In this story by Anton Chekhov a young boy so weak from hunger that he can barely stand sees a sign in a restaurant advertising oysters. He knows that oysters are some kind of seafood. However, he does not know what they look like. In his hunger-affected state, the boy imagines himself eating creatures half-way between a crab and a frog. He then pictures himself eating up everything around him. He suddenly comes back to earth when two rich “gentlemen” agree to introduce him to the real thing. Themes include poverty, social class, insensitivity, shame, false pride, vanity, unconditional love.
Oysters Full Text / PDF / Audio (1,500 words)
General Comments
One of Chekhov’s strengths was the ability to create powerful descriptions of Russian life and social conditions in seemingly simple stories. Another was the ability to communicate the feelings of his characters. Common themes in Chekhov stories are class differences and the way the rich look down on the poor and often treat them badly.
A major theme of this story is the insensitivity of some rich people towards the needs of the poor. This is skillfully introduced through a moment of comedy. As the father finally works up his courage to say the words: Help us, gentlemen! I am ashamed to ask but – my God! – I can bear no more! the boy cries out Oysters! The two gentlemen genuinely believe that the boy and his father are crying out for oysters. They find this amusing, and entertain themselves by buying the boy an oyster meal and laughing as he eats it. They don’t give a second thought to the real situation of the father and son.
Another theme could be false pride. The once successful father, who is so vain that he tries to hide having no boots under his overshoes, is reduced to having to beg in the street. He has left this to the last possible moment, by which time his son is weak from hunger. This has put the boy’s life at risk. When a man in the street stops after the father touches him on the arm, he still does not have the courage to ask for money. At the end of the story, the father is angry with himself because he did not ask one of the two gentlemen for money. In addition to false pride, Chekhov paints a picture of the father as being a man of weak character. He is not prepared to stand up to the two gentlemen as they drag his son into the restaurant, and apparently does nothing as the people inside laugh at and make fun of the boy.
This leads a final theme: the unconditional love that most children have for their parents, irrespective of the way they are treated or the family’s situation in life. The boy clearly loves and admires his father, casting no blame on him for their difficult circumstances. When Chekhov was sixteen, his once successful father was declared bankrupt and forced to move to Moscow with the rest of his family. He did not take Chekhov with them, leaving the boy alone to support himself and face the people the family owed money to. One wonders if the father and son relationship in the story is a reflection of what Chekhov wished had happened in his own life.