The Wielding of Tools in Yury Olesha’s “Human Material”
Engineering — in and beyond its traditional sense — is primarily a tool for shaping oneself and the world in Yury Olesha’s “Human Material” (1928). This idea is present in the two main frameworks of the story, first in Dosya’s childhood where he was heavily influenced and even controlled by his capitalist father and broader society, and later in Dosya’s adult life where he throws himself into then-modern Soviet ideals. It is re-enforced by the parallel between engineering as a tool for shaping society and the literal tool of a compass, which Dosya interacts with as a child.
In Dosya’s childhood, his life path is charted by his father, and his father’s ideals are imposed on him. Notably, he is expected to become an engineer. The directives are imposed due to his father’s unhappiness with his own life and supposedly to lead Dosya to happiness, but his father’s idea of his happiness would involve being “rich, independent, and [occupying] a position in society” (Olesha 47). Therefore, we know that Dosya’s father’s intended use for the tool of engineering is to accrue wealth and prestige, rather than other possible uses such as bettering the world or for Dosya’s enjoyment and fulfillment. For his part, Dosya is very passive, seemingly doing his best to fulfill his father’s goals despite never seeming enthusiastic about them: He reports that “in that part of the brain where in a future engineer is concentrated an inclination for drawing, [he] had a blind spot” (49) yet he continues to try, for example successfully “[conquering] one of the obstacles” on the path set for him by attaining the rank of first in his class (48).
At the end of the story, Dosya is an adult, and presumably speaking from the approximate present day at the time of writing — that is, 1928. Dosya has become an author, but describes his profession alternately as an “engineer of human material” (50). This means that in much the same way engineers establish physical systems, he wishes to shape the thoughts and opinions of people and to inspire them to action. Now, he is enthusiastic in his beliefs, willing to risk sounding “high-flown” (50), if it means he can help develop and bring about the new world of Soviet Russia and the ideals he believes in. Writing, or engineering human material, is his tool to do so.
Traditional engineering still exists in Soviet Russia, but Dosya expresses no contempt for the non-landlord, non-imposing engineers around him (50); it is not the concept or field of engineering which is bad, from Dosya’s perspective, but only the way the tool of engineering was being used by adults in his childhood — towards things like wealth and status, which are not in accordance with his values as an adult. Dosya still lacks an aptitude for engineering (50), but presumably supports those engineers who work to further improve Soviet society.
In addition to Dosya’s writing, he is seemingly applying his engineering of human material to himself internally. He works to change himself by “grab[bing] by the throat that part of [him]” which may sympathize with or agree with his past ideals, crushing his individualistic ideas, and “annihilat[ing] the petty feelings in [him]” (50). All of these are very destructive ideas, but it is a productive destruction to allow Dosya to move forward and develop himself into the person he wants to be. This internal examination and destruction of the values and tendencies of his father and his past self is another way that Dosya has become an active influence over his own life. Furthermore, in doing so, he is refuting the past, which is a step towards the Soviet society that Dosya desires.
We also see an example of the uses of a literal tool, which parallel the uses of engineering as a tool in society. The child Dosya receives drafting instruments, including a compass for his birthday, again despite a lack of interest or aptitude for engineering. When he attempts to use it, it “unexpectedly opens up and jabs [his] hand” (49), causing him to bleed and leaving the compass “looking with its terrible point straight into [his] eyes” (50). Dosya attempts to use the compass — a literal tool — but he does not know how, and hurts himself immediately upon picking it up. After that, he finds the sharp end pointing towards his eyes, and thinks about maiming himself with it before considering a second attempt at using it for its intended purpose. The parallel between the tools is that, when used in the wrong way, damage can be done — like the adult Dosya would say that engineering for the purposes of accruing wealth does damage to society and the proletariat, the child Dosya uses his compass incorrectly and sustains physical damage as a result.
Before Dosya makes a second attempt at using the compass, he thinks, “I should immediately run both my eyes into them” (50), where “them” refers to the points of the compass. If this is a thought of the child Dosya, it may represent another bad usage of a tool, paralleling the use of engineering for wealth and status. And, as with engineering, the compass itself isn’t meant to be inherently bad; the focus of this portion of the piece is again on the tool’s possible uses.
However, it should be noted that it is the adult Dosya telling the entire story, though much of both sections of the story are written in first-person present, so it is difficult to tell which comments may be recalled thoughts of Dosya as a child versus retrospective commentary of Dosya from the “present day.” If the line is commentary from the adult Dosya, it may instead indicate that he believes death to be better than complying with the pre-Soviet system — that is, continuing along the path set by his father. If this is the case, the maiming would be a third possible use of the tool of the compass to a morally grey end. The maiming, like the destruction of Dosya’s old inclinations upon reaching adulthood, would be an act rooted in self-destruction. However, it is not constructive in the way that Dosya believes his internal development to be. As such, even destruction itself can be used as tool to achieve good or bad ends.
Yury Olesha’s “Human Material” presents a variety of tools — specifically engineering, writing, a compass, and destruction, so we may generalize to think that tools include all concepts able to be wielded by a person to affect their world — and makes it clear that these tools are neutral (neither good nor evil) until being used by someone. As such, a key message of the piece is that tools must be wielded by competent users who are mindful of and in support of the ends they are working towards.
Bibliography
Olesha, Yury Karlovich. "Human Material." In Complete Short Stories & Three Fat Men. Translated by Aimee Anderson. Ann Arbor, MI: Ardis, 1979. 47–50.
