Question

What was the result of his first encounter with Red?

Answer 1

Hint: This encounter is from Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s work ‘Standing Up for Yourself’. Stand up for yourself means be strong when facing a conflict or fight for yourself. The narrator is an adult narrating his childhood experiences.

Complete answer:
In Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s ‘Standing Up for Yourself’, the narrator is the courageous person who first stood against the bully Red, the ruler of their street. Even though he was afraid of red and his thugs, he wanted to conquer his fear of Red. So, he wrote a poem which the whole street exalted with triumphant hatred.

But, one day, when he was going to school, he encountered Red and his lieutenants. Red insulted him and his poem. He struck the narrator’s head with a metal knuckles duster. As a result, he fell down with blood gushing out of his head and lost consciousness. He was confined to bed for several days. This was the result of his first encounter with Red.

And the narrator said this was his first remuneration as a poet. And he was not happy at all.

Note: The narrator was growing with his shame and hatred of being a coward while encountering Red and his lieutenants. He decided he needed to overcome his fear before reappearing in front of Red again. To grow stronger, he trained with a pair of parallel bars meant for gymnastic exercises and done weights. He was adamant at conquering his fear of Red or his cowardice.