304
DARIUSZ TOLCZYK
nature) interrupted the idyll.
Olesha illustrates the dilemma in his later story, "The Cherry Stone."
Here, as in his story "Love," the hero Fedya experiences illuminations as
a result of having fallen in love and, having begun to notice the world
in
metaphors, he becomes an artist, that is, one who sees nature better than
others. Once, while waiting for his beautiful girlfriend Natasha at a trol–
ley stop, Fedya is constantly asked for directions by other people. Being
a nice fellow, he does not mind telling one person, then another, how
to get to the railway station, the museum, and so on. His girlfriend does
not appear; he continues to give directions. Slowly, and against his will.
the artist feels himself being transformed:
And behold? A whistle hangs between my lips! I am whistling! I have
a right to whistle! Children, don't you envy me? Stand back! Oho!
Behold .. . I stand there with one leg forward , my hands behind my
back, propping my ribs with a crimson baton. Congratulate me,
Natasha. I have become a policeman.
This fantastic metamorphosis, however, is only a dream, anxious and
perhaps a bit frightening, but still a dream. Fedya, having woken up, re–
treats to a quiet Voltairean garden and silently plants a little cherry tree -
the tree of his personal hopes and artistic treasures. A surprise meets him
here too. A new construction project is planned for just the place where
Fedya has planted his little tree. Yet there is still hope; by accident, the
very spot where his tree is planted will not be covered by new buildings
and, almost by miraculous coincidence, a garden will be planted there.
"The Cherry Stone" was written several years before the First Congress
of Soviet Writers, and with this in mind, it is hard to reject the notion
that Olesha, who hoped he would be accepted as a writer, in fact
counted on a lucky coincidence.
Olesha's most famous work, the short novel "Envy," is devoted to
his efforts to find a place as an artist in the new world, to consummate
his stormy affair with history. The new world in the novel is personified
by two characters who are men of action, Babichev, a successful manager
in the new Soviet meat industry, and Makarov, a young sportsman who
dreams of becoming a machine. The artist character in the novel is per–
sonified by Kavalerov, who at the same time scorns the new primitive.
materialistic men and envies them. He does not doubt for a moment that
history (meaning the future, portrayed in the novel as the beautiful six–
teen-year old girl Valya) will belong to Makarov and not to him.
Makarov the young barbarian has no romantic illusions about history; he
simply knows her from his Marxist textbook, which teaches the dialec-
