# Sashka — Short Fiction character guide

> Sashka in Short Fiction by Leonid Andreyev.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Christmas Sashka

**First appearance:** 0001-short-fiction

## Snapshot

A thirteen-year-old expelled from school and starved at home, Sashka avenges himself on life with lies, fights, and furious howling that hides a stubborn, unbroken pride.

## Who they are

Sashka survives on bread his father secretly slips him, since his vodka-smelling mother has stopped feeding him altogether after he bit her finger. Bold and indomitable, he refuses to kneel or repent, answering every punishment with a caricature and the scrawled defiance 'Won't! blow'd if I do!' His hunger and his fierce, unbroken spirit drive the Christmas Eve story toward the one tenderness he cannot bully away.

## In the story

### [The Little Angel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/the-little-angel)

The protagonist, a troubled boy expelled from school who bites his mother in anger.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/i)

A defiant thirteen-year-old expelled from school, who bites his mother and refuses to obey her commands, but eventually agrees to visit the Svetchnikovs' Christmas tree.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/ii)

A morose, rebellious boy who feels estranged from his family and the festive gathering; he becomes obsessively attached to a wax angel on the Christmas tree.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/iii)

Shares a quiet, emotional moment with his father over the little angel; comforts his father and lies about the angel's origin.

### [The Crushed Flower](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/chapters/the-crushed-flower)

Central figure of the chapter, representing crushed innocence.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/characters/sashka
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_34_se/characters