Russian History and Society in Fathers and Sons

Russian society in Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Children expresses the poignant gap between the older and newer generations through their experiences with hard work and the attitudes they bring to it. At the start of the novel the reader must acknowledge several marked differences between Bazarov and his father within the nobility, all of which relate to bettering themselves through labor or social climbing. The younger generations represented through Bazarov's character ache to be something better than their elders but are unwilling to put in the effort or the work to achieve it. They are handed nobility at a young age and expected to understand labor through helping other people, when they have been spoiled. Bazarov only understands helping himself through peer manipulation in order to social climb, relying on his peers to be insignificant so he can shine past them. He does not put as much stock into his future as his parents, acting passively in regards to class, lazily sliding his way up the social ladder.

As a generation, the older nobility rely on the younger for social change and modifications of the agricultural systems that they used to get ahead in the world. Whereas older generations are thinking one day at a time, Bazarov thinks only of the pointlessness of life, and man being held on a thin string over an abyss.(88 Turgenev) There is a great cynicism apparent in the younger generations beliefs, due to a conflicting culture that embraces knowledge over labor, allowing Bazarov to become jaded towards helping his own people while misunderstanding the value of hard work.

Bazarov constantly mocks the peasants with his knowledge, testing them in the countryside as to the laws he's studied, however he can't understand the disconnect between his studies and the actual political/class reality of his country. This is because he has no outward experience of other classes, instead he relies on his memorized laws to cut himself off from the lower classes, ignoring the problems for his own superiority and naiveté.

Bazarov is tested both by his love for Anna, who rebukes him for drawing the lines of class within their romantic relationship, and within his studies. Anna, as a princess, tries to impress upon Bazarov that they are the same person at heart. He is to obsessed with class structure to agree that though Anna is of higher rank, human beings all start at the same level in life when born. Instead, he argues with her and they become torn in their love affair, Anna unable to be with someone so hardened towards change. After this the young man experiences trials from his family where he has come to study and go upon the great path intended by them. Bazarov tries to do as his father wants and studies for long periods of time, absorbing the information which will supposedly put him into motion to change the country. However, because of his increasing absorption in his studies, his health slowly decreases, he becomes isolated, and eventually dies due to infectious disease. He is unable to survive in a world where he must work through knowledge, rather than sheer will, to rise above and help others. The expectations and pressures of the older generation on Bazarov lead to his failure to do anything. Turgenev then points out through Bazarov's death that life is what you make of it and class should not stand to define a person's existence. He illustrates this in his last paragraph: "Oh, no! However passionate, sinful, rebellious the heart buried in the grave, the flowers growing on it look out at us serenely with their innocent eyes,"(163). In death people are all the same, regardless of their world views in life. Thus we should strive to be better people, working through our lives with determination and drive, no matter what we wish to pursue.

Russians in 19^th century society relied purely on looks, filial lineage, and interactions between the noble classes in regards to respectability. Both generations are holding themselves above others, such as peasants, in regards to class structure and the privileges afforded them due to education. The nobility strive to use each other in a myriad game of cat and mouse in order to climb up the social ladder by using the idiots as footholds. They take advantage of each other and relate through a system of either they are a god to be worshiped, or a simpleton to be caught, used, then thrown away.

There exists no equal within a society where class distinctions play such an integral role in ones life decisions and choices for the future. Bazarov understands this inescapable idea of class so he strives neither to be better or the same as those around him, instead he chooses a life of passivity and leisure. He is bent on living life without passion or acknowledging his social gifts passed down by his family's noble birth. However, he is not against having social discussions of law and politics with the peasants, arguing that they know nothing about the situation.

Nobility controlled the peasants due to their education and memorization of laws, but the peasants were the ones who had the first hand experience with the land, their reality. If their two world views could have combined an easier modernization could have been reached because the nobility denied first hand experience based on the peasants inferiority. What they failed to realize was that peasants were the heart of the infrastructure, giving them their wealth and allowing them to cling to their rigid class structure, so the peasants should be rewarded for their hard work.

Bazarov, as a man, refuses to budge from a passive standpoint because he sees the structure of class as an undeniable and impassable barrier so he functions in the society as a lazy bore. He both refuses to go against the grain of the expectations of the older generation, but in the same token, refuses to conform. He still holds the ideals of the old generation, that his schooling brings him a superiority over lower classes, but he has no drive to improve himself in nobility or standing, instead staying put and refusing any kind of social moderation.

Either way, as the younger generation or the older, both must accept hard work for social change and embrace knowledge taken from the lower classes in regards to living and culture. This would enable a healthier division of power and lead to more proficient economic benefits due to the mobilities increased interest in the land and the people who work it. Without drive and willingness to make things better, these people just make the problem worse, and push others into a state of political lethargy where they can neither go forward or back but are happier with the thought of death due to life's pointless pursuits.

Turgenev, Ivan. Father's and Sons. Signet Classics, 2005.