Katia

"Katia" by Leo Tolstoy is a story from the late 1800s that follows Katia, a young woman dealing with sadness after her mother’s death while becoming an adult amid family and social pressure. As the story moves forward, feelings of love, being alone, and growing as a person show up through Katia’s changing relationship with Sergius Mikaïlovitch, who is her guardian. We meet Katia as a seventeen-year-old who is sad about her mother’s death and feels lonely and bored in the empty countryside. The differences between her sadness and new desires are revealed when Sergius Mikaïlovitch, an important person from her childhood, arrives. Their interactions show a hidden tension as Katia struggles with her feelings for him and tries to find her place as she grows up, all while wanting a connection and friendship. The beginning prepares us for a touching study of love and finding yourself as Katia starts to discover who she is in a world filled with loss and emotional struggles.