The Theme In Babel’s Collection Of Short Stories 《Red Cavalry》

The first30years of the20th century, a time when the Russian cultural transition from Realism to Modernism witnessed many authors of new generation, new genres, styles and diversity. The famous philosopher and thinker N. Berdyaev called this period "Russian Renaissance". It is during this period of time when the Jewish writer Babel entered the literary world with his masterpiece short story collection Red Cavalry which consists of36works of fiction.Red Cavalry was based on Babel’s own war diary when he participated in Budyonny cavalry army. It has a background story of the1920Soviet-Polish war. Unlike other war literature, Red Cavalry does not focus on the descriptions of the battlefield but the descriptions of what the self "I"-a young Jewish intellectual, and war correspondent Lyutov has experienced during the war. The story collection has created a few characters. It talks about various aspects like war, revolution, ethnics, religion and humanity. Red Cavalry has a very far-reaching historical significance.Research on Red Cavalry in China is still at its preliminary stage. The existing research mainly focused on the translation, language features, and the application of Bakthin’s carnival narrative theory in the fiction. Given the significance of Babel and Red Cavalry in Russian literature and the lack of research on his literature in China, this paper aims to:1. introduce Babel’s literary creation2. summarize the short story collection Red Cavalry and the debates about Red Cavalry3. discuss the theme of the short story collection Red Cavalry4. analyze the themes in detail This paper consists of the introduction, four chapters, conclusion and references.The preface of the paper indicated the realistic significances, innovations, main purposes, research subjects and specific methods of the study.The first chapter mainly introduced the creation route of Babel and his masterpiece Red Cavalry. Isaac Babel was one of the well-known top writers in Russian literature history of1920’s. His most important work, which won him a high reputation around the world, was short stories collection-Red Cavalry. Babel displayed the cavalry by a cruel writing style, and that was opposite to the heroine image the Soviet Union claimed officially. As a result, the work triggered a heated discussion and huge disputation after publishing.The important themes in Babel’s collection of short stories Red Cavalry will be interpreted in the second, third and fourth chapters.The theme of the injuries inflicted on people in the war will be investigated in the second chapter. War made innocent civilians, especially women, get hurt severely, and damaged their peaceful lives. In addition, war tortured participants mentally. Take Kiril Vasilievich Lyutov as an example, Babel presented the psychological experience of a well-educated man in the war. Lyutov had to exert violence for surviving. However, he was extremely suffering and painful every time he adopted violence. Babel depicted people’s destinies in war and demonstrated that every common person was victim in the turbulent and intranquil wartime.The tragedy of ethnic conflicts will be analyzed in the third chapter. In his collection of short stories Red Cavalry, Babel objectively presents two distinctive cultural bibes the Cossack and Jews. In his writing, the Cossacks are portrayed as both a fierce devil and hot-blooded hero, while Jews are intelligent and pedantic. The Jews and Cossacks differ to a great degree in terms of religious belief, living customs and life values. As a matter of course, the conflicts are provoked. Nevertheless, the conflict brings no good to both sides, the two nations take a toll in the war.The theme of the confrontation between the good and evil in humanity is analyzed in the fourth chapter. From the perspective of humanism, Babel exposes the influence the war exerts on the humanity. In the writing, he highlights human’s immoral and violent doing and the evilness gains a complete success in the war. However, the inaccessible goal and untimely song from which Liutov gets comfort reflct a glimmer of kindness in the tough environment. Through Red Cavalry, Babel portries a series of characters who follow the guidance of their wisdom and spirit to pursue happiness. Besides, it also refers to how the beauty of art brings the strength to people and awaken their good will.The conclusion is an overall summary of the whole passage. Standing in the centre of the historical event, Babel present us all aspects of the war and the revolution. With his distinctive indentity being a jew, he interprets what’s happening in the surrounding area from the perpective of abused nation. He is concerned about the destiny of the compatriots and all people involved. The more ruthless he depicts the battle scene and the metamorphosis of human nature as, the more he can arouse the empathy of the readers and let the writer feel the writer’s humanitarien empathy. Consequently, they can feel the condemn on war in the collection of short novels Red Cavalry.