Hakan Celikden

Rossen Djagalov

ASIU 100

April 18, 2015

Mother's growth of political consciousness in Maxim Gorky's novel

We all are born, live and die. This circulation is same for everyone, what differs one from another is the decisions that we make and the actions that we do. We all have different bonds and aims which connect us to life and push us to do whatever it takes to achieve our ultimate goals. Some finds this early in their life some finds it little later. In Maxim Gorky’s “Mother”, we can define Pelagea Nilovna, the mother, as a woman who finds her grand purpose after years of suffering and pain because of her cruel husband Mikhail. At the beginning of the book Gorky identifies the mother as a regular member of workingwomen class in Russia, working all day long and who has a wife-beating husband. The death of her mean husband which was a good news for her and her son Pavel. The death of Mikhail put an important responsibility on Pavel’s shoulders and he started to work in a factory to look after the household. In factory he saw the conditions of the proletariat and day-by-day he started to learn more about the collective power of it by reading books and joining round-table discussions. Unlike his other friends he was spending most of his time in his house with his books and this drew Pelagea’s attention, she wanted to learn what her son has been reading with that much concentration and passion. The day when Pavel and his comrades gathered in her house which worriesd her a lot because she knew that what her son and his comrades have been doing was totally illegal and she thought what was illegal was also dangerous. Yet, she started to listen what they were talking about from the kitchen and tried to understand the words that she was not familiar with, yet the miserable life that she has had, had never given her to develop herself, that’s why she could not understand the terms that they were using during the discussions. As soon as strangers left the house she asked her son about the details of the discussion and the meaning of the term. Mother and son, they began to talk about the politics, the misery of the people etc. She felt like every conversation that she did with her son opens her eyes more and more. The death of his husband had rescued her from physical pain, now these discussions helped her to find the ultimate goal that we have talked about and which she has not had during her entire life. The number of the discussion sessions in Mother’s house started to increase and at these meetings Mother found a chance to recognize Pavel’s friends which showed her how good these guys are and she became one of the members of the round table later on. The more she got into the deep, the more she figured out the importance of the actions that they have been doing. Despite she knew the danger that herself and Pavel were in, she did not stop doing what she has been doing and kept on reading, learning, questioning. In my opinion, the turning of the political approach of the mother was the moment when the gendarmes came into the house and arrested Pavel. Mother was aware of a danger like this, yet when the bad thoughts turned into real things got more serious for her. Due to the numbers of arrests, the distribution of the propaganda papers got more difficult and the comrades came with an idea. They wanted the mother to bring the papers with her while she came to the factory in her stewpots. This was important for Pavel,too. When the distribution of the papers continued while he was in jail, it would help him to be released since the gendarmes would think that Pavel was not the guy who was responsible of the papers. By accepting this offer, she took her political consciousness to a upper level and she helped her son to be free, now she was a more important and active figure at the movement. When we analyze the improvement that she accomplished until that day was so significant which shows us how fast we can achieve things if we focus on them. First, she was not quite sure to get involved into this organization, yet she did not close herself and saw what her son was doing as a boogeyman, she tried to figure out what was going on and wanted to increase her knowledge about life and politics. Nevertheless, she established herself to the organization by helping at the distribution of the papers. From that point she was more than “mother of Pavel” who was hosting the discussions and giving them tea, she was an activist. We can see the moment when she was called as “comrade” from one of the members, she realized the brotherhood in the group and felt like exactly one of them. When the most important day for the organization, May Day, has come Pavel decided to carry the banner at the head of the group. She knew it was impossible to change Pavel’s mind she insisted Pavel to waive. By this conversation that Pavel and the mother did, we see although the mother believed in what they were doing her “mother” identity was still ahead of her activist mentality. Throughout the book, she always supported Pavel’s ideology and acted together with him, yet she also tried to convince him to step back a little bit because of her mother instincts. As expected, Pavel got arrested at the May Day demonstration. At this point, the activist inside the mother appeared and while Pavel was waiting for his trail in jail, she continued what she was doing for the movement and also she took over some of the duties that Pavel was doing. This dedication shows us how focused she was mentally to her grand purpose and she was ready to do whatever it was needed. She kept on doing what was necessary and she continued to get the respect from to other since she was that much dedicated. The trial was one the most important incidents in the book. It can be remembered with the sentence of exile, the speech of Pavel gave, the emotional atmosphere in and out of the court etc. Briefly, the court exiled Pavel to Siberia and Pavel gave a speech at the court by addressing judges. He told them that by giving these sentences they had no chance to hinder the revolution and he also added that they were the slaves of the system and what matters was not the slavery of physical body, the slavery of the mind was something more important which was the situation that the judges were in. The speech was so appreciated from the crowd that it was decided to be typed and distributed around the country. Of course, the mother was the crucial figure at this part,too. She started to distribute the copies of Pavel’s speech until she got caught by the gendarmes. When we analyze how the political consciousness of the mother has evolve from the beginning of the book, we see that despite what she has been through for years she kept his head up and fought for the revolution. The turning point of her life was the death of her cruel husband which helped her to get rid of her chains and she unleashed the activist who was inside. Finding herself in books with the aid of her son opened a new path in her life and she followed that path as much as she could. I would like to add something about the book, too. It was a very important book for the revolution and the way that Gorky writes about the comrades, the movement, the dialogues helps us to look at their frame, people who lived in that period.