By Pablo Barroca
“When Lazarus rose from the grave, after three days and nights in the mysterious thralldom of death, and returned alive to his home, it was a long time before anyone noticed the evil peculiarities in him that were later to make his very name terrible…”
This extract is part of the story “Lazarus”, written by Leonid Andreyev, in which similarly to what the protagonist experiences during the fiction, there are human beings who face conflicts of behaviour through their adolescence.
According to Ariel Bianchi (1986) adolescence is characterized as “advances in maturity of emotional, intellectual and social behaviour; and besides by passing through moments of loneliness, doubts and distrust due to the discovery of the new body and psychological behaviour.”
This essay will compare the fiction story “Lazarus” and what adolescents go through their real life. Throughout this story teenagers can reflect upon an important issue that is present during adolescence as the feeling of loneliness.
Human beings experience different conflicts during their adolescence and one of the most important is the feeling of loneliness.
Aberasturi and Knobel (1991) define the feeling of loneliness as “periods in which young people are locked up in their rooms to be alone. These moments of solitude are usually necessary to keep outside the past, present and future time converted into manageable objects. The ability to be alone is a sign of maturity, only achieved after these distressing experiences of loneliness of adolescence.”
By reading “Lazarus”, adolescents can reflect upon their feeling of loneliness is very common among themselves, and also necessary to clarify their doubts about the changes that their new body suffer, and their way of thinking.
The following extract shows how Lazarus experiences his feeling of loneliness in the story:
“During the day, when the sun beat down mercilessly upon all living things, and even the scorpions hid under the stones, convulsed with a mad desire to sting, he sat motionless in the burning rays, lifting his face and shaggy wild beard. While someone had asked him: “Poor Lazarus! Do you find it pleasant to sit so, and look at the sun?” And he answered: “Yes, it is pleasant.” And when the setting sun descended to earth, Lazarus went into the desert and walked towards it, as though intending to reach it. Always he walked towards the sun.”
In this case Lazarus spends a lot of time under the hot sun without giving importance to the people that surround him. Even though he is not locked up in his room to clarify doubts about his body or to think about possible inner conflicts, he is under the hot sun all day. These moments are similar to those that all teenagers need when they have to debate and find with themselves through their adolescence.
Another instance of the feeling of loneliness can be appreciated in the following extract in which Lazarus decides to be alone while he is travelling by ship to Rome:
“There were many people aboard, but the ship was silent and still as a coffin, and the water seemed to moan as it parted before the short curved prow. Lazarus sat lonely, baring his head to the sun, and listening in silence to the splashing of the waters.”
As it can be seen in the previous extract from the story, Lazarus ignores the so crowded ship and looks for his loneliness. His anti-social attitude is similar to the one adolescents face when they are going through this feeling of loneliness.
As regards the feeling of loneliness, adolescents need to be alone and to retreat into their inner world and from there to act with their external world. (Erik Erikson, 1972)
According to the extracts analysed from the story “Lazarus”, it has been demonstrated that some human beings during their adolescence pass through different conflicts of behaviour, in this case the feeling of loneliness. This story can help teenagers to reflect upon the emotional and physical changes they experience during this stage are normal and also important for their lives.
REFERENCES
*Leonid Andreyev, (2009) “Lazarus”, “Zombies: Encounters with the hungry dead”, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc. United States.
*Aberastury-Knobel, (1991) “La adolescencia normal”, Ed. PAIDOS, Barcelona, España.
*Ariel Bianchi (1986) “Psicologia de la adolescencia de sus conflictos y armonias”, Ed. TROQUEL, Argentina.
*Erik Erikson (1972), “Sociedad y Adolescencia”, Ed. SIGLO VEINTIUNO, Mexico.
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