Essay Questions

How is love brought out in this work?

Familial love in this story is brought out through the narrator, Nikolenka who shows a great deal of affection for his mother. Nikolenka paints her mother in a virtuous image, a situation that enables the narrator’s conception of her honorable character. While in Moscow, the narrator misses her deeply. On the other hand, the writer also explores romantic love when Nikolenka falls in love with Sonechka. He has a deep affection for her and fantasizes about spending his life with her. Love is thus very well explored in this work.

Explore the concept of death as brought out in Leo Tolstoy’s Childhood.

Death plays a major role in the narrator’s transition from the days of his childhood to those of his boyhood. After Nikolenka moves to Moscow with his father, he constantly misses his mother. Fate is however not on his side as they receive the news of her mother’s illness back in the country. Within a short while, his mother passes on, and the family becomes grief-stricken. The death of Nikolenka’s mother becomes the writer’s exploration of death and the role it plays in the transition of one from one stage onto the next.

Highlight the character of Nikolenka as portrayed in Leo Tolstoy’s Childhood. How is his character different from that of his father?

Nikolenka is a loving person. The portrayal of Nikolenka as a loving person is particularly suggested through the writer’s portrayal of his relationship with his tutor, Karl Ivanich. Additionally, this trait is also highlighted based on how Nikolenka misses his mother during his time staying in Moscow. Furthermore, the character’s love is also portrayed when he falls in love with Sonechka. While Nikolenka is a well-mannered child, his father on the other is unfaithful and is addicted to gambling. Nikolenka’s father is a completely different kettle of fish.