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Cezary Zalewski

Two kinds of vulnerabity in “The sins of childhood” by Boleslaw Prus

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The childish person in modern European literature is mentioned very often but the paradgimatic approach to the subject was introduced during the romantic period. Despite various features, in which a child was endowed, it seems that all those romantic creations had one common presupposition: that a childish character is independent, inaccessible, and also that it has very rich personality.

Boleslaw Prus –  Polish writer who lived and wrote in XIX century – had begun his literary career from this kind of vision which additionally was strictly linked to ideological presumptions of the positivism. As a result, his first works presenting prodigies (who are poor and neglected) were a clear accusation addressed to the society.

This situation was changed in the year 1883  which had marked an authentic breakthrough in Prus’ literary evolution. At the time, he wrote the short story entitled “The sins of childhood”. His radical conversion consists of the antiromantic view of the childish person. Now, its subjective dimension is really influenced by other persons. Yet, the most important thing is that the influences – or even manipulations – don’t always do good to a child and his development. More often they cause the pain which appears to be the stronger the less physical nature it is of .

Prus presents two important moments when the vulnerability can occur and actualize. The first one resembles  the old initiation: this is the time when the child enters a social life in which both adults and peers are involved. The second one is quite opposite because it consists of the exclusion from a friendly group. Prus shows both processes at most objectively,

illuminating them from a few sides in order to make the precise reconstruction of interpersonal relations. Thanks to this, moral problems are also presented in a quite otherwise manner without referring to an  ideological “superstructure”. The purpose of this paper is to present both situations in which child’s vulnerability becomes exactly visible.  

I

  “The sins of childhood” is the story where the personal narrative was used, thus the short story has a confessional nature: the adult narrator tells about his early youth concerned questions both private and difficult.

The main character – Kazimierz (or Kazio) Leśniewski – defining his situation in the initial stage makes highly significant auto characteristic: 

Since my father wouldn’t let me play with the boys from the farm, and my sister spent just about the whole day at the manor, I grew up and educated myself alone, like the young of bird of prey abandoned by its parents.[1]

Then, in the beginning two kinds of relation are marked : they will be present throughout  the  story. The first relation refers to the hero and  peers and  the second – to adult persons. At this stage both areas are separated and even contrasted. Kazimierz has no contact either with boys or with girls; hence isolation is  total but not so much painful. Therefore, he can recompense the lack of company by means of games taking place in a world of wild nature.

Undoubtedly, it is the reason  Kazimierz defines himself like “the young of a bird of prey abandoned by its parents”. But adults are not absolutely absent as this phrase may suggest because occasionally they enter into hero’s history, but in fact they are perceived more or less negatively.  Reasons for this are precisely mentioned by childish autocharacteristic: the parents’ rejection brings about the contestation of the whole adult world.

However, at this stage Prus is interested in other – psychological – result of the family solitude. Kazimierz’s mother died long ago and the father is not interested in him at all and openly disapproves of all his activities. As a result, Kazio severely misses the acceptance and love. Then he permanently feels his own nothingness what manifests itself in frequent plans of a suicide or an execution.

Hence, it is the starting point when the process of socialization begins. Kazimierz goes to  school not looking for so much  knowledge but new relations thank to which he will satisfy his need of acceptance. Therefore,  this time adults – e.i. teachers – are overshadowed and the events among peers are presented in the foreground.

Kazimierz tries to draw fellows’ attention to himself although – from the other hand– he socializes with nobody. He wants to be admired by everybody and that is why he withdraws  and let nobody to become his friend. This goal –at least initially –  is acheived. Kazimierz is in the very centre of collective behaviors managing common enterprises of disciples or – for a change – he alone is chicaned by authorities of the school what makes him even more popular.

Still, these methods are  not enough and that is why Kazimierz makes a radical decision: he contests prevailing “fashion”. All boys persecute the one – Józio who is too weak to resist them. In some moment Kazimierz successfully comes to Józio’s defense and thank to that he gains common recognition. And even he introduced a new “fashion” – this time – for showing sympathy to Józio.

This turned out to be extremely efficient not only for the sake of peers’ reaction but of safe one.  Kazimierz is no longer interested in Józio who nevertheless tries to make friends  with him. Weak and sickly boy sees in his unexpected benefactor embodiment of his own dreams:

“Heavens! I wish I were as strong as you! Heavens! I wish I were as clever. You know what, if you wanted to, within a month you could be top of the class.”[2]

Only at the expense of these compliments he consents to further acquaintance with Józio. Thus in this moment the goal of Kazimierz’s school socialization is achieved: everybody imitate him and some of them even openly declare that they would want to be like him.

