The men all shared a miserable existence, living in cramped, dirty conditions making pretzels from five in the morning until ten 'o' clock at night. Gorky emphasizes their misery by describing in great detail the terrible conditions in which they lived: “life in this stone box …was stifling and cramped." He used powerful descriptive words and phrases. This gives the reader an idea of the extent of the suffering, in order to provide a contrast to the happiness that Tanya brought. Phrases like: "...stone box…dirt-stained walls, rotten with mildew…wretched and miserable existence," are immediately followed by the phrases: "…brought joy into our lives…we had come to love …took the place of the sun in our hearts." The last phrase could be a metaphor to that of the sun and life itself. As we know, the sun is our source of life; could Tanya be their life source? With such admiration for the girl, should it be fair that the men are disappointed and angry at the end of the story when she "lets them down" because she “goes with” the soldier, even though it’s uncertain what he did with her. It’s a cruel bet that she didn't even know about, between the 26 men and the soldier.
Maxim Gorky emphasises that the men thought that Tanya was perfect, but also that this view was unjustified, and only existed because she was the only person to be kind to them. "…one of us would…ask: 'What do we pay this girl so much attention for?'" "But anybody…to say such things we cut quickly and sharply to size, for we needed an object to love." "Perhaps we loved something that was not truly good" This is why the men are truly shocked when they find out that she is only human towards the end of the story.
The description in the first part of the story and throughout really sets the scene of where they work, the conditions they work in, and the atmosphere and tone of their work life. This is achieved by superb, creative descriptive writing. For example "the window frames were barred on the outside with close-meshed grilles and the sunlight was unable to penetrate the flour covered glass.”? This makes it seem as if they’re in a prison with the barred windows, really showing how confined and separated they were from the outside world.
Also, “There were twenty–six of us, twenty-six living machines – incarcerated from morning to night in a damp basement room.” From this the reader is lead to believe that their lives are so monotonous and repetitive that they seem robotic.
In the story the diets and living conditions of the men are also poor and unhealthy. The author shows that the men have no pride in their work and that they are probably selling cheap food to lower classes. "We never ate anything that we ourselves made preferring black bread to pretzels.”? And “We made pretzels, moistening them with the sweat of our brows”.
Maxim Gorky also creates a sense of fear and danger in the workplace by describing the machinery as a monster . . . “Misshapen head of some mythical monster, seemingly rising out of the floor and opening its huge fiery jaws…Deep hollows were like eyes – a monsters pitiless dispassionate eyes.” I think this Reflects how they are treated around the work-place. "A monsters pitiless dispassionate eyes." shows that they are not cared about and there is no sense of mercy or sympathy there.
One of the main themes of the story is double standards. I believe this is due to the time that this story is set in. The men really disrespect the women who work above them and they would even been disgusted about what they said themselves, "When we spoke about women the course and indignant expressions would even revolt us."
When the soldier enters the story the men instantly respect him for his disrespectful attitude towards women. “You’ve got a lot of girls here…Do you make use of them?" If a woman were to say something like this about a man it would be perceived as "slutty" or out of order.
The men later on in the story end up showing they have no respect for the girl they admire so much. They enter her into a bet which she is completely oblivious to, to try and prove a point to the soldier that she would never do anything with him. In this final part of the story the girl is unknowingly placed in the middle of an unfair bet. The men don't even know her and have already asked so much of her. They have put all their trust and hopes in her and expect her to pass this "bet" Even though she has no idea about it, and she might not even be the person they expect her to be.
When the girl does let them down, they get very angry and disappointed
They run out of their damp, grim room where they spend so much of their lives and swarm round her. Hurling abuse at her from all directions. This is unfair and a perfect example of double standards because they set her up for it without her knowing so she probably never even thought it would harm anyone, That’s if she even cared for them. Yet if one of them did something like that it would be perfectly normal, maybe even a game or fun. Tanya does get the last word and puts them back in their place before walking back into the shop. From there the men are ashamed and probably angry with themselves for putting her in that position and possibly the thought of them never seeing Tanya again.
