Playing with speech masks and images in the novel “The little golden calf”

The subject of this article is one of the aspects of Ostap Bender’s speech personality in the novel “The Little Golden Calf”, which is his ability, in his speech and behavior, to put on a variety of masks to achieve his goals, while interacting with other characters. Particularly, the masks and images that Ostap Bender uses in regard to the underground millionaire Koreiko are studied. The latter appears in Bender’s speech, first, as a golden calf; second, as an entrepreneur, business partner, who Bender has business relationships with; third, as a capitalist who illegally became rich and deserves that his capital be confiscated, expropriated; finally, as an object of love to win, just like a man conquers a woman. One of the features of Ostap Bender’s ability to use masks and images is that he parodies Soviet ideological clichés. In addition, the cases of non-utilitarian citation analyzed in the article indicate that playing with quotes and social masks for Bender is not an only means of achieving tactical and strategic goals, but something more important - it is an intrinsic feature of his personality. In addition, stylistic diversity of the statements that represent these masks and images in Bender’s speech indicate that he is a man of remarkable intelligence.