While reading the short story Misery by Anton Chekhov, one can understand why the author chose that particular name for the story. This is a story of how one man's grief is ignored by the public, just when he needs someone's attention the most. A story of how we blind ourselves to other people's sufferings because we do not want to deal with the pain associated with it.
             Iona Potapov had lost his son the week before this story takes place and he has no one to talk to about his pain. No matter how many times he brings up the fact that his son has just recently died, none of his fares seems to care about his suffering. Almost everyone in the world has been guilty of passing by someone in need, because it is simply not our problem. Whether it is someone stranded on the side of the road, a homeless person out in the cold, or a dirty child with no shoes on his feet, we rationalize that it is not our responsibility to solve everyone's problems. It is a selfish thing to do, but it is all too prevalent in society.
             Throughout the story Iona is succumbed by loneliness and grief, a couple of times he "bends himself double" over as if he wants to disappear, just to be rid of the pain. With no one to listen to his pain it is as if he is crumbling on himself, falling apart from the inside. I know that I try to bottle up my negative feelings and they end up growing, eventually if I do not talk about them, or write about them, than I myself breakdown.
             The end of the story was what I truly loved. It was the natural healing power of an animal that finally eased Iona's pain. When Iona felt as if he would never be able to find someone who would listen to him, he realized that the best thing he could do is talk to someone who would not talk back, and would not run away - his little white mare. That mare was the one thing that he still had that was true to him. I believe that animals have
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