1) The history of the creation of M. Gorky's story "Childhood". In 1913, Maxim Gorky wrote the first part of his Childhood trilogy, in which he depicted a milestone in the development of the personality of a small person, based on his own real biography facts. Three years later, the author wrote the second part of the trilogy "In People", it describes the hard working life of the working class, and a few years later, in 1922, M. Gorky published the third part of the trilogy - "My Universities".

2) Features of the genre. The work of M. Gorky "Childhood" belongs to the genre of an autobiographical story. Remembering his childhood, the first years of growing up, the death of his father, moving to the Kashirins' house, rethinking a lot in a new way, M. Gorky creates the story "Childhood", a story about the life of a little boy Alyosha. The story in the story is told in the first person, on behalf of the main participant in the events. This makes it possible for the writer to show the events depicted more reliably, to convey thoughts, feelings, and attitudes towards the life of the character. Alyosha recalls his grandmother as “the closest to my heart, the most understandable and dear person - it was her disinterested love for the world that enriched me, saturating me with strong strength for a difficult life.” In the text of the story, the hero admits his dislike for his grandfather. The task of the writer is not just to convey the events in which the little hero became a participant, but also to evaluate them already from the position of an adult who has known a lot about the life of a person. It is this feature that is characteristic of the zhair of an autobiographical story. The goal of M. Gorky is not to revive the past, but to tell "about that close, stuffy circle of terrible impressions in which he lived - to this day, zhnns: a simple Russian person." The events of childhood are conveyed with a spatula as detailed as possible, since each episode in the life of the hero has an impact on the formation of character. Alyosha perceives the trials that have befallen him differently: for example, after his grandfather beat his grandson for a damaged tablecloth, the “days of ill health” became “big days of life” for the boy. It was then that the hero began to understand better in July, and his heart "became unbearably sensitive to any insult and pain, his own and someone else's", Gorky's work "Childhood)" is small in volume, has the boundaries of the traditional genre of the story: one main storyline associated with an autobiographical character, and all the secondary characters and episodes help to reveal the character of Alyosha, express the author's attitude to what is happening.The writer simultaneously endows the main character with his experiences, and at the same time contemplates the events described as if from the outside, giving them an assessment: "... yes is it worth talking about it? This is the truth that needs to be known to the root, in order to root it out of memory, from the soul of a person, from our whole life, heavy and shameful.

Remember what an autobiographical story is. What is the difference between an autobiographical novel and an autobiography? (The autobiography is based on the real facts of the writer's life; fiction plays a special role in the autobiographical story, although the writer's personal feelings, thoughts, and impressions are also important.)

What autobiographical works did you study this academic year? (the story of J1.H. Tolstoy "Childhood", the story of M. Gorky "Childhood")

What is an internal monologue? (reflections of the protagonist) What role does the internal monologue play in revealing the character of the protagonist of M. Gorky's story "Childhood" - Alyosha Peshkov? (Internal monologue helps the reader to penetrate the inner world of the hero, to get acquainted with his thoughts, feelings.)

3) Characteristics of the heroes of the story.

How does the main character characterize life in the Kashirin family? ("thick, motley, unspeakably strange life")

How is the relationship in the Kashirins' house different from the relationship that was between Alyosha's mother and father? (The atmosphere in the Kashirins' house was hostile, and the relationship between Alyosha's parents was built on love and mutual respect.)

Who is the head of the house in the Kashirin family? (grandfather)

How do the uncles behave: Mikhail and Yakov? (The uncles are constantly quarreling among themselves, trying to quickly divide the grandfather's property.)

What are the relationships between children in the Kashirin family? (there is also no mutual understanding between children)

To whom in the house does the arrived Alyoshka reach out? (to grandmother, orphan-foundling Gypsy, half-blind master Grigory Ivanovich)

Alyosha's image. M. Gorky wrote the story "Childhood", where in the image of the main character he brought out an autobiographical character - Alyosha Peshkov. All events and heroes of the work are depicted by the writer through the perception of a little boy.

