Doctor Zivago

The October Revolution: Great Achievement or Crime ?《Doctor Zhivago》is a drastically debated novel which is about the October revolution that happened in Russia. The novel factually depicted the Russian October revolution in an extraordinary standpoint. Pasternak is the author of the great novel. Doctor Zhivago is the protagonist of this novel, his thoughts and actions in the novel expressed the author’s viewpoint the October revolution. We can know the real experience of clerisy in Russia during the October revolutionary.Zhivago, the protagonist of the novel, was the son of a rich industrialist in Moscow. He became an orphan when he was ten years old and he grew up by grace of the financially aids from clerisy and some artists. In the years of czarist, zhivago belonged to the upper strata in Russia.As a man who was a member of clerisy, he didn’t believe anything easily and had his independent thought. Therefore, it was hard for him to be an adherent of a belief. Zhivago is a superior doctor, and he also studies philosopher and literature as well——this is similar with the author who is an outstanding poet.In zhivago’s opinion, the most valuable thing of a man is his independent thought.Although he was involved into the October revolution for several years, he did not want to join into the revolution directly. In his eyes, the revolution was only a way in which some people could achieve their final purpose and the war was incompatible with the humanitarianism. Zhivago just wanted to be an outlier of the revolution and was reluctant to give up his right to think independently and freely. However, in this situation, zhivago did not give up his pursuit for life and love.As a well-educated man, zhivago once sympathized with the October revolution. However, when the bloody reality appeared frequently before his eyes, he began to change his mind. After he escaped from the guerilla that “hijacked” him and saw what the guerilla had done in the war, he began to be opposed to the revolution. He even escaped from Moscow after the Bolshevik began to preach the theory of dialectical materialism to him and told him how to live a lift and how to think “correctly”. On his very long journey to a small village near the Ural Mountain, he crossed many demolished villages and even some cities, saw numbers of refugees who were hungry and homeless. This entire tragic scene made him very sorrow. It seemed that on the vast ground of Russia, you could hardly find a place to live peacefully and think independently. It seemed as if the entire country had gone back to the stupid and ignorant middle ages.The love story of zhivago and Lala in the novel is the most touching part. Zhivago escaped from Moscow in order to find an independent square for his free thought while Lala was to find a peaceful life there. They met again in a place far from the revolution, war and politic. Their love was pure and beautiful. Their story formed an apparently comparison between their life and the reality. The author wrote this pure love story might be for the sake of telling us one thing: no matter how ruthless the government is, the most beautiful and pure love cannot be enslaved——you can eliminate it, but you can’t enslave it.In the novel, the life of Zhivago and the society was always in great contradiction. Nevertheless, his pursuit for independent thinking and personality forced him to revolt the reality. At last, Zhivago and Lala determined to defend their personal right and dignity, abandoned the commandment of Bolshevik, and became the rebel and victim of the revolution. When the personality, dignity and right of a human can be maintained only by rebellion and victimization, how can we deem the revolution was a glorious achievement?Zhivago didn’t hope the history would turn back and he had accepted the changes in society and economy. The bifurcation between zhivago and his era was not in political sphere but at the aspect of philosophy and moral. The core reason of the contradiction between zhivago and the society was the bifurcation between autarchy and democracy. Therefore, we can say, the tragic story of zhivago will certainly happen in his era.This great novel got the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958, but the author could not get the prize because of the political reason.This novel let us have a look at the October revolution from another side, this especially important to our Chinese. It told us that we could not agree a viewpoint easily or believe a “certainly true” thing without thinking. We should look at all aspects of a complex matter and not easily lose your independent thoughts and heart of suspicion, just as doctor Zhivago.。