Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Study Guide for Isaac Babel's "My First Goose"
    A Study Guide for Isaac Babel's "My First Goose"
    A Study Guide for Isaac Babel's "My First Goose"
    Ebook35 pages25 minutes

    A Study Guide for Isaac Babel's "My First Goose"

    By Gale and Cengage

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Isaac Babel's "My First Goose," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJul 6, 2016
    ISBN9781535829151
    A Study Guide for Isaac Babel's "My First Goose"

    Read more from Gale

    Related to A Study Guide for Isaac Babel's "My First Goose"

    Related ebooks

    Literary Criticism For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      To Hell And Back

      Sep 1, 2022

      The first complete English translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy appeared in 1802, and over the past two centuries, new versions have proliferated beyond count, like Beatles covers or Sherlock Holmes movies. A diverting literary parlor game is to imag

      4 min read

    • Article

      Nothingism

      Mar 1, 2019

      Nothingism
      11 min read

    • Article

      Reduced To Rubble

      Feb 20, 2020

      Reduced To Rubble
      4 min read

    • Article

      30 Books in 30 Days: Looking for The Stranger: Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary Classic

      Mar 16, 2017

      In the 30 Books in 30 Days series leading up to the March 16 announcement of the 2016 National Book Critics Circle award winners, NBCC board members review the thirty finalists. Today, NBCC board member Jane Ciabattari offers an appreciation of criti

      2 min read

    • Article

      Philip Larkin: The Man Who Was Always Right

      Sep 29, 2022

      IN THE FONDLY-REMEMBERED Nineties comedy The Fast Show, one of the sketches revolved around the character of the jovial painter Johnny Nice, played by the series’ co-creator Charlie Higson. Johnny likes nothing more than to set-up his easel at a loca

      8 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Hisham Matar

      Dec 18, 2018

      The fact that this isn’t recognized for what it is, a magisterial work and a 20th-century masterpiece, makes me even more anxious about our times. The post A Year in Reading: Hisham Matar appeared first on The Millions.

      3 min read

    • Article

      The True Crime Story That (Might Have) Inspired Nabokov to Write ‘Lolita’

      May 16, 2019

      What if the young girl from Camden was the model for the nymphet from Ramsdale? Who was Sally Horner? Who is Dolores Haze? The post The True Crime Story That (Might Have) Inspired Nabokov to Write ‘Lolita’ appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      O Majestic Poet

      Jun 6, 2017

      O Majestic Poet
      1 min read

    • Article

      ‘Starling Days’: Featured Fiction from Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

      Apr 7, 2020

      In today's edition of featured fiction, we present an excerpt from Rowan Hisayo Buchanan's latest novel, Starling Days. The post ‘Starling Days’: Featured Fiction from Rowan Hisayo Buchanan appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Eight Hot Trollopes

      Jun 17, 2019

      An experiment for 21st-century readers: let’s take a quick tour of the love scenes of a famous Victorian novelist to see if his writings still enflame. The post Eight Hot Trollopes appeared first on The Millions.

      12 min read

    • Article

      Journey of Mann

      Oct 10, 2021

      Journey of Mann
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Study Guide for Isaac Babel's "My First Goose"

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Isaac Babel's "My First Goose" - Gale

      1

      My First Goose

      Isaac Babel

      1926

      Introduction

      My First Goose appeared in Red Cavalry, Babel’s first collection of vignettes and stories—none longer than four pages. This interconnected cycle of stories, considered by many critics to be Isaac Babel’s best work, is also considered one of the most important contributions to twentieth–century Russian literature. The stories showcase Babel’s gift for disturbing imagery and complex philosophy. Containing his signature moral and religious ambiguity, they are characterized by an ironic and exaggerated tone. Red Cavalry initially gained popularity in serialized newspaper form and commanded international critical attention. The public was quick to respond to these new and shocking tales that were simultaneously beautiful and brutal, traditional and contemporary. However, Babel had political detractors as well as religious ones. The government became uneasy with his work, which did not appear to present exclusively socialist thought. My First Goose typifies the kind of writing that gained Babel this kind of varied and emotional response. The story contains the violence and passion typical of most of his work and concerns a deeply emotional narrator of ambiguous political, religious, and moral sentiment. Indeed, throughout his body of work and in his dealings with the government, Babel remained elusive about his actual political views.

      The story contains a meticulous shape and acutely particular language. My First Goose contains one of Babel’s famous and suggestive descriptions—that of the Commander’s legs, like girls sheathed to the neck in shining riding boots. This detail, the first the reader encounters, is echoed in the story’s end, when the unnamed narrator sleeps with his legs entwined in the other soldiers’ legs, dreaming of women. The narrator, whose job as Propaganda Officer is to educate the troops on Leninist thought, tells of his first day of assignment to a Cossack troop. Babel makes much of the narrator’s physical frailties, including his eyeglasses. In fact this narrator resembles the author himself physically, and appears in many of Red Cavalry’s tales. In the story’s crucial moment, the previously weak narrator proves his strength by killing a helpless goose. Themes of violence run throughout the story, as well as erotic and religious

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1