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Think question 1:

What problem does Yevgeny have at the beginning of the story, and why does he find it so difficult to solve? Cite textual evidence to support your answer.

The answer is that his son has been caught smoking.

Explanation:

Yevgeny's problem is that his seven year old son has been caught smoking tobacco by the governess, and, what's more, the son actually stole the tobacco rom Yevgeny's desk.

Yevgeny's wife, the boy's mother, has died, and he regrets that he really has no notion of how o speak to the child about the smoking, he does not think that smoking is all that bad as an habit after all he does it himself, and he does not know how to impress upon the child the seriousness of lying about that kinda behavior.

"Yevgeny Petrovitch finds it as strange and absurd that he, an experienced advocate, who spent half of his life in the practice of reducing people to silence, forestalling what they had to say, and punishing them, was completely at a loss and did not know what to say to the boy."