However,  Prus shows that the relation which functions within the framework of mimetic mechanism is never stable. Kazimierz’s prevailing position is diminished when it turns out that Józio is cleverer and more eloquent than he himself. Their relation slowly is getting symmetrical: pupils admire one another and each of them finds in his friend what is lacking for him. At the final stage Józio’s advantage is obvious resulting from the unfortunate accident. Sitting at his bedside Kazimierz is then convinced that a friend afflicted by the pain now is becoming a great and uncommon person.

The depression after Józio’s death is so great that Kazimierz develops physical trouble . His internal injury results from the loss of the friend thanks to whom he had built his acceptance.

Now, he again has the problem of his own value.

That is why after returning from vacation Kazimierz tries to reconstruct the previous configuration. However,  he runs into different circumstances which cause the realization of the plans proceed differently than in the school. The vacation continues in an extraordinary atmosphere because basic changes took place at home:

The countess’s fiancé called to see her every few days, several times a day Miss Klementyna visited those parts of the park from with she could see the bookkeeper, or at least, as she put it, hear the tones of his voice, probably as he was swearing at the farmhands. For her own part, one of the ladies’ maids wept at a series of windows for the same bookkeeper, while the other maids, following their superiors, divided their between the butler, the downstairs kitchen boy, the cook, the cook’s boy, and the coachman.[3]  

It would seem that this “fashion for loving” provides ideal conditions for childish games because the adults are so much busy with each other that they don’t pay attention to the children. Meanwhile, indeed: the children play but at....being adults.

René Girard recognizes this behaviour as an obvious effect of mimetic inclinations of a child who doesn’t hide it. Emphasizing double dimension of these inclinations Girard ascertains that:  

L’enfant a une relation de médiation externe, c’est-à-dire une imitation positive, avec les adultes, et une relation de médiation interne, donc de rivalité, avec les autres enfants[4].  

The “vacation part” of  “The sins of childhood” presents also a close relation of both the above mentioned  perspectives. Kazmierz and Lonia – countess’ daughter – fight  the “duel” and its stake is the satisfaction of self-love; each of them intends to subordinate the “enemy” in order to feed own vanity by means of his or her adoration acts.

They make use of behaviours they spy at the adults. Children imitate both general rules of “a love affair” and concentrate – male or female – roles which are needed for this “play”. However, Kazimierz and Lonia adapt own behaviour to these rules differently since the scope of their experiences which results from the distance to the model is not identical. Lonia smoothly acts a role of “a great lady”  because she observed  her mother’s behaviour. That is why she easily can ridicule Kazimierz or she can talk with him in a ridiculing manner. Whereas he tries to imitate either the lovers of whom he had read in books or a respectable middle school student being convinced that with such person every woman – not only the countess or the governess – should fall in love. However, failures of this strategy lead Kazimierz to accept these attitudes which assume relation between his father and the countess. Kazimierz becomes – if possible – Lonia’s trusty servant , admiring her and pandering to the her every whim. Alas, this also becomes too fragile. The intervention of the worried countess interrupts not only the “play” but even common vacation of peers. Kazimierz again is getting lonely but this time his depression – and the resulting  disease  – is even stronger. It is due to the fact that dominated position satisfies a self-love weaker indeed but instead of it this position seems to be constant and insensitive. Kazimierz was truly convinced that since then he would be Lonia’s servant for ever. And thus he achieves such a position that will secure him the sense of being . After the plan’s failure  Kazimierz doesn’t hope for any realization of his purpose.

The injury is becoming not only painful but also incurable.  

II  

    Prus presents the difficulties of the childish existence  in regard to both individual relations and collective behaviours. The latter matter concerns most of all two peripheral characters: Józio and Walek. Both clearly differ from peers around. Józio has a lot of physical “defects”: he is weak, fragile and humpbacked; whereas Walek is characterized by faults of moral nature: he is the servant’s illegitimate child and he is told to be crazy. These features don’t help in gaining  social acceptance . Then,  the opposite occurrence takes place  and it  consists in rejection. Prus presents this process twice trying to reach its origin.

