The notion of “father and son” in the short story by I. Chendey “Seagulls fly to the East” in the context of world literature

Abstract

The notion of father and son is quite popular in world literature and is found in different national literatures at different times. Readers may find a plot about a duel between a father and a son in ancient texts, which ends up with the murder of one or the other. Such a motive is depicted in myths, fairy tales, ballads, and historical epics. Perhaps the most famous example of such a duel between father and son, and, in particular, patricide, is the ancient Greek myth of Oedipus the king, given by Sigmund Freud as an illustration for the disclosure of the Oedipus complex. On the other hand, the world literature provides us brilliant examples and depictions of mutual love between father and son (sons)... Especially popular is the motive of maternal love to a child (often sacrificial, sometimes hypertrophied sacrificial, as well as despotic and hyper-caring, as in "Sons and lovers" by H.D. Lawrence, etc.). A famous example of a father’s selfless blind love for his selfish daughters is Honore de Balzac’s novel "Father Goriot". Our literary exploration highlights I. Chendey’s short story "The Seagulls Fly to the East", the theme of which is the depiction of the brutal execution by Hungarian gendarmes of a father and his little son for collaborating with partisans. I. Chendey’s style of writing resembles that one of E. Hemingway, i.e. "telegraphic style", where the epithets and evaluations as well as manifestations of the narrator’s attitude to the described events are omitted. It seems, there exists, only a cold fixation of facts: actions, words, a few strokes to depict the scene of the event... The same simple words, without epithets and metaphors, without colorfulness and verbal decorations, without verbal tricks. But it is the simplicity of the prose that makes this novel strong and extremely expressive. Everything that reader reads about, everything that the writer focuses on is the father’s concern for his son. It seems that he no longer notices anything around him, he is concentrated only on his son’s feelings, he wants to wrap him in his love, protect him from fear, he devotes these last minutes entirely to his little son. This example of high altruism, this depiction of selfless parental love, remains eternal in I. Chendey’s story "Seagulls Fly to the East", that is truly a masterpiece of high literature.