The Outrage by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
"The Outrage" by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin is a short story set in the Black Sea port of Odessa during a sweltering summer day. The narrative unfolds as nineteen Jewish lawyers convene to address the recent pogroms targeting the Jewish community. Their meeting is unexpectedly interrupted by a group of seven men who represent a thieves' association. The articulate leader of the thieves passionately defends his group's reputation against accusations that they instigated the violence, claiming that their actions serve a greater purpose in correcting social injustices perpetuated by the wealthy and powerful.
Throughout the oration, the leader not only argues for the thieves' misunderstood role in society, portraying them as skilled and artistic individuals, but also critiques the moral failings of those who falsely accuse them. He insists that thieves, living on the fringes of society, are more acutely aware of the injustices faced during the pogroms and positions them as victims rather than perpetrators. The story culminates in a moment of unexpected camaraderie between the thieves and the lawyers, highlighting themes of social justice, class struggle, and the complexities of morality within a troubled society.
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The Outrage by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
First published: "Obida (Istinnoe proisshestvie)," 1906 (English translation, 1916)
Type of plot: Social realism
Time of work: 1905
Locale: Odessa, Russia (now in Ukraine)
Principal Characters:
Nineteen Jewish lawyers The orator , the leader of a delegation of thievesYasha , one of the thieves
The Story
On a sultry summer day in the Black Sea port of Odessa, nineteen Jewish lawyers gather to determine who is responsible for the latest pogrom against the Jewish population. The day is getting late and the heat is intolerable when seven men demand to be heard by the lawyers. To the lawyers' amazement, these men represent the United Rostov-Kharkov-and-Odessa-Nikolaev Association of Thieves. The lawyers are even more surprised when they learn the reason for their visit. The smartly dressed leader of the group proceeds to give a long speech, even though he promises to be clear, simple, and brief because of the lateness of the day and the heat. He wants to voice his protest against the press reports, planted by the police, as he points out, that the thieves, along with other dregs of society, instigated the pogrom.
In addition to passionately denying the accusation, the orator takes advantage of the opportunity to explain the philosophy and rationale of his thieving profession. The gist of his arguments is that the thieves not only are not wrong, but actually help right wrongs in the society. For example, when a lazy, ignorant, degenerate idiot of a son inherits a vast wealth, which in turn has been acquired on the backs of many hardworking people, it is the thieves who correct the excessive accumulation of wealth in the hands of undeserving individuals, as a protest against all the hardships, abominations, arbitrariness, violence, and negligence of the human personality—all the monstrosities created by the bourgeois capitalist society. Such unjust social order will inevitably lead to a revolution, and they will all perish in it.
Leaving aside the philosophical, social, and economic sides of his arguments, the orator points out another important aspect of his profession, the artistic one. More than mere property-seeking and greedy individuals, the thieves are also inspired, inventive, ambitious, and hardworking people, always perfecting their science. Waxing sentimental about the virtues and dexterity of the thieves, who find beauty in risks and dangers, he likens them to foxes and society to a chicken-run guarded by dogs, and he sees genius and inspiration in the thieves' creations. At the same time, their occupation is by no means easy and pleasant; it requires hard work and long practice. To prove his last point, the orator orders his companions to demonstrate their skills such as opening a locked door in seconds, picking pockets, and showing card tricks.
After portraying his companions as talented and artful—although little appreciated by society—the orator comes to his main point: How would they, the lawyers, feel if they were unjustly slandered as criminals?—exactly what has happened to the thieves. They have been falsely accused of participating in the pogrom by people who are themselves anything but honest; for example, they knowingly buy stolen goods. The truth of the matter is that, living among the lower strata of the society, the thieves feel the injustice of the pogroms much more keenly than others. Moreover, operating underground, they know that the police have organized the pogroms. Hating the police even more than others do, how can they be accomplices of the hated enemy? By voicing a final reprimand of the lawyers themselves for holding such principled people as thieves in contempt, the orator pleads for understanding and for rejecting the clever machinations of the true perpetrators of the pogroms and other evils.
Impressed by this oration, the lawyers shake hands with the thieves as a sign of understanding and agreement, and leave. However, one of them cannot find his hat until the orator yells at Yasha to return the stolen hat. Explaining that one of his people mistook it for his own hat, Yasha apologizes profusely and disappears in the street.