Why does Tonya disapprove of Markel?

Doctor Zhivago Chapters 6-7 Reading Guide

1. How has the Zhivagos’ neighborhood changed since Yury was last there?

2. Why does Tonya disapprove of Markel?

3. Why do you think that rooms are now supposed to be called “living space”? What is Yury’s opinion of what has been done with the “living space” in his house?

4. What is disturbing about Yury’s reunion with his son, Sasha?

5. What does Yury think of his old friends now that he has been away from them?

6. Where has Nikolay Nikolayevich been living before his return to Moscow? What are his politics at this point?

7. What is Alexander Alexandrovich’s opinion of the revolutionaries?

8. What does Shura Sleschinger want to show Yury?

9. What kinds of things, besides medical statistics, is Yury required to report in his job at the hospital?

10. What seems to be the point the chemist is making about Marxists in his conversation with Yury about Tarasyuk?

11. Where are people getting firewood?

12. What is Yury’s reaction to the newspaper article that announces the establishment of the new soviet government?

13. What has changed at Yury’s hospital?

14. What is Galiullina worried that Yury will reveal when she says, “Don’t ruin me”?

15. Who has been visiting Yury while he is ill with typhus?

16. What services have Yury and Alexander Alexandrovich performed for which they are paid in chits for food?

17. When Tonya and her father argue in favor of leaving Moscow, what does Yury want to wait for instead?

18. Why is Markel not to be trusted to help the Zhivagos with their preparations for moving?

19. Who are the crowd of men who are allowed to board the train ahead of everyone else?

20. What is the difference in mood between the group of lawyers and stockbrokers and the other passengers?

21. How does Kostoyed contradict Yury’s ideas about the peasants? What is Yury’s response?

22. How do the sailors interact with the other passengers on the train?

23. Why was the village at Lower Kelmes burned, and by whom?

24. What are Ogryskova and Tyagmona fighting about?

25. When Yury and Alexander Alexandrovich have their one-to-one conversation, what does Alexander say about how they will deal with their political differences when they live together on the Kreuger estate?

26. What kind of “heart” would Strelnikov need to be able to do good for others?

27. Why doesn’t Strelnikov just go back to his wife and child, who may be in the village nearby?