Yama · Chapter
Chapter II explained
Simon Yakovlevich Horizon, a traveling salesman and pimp, travels by train with his wife Sarochka, a landowner, and a young sublieutenant.
What happens
Simon Yakovlevich Horizon, a traveling salesman and pimp, travels by train with his wife Sarochka, a landowner, and a young sublieutenant. He flatters and networks with the landowner, offers his services as a broker, and then seduces the sublieutenant with pornographic cards and promises of introductions to prostitutes in K. He also discusses his various business lines and his desire to settle down.
Themes in this chapter
Dehumanization and Commodification
Horizon treats women as commodities to be traded and sold, offering to introduce the sublieutenant to prostitutes and selling pornographic cards that depict women in degrading positions.
Hypocrisy of Society
Horizon presents himself as a respectable family man and businessman while simultaneously engaging in pimping and the sale of obscene materials.
Characters to notice
- Simon Yakovlevich Horizon
Traveling salesman and pimp who networks with a landowner and corrupts a young sublieutenant with pornographic cards and promises of women.
- Sarochka
Horizon's wife, who accompanies him on the train and is playfully patted on the knee.
- Joseph Ivanovich Vengjenovski
A landowner who exchanges cards with Horizon and discusses potential business deals.
- Sublieutenant
A young officer from Chernobob who is seduced by Horizon's pornographic cards and promises of sexual adventures.
Key passages
“If God grant it, we shall still eat a piece of bread and a little butter—and on the Sabbaths the tasty gefilteh fisch.”
With God's help, we will have enough for basic meals and a special Sabbath dish.
Horizon expresses hope for a modest but comfortable life with his wife.
“The work of a travelling salesman is exceedingly difficult and requires many kinds of knowledge, and not so much the knowledge of business as the knowledge of—how shall I say it?—the knowledge of the human soul.”
Being a traveling salesman is hard and requires understanding people more than just business skills.
Horizon boasts about his ability to manipulate and persuade customers.