Possible Plagiarism

[Kevin M. F. Platt]

Dear SEELANGers:

One of my students turned this piece of writing in for a weekly  
reading response question about Gorky's "26 men and a girl" (I asked  
them what they thought the significance of Tanya is in the story). I  
am 95% certain that it is plagiarized, but I can't figure out from  
where. Does anyone recognize it as their own or as something on their  
shelves? Let me know off line, please.

This short story, published in 1899 in a collection entitled,  
“Creatures that Once Were Men,” is an unflinching look at the manner  
in which men react to a crushing, stifling regime and how their  
humanity is essentially dissolved over time. Tanya plays the role of  
innocence, of hope, and of the possibility of redemption for the  
twenty-six men in this narrative. Though “dull beasts,” the twenty- 
six are “still men, and, like all men, could not live without  
worshipping something or other.” Living in a situation that offered  
no returns for their labor, Tanya was something they could possess: “… 
we all regarded her as something of our own, something existing as it  
were only by virtue of our kringels.” She carries the burden of  
unrequited love without the knowledge or responsibility, a love so  
deep it could just as easily crush its receiver as its giver.
The capitalistic exploitation in this story appears to extend forever  
– the prisoners appear to be eternally trapped in a static state,  
where nothing changes around them. Their humanity is kept intact by  
Tanya’s fleeting presence, the hope she represents flitting in and  
out of their lives, only taking, never giving. At the end of Gorky’s  
tale, Tanya is revealed to be nothing more than a servant to the gold- 
embroiderers’ next door, the innocence she represents extinguished in  
a moment of sexual passion. The men return to their state of  
perpetual labor as Tanya is thrown aside, crushed by their desire for  
an ideal.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------