" What Men Live By " is a short story written by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy in 1885. This is one of the short stories included in his collection What Men Are Serving, and Other Stories i>, published in 1885. The compilation also includes the writings of "Three Questions", "Coffee House Letters", and "How Much Land Is Human Needed?".
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn refers to the story at Cancer Ward .
Video What Men Live By
Character
Simon - A humble shoemaker
Matrena - Istri Simon
Michael - Angel is punished by God and transformed into human
Maps What Men Live By
Plot
The kind and humble shoemaker called Simon went out one day to buy sheepskin to sew a winter coat for his wife and himself to share. Usually a little money that Simon gets will be spent to feed his wife and children. Simon decided that in order to buy leather, he had to go to the collection to receive the five rubles and twenty kopeks owed to him by his customers. When he came out to raise money, he also borrowed three rubles of money from his wife's money box. While continuing his collection, he only managed to receive twenty kopek rather than the full amount. Disappointed by this, Simon hurriedly spent twenty kopeks in vodka and started home.
On the way home she told herself how little she could do with twenty kopek besides spending it on alcohol and, feeling warm after drinking, she told herself that winter could be borne without a sheepskin coat. As she approached the chapel at the curb, Simon stopped and saw something that looked pale leaning against him. She's louder and notices that it's a naked man who looks poor health. At first he was suspicious and afraid that the man might not have good intentions if he was in that state. He proceeds to pass the man until he sees that the man has raised his head and looked at him. Simon debated what to do in his mind and was embarrassed for ignoring him and coming back to help him.
Simon removed his cloth coat and wrapped it around the stranger. She also gave him a pair of extra boots he carried. She helps him as they both walk towards Simon's house. Although they walked side by side, the stranger barely spoke and when Simon asked how he was left in that situation the only answer he would give was: "I do not know" and "God has punished me." Meanwhile, Simon Matrena's wife is debating whether to bake more bread for dinner so it's enough for breakfast the next morning. He decided that the bread they left would be enough to last until the next morning. When he sees Simon approaching the door he is angry to see him with a strange man wrapped in Simon's clothes.
Matryona immediately expressed her displeasure with Simon, accusing him and his strange partner for being a drunk and abusing Simon for not returning with the sheepskin needed to make a new coat. As the tension subsided he offered that the stranger sit down and have dinner with them. After seeing the stranger biting into the bread he put on his plate, he began to feel sorry for his face. When a stranger sees this, his grim expression goes on and he smiles for a moment. After hearing the story of a stranger about how Simon robbed the stranger well after seeing him naked, Matryona took more of Simon's old clothes and gave it to the stranger.
The next morning Simon summoned the stranger and asked for his name. The stranger replied that his name was only Michael. Simon explains to Michael that he can stay in his household as long as he can get his job by working as Simon's assistant in the shoe business. Michael agreed with these terms and for several years he remained a very loyal assistant.
One winter day, a customer who was a nobleman came to their store. The nobleman outlined the strict conditions for the construction of a pair of thick leather boots: they should not lose shape or become loose for a year, or else he would be caught by Simon. When Simon gives Michael the skin the nobility has given them for use, Michael seems to stare out of the noble's shoulder and smile for the second time since he was there. When Michael cuts and sews the skin, instead of making thick leather boots, he makes a pair of soft leather sandals. Simon was late when he realized this and called to Michael asking why he did something stupid. Before Michael could reply, a messenger arrived at their door and informed him that the nobleman had died and asked if they could change the order for his slippers to wear on his deathbed. Simon was astonished at this and noticed when Michael gave the messenger his finished leather sandals. Time went on and Simon was very grateful for Michael's faithful help.
In the sixth year, another customer came with a woman with two daughters, one of whom was paralyzed. The woman asked if she could order a pair of leather shoes for each of the girls - three shoes of the same size, because they both shared the same shoe size, and other shoes for the paralyzed lady of the paralyzed lady. As they're preparing to fill Michael's orders staring sharply at the girls and Simon wonders why he did it. When Simon took the girls' size, he asked the woman if they were her own children and how the girl with the paralyzed legs was paralyzed. The woman explains that she has nothing to do with them and that her dead mother accidentally smashed the paralyzed limbs of the girl. He states that he can not find it in his heart to leave them in a safe house or an orphanage and take it as his own. When Michael heard this he smiled for the third time since he was there.
After the woman and the two children finally left, Michael approached Simon and said goodbye explaining that God finally forgave him. When Michael does this, he begins to be surrounded by a heavenly light and Simon admits that he is not a human being. Simon asks her why the light emanates from her and why she only smiles three times. Michael explains that he is an angel who is given the task of taking a woman's life so that she can move on to the next life. She allows the woman to live because she pleads that she should take care of her children for no one other than their mother who can take care of them. When he did this God punished him for his disobedience and ordered that he should find answers to the following questions to become an angel again: What abides in humans? , What is not given to humans? , and What do humans live? After Michael returned to earth to retrieve the woman's soul, the bodyless body of the woman rolled over and smashed the leg of this paralyzed girl. Then the wings of Michael left him and he was no longer an angel, but a naked and mortal man. When Simon saved him, he knew that he had to start finding answers to those questions. He learns the answer to the first question when Matrena feels sorry for him, so smiles and realizes that what dwells in man is "love". The answer to the second question came to him when he realized that the angel of death loomed over a nobleman who was preparing for a year although he would not live until the sun set; so Michael smiles, realizing that what is not given to man is "to know his own needs." Lastly, he understood the answer to the last question when he saw a woman with two girls from her mother who had not previously taken a soul, smiled and realized that apart from being strangers or relationships with each other, "all human beings live not by taking care of themselves but because love. "Michael concludes, saying," I now understand that although it seems that humans live by caring for themselves, in reality it is the love of their own in which they live, the one who has love, is in God, and God is in him, because God is love. "When Michael finished, he sang praises to God as wings appeared on his back and he rose to return to heaven.
See also
- Bibliography of Leo Tolstoy
- Famous Short Stories List
External links
- What Men Are Living With public domain audiobooks on LibriVox
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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