re personal freedom than was possible under the tsar. He soon sees, however, that Bolshevism has simply created a different kind of world-centered view which subsumes individuals rather than empowering them.
The novel is filled with Biblical images and echoes of Biblical stories, and some of the characters have angelic qualities just as others seem to derive power from the side of the Devil. The structure of the novel presents the classic struggle between good and evil, with some uncertainty at times as to what is good and what is evil, ultimately decided in favor of individual expression. This is again related to the question of religion as a personal philosophy, and it is further related to Yurii's role as poet and thus as one given to individual expression.
Religion is derived both from imparted knowledge through the Bible and through personal experience, and in Yurii's life this is clear as his view of religion changes when his mother dies. After that time, he studied both at school and in readings of the Bible, and the experience changed him. When
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