winteroakexercises


 * __The Winter Oak by Yuri Nagibin__**


 * Background**

Yuri Nagibin was born in Russia in 1920. he trained to be a journalist but became respected for a wide range of writing, including film scripts, biographies, and short stories. He wrote the screenplay fro //The Chairman//, which has become one of Russian cinema’s most important films and he wrote a book about Yuri Gagarin, the world’s first spaceman, entitled //Gagarin’s Smile.// It is for his short stories that he is best known, however, and he has been compared to Anton Chekhov, the great Russian dramatist and master of the short story form. Nagibin’s stories are often concerned with rural village life, and he is particularly admired for his sympathetic treatment of his characters and his beautiful descriptions of the natural world. He was married to the poet Bella Akhmadulina in 1960, He dies in April 1994. //The Winter Oak// is translated from the original Russian.


 * What’s the story?**

1. The story has two locations-the school and the forest-and covers one working day in the life of a teacher, Anna Vasilevna. What is she most likely to remember about the events of this day? Add five more main events for each location.


 * SCHOOL || FOREST ||
 * She starts to teach him speech || He shows her the elk ||

2. There are two flashbacks involving the school. What does Anna remember about her teaching in the previous year and her conversation with the geography mistress?


 * Characters-what are they like?**

3. The story had two main characters, Anna Vaselina and Savushkin. At the end of the school section (line 133), what do you think is Anna’s view of Savushkin? Write some notes on Savushkin, as if you are Anna at this point in the story. You should include how Anna’s impressions of Savushkin have changed by the end of the story and also consider:

· Savushkin’s lateness · His performance in class · Impressions of his character · Impressions of his home-life.

4. Think about the following statements about Anna’s character and teaching methods. Find references in the school section (up to line 13) to support them. Do you agree with all of them?

a) Anna is hard-working, dedicated and serious about teaching. b) She is a young and inexperienced teacher who thinks she is doing better than she actually is. c) She doesn’t really know her pupils or understand the lives they lead. d) She jumps to conclusions about the children she teaches. e) She teaches dull subjects which don’t touch the lives of her pupils. f) She corrects their language but doesn’t always listen to what her pupils are saying. g) She is keen for her lessons to go well and for her pupils to succeed at school.

5. How do your impressions of Anna, as a teacher and as a character, change once you have read the whole story?


 * The plot-conflicts and twists**

6. In the school section, the plot appears to be based on the conflict between a dedicated teacher and a difficult pupil, building up to a showdown with the boy’s mother. However, the plot changes direction in the forest section. Place the following extracts in context and trace the reversals, twists and //ironies.//

a) The paragraph beginning: “an elk has been here," said Savushkin... (lines154-8)

b) “Look, the ice is so thin...” (line 191) to ...and looking around him (line 197).

c) Anna Vaselina was gazing with delighted interest... (line247-8) to...she had walked into a trap (line 252).

d) “Well, Savushkin, thank you for the walk...” (line 270) to...he was afraid of telling a lie (line 274-5).

e) He was guarding his teacher from afar (lines 289-90).


 * Themes-what is it really about?**

7. Do you think this is a story in which the teacher learns the lessons? Which one of the following lessons seems to you to be the most central to the story? Support your decision with detail and quotation from the story.

a) Prejudice-it’s important not to judge people until you have got to know them by sharing their experiences.

b) Education-learning through experience is more effective and enjoyable than academic study in the classroom. c) Language-language is an important and beautiful means of expressing our feelings and should not be reduced to a series of dull classroom exercises.

d) Self-knowledge-it’s important to admit your mistakes and learn from them.

e) Nature-you should take time out from your busy daily routines to appreciate the beauty of the natural world.

f) Poverty-it’s possible to be poor in material terms, but rich in your appreciation of the world around you.


 * The writer and the writing-Nagibin at work**


 * Characterisation**

8. We see most of the story from Anna’s //point of view//. How does Nagibin suggest to us that her view is often mistaken? Identify use of the irony in the following extracts.

a) And she remembered too how she used to be tormented by a ridiculous fear that perhaps they would not understand her. (lines 14-16)

b) She felt sad and confused as she always did when faced with a child telling lies. (lines 117-8)


 * A closer look at some language choices**

9. Re-read the section (lines 79-93) where Nagibin first introduces the oak tree.

a) Why does he introduce the tree at this point? b) How does he show its importance to Savushkin? c) How does he show Anna’s failure to understand this importance?

10. Re-read the sentence (lines 207-8) which describes Anna’s first encounter with the oak: “In the middle of the glade, clothed in glittering white raiment, huge and majestic as a cathedral, stood an oak.”

a) Why does Nagibin hold back the word “oak” until the end of the sentence? b) How does he suggest that this tree has special significance? c) What is the effect of //personifying// the oak here and elsewhere?

11. How does Nagibin give the impression that the forest and the oak belong to a separate and magical world, which keeps its secrets covered up and will only gradually reveal them? Why is this idea central to the story? Look at descriptions of the oak, like “...covered with a thick white blanket of snow...imprisoned in an armour of clear ice...” (line 165-7).