The House with Chicken Legs

Marinka’s first-person narrative is a coming-of-age story, which traces her struggle to find autonomy while accepting her fate. Marinka lives in a Yaga house with chicken legs where her grandmother Baba is raising her to guide the dead into the afterlife when she gets older. Marinka knows “it’s [her] destiny to become the next Guardian” (6) but is reluctant to accept this future for herself. Instead, she wants a life of freedom and adventure. She wants to live outside the house, to make her own decisions, and foster her own friendships. She lives in conflict with Baba’s expectations for her life because she is a curious and self-driven individual.

Baba’s death intensifies Marinka’s internal conflict between accepting the fate preordained for her and the life she has imagined for herself. Baba’s character represents the traditions Marinka has been raised with and the Yaga future she has been learning. Once she is gone, however, Marinka feels desperate, alone, and confused. She does not know how to guide the dead through The Gate or to venture out on her own. Her repeated attempts to connect with the living are acts of self-determination.