Two Heroes in the Cossacks and Hero of Our Times

Two novels illustrate the role of a hero in different ways, as this paper will explain. Both are about Russian gentlemen who find themselves in the Caucasus Mountain area of Russia in the 1800's, but who live the experience quite differently and see life in opposite ways. In the first, the "hero" is not an admirable character, but he is the main character in the stories that make up the novel. In the second, the "hero" is a selfless young man who wants to help people in order to find happiness.

A Hero of Our Times

The main character in this novel is a Russian man named Grigori Pechorin

who was bored with his life in Moscow and decided to travel to the Caucasus Mountains when he was sent to the area as part of his military duty. The novel consists of several separate stories that all feature Pechorin as the main character, and the reader learns that he had a very self-centered outlook on life. He admitted that he was bored with his existence and that he liked to steal women away from other men just to prove that he could do it, but with no intention of actually falling in love. While he was in the Caucasus he spent most of his time with a traveling companion, another Russian, named Maksim Maksimich, and socialized with Russian society members who were in the area for vacations.

In the story entitled "Princess Mary", Pechorin killed her beloved Grushnitsky in a duel when he easily could have won the honor of letting the man live. In "Bela", Pechorin decided to take a girl away from a Cossack warrior even though he had no thought of loving the girl, and he did it in a very underhanded manner. Basically he made a deal with the girl's brother to kidnap her and bring her to Pechorin in return for Pechorin's getting the warrior's horse for the brother. Cossack men love their horses and pride themselves on their horsemanship skills, so this was the cruelest way to hurt this man, but Pechorin did not care about anyone's feelings but his own.

He also showed himself to be a very shallow friend to Maksim. They had traveled together through the mountains and talked of many things, but when they met again after a long time apart, Pechorin did not even want to spend an evening talking to his old friend. He had to be on his way to his next adventure in Persia, leaving Maksim feeling betrayed and used. Pechorin considered the Cossacks and the Chechens to be beneath him in their customs and their education and their lifestyles; the only thing he admired about them was their bravery as warriors and their horsemanship skills.

The author of the book, Mikhail Lermentov, said that the title of the book was ironic because Pechorin was not a typical hero. He was a character who showed the unpleasant side of personality so that readers could see themselves more clearly and judge their own actions to see if they were selfish or generous.

The Cossacks

Dmitri Andreich Olenin was the hero and main character of this story by Leo Tolstoy. The story tells of his life in the Caucasus Mountains as a young army cadet living in a Cossack village for almost a year. The reader learns what motivates him to live the way he does and how he feels about his place within a different culture.

Olenin was a wealthy young man who was idealistic thinking that life away from the high society life of Moscow would free him to love life; he thought he was incapable of love before he left the city. At age twenty-four he felt he had never accomplished anything worthwhile; he had not finished college, he had not held an important job or started a career, and he had wasted much of his family fortune. So together with his serf Vanyusha, Olenin set off to serve in the Russian army in the Cossack area of the Caucasus, an area he had built up in his mind as a beautiful, natural, wild place free of society's phony behaviors.

He loved the beauty of the mountains and the forests along the Terek River and was excited to be among Cossack warriors who were known for their horsemanship and bravery. He found out that the Cossacks did not like Russians and did not respect Russian soldiers like him who moved into their towns and had to be lodged in their houses. At one point in the story his friend from the village said, " Our people are anathema people; stupid peopleÐ'...They do not look upon you as on men, you are worse than a Tartar in their eyes. Ð''Worldly Russians' they say." And referring to three Russian soldiers who arrived in their village a Cossack woman said, "They've sent three of the devils to us." In Novomlinsk he lived in the home of the cornet Elias Vasilich and his wife, who had a son and a beautiful daughter named Maryanka.

He met and became friends with an older man of the village, Eroshka, who was well known as a great hunter. He and Olenin spent most evenings together talking and drinking, so that Olenin came to learn Cossack customs and values. Eroshka was fond of a brave young man of the village, Lukashka Gavrilov, who was away much of the time on duty with the Cossack regiment. Lukashka was a nice young man who treated Olenin well; he was also the man who was to become engaged to Maryanka. Even though Olenin became more and more taken with Maryanka's beauty, he was genuinely happy for Lukashka and Maryanka and treated them both very kindly while he suppressed his developing feelings for the beautiful girl.

Eroshka enjoyed life to the full and liked to encourage Olenin to loosen up and enjoy wine, women, and song with him. But Olenin had a different philosophy of life: self-sacrifice and living for others were the means to happiness. In looking for a feat of self-sacrifice to perform, he thought of something he could do for the young couple, Lukashka and Maryanka, who couldn't get married until he was established in his regiment by owning his own horse which he couldn't afford. Olenin offered to give him a horse, and yet the gift was so generous that it made the Cossacks suspicious of Olenin. Eventually, though, they came to admire his spirit and the way he used his wealth to help someone. Olenin tried so hard to become friends with the villagers, but they always thought of him as an outsider even as he became more in love with life in the village. He continued to live by his principle of self-sacrifice.

He kept his feelings for Maryanka to himself until after she was betrothed to Lukashka; he admitted to himself that he felt real love for the first time in his life. He was ready to declare himself to be a Cossack and become part of her life. She seemed to be getting tired of Lukashka's absences and more interested in Olenin, but before