What It Is
The big stone at the start of the pasture, on the outskirts of town, which Captain Snegiryov used to take his son Ilyusha Snegiryov to every afternoon, where the boy wept in his father's arms after the humiliation in the square, and beside which he asked, before dying, to be buried. In the book the word stone forms an arc between two images: the stones that six schoolboys throw at Ilyusha, and that Ilyusha throws at Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov in Book IV, and the single stone, in the pasture, which becomes the place of the boy and of those who loved him in the Epilogue. It is a symbol of place, and the same word names both the attack and the farewell.
Where It Appears
In chapter III of Book IV, Alyosha sees six schoolboys with stones in their hands on this side of a ditch and, on the other side, a pale boy with his pockets full of them. A stone hits him, and the boys explain why, laughing.
Это он в вас, в вас, он нарочно в вас метил. Ведь вы Карамазов, Карамазов?, It's at you, at you he's aiming, he aimed at you on purpose. You're a Karamazov, a Karamazov, aren't you?
The boy, after throwing others at his back and elbow, bites his finger down to the bone, and only then speaks.
не может быть, чтоб я вам ничего не сделал, — не стали бы вы меня так мучить даром. Так что же я сделал и чем я виноват пред вами, скажите?, It can't be that I have done nothing to you; you would not torment me like this for nothing. So what have I done, and how am I to blame before you? Tell me.
In chapter VII of Book IV, in the street, the captain tells Alyosha that he and his son went every afternoon to a big stone at the start of the pasture, and that one of those afternoons the boy hugged him and wept.
Теплыми-то брызгами этими так вдруг и обмочил он мне всё лицо [...] Никто-то нас тогда не видел-с, бог один видел, with those warm splashes he suddenly soaked my whole face [...] No one saw us then, only God saw.
In chapter VII of Book X, in the hut, Ilyusha, who has understood what the doctor said, makes his request.
похорони ты меня у нашего большого камня, к которому мы с тобой гулять ходили, и ходи ко мне туда с Красоткиным, вечером… И Перезвон… А я буду вас ждать…, bury me by our big stone, where we used to go walking together, and come visit me there with Krasotkin, in the evening... And Perezvon... And I will be waiting for you...
In chapter III of the Epilogue, when the boys raise the coffin, the captain shouts that he will bury him beside the stone and will not let him be taken away.
у камня похороню, у нашего камушка! Так Илюша велел., I will bury him by the stone, by our little stone! That is what Ilyusha ordered.
Alyosha, Kolya, the landlady and the boys dissuade him. The old landlady finds it strange that the boy should be buried beside a dirty stone, as if he were a hanged man, when there is consecrated ground in the churchyard and a corner of the church. The boy is buried inside the church enclosure. On the way back, it is Smurov, one of those who threw stones, who points out that Ilyusha's stone is there. Alyosha stops beside it and speaks to the boys.
Знайте же, что ничего нет выше, и сильнее, и здоровее, и полезнее впредь для жизни, как хорошее какое-нибудь воспоминание, и особенно вынесенное еще из детства, из родительского дома, Know, then, that there is nothing higher, stronger, healthier or more useful for life from now on than some good memory, especially one brought from childhood, from the parental home.
In the speech, he recalls that they buried the poor boy at whom they once threw stones, there on the little bridge, and that afterwards everyone came to love him. Further on, Kolya asks whether it is true that everyone will rise again and see one another, and Alyosha answers.
Непременно восстанем, непременно увидим и весело, радостно расскажем друг другу всё, что было, we shall certainly rise again, we shall certainly see one another, and gladly, joyfully tell one another everything that happened.
What It Means
The stone changes function without changing name. In Book IV it is the projectile of a group against one alone, and the target is chosen by surname, like a joke that goes round the town. In Book X it is the boy's most intimate place, chosen by him to wait for those he loves. In the Epilogue, the father cannot take it to the funeral, and the ground the boy asked for remains without a body; the circle of boys forms there, beside the stone and far from the grave, which is not what was asked, and the stone becomes the rostrum of a speech about memory. Ilyusha's request, which belonged to a grave, is fulfilled as the site of a pledge.
Two readings. In one, the stone reconciles: those who threw are the ones who gather around it, yesterday's target speaks from on high, and the same object that wounded serves as an altar. In the other, the stone marks what could not be done: Ilyusha asks for a burial and the father cries out against the request before a coffin that the others carry to the church, so that Alyosha's speech takes the place of a denied wish, and the comfort comes from someone who was not the addressee of the request. The text sustains both, and in favor of the second there is a material detail: the landlady says that the ground of the churchyard is consecrated and the ground of the stone is not. In both, the stone is where the book places, in chapter III of the Epilogue, the question of resurrection, beside the stone and not beside the grave.
Relationships
- Default themes: Suffering, Family.
- Themes of the work: Suffering, Family.
- Characters: Ilyusha Snegiryov, Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov, Kolya Krasotkin.
- Neighboring symbols: bread and stones, because the bread for the sparrows is Ilyusha's other request, and the grain of wheat, the boy who falls into the earth.