What It Is
The bread of the first temptation in the desert, in the poem of Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov: the spirit of the desert shows Christ stones and proposes that he turn them into loaves, and the Grand Inquisitor reads there the offer of a bought obedience, a humanity that would run after whoever feeds it, grateful and docile. The book makes the bread reappear outside the poem, in three versions that answer one another: the bread of the ascetic Ferapont, who measures it to assert himself, the bread with a pin that a boy throws to a dog, and the crumbs that the same boy, dead, asks for the sparrows. The bread that buys, the bread that wounds and the bread that is given, and between them the stones, which on one side are the setting of the temptation and on the other the place of the boy.
Where It Appears
In chapter I of Book IV, Father Ferapont, a great faster and opponent of the elder, eats only two pounds of bread in three days, brought by the beekeeper who lives with him. When a monk praises his rigor, since he lives on bread and water all year, even at Easter, Ferapont says he could do without the bread of others, eating mushrooms and fruit in the forest, and that those who stay in the monastery are bound to his bread, and therefore to the devil. Bread is here a measure of spiritual pride.
In chapter V of Book V, the Inquisitor tells Christ that the first question of the spirit of the desert gathered up human history, and he reconstructs it. He begins with freedom, than which nothing has been more unbearable.
ничего и никогда не было для человека и для человеческого общества невыносимее свободы!, nothing, at any time, has been more unbearable for man and for human society than freedom!
Then comes the offer, which he recounts as the tempter's proposal, and which Christ refused.
Обрати их в хлебы, и за тобой побежит человечество как стадо, благодарное и послушное, turn them into loaves, and humanity will run after you like a herd, grateful and docile.
The Inquisitor adds that bread alone is not enough: man needs a reason to live more than he needs food.
Без твердого представления себе, для чего ему жить, человек не согласится жить и скорей истребит себя, чем останется на земле, хотя бы кругом его всё были хлебы., without a firm conception of what he lives for, man will not consent to live and will sooner destroy himself than remain on earth, even if all around him there were nothing but loaves of bread.
In chapter IV of Book X, Kolya tells Alyosha what Ilyusha did: instructed by Smerdyakov, the old Karamazov's servant, he stuck a pin into a crumb of bread and threw it to a yard dog, Yuchka, which swallowed it, yelped and ran off. It is the same material as the Inquisitor's bread, this time put at the service of a cruel joke, and through it Ilyusha believes himself the dog's killer and falls ill with remorse. Kolya will only say, in chapter V, that the bitch had not swallowed the bread and had only pricked her tongue.
In chapter V of Book XII, Ivan, in court, accusing the room of wishing for the father's death, hands the old formula back to the public.
Убили отца, а притворяются, что испугались, — проскрежетал он с яростным презрением. [...] Друг пред другом кривляются. Лгуны! Все желают смерти отца. Один гад съедает другую гадину… Не будь отцеубийства — все бы они рассердились и разошлись злые… Зрелищ! «Хлеба и зрелищ!», They killed their father, and pretend to be frightened, he gnashed with furious contempt. [...] They grimace at one another! Liars! All of them wish for their father's death. One reptile devours another... Were there no parricide, they would all be angry and go home in a bad temper... Spectacles! "Bread and circuses!"
In chapter III of the Epilogue, on the way to the church, Captain Snegiryov is terrified by what he forgot: the crust of bread his son asked to have crumbled on the grave.
Папочка, когда засыплют мою могилку, покроши на ней корочку хлебца, чтоб воробушки прилетали, я услышу, что они прилетели, и мне весело будет, что я не один лежу, Daddy, when they cover my little grave, crumble a crust of bread on it so the sparrows come; I will hear that they have come, and it will be cheerful for me that I am not lying alone.
At the grave, when he is reminded of it, he crumbles the bread, murmuring that the little birds should come. On the way back, Smurov, weeping, picks up a piece of brick and throws it, without hitting, at a flock of sparrows.
What It Means
The bread in the poem is a currency of power: whoever gives the bread receives freedom, and the Inquisitor prides himself on having made the exchange in the name of the happiness of the weak. Ferapont gives it another meaning, that of refusal, but out of pride, and his austerity is measured against others. The bread with a pin shows what happens when an act of giving is used to wound, and it leaves its mark on the boy who did it. Ilyusha's crumbs are the opposite of each of these: they buy no obedience, assert no fasting, hide no pin, and are meant for those who can return nothing, the sparrows, so that the boy, in the grave, hears that he is not alone.
Two readings. In one, the Epilogue answers the Inquisitor with bread without calculation: what the old man thinks impossible, a gift that does not bind, fits in the hand of a poor boy and in the request of a sick child, and the captain's gesture as he crumbles it, amid tears, is the opposite of bought hunger. In the other, the answer is too small for the poem: the bread for the sparrows feeds no one, and Smurov's throw, hurling the brick at the same flock, shows that the stone is still within the reach of any boy's hand. The book puts both things on the same page, the bread and the stone, and does not choose; and the fact that the stone of Ilyusha's request, that of chapter VII of Book X, is left without a grave while the bread reaches the grave suggests that at least bread can be fulfilled.
Relationships
- Default themes: Freedom and oppression, Faith, Suffering.
- Themes of the work: Freedom and oppression, Faith, Suffering.
- Characters: Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov, Ilyusha Snegiryov, Kolya Krasotkin, Smerdyakov.
- Neighboring symbols: Ilyusha's stone, the same boy's other request, and the noxious odor, the miracle that the Inquisitor says the crowd demands.