Natasha...no borris

Nabokov seems to explore the subjectivity of reality in context to the narratives inherent to the human condition. That is, we come to know ourselves through others and perhaps more relevantly, the stories surrounding others and ourselves. These stories are on the whole taken at face value. There is a definite ambiguity however as a result of this habit that seems most directly tied to the inner workings and actuality of the narratives constructed in the social process. The parts, regardless of how familiar we are with them, will never add up to the whole- the whole being the person. Bakhtin discusses this as a relevant aspect of Dostoevsky’s work and refers to this as “a genuine polyphony of fully valid voices”. It seems that in this way the story Natasha, dives head long into this style of narrative. That is, readers are presented with two main characters whose stories about themselves,(although differing in how they are projected to their worlds) are in a sense conflated, yet nonetheless, true to each character’s idea about themselves. More strikingly however is the way in which Nabokov ends the short story. There is a certain ambiguity pertaining to Natasha’s story of self in that, her final interaction with the only certainty of life- death- demonstrates the potential truth behind her sense of mysticism. Perhaps Nabokov is suggesting that not even death is a certainty in our realities, but rather the end of a story for one person and perhaps a climax and moment of realization for those it leaves behind.