#118 Small Fry- Anton Chekhov
Two office clerks are working late on Easter. As they hear
the Easter Bells ringing from the church and the crowds of happy passersby,
they lament their sad lives.
“The need for a new, better life wrung his heart with unbearable
anguish. He passionately longed to find himself suddenly in the street, to
merge with the living crowd, to take part in the festivity…”
But they had chosen to work out of necessity “What’s there
to be greedy about: two roubles in cash, plus a necktie…It’s need, not greed!”
As he kills some time writing a letter to his benefactor, “a
man he hated and feared with all his soul,” he kills a cockroach he had saved
only moments before. It made him feel good. With that his compassion had died,
and the circle of life moved forward.
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