The first attempt consists in presenting the final stage in which everybody persecutes Józio using to this end various forms of the violence. The most important thing is the unanimity which consolidates all the boys and thanks to it the power of expulsion seems to be invincible.

However, Józio defends himself against it trying to get at the strongest fellows and also not putting teachers on to their bad behaviours. It makes him successful  – but only to some extent – to stop the sinister mechanism. Now, Józio lives in a suspense: he is not wholly accepted but on the other hand he is not totally rejected. Then he stays “on the fringes” of the community; he is tolerated only because he allows impunity to vent the accumulate aggression on himself. However, the lack of solution to this situation is the most painful since Józio has got only the substitute of acceptance together with the assurance that he is not worth more than it.

Whereas in the case of Walek the expulsion is radical and interchangeable although it takes place without using the violence. Initially, thanks to occasional contacts with Kazimierz the boy achieved the position which was very similar to Józio’s. But when Walek showed that he considers himself  equal, other children and then he takes part in their the most exciting play – he lost everything what he already had achieved.

Lonia knows that the best weapon to  conquer male’s pride is ridiculousness. So when Kazimierz  appeared along with Walek in her company, she  immediately formulated ironical remarks at a rustic “friend” with whom the dignified bachelor had mixed. Zosia (Kazimierz’s sister) behaved herself identically and the last sign of the bad solidarity was when Kazimierz himself  forbade Walek to take part in their farther meetings.

Prus shows this expulsion simultaneously from two different points of view: collective and individual. The first shows that the acting is necessary because internal relations among children are not based on good reciprocity. Fighting for domination causes that the group is closing itself and whoever intends to enter inside is treated as an intruder.

But from the individual perspective this act is accidental, unexpected and incomprehensible. Initially, the “new” is tolerated and that is why he has hopes for total acceptance. Walek succumbed to this illusion especially that peers – like nobody – don’t use open violence towards him. The expulsion which  occurred so “late” is for him not only unjustifiable but also especially cruel. It showed that everybody who got to know him better finally turned away from him, even if he would make everything in order to ward off it.

This painful experience causes that Kazimierz repeats attempt  in order to establish the contact with Wlek but it becomes ineffective. Walek trusts nobody and even seems to share peers’ opinion about himself because he duplicates their gesture and banishes himself, going out of the village.

The moral problem Prus shows in a very discreetly, suggesting the comparison of collective perspective with an individual one. The examples of Józio and Walek show that the situation which always makes a wound in child’s psychology is the lack of total acceptance. Peers who keep the fellow “on the fringes” of their group give him either illusory hopes or permanent humiliation. But from their (e.i  collective) perspective this behavior is justified by a conviction that provisory acceptance is better than open disapproval. “The Sins of childhood” rejects this kind of justification, showing that it is insincere and also self-seeking. It allows to treat the other person as a pawn in a play.  The greatest sin of his childhood which Kazimierz confesses during his narration is  the hypocrisy ensuring moral comfort for the guilty ones.  

III  

    The presentation and functions of the adult persons depend on their position in regard to main characters – children – and that is why Prus devoted most of all attention to  parents. The writer shows then four homes where he observes the same problem: the lack of parents. In relation to it Polish society at the end of XIX century is homogenous since the incomplete family emerges among  aristocracy (Lonia’s home), gentry(Kazimierz’ and Zosia’s home) middle-class (Józio’s home),as well as peasantry (Walek’s home).

One may say that if all children are very sensitive and have problems with peer relations, the  reason for it will be an incomplete family. Prus seems to suggest that only the consolidated love of mother and father gives to a child as much of acceptance and security as he needs. In the other situation the affirmation of own value is sought  among peers. It brings about not only a painful disappointment but in fact it will be ineffective purpose if in a given society most of all children have the same situation.

Prus doesn’t accuse the adults but only shows that children reflect their image. Regardless that if the parent’s  absence was caused by death (Lonia’s father, Kazmierz’s mother) or by separation (Walek’s parents, Józio’s parents) lonely parents are equally unhappy. Nobody is able to give love when he himself needs it and looks for it by different means. If the adult is completely absorbed by this  he will not observe that his child does exactly the same although chances of a success are not good enough. That is why the failure comes soon and desperation alongside. The child gives up, goes away the most often, and only then parents notice that they suffer the loss. Both parts of “The sins of childhood” result in father’s or mother’s crying as they will not see their children any more. Prus is aware that a writer isn’t able to tell about this wound.