The Bronze Horseman By Paullina Simons

The paper is about the book titled The Bronze Horseman, written by Paullina Simons (2002). The book focuses on a young adolescent girl named Tatiana and her time living in Leningrad, Russia when Hitler begins his invasion. She is 16 when the book first begins. She faces many trials and tribulations, many situations in which she has to grow up rather quickly, face things as an adult would have to as she becomes of age, and even a love interest, which doesn’t completely over power the story of her growing and changing. Tatiana had always been treated as less than competent by her family, but more than able to do. She has a sister named Dasha and a twin brother named Pasha, who is cherished as he is the only male born child. Her family lives together,
She is in my opinion, truly an amazing author, very accurate in her stories, and is very good at keeping you engaged throughout the reading. The book believe it follows the themes of some of the books we’ve read. A young adolescent who comes into adulthood in a tragic and beautiful way. I believe this book excellently demonstrates social critiques, gender roles, and coming of age in an emergent, and unexpecting tragic way. The first topic I will be discussing is the social critiques within the story. The most prevalent social critique is family and the constructions of gender (Manthei, Week 10). Tatiana was a normal girl in Leningrad, Russia, in 1941. They lived communally. Her and her mother and father, brother and sister all sharing one room, while her grandparents had their own. She slept in well past what was considered a decent time and had to be stirred from bed. She has a twin brother named Pasha, and typical to many stories we read, he was the son the family was waiting for. Tatiana often felt less cared about in comparison to her older sister Dasha and her twin, Pasha. Tatiana had feelings of being less important, in the beginning of the book this was made clear when a small incident occurred, “Ouch! She said deliberately and loudly hoping Dasha would get in trouble for pinching her.