With whom is the main character - Alyoshka - traveling on a steamboat? (with grandmother and mother)

What does Alyoshka especially like in the guise of a grandmother? (smile and eyes that glow from within)

How does a mother behave on a ship? (closed, rarely goes on deck, keeps aloof)

What was the first impression grandfather made on Alyoshka? (the boy did not like the grandfather)

What are the boy's first impressions of the new house in which he is to live from now on? (Alyosha found everything unpleasant)

Why did Alyosha memorize with such difficulty the prayer that the quiet, meek aunt Natalya taught with him? (Aunt Natalya could not explain to the boy the meaning of memorizing a prayer)

How does Alyosha behave at the time of grandfather's punishment? (continues to bite, kick, express disagreement in every possible way)

Why does Tsyganok say that little Alyosha will often be spanked? (Alyosha cannot accept injustice)

How does the main character behave during a fire? (observes, analyzes what he sees)

What attracted Alyosha in the freeloader Good Deed? (unusual, different from other people)

Grandmother image. Grandmother is the exact opposite of her grandfather, her husband: affectionate, kind, ready to help everyone. She is very worried about the constant quarrels of her sons, dissatisfied with the severity of her grandfather. The eyes stood out especially on the face of the grandmother, thanks to which the heroine "shone from the inside ... with an inextinguishable, cheerful and warm light." My grandmother’s character is soft, compliant, she loves people from the bottom of her heart, knows how to appreciate true beauty, is attached to the house: “I remember my grandmother’s childhood joy at the sight of the Lower”. It is the inconspicuous grandmother who becomes a kind angel for Alyosha, protecting the boy from evil people and difficult living conditions. It was she who grabbed the hero in her arms when his grandfather punished him for ruining the tablecloth. Grandmother did not know how to keep a grudge for a long time, to be cruel. People took advantage of her kindness, but she never complained about Life. Living with his grandmother, Alyosha listens every evening to stories about the life of the Kashirin family. When it came to the business life of the family, the grandmother "said chuckling, aloof, somehow from a distance, like a neighbor, and not the second in the house in seniority." Material wealth was not the life values ​​of the heroine. Pity, compassion for people are the main qualities of the grandmother's character, so she worries, suffers after the death of the foundling Gypsy. The wise woman perceives the difficulties that have fallen in life as God's trials, this is what she tells her grandson about Vanya the Gypsy: it was God sent to us instead of those who died. After all, I had eighteen children ... yes, the Lord loved my blood, took everything and took my children into angels. And I'm sorry, but also happy! During the fire: “illuminated by fire, which seemed to catch her, black, she rushed around the yard, keeping up with everything, disposing of everything, seeing everything.” Having become practically beggars, Alyosha was forced to beg. He brought small crumbs to his grandmother, who "looked at them and silently cried", worrying about the future of her grandson. The whole life of the grandmother passed for the benefit of people, so her image was imprinted for a long time in the mind of the protagonist. A wise woman smooths out the "lead abominations of wild Russian life", spiritually enriching the difficult life of people.

What role does a grandmother play in the home? (Grandmother is a reconciling beginning in the house, loves everyone, pities, is smart with her natural maternal mind.)

Why do you think the writer originally intended to call his story "Grandmother"? (It is the image of the grandmother that brings a good, reconciling beginning to the work.)

Grandfather image.
- What contradictions in the appearance of your grandfather can you note? Why at the same time does he seem to Alyosha angry, cruel and at the same time fearless? (Grandfather often acts impulsively, without thinking about the consequences, and then regrets what he did.)

Who influenced the formation of the character of the grandfather? (difficult childhood, difficult surrounding life)

4) The role of dialogue in the story. Dialogues in the story help to reveal the character of the characters, as well as life circumstances.

Maksim Gorky

"Childhood"

1913, Nizhny Novgorod. The story is told on behalf of the boy Alyosha Peshkov.

