In the past when I was younger my friends and relations had known what to do with me: some of them used to advise me to volunteer for the army, others to get a job in a pharmacy, and others in the telegraph department; now that I am over twenty-five, that grey hairs are beginning to show on my temples, and that I have been already in the army, and in a pharmacy, and in the telegraph department, it would seem that all earthly possibilities have been exhausted, and people have given up advising me, and merely sigh or shake their heads.
-- Misail (chapter 1)

Importance: This quote sets the stage for the mail plot of “My Life”: Misail’s quest to find fulfilment in life. Already, the reader gets a sense of the hopelessness of Misal’s situation. Unable to hold a job, Misail’s value in society plummets, leaving even his closest...