Why Pity Akaky?

Akaky Akakyevich Bashmachkin is a character that immediately evokes pity from readers. His job is not meaningless but would, by most, be considered uninteresting; his coworkers disrespect him, and the very city of St. Petersburg seems to be out to get him. Even the narrator seems to wish he had someone a bit more captivating to tell us about.

None of this matters to Akaky though. Sure, when the young clerks games begin to interfere with his work he gets upset pleading them to “leave [him] alone.” This seems to me to be more about the fact that they have caused him to make a mistake in his work, and not necessarily because of any emotional pain.

Akaky Akakyevich is a simple man. He requires nothing but the labor of his own hands to make him happy. He found a job that created for him “a multifarious and pleasant world of his own.” He is content with “his cabbage soup” and “a piece of beef with onions” if that’s what a job copying provides him. He is not a lusting man, nor one who has bitten by the social bug, but one who loves his work so much that a night spent copying is better than both women and parties.

Unlike many men who wish to increase in rank, he is satisfied with his rather low-paying job, becoming greatly disturbed when offered the opportunity to move up. This is typically regarded as a failing, as if lacking ambition makes Akaky less than human. However, it seems to me that this job is not one that would be coveted by many, so if there is a man who actually likes doing this rather mundane work, who are we to pry him from it?

I, myself, know people who are passionate for the arts but become doctors or lawyers because that’s where the money lies. These people may come to find their jobs decent, purposeful and providing, but will they ever get as much enjoyment from their jobs as Akaky gets from his?

Akaky Akakyevich may not live up to our standards of a well-rounded human being, but until the city wages war on him, he is a man who cares not of what others think of him, living only to do what he loves. In this way, perhaps we can all learn a little something from this character that enjoys the simple things in life.