Master and Man, by Leo Tolstoy.
This story of the two characters, Master; Vasili, and Man; Nikita. In this story it’s a tale between these two characters that slowly over time become more than just Master and Man. At the beginning you find that Nikita is a character with one weak trait that slowly contains who he is as a person, and you begin to lose sympathy points for his ways of being. Vasili is a very uptight character who cares about himself, and money. My first impression of the book was that Master was Vasili and Man was Nikita but near the end Vasili changes his ways of being and cares for another being, which makes you rethink his actions before where you find that his traits weren’t as bad, he just had nothing to really care for. Nikita was a character who never cared for himself and too much for the unimportant. Vasili always cared deeply for those around it just was never portrayed in his character. At the end when Vasili risks himself for Nikita and prays to god for the chance of saving Nikita and for forgiveness of the wrongs he’s done within his life, the title “Master and Man” loses meaning from what it once was and becomes Master meaning; God Himself, and Vasili being “Man.” When Vasili changes his ways and saves Nikita you almost lose all meaning of the whole story, you think; “Thats not Vasili. What’s the catch?” And you look back and realize he was never a horrible human he just wanted to have it all, which deep down is the most humane trait in society, is to be the “Master.” Which makes me feel more for Vasili in the whole story compared to Nikita. Nikita was so selfless, you lose all sympathy for him and his character. The ending of the story made me have hope for the worst in people, even in real life I believe in change. This story just goes to show that the character you root for in the beginning you won’t always root for, and the character you had hoped to be removed, you wish had stayed. I do not believe that the story is too realistic but, the characters and the incidents of alcohol and abuse is very real. The way the characters are represent life as a whole and they just went all in with who they were and how they wanted to be seen by the reader. Over all I would recommend this story to someone who can hold out till the end.