The intelligent and man of God from the future: on the main characters of the story The Snowstorm by V. Sorokin

Sorokin's story The Snowstorm was published in 2010. Researchers in literature are primarily interested in the archaic and fantasy elements in the work, as well as its intertextual relations. The main characters have not yet become subjects of a separate study; they need a deeper analysis for better understanding of the meaning of the literary text. The disclosure of the story's ideas is based on the opposition of two characters. The traditional Snowstorm text projects plot situations involving a gentleman and a coachman, an owner and an employee, an intellectual and a commoner. Antithesis dominates in the portrait characteristics. The appearance of Pla-ton Ilyich is bodily, carnal, dominant, while Perkhusha's is androgynous, asexual. The fates of the characters are fundamentally different. A significant social distance separates them. The characters have opposite reaction to what is happening. According to the laws of folk tales and classic novels, the characters meet tests-temptations on their way, Kozma does not seem to notice them, while Platon Ilyich always gives in to temptation. The Snowstorm by V. Sorokin contains a large number of inspirational reflections about the meaning of human life. They all belong to Garin, the doctor pronounces the most enthusiastic ones after a narcotic session. Most often the rhetoric of Platon Ilyich is followed by the stylistic register shift; there is a new event that supposedly devalues the said. The philanthropic rhetoric of Garin is in no way correlated with the indifference of the doctor and his violent actions. This "doublethink" sometimes turns into a gross farce. For a proper understanding of the characters the mythological background of the events is fundamentally important. The snowstorm annoys the doctor, blowing out a match when he tries to light a cigarette, closes up his eyeglasses with snow, clogs his nose. Gradually, the opposition is more obvious. In the soul of Perkhusha there reigns obedience to all events. He does not try to fight the snowstorm as Platon Ilyich, and the snowstorm does not mock the man delivering bread. Kozma quickly realizes the supernatural nature of obsession. The image of Perkhusha has the traits of man of God (unselfishness, honesty and conscientiousness, eccentricity, religiosity, closeness to God). Kozma is characterized by tranquility, gentleness, humility, compassion, simple-mindedness, disinterestedness, purity. Perkhusha's speech includes several phrases with wrong word usage which at the mythopoetic level indicate his connection with another world. The consequence of using the traditional "roles" of classical literature is an obvious juxtaposition of the two main characters at the level of their portraits, emotions, speech, actions, etc. The image of Kozma is often constructed in accordance with the folklore and biblical tradition and the figure of Platon Ilyich is more "modern", the reminiscences associated with it are sometimes very exotic. The humanistic function of the author's irony is obvious in the story.

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