While I read Leo Tolstoy’s Master and Man novella, I found it a boring book. I probably wouldn’t ever read such a short book like Master and Man on my own. But it did lead me to notice how much greed could change or impact someone. In my life I have never met someone who is truly greedy like Vassili Andreyich was, I mean I have always known that people like that were out there but reading about someone who was so greedy was eye-opening. I don’t understand how someone (Vassili for example) could steal from a church for their own personal reasons (p. 63), also how he could dismiss someone’s life just because they would be considered a lower wealth class than himself (p. 99). But at the end of the book, he does a selfless thing, Vassili ends up dying while saving Nikita’s life (p. 108).
When Vassili lays on top of Nikita to keep Nikita warm (p. 106) even after trying to leave him in the snow but having to come back, it leads me to ask, can someone truly change at the end of their lives? For the whole book Vassili was greedy and selfish, but in the end, he did something for the well-being of someone else which ended up costing him his life (pp. 106-108). Which makes me wonder, if someone like him (greedy, cold and someone who believes that a peasant’s life would be lower than his own) could really change, or if they would only shift their actions in extreme moments (facing death in this moment)?
Even though I didn’t truly enjoy this book, it still made me think deeper about how Vassili could look at Nikita (who is a lower wealth class than Vassili) like a tool rather a real person. Also, if someone who could act similarly like Vassili could or would only change their actions towards others before it’s too late. I may not read this book again, but it did help me understand more about how greed and power could take over someone’s ability to see everyone as equal.