I think that Gogol is using this story to critique the flaws of the bureaucratic society that was created with the Table of Ranks. \u00a0Akaky is so involved in his government work that he has no time to experience life and in unable to do so because of the financial hindrances of his job. \u00a0That Gogol makes a point of discussing how Akaky was born for the job he has and remaining stagnant despite others movement seems to critique the harshness of legalized social status and emphasize the trap that is civil service. \u00a0Instead of striving to improve his situation, Akaky accepts his low place within the hierarchy and remains blow his peers. \u00a0One effect of the ranking system is that it seems to breed resentment between the different ranks, as the Important Person cannot bear to speak to someone lower than him and uses his power to criticize his employees. \u00a0The condition of civil service described in Gogol’s piece is akin to how one might imagine the conditions of serfdom, a “bureaucratic serf.” \u00a0The state is made strong at the disadvantage of the individuals that serve it. \u00a0The overcoat functions as a status symbol that endows Akaky with the respect of his peers and the confidence to step outside his closed world.<\/p>\n
The Overcoat also seems to be a critique of materialism. \u00a0Akaky quite literally subverts his quality of life for the possession of a new good. \u00a0When he dies, Akaky is described in terms of his possessions, and the form that appears to him at death is a ghostly overcoat. \u00a0Even in death, Akaky is defined by an endless search for material possessions. \u00a0It could be possible that this anti-materialist sentiment was brewing in Russia at the time of print because of the rising imperialism and the promotion of nationality as folk identity in the face of modernization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I think that Gogol is using this story to critique the flaws of the bureaucratic society that was created with the Table of Ranks. \u00a0Akaky is so involved in his government work that he has no time to experience life … Continue reading