The Tragedy of the Isolated Man in Russian and American Prose (Pushkin, Gogol, Melville)

The theme of a small, neglected and ultimately dying person in selfisolation is particularly typical of the Russian prose. The first seeds of the suffering of the little man in Russian and world literature were given by A. Pushkin, in his story "The Station Overseer". Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol are influenced by each other, but at the same time they have different literary outlooks. On Pushkin's advice, Gogol also stuck to the underlying human reality. This motif is further spread in European and American prose. The basis of the examination here are the relevant works of Nikolai Gogol, Alexander Pushkin and Herman Melville. In all cases, the path from real suffering to salvation is through self-destruction. Instead of being the ―face‖ of society, the heroes choose to preserve their image. The result of the tragedy of an isolated man becomes the crossing point of two worlds. At this point salvation is death. Death ensures the transition to another reality