Impressions after reading “The story of Master and Apprentice “ by Zainab Biisheva

The Introduction

Zainab Biisheva in The Story of Master and Apprentice  narrates  in the form of hikajat. Hikajat is a romantic and philosophical literary work which is based on legends. The author masterfully uses this genre  bringing  a reader from modern times to the history of old times where marvelous and educative story of Master and Apprentice take place. The main characters are Hasbulat olataj, Master and Apprentice. Apprentice is the negative characer  opposed to the protagonist character of Master.

Master is a kind of person who values the beauty of the world and trying to make himself  better through mastering his craft and as a result making the world better. Creative work inspires him to new discoveries. He is eager to share the results of his works with people because he works not for his benefit but for people’s wellbeing. He is sincere and  selfless.

Apprentice vice versa is giving priority to becoming rich getting profits from everything he does. He represents the pragmatic kind of people who can break the humanity rules.

In the first part of the story the author in a hidden manner shows the value of the  story of Master and Apprentice. Hasbulat olatay’s friend whose name was Akbulat brought him a pitcher as a gift from his homeland. At first Hasbulat thought it was strange  as he could present him a house. He was surprised, but after having heard the prehistory of this jug he understood that it was a better present than a horse for example. Zainab Biisheva allegorically wanted to show the importance and value of the plot of the legend.  

The main body

One of the main issues of the novel “Master and apprentice” is the fight of goodness with evil. The goodness is fully represented in the character of Master, who completely devoted himself to his craft with all his soul.  All his masterpieces were unique and special. They were unrepeatable. On my mind devoting himself to the craft he shared his bright feelings with the people living around. He is the man who spread goodness on earth. To each of his masterpiece he breathed in a part of his soul and sold the jugs sharing his good feelings with the villagers. In this way he made the folk’s lives better and brighter.

Evil.  In the legend it is reviled as ignorance in the character of Apprentice. So why do you think Apprentice is represented as evil? … Because he distributed only  the negative with his consummating attitude to his customers and spread only    badness in the people’s hearts. Money and becoming richer was more important for him than love and respect. Apprentice got lots of joy when young girls carrying water in heavy jugs broke them, because they will come to him to buy a new one. So one of the potters became a symbol of diligence and unselfishness, and the second - the personification of greed and meanness.

Another important issue that I traced in this legend concerning to our times is the problem of consuming society that we live in nowadays.  

Apprentice is a vivid  representative of consummating society. He is a slave of his endless needs. He makes jugs only to sell them not caring about the quality and beauty of his works. He doesn’t try to make them better, doesn’t want to improve his skills. He is sure that his clients will come to him to buy another jug when the previous one is broken. And so endlessly.

That is the problem of  consummating society. When people earn money to spend on some goods and then again earn more money to buy more and more goods. And so again and again.

Master never sat around, trying to create a pitcher, which has no equal in the whole world. He  has learned to do jugs of marvelous beauty and almost freely distributed them to the people. A Journeyman only laughed at him, he continued to sculpt his rough crafts. But the people decided that there is no need to buy curves pitchers if wonderful, light pitchers  made by Master they could get almost  for nothing. For apprentices came the time of  need, envy and greed because nobody wanted to buy his soulless jugs. But the Master decides to help his friend. Master devoted himself to his favorite occupation makes one more beautiful than the other pitchers and he was quite happy. Apprentice sells  his pitchers.

Years flew, the Master was already older, and his soul slowly died. The cunning Journeyman for the sake of the benefit has taken away everything, than there lived the Master. Apprentice demanded from Master to make more and more pitchers making haste to Master’s craft. Poor master couldn’t even get satisfaction from his works of art.  Soon the Journeyman became the richest person in the aul. And then the cruel and greedy neighbor of the artist has killed also a reputation of the Master, having replaced his name on a jug by his name (Apprentice) with clumsy letters. Substitution of this was not noticed by people as if they have gone blind in aspiration to catch a precious, unique, special jug. But the most offensive thing in all this was that after Master’s death he has been quickly forgotten and his talent as well. Apprentice began to sell jugs, the blind people believed false words that Journeyman told.

One more problem reviled in the story is when people so quickly forgot Master who lived and worked in the sake of people’s happiness and started to respect and adore the false master, who didn’t  deserve it, who lived with the aim of enriching himself and didn’t care about his villagers. People of one nation or one country shouldn’t forget their real heroes. Otherwise fake masters, fake heroes will take their place.

Indeed nowadays there is  a problem of real heroes replacement and the problem of substitution of values is particularly acute.

Instead of admiring and taking as a role model our national heroes like Salavat Yulaev, Kahimtura, Zaki Validi, or Zainab Biisheva, who worked hard and gave their lives for the sake of people, young generation adores and admires fake superheroes like spiderman, batman, Bruce Willis, or deadpul.

I think they don’t deserve our respect and love. We should make role models of our real national heroes who lived for people and brought to life good things. They are worth following and taking example.

Conclusion

In conclusion I want to say that “The story of Master and Apprentice” teachers us to be creative, devoted and selfless. The author masterfully reveals such issues as the fight between Evil and Goodness, the meaning of life, the joy from the results of creation, the beauty and pureness of human’s soul. Through mentioning in the beginning of the story the names of Salavat Yulaev, Kahim tura,  Shahit Hodaybirdin and the relics which Hasbulat olatay kept carefully in his chest  the author shows how we should remember this values.