Good Essay About Russian Culture: Heroes And Anti-Heroes

The book Land of the Firebird discussed the Heroes and the Anti-Heroes through Russian perspective. The main character in the chapter is none other than Count Lev Tolstoy, a popular country gentleman, a writer, a thinker and a lover and believer of God. Those names that are mentioned in this Chapter who do believe in God are considered the Heroes and those who try to live with the western culture are those considered as Anti-Heroes.
In the early paragraphs of the chapter, the biography of the country gentleman was described. In these parts, it can be easily observed that Russians live very simply—they are contented in working as peasants, as wood choppers, as fishermen. They do not live extravagantly like those who are living in western countries. The differences between the lifestyle of the Russians who chose to stay in their country, and the Russians who went to the western and European countries, are distinguished through describing the characteristics between writers and their perspectives. In this case, the way of thinking of Count Lev Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev, who at first, are real friends and ended up clashing with each other’s perspectives, can best describe how culture of one country can change the lifestyle and way of thinking of a person.
The chapter also discussed how majority of the Russian people gained their knowledge. Other than what they learn from being peasants, from wood chopping, from grazing and from fishing, those personalities mentioned in the book learned from self-studying. Most of the books they have studied are those that are of classical themes—those which are written mostly by Charles Dickens per se. They have also studied the works of classical political thinkers like Alexander II who was a popular ruler and reformist. On the other hand, the way education takes place in Russia was contradicted by those writers who were raised in Western and European countries as they have been soaked to modern educational processes including modern perspectives on politics, economy and even in literatures.
Russians are God-lovers. They do believe that God exists and that God is a supernatural being who is the most powerful above all. That is why Count Lev Tolstoy made his literatures—all centered to God because he is so overwhelmed how God can control everything and how He is able to make the world. However, those writers who were raised as westerners believe otherwise.
These way of thinking and living of people may no longer be applicable to today’s world because of the changes and developments that have arrived, but these are true during their times. There is really a big difference between the culture of the Russian people and the westerners, which can be one of the reasons why the Russian Federation and United States are at war since then.

Work Cited:

Land of the Firebird: The Beauty of Old Russia. Chapter 19 Heroes and Anti Heroes.