Wielding the Sword of Truth

There is that famous saying that draw up is mightier than sword. A common interpretation to this statement goes like this a pen is a better weapon, may it be for offense or defense, than any weapon for destruction. simply another interpretation is also apt for the statement the pen of the writer, and the output it produces, shall be able to withstand any blow from any weapon, however destructive, that tries to supplant or repress the ideas it tries to share to the adult male.Throughout the world, through countries experiences of political turmoil and all the civil repression that comes along with most of it, time only seems to lend to a greater extent and more credibility to this statement. Didnt you know that manuscripts dont burn? (Bulgakov, 1967), this is a much-quoted line from Mikhail Bulgakovs The Master and Margarita. It was spoken by Satan (in the someone of a foreign professor/magician named Woland) to The Master, a writer who burned his completed legend in an effort to keep the Soviet political science from reading it.Being unity of Bulgakovs main theme in the novel, it high swallows the important role of writers observing and writing about the social situation, amidst all the threat of a repressive and dogmatic government, with the object of sharing to others what the writer has seen and not just putting it away, never to be read, out of fear of arrest or tortureto shed the light of freedom in the darkness of an unfree world. This theme was said to be based on Bulgakovs personal experience of burning the early indication of The Master and Margarita in fear of punishment from Soviet authorities.Thus it can be said that The Master has some autobiographical element from the author itself. The period when the novel was set corresponds to the time that Bulgakov wrote it 1930s, with the communist Bolsheviks reigning over all of Soviet Russia, and Stalin as the head of the said ruling party and of the country. This period was characterized by bar e government control, not just on the economy, but on almost every move of the citizen of its country.And while in this time Russia is deemed to deliver good results, as it is considered as one of the superpowers of the world, internally, the system is mired with conflict and threat-and-control-subjected citizens. Those people who challenge the status quo and the governments way of running the country are instantly taken into custody and sent to psikhushka where they are to be imprisoned as to stop them from polluting other peoples minds. Thus, to avoid imprisonment and torture, several writers, Bulgakov included, chose to destruct their deviant literary works.However, in writing the second draft of the novel, and with it having the abovementioned theme, it seems that Bulgakov has realized the futility and repugnancy of destroying ones own work in favor of a untroubled existence. This is reflected in the much-quoted line and in Wolands returning of The Masters burned novel. The s cene and the theme corresponding to it signify the authors revise stand that a person whose eyes had been opened and exposed to the truth has then the responsibility of spreading this truth to the society, no matter how much that person is to be oppressed.That person has to have the courage to bump through the walls that the oppressors build before them because he/she has been entrusted with a great responsibility. It is cowardly for that person to deny the world of his/her knowledge since with it the person denies the world the chance to know what they ought to know. At the same time it is cowardly, destroying ones own truth-revealing work is also futile since change surface though the output has been destroyed, thus removing any implicating physical evidence of deviance, the idea is still on the persons, and perhaps of other peoples minds.Bulkagov, upon devising the statement about the futility of manuscript burning, sends a hopeful and encouraging message, most especially to wr iters to shed their fears and rally for truth even amidst the threat of retribution from the authorities who seek to repress the truth by repressing the writers and the peoples ideas. Knowing the truth, it is said, is a privilege of everybody. Therefore, those who have initially been exposed to it have to fade this privilege to othersthe truth becomes their responsibility.And since this world of ours there are people who try to deny this privilege to persons other than themselvesthose autocrats who usually believe that common people be to know only what they choose to divulge, however small a peek to the whole picture it isthe truth-knowing person, in this case, the writer needs to whip out his pen and use it as the weapon that shall thwart the repression of truth. True, the pen is mightier than the sword. But the pen is only as strong as the courage and nerve of the writer that wields it.By the bye, a pen is only a pen a written paper is still only a paper easily destroyed by er uption or any other means, but the idea and observation of a writer, or any person for that matter, remains his/hers aloneirrepressible, and once acknowledged, indestructible by any controlling authority. Unless the writer sharpens his/her pen with courage for the revelation of truth, however sad to say, in that case, the pen shall forever lose to the swing, no, even from the mere front line of the sword of repression.