# Some Nihilists I Have Met explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Voltairine de Cleyre.

## What happens

The narrator recounts encounters with Russian nihilists and radical individualists in America, beginning with a search for a violinist in a squalid Philadelphia neighborhood, then describing a series of characters who reject conventional society, family ties, and material needs in pursuit of personal freedom and utopian ideals.

## Themes in this chapter

### Isolation and Alienation

The nihilists and the bandit-like figure deliberately isolate themselves from society, rejecting family, urban life, and conventional relationships in pursuit of personal freedom.

### Injustice and Social Critique

The chapter critiques industrial capitalism, urban squalor, and the oppressive nature of civilization, with characters advocating for radical reform or destruction of the existing order.

### Resilience and the Human Spirit

Despite their harsh living conditions and rejection of society, the characters display a fierce determination to live according to their own principles, such as the bandit's eight-year raw food diet and the violinist's relentless pursuit of his art.

## Character check-ins

### M.

A nihilist who gave up his wife for her freedom, retains his nihilistic enthusiasm, and is described as having a homely face with a Beethoven-like forehead.

### Mr. C.

An artist in whose gallery the narrator meets the bandit-like figure; he later explains the bandit's misanthropy as stemming from a failed romance.

### Effie

M.'s wife, who left him after two years of marriage to live alone and be free; she has since shed her nihilistic ideas but remains attractive and interesting.

### Bernard

A young man who married a woman he did not love out of pity, but she left him after a year; he is described as a nihilist and a violinist.

## Key lines

> The word nihilist is so generally associated with darkness, secrecy, dynamite, assassination and blood, that had someone whispered five minutes before the encounter, 'You are about to meet a genuine Russian nihilist,' I should, no doubt, have hastily retreated to the shelter of law-abiding domiciles.

The narrator admits that the common stereotype of nihilists as violent terrorists would have made him flee if he had known he was about to meet one.

_Sets up the contrast between popular fear and the actual characters encountered._

> I will learn to live on little, to overcome the need for so many changes of clothing, and I shall be free. I have done so. I can live very comfortably on eight cents a day, and I do not starve on five.

The bandit-like figure explains his philosophy of minimizing material needs to achieve personal freedom, claiming he can survive on a few cents daily.

_Illustrates the extreme asceticism and rejection of consumer society._

> Better to put a bomb under it all and blow it up.

The bandit-like figure suggests that the ugly, dirty city is not worth building and should be destroyed.

_Reflects the nihilistic desire for radical destruction of the existing social order._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_55_se/chapters/some-nihilists-i-have-met
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_55_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_55_se/chapters