I

My first memory is the death of my father. I did not understand that my father was no more, but the cry of Varvara's mother ran into my memory. Before that, I was very ill, and grandmother Akulina Ivanovna Kashirina came to us, “round, big-headed, with huge eyes and a funny, loose nose.” Grandmother sniffed tobacco and was all “black, soft,” like a bear, with very long and thick hair.

On the day my father died, my mother went into premature labor. After the funeral, my grandmother took me, my mother and newborn brother to Nizhny Novgorod. We went on a steamboat. On the way, my little brother died. Grandmother, trying to distract me, told fairy tales, which she knew a great many.

In Nizhny we were met by a lot of people. I met grandfather Vasily Vasilyich Kashirin, a small, scrawny old man "with a beard as red as gold, with a bird's nose and green eyes." With him came uncles Alyosha, Yakov and Mikhailo, and cousins. I didn’t like my grandfather, “I immediately felt an enemy in him.”

II

The grandfather's family lived in a large house, the lower floor of which was occupied by a dyeing workshop. They lived unfriendly. Mom married without a blessing, and now her uncles demanded her dowry from her grandfather. From time to time the uncles fought. The house "was filled with a hot fog of enmity between everyone and everyone." Our visit only intensified this hostility. Growing up in a friendly family, it was very hard for me.

On Saturdays, grandfather seized grandchildren who had been guilty for a week. This punishment did not pass me by either. I resisted, and my grandfather caught me half to death. Later, when I was resting in bed, my grandfather came to put up. After that, it became clear to me that my grandfather was “not evil and not terrible,” but I could not forget and forgive the beatings. Ivan the Gypsy especially struck me in those days: he put his hand under the rods, and part of the blows went to him.

III

After that, I became very good friends with this funny guy. Ivan Tsyganok was a foundling: his grandmother found him one winter near her house and raised him. He promised to become a good master, and the uncles often quarreled because of him: after the partition, everyone wanted to take Gypsy for himself. Despite his seventeen years, Tsyganok was kind and naive. Every Friday he was sent to the market for food, and Ivan spent less and brought more than he should have. It turned out that he was stealing to please the stingy grandfather. Grandmother cursed - she was afraid that one day the Gypsy would be captured by the police.

Soon Ivan died. In the yard of my grandfather lay a heavy oak cross. Uncle Yakov made a vow to take it to the grave of his wife, whom he himself had killed. It fell to the gypsy to carry the butt of this huge cross. The guy overworked and died from bleeding.

IV

Time has passed. Things got worse at home. Saved my soul only grandmother's tales. Grandmother was not afraid of anyone except cockroaches. One evening the workshop caught fire. Risking her life, the grandmother led the stallion out of the burning stable and burned her hands very badly.

V

“By spring, the uncles split up,” and my grandfather bought a big house, on the ground floor of which there was a tavern. The rest of the rooms were rented out by my grandfather. A dense neglected garden grew around the house, descending into a ravine. My grandmother and I settled in a cozy room in the attic. Everyone loved their grandmother and turned to her for advice - Akulina Ivanovna knew many recipes for herbal medicines. She was originally from the Volga. Her mother was “offended” by the master, the girl jumped out of the window and remained crippled. From childhood, Akulina went “around people”, begging for alms. Then her mother, who was a skilled lacemaker, taught her daughter her skill, and when her fame went, the grandfather appeared. Grandfather, being in a good mood, also told me about his childhood, which he remembered “from a Frenchman”, and about his mother, an evil Kalashnitsa woman.

Some time later, my grandfather undertook to teach me to read and write from church books. I turned out to be capable of this, and soon fluently analyzed the church charter. I was rarely allowed to go outside - every time the local boys beat me to the bruises.

VI

Soon our quiet life ended. One evening, uncle Yakov came running and said that uncle Mikhailo was going to kill his grandfather. From that evening on, Uncle Mikhailo appeared every day and made scandals to the delight of the whole street. So he tried to lure his mother's dowry from his grandfather, but the old man did not give up.

