wearing it three years.”

Allusions

“Poverty”: Religious allusions such as “Holy Moses!”

“The Galosh”: Religious allusions like “holy of holies.”

Imagery

The landlady’s items portray paucity whose discernibility is amplified by light: “dirt and decay and assorted rags. And all so brightly lit up you can’t help seeing it.”

“The Galosh,” congestion and tussles among the passengers in the tram make it easy to mislay one’s galosh.

Paradox

“Poverty”: the narrator’s explanation of the goodness of light is paradoxical: “Electric light is good, it’s just no good to live with.”

Parallelism

The narrators in both “Poverty” and “The Galosh” create parallel sentence organizations by utilizing the voice 'I' repetitively.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The Galosh”: “Dadgummit denotes Goddammit

Personification

Bed bugs and the soul are personified in “Poverty.”

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