Farewell from Nowhere: Analysis of Major Characters
"Farewell from Nowhere: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the complex lives of key figures in a coming-of-age narrative centered around Vlad Samsonov, a young Jewish boy growing up in Soviet Russia. The protagonist, Vlad, grapples with his cultural identity and the systemic challenges faced by his community, especially as he is influenced by his father's incarceration and the indifference of his mother. His grandfather, Saviely, serves as a rare source of love and stability, highlighting the duality of Vlad's heritage and his turbulent relationship with Russia.
The text presents a variety of characters who shape Vlad's journey, including his friend Sergei, who embodies loyalty and the importance of conscience in a harsh world, and Boris Essman, an artist representing unfulfilled potential. Each character contributes to Vlad's struggle for self-identity amid personal and societal adversities, as he wrestles with feelings of isolation, love, and a longing for justice. This exploration allows readers to reflect on the broader theme of resilience in the face of life's challenges, particularly within the context of cultural and familial dynamics.
Farewell from Nowhere: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Vladimir Maximov
First published: Proshchanie iz niotkuda, 1974 (English translation, 1978)
Genre: Novel
Locale: The Soviet Union
Plot: Autobiographical
Time: The late 1930's through the early 1950's
Vladimir (Vlad) Samsonov, a Russian youth. Vlad is, for the most part, modeled on the author and is the main character. At the beginning of this coming-of-age story, he is a small Jewish boy growing up in the Moscow suburb of Sokolniki. He becomes aware, early in life, of his background and of the resulting disadvantages. He spends his life trying to adjust to his precarious position while holding on to his tenuous yet deep-rooted family ties. As a schoolboy, he merges his individuality with the collective and renounces his dissident father, a concentration camp convict. Later, he is forced to leave home and his mother, who is surprisingly glad to get rid of him and whom he never forgives for that. Vlad finds love and support in his grandfather Saviely, which unfortunately does not prevent him from spending long years wandering and searching for his true self. In his life as a delinquent, sleeping in railroad stations and shantytowns and serving time in jail, reformatories, and juvenile detention centers, two things keep Vlad alive: love for books and the goodness of some of his fellow tramps. Although several times he is on the verge of giving up in despair and committing suicide, he survives primarily because of his urge to be a poet and because of his constant thinking of home, to which he wants to return in triumph. He also benefits from his ability to adapt quickly and painlessly to new situations, from being mature for his age, and from some qualities that make others, especially his peers, like him and want to help him (most of them affectionately call him “kid”). Prone to falling in love, which often leads to misfortune and disappointments, he finds little happiness with women, being always aware of a wall dividing him from others. This pronounced egotism leads at times to a persecution complex and makes him dream of being pursued. At the same time, he is always looking for fairness and justice, and he often wonders why people cannot live in peace with one another. Expressing his love-hate feelings for Russia, he vows to return in the hope that the country will finally understand and embrace its stepchildren, the Jews.
Alexei Samsonov, his father, who plays a brief but important role in Vlad's life. Through his incarceration, Alexei personifies for the young boy the persecution of his race and the basic injustice of the system in which they are forced to live. In the short time the father spends with his precocious son, he teaches him a few important lessons, the primary one being that when a man betrays another, he betrays himself. By repenting his betrayal, Vlad makes up for his father's seemingly futile life, suffering, and early death in World War II, when he and many others were abandoned to their fate by their officers.
Fedosya Samsonov, Vlad's mother. She is an apathetic woman, seemingly going to pieces under the blows life has dealt their family. She is largely absent in Vlad's life, except for her indifference toward him, which, in turn, contributes to his misery but also to his resolve not to submit to fate's cruelty.
Saviely Mikheyev, Vlad's grandfather, a retired railroad worker. Representing the Russian half of Vlad's background, Saviely symbolizes the split in Vlad's psyche that leads to his love-hate relationship with his country. An unsociable man who has never had any dealings with his children and never had any friends, he nevertheless provides, through his love for Vlad, the only mooring for the young boy adrift in a sea of seeming indifference and hopelessness.
Sergei, a young delinquent, one of many such characters Vlad meets on his wanderings. Developing a strong liking for Vlad, he becomes his protector in the underground world and even from the police. From him, Vlad learns love and respect for others, as well as loyalty to his friends. Vlad sees that through all the murk and filth of existence, Sergei always possessed the divine gift of conscience, which keeps hope alive and makes life worth living.
Boris Essman, an artist from Vlad's Krasnodar days. Essman provides friendship and moral support at the time when Vlad desperately tries to get on the right track. Like so many gifted young people of that time, Boris was prevented from fulfilling his potential, thus deserving the epitaph of a master craftsman who never lived to see his own church spire, a tragic fate Vlad is able to avoid.