VII-VIII

Closer to spring, my grandfather suddenly sold the house and bought another one, "along Kanatnaya Street." The new house also had an overgrown garden with a pit - the remains of a burned-out bathhouse. On the left, Colonel Ovsyannikov was next to us, and on the right, the Bethlenga family. The house was filled with interesting people. Of particular interest to me was the freeloader, nicknamed the Good Deed. His room was filled with strange things and he was constantly inventing things. I soon became friends with Good Deed. He taught me how to present events correctly, without repeating and cutting off everything superfluous. Grandmother and grandfather did not like this friendship - they considered the freeloader a sorcerer, and the Good Cause had to move out.

IX

I was also very interested in Ovsyannikov's house. In a gap in the fence or from a tree branch, I saw three boys playing in the yard together and without quarrels. One day, while playing hide-and-seek, the younger boy fell into a well. I rushed to help and, together with the older children, pulled the baby out. We were friends until I caught the eye of the colonel. While he was kicking me out of the house, I managed to call the colonel an "old devil", for which I was beaten. Since then, the Ovsyannikovs Jr. and I have communicated only through a hole in the fence.

X

I rarely mentioned my mother. One winter, she returned and settled in the freeloader's room. My mother began to teach me grammar and arithmetic. Life was difficult for me in those days. Often the grandfather quarreled with his mother, tried to force her to a new marriage, but she always refused. The grandmother stood up for her daughter, and one day her grandfather severely beat her. I took revenge on my grandfather by spoiling his favorite saints.

Mother made friends with a neighbor, a military wife, who often had guests from the Bethlengs' house. Grandfather also began to arrange "evenings" and even found the groom's mother - a crooked and bald watchmaker. His mother, a young and beautiful woman, refused him.

XI

“After this story, the mother immediately got stronger, straightened up tightly and became the mistress of the house.” The Maksimov brothers, who migrated to us from the Bethlengs, began to visit her often.

After Christmas time, I had smallpox for a long time. All this time my grandmother took care of me. Instead of a fairy tale, she told me about her father. Maxim Peshkov was the son of a soldier, "who rose to the rank of officer and was exiled to Siberia for cruelty to his subordinates." Maxim was born in Siberia. His mother died and he wandered for a long time. Once in Nizhny Novgorod, Maxim began working for a carpenter and soon became a noble cabinetmaker. My mother married him against the will of my grandfather - he wanted to marry his beautiful daughter to a nobleman.

XII

Soon the mother married the younger Maksimov, Evgeny. I immediately hated my stepfather. Grandmother, out of frustration, began to drink strong wine and was often drunk. In the pit left by the burnt bath, I built myself a shelter and spent the whole summer in it.

In the fall, my grandfather sold the house and told my grandmother that he would no longer feed her. "Grandfather rented two dark rooms in the basement of an old house." Shortly after the move, the mother and stepfather appeared. They said that their house burned down with all the belongings, but the grandfather knew that his stepfather lost and came to ask for money. My mother and stepfather rented a poor apartment and took me with them. My mother was pregnant, and my stepfather cheated the workers by buying half-price credit notes for products that the factory paid instead of money.

I was sent to a school where I didn't like it very much. The children laughed at my poor clothes, and the teachers did not like me. At that time, I often misbehaved and annoyed my mother. Meanwhile, life got harder and harder. Mom gave birth to a son, a strange big-headed boy, who soon died quietly. My stepfather has a mistress. Once I saw how he again beats the pregnant mother in the chest with his thin and long leg. I swung a knife at Yevgeny. Mom managed to push me away - the knife only cut the clothes and slid along the ribs.

XIII

"I'm with my grandfather again." The old man became stingy. He divided the economy into two parts. Now they even brewed tea with their grandmother in turn. In order to earn a living, my grandmother took up embroidery and lace-making, and I, with a company of children, collected rags and bones, robbed drunkards, and stole firewood and hemp "in the forest warehouses along the banks of the Oka." Classmates knew what we were doing, and mocked even more.

