Summary:
In this absurd satire, a government clerk accidentally sneezes on a superior’s neck. This makes him worried about how his superior would react and if there would be any repercussions to this. When he apologises, his superior is calm and dismisses the incident. However, he is not relaxed. He apologizes multiple times, each time making his superior more and more irritated. In the end, he passes away simple because he was so terrified of upsetting his superior and possibly facing severe consequences.
Review:
This short story shows the extreme hierarchy in Russian society at that time and how people lower in status would feel terrified of inconveniencing someone higher up, but that is not what struck me first. The story immediately reminded me of some good natured, naive people I know who are so anxious about inconveniencing others that they end up becoming annoying. Ironically, they fret and suffer for no valid reason and end up troubling others even though their intent is to not disturb others.
While we may think that Ivan was the one with problems like anxiety, paranoia, difficulty in understanding social cues and inability to let things go, considering the story in its historic context in mind, it points to a system that traumatises people who are not in positions of power or influence.
This story made me wonder what made the people I know afraid of everything. Is it just their nature or is it their environment that shaped them this way. I see them in a new light after reading this short story.
