Question 1:
Baryka gets a unique perspective on Polish Society when he actually entered in the city. At the time, it was looked from his point of view of being a place of opportunity. When Baryka returned to the city of Warsaw Cezary Baryka decided that he could better himself. One way that was being done when he decided to enrolled once more in his medical studies and once that was done, he took up residence, at his own invitation, in the room of one of his colleagues, a particular Buławnik. Here as mentioned earlier Cezary Baryka really wants to start over and start a different life. He believes that getting in to the medical area would be good for him because it was something that he was already familiar with the routine. He liked it there because in Warsaw there were a lot of intellectuals and people that were trying to make something of themselves and Baryka wanted to be a part of the surrounding.
“Here in Warsaw, under the Russian servitude, we had certain outstanding characters, fine people and excellent scholars who live in the crowd.” With that said to Baryka Warsaw was seen like the promise land because it was a place of some much opportunity and this was the unique perspective that he was able to get because he figured that he was now in a place where he could become accomplished in life as doctor. However, he soon finds out that this is just a very small part of the nation and that most of everyone else lives in pure poverty. He is surprised because things are not like what his father had told him. In fact it was the complete opposite but Cezary Baryka was a little in denial of everything. He was an optimistic person and in spite of it all, he wanted to keep it that way.
Question 2:
Zeromski appraises the various social classes and groups such as the nobles, peasants, workers, bourgeoisie, Jews and other minorities in quite a few ways. For instance, those that were nobles were looked at someone that had great status and prestige in the society. Everyone envied them but the same could not be said about the peasants because they were looked at as being poor and untrustworthy. It was clear that Zeromski wanted paint a picture of envy toward them because they were poor and Baryka had a soft spot for them. The Jews were hated everywhere especially in Poland and also when Baryka traveled back to Russia or what was known as the Soviet Union.
When it comes to good or bad qualities all of them possess a little bit of each. For example, the bourgeoisie were seen as people that had bad qualities because they had money and looked down on those that did not. “One day on the ruined iron bridge over the Vistula he heard the workers making speeches that appealed to everyone except the bourgeoisie.” It was clear here that that those that were of the lower class had good qualities because they wanted to see a change take place in society. However, the Polish people did not like the Russians. “We Poles are known as the ancient race: we won’t put up with any of those Russian people, their untruths, their findings and their humbug. We had our own Tolstoys—but authentic in spirit.”. However, there were other ethnic groups that were looked down upon and the novel refers to theses group of people as the Tartars. “The Tartars went to ground in terror, mindful of their responsibility for their terrible massacre of 1905 visited upon the Aremenian populace.” This shows how the racial hatred during this area was very intense.
Question 3: According to Zeromski the biggest problems Poland faced were that they were on a verge of a revolution and wanted to become a new independent Poland. All through great deal of the nineteenth century and a little part of the early twentieth, Warsaw soon started falling within the Russian Partition, nevertheless in 1919 as the book shows turns into the liberated capital of the independent Polish State. However, Poland was poor and it was seen everywhere. However to makes matters even worse, the family achieves relative ease reinforced by Cezary’s merchant father right up until the point where he is called to fight in World War I. For example, in Poland he participates in the 1920 Battle of Warsaw (every so often referred to as the “Miracle on the Vistula”)—an astonishing battle on which Żeromski does not give that much attention on. Even so, it does appear to spark some kind of interest because it gives a glimpse as to what was going on in Poland during this time and also the issues that the nation was going through. Poland did not turn out to be a place that Baryka thought because it was in a chaotic state. “He had seen underage boys breaking free from their mothers’ grip, and had read accounts in the newspaper of how they had died heroic deaths.” Polish soldiers were losing their lives for being brave and the nation was breaking up before Cezary’s eyes. However, they also had the pressure of the communist Russia that was trying to close in on them in order to push their communist views on a country that was falling apart. In other words, Poland is a fragmented nation, and so is Żeromski’s novel.
Question 4:
The reality of national independence did not quite measure up to the vision of a lot of the Polish patriots because people were still poor. Almost like Cezary they had this peachy perfect idea that the new state was going to be this ideal place but it was not. For example, he was told “The households are robust as steel, hygienic, and easy to heat in winter and keep cool in summer. Complete villages are assembled with homes of luminously colored glass.” . For Cezary, however, the story is altogether beguiling, raising the utopian prospect of a more wonderful life, reunited with a homeland that might have been his to begin with and a father he has just rediscovered. . For Cezary, however, the story is all in all enticing, raising the utopian prospect of a more delightful life, united with a homeland that could have been his to start with and a father he has just re-experienced. However, he was to get a huge eye opener once he came into Poland. He was soon able to see that the nation that was supposed to be this fairy tale land was actually the opposite. “When he finally arrives in Poland, Cezary notices immediately that there are no glass houses. At this sight it was clear to him that the independence of Poland was nothing of what he or any of the citizens thought it would be. Even though he sees that the nation is really not much that better off he still remains as an optimist, and, like the young men of his accepted nation, it takes merely a foretaste of Polish infantry marching to motivate him to join the army, to combat for the typical man and in contrast to the Bolsheviks.Question 5: The kind of reform or change that Zeromski appeared to advocate was that the poor needed to be taken care of and that is exactly what Cezary Baryka did at the end of the novel. “He really wanted to see what lay at the heart of their enthusiasm. And also what the power was worth.” . The author did a really good job but putting the emphasis on the poor which probably showed Zeromski’s heart about humanity. The book did paint the picture that even though Poland during the reconstitution of Poland as the Second Polish Republic still did not make much of a difference because they still had problems with things such as the poor and hatred for other ethnicity groups such as the Jews. It appears that the author wanted a place that was free of bourgeoisie or a nation that did not have communist ideals. He wanted the poor to have a voice out of all the people.
Conclusion
What is there to make, then, of Zeromski’s work as a whole? Incessantly harsh and doubtful or lightly stressed with a note of positivity? As the title itself proposes, there has not been anything that has really taken some kind of root yet. It is clear that the author wanted to make sure that he captured life in Poland and the poor and how they were perceived as well as the plight of a young man that decides to stand up for them at the end.
References:
Zeromski, Stefan. "The Coming Spring." 1-400. New York: Central European University Press, 2007.