When I entered the third grade, my mother moved in with little Nikolai. My stepfather disappeared again. Mom was seriously ill. Grandmother went to the house of a rich merchant to embroider a cover, and grandfather fiddled with Nikolai, often underfeeding the child out of greed. I also liked to play with my brother. My mother died a few months later in my arms, without ever seeing her husband.

After the funeral, my grandfather said that he was not going to feed me, and sent me "to the people."

Boy Alyosha Peshkov tells a story that began in 1931 in Nizhny Novgorod.

The death of my father is the first thing I remember from my childhood. Due to my infancy, I did not understand how strong this loss was. I remember the wild sobs of my mother Varvara. It happened after my illness. My grandmother came to treat me, her hair was pitch black. Nervous, my mother gives birth to my brother prematurely on a fateful day for us. My baby brother and I are going with my grandmother to Nizhny Novgorod, after burying my father. My brother is dying on the ship, and my grandmother distracts me by reading fairy tales aloud.

Many people came to meet us in Nizhny Novgorod, including my three uncles. My grandfather, whom I met there, did not like him.

The big house in which the whole family lived became my refuge. Their life was not harmonious. Mom's brothers wanted to appropriate Mom's dowry. Because she did not marry according to the will of her father. At times you could watch my uncles fight. With our arrival, the quarrels became more frequent. It was uncomfortable for me to live there, I was used to a friendly attitude in the family.

Saturday was upbringing day. Grandfather beat with rods all the children who had been guilty during the week. I received in full.

I have a cheerful friend Ivan-Gypsy. He was thrown to his grandmother in the cold season. He was going to become a glorious master. And he was another stumbling block for the uncles, after the division of property, everyone wanted to appropriate it. The 17-year-old youth was sympathetic and ingenuous. On Fridays he was sent to the market for food. Ivan always stole a little and therefore spent less money, which could not but please the greedy grandfather. Out of fear of punishment, Grandmother did not approve of this.

Somehow, Ivan had to carry a cross to the grave of Yakov's wife, whom his uncle himself took his life. He injured his internal organs, bleeding began. Ivan has died.

Time passed. Life in the house became more and more unbearable. I rejoiced only in my grandmother's tales. During a fire in the workshop, the grandmother severely damaged her hands by fire, saving the stallion.

In the spring, the uncles parted ways. Grandfather bought a two-story house with a tavern on the ground floor. All rooms were rented out. In the attic there was a room with private facilities, where we stayed with my grandmother. She won the love of all her neighbors, helped to treat diseases with herbs. She was born near the Volga. Her mother was paralyzed, so her grandmother had to beg. Her mother taught her how to weave lace, in which she was a skilled craftswoman. My grandfather met my grandmother when she was a famous lace maker. Later I learned to read and write with the help of church books. I was a gifted student, I knew the church charter well.

The next spring, my grandfather suddenly bought a new house "on the cable car", selling the old one. Our neighbors were: Colonel Ovsyannikov and the Betlenga family. I was interested in spending time with a freeloader named "Good Deed". He made unusual things. I began to express my thoughts beautifully, thanks to his teachings. But soon the Good Deed leaves, and his grandparents accuse him of witchcraft.

Colonel Ovsyannikov had three sons, they were very friendly and played merrily. But somehow I ran to save the youngest of them when he fell into the well. We became friends, but the colonel did not like our friendship and he kicked me out. In my hearts, I called him "old devil", for which I received lashes. But through a hole in the fence, we still maintained a relationship. In winter my mother came and taught me to count and write. Grandfather forced mother to find a husband. The Maximov brothers often visited us. Evgeny Maksimov and my mother got married. I didn't love him.

I dedicate to my son

I

In a semi-dark cramped room, on the floor, under the window, lies my father, dressed in white and unusually long; the toes of his bare feet are strangely splayed, the fingers of the tender hands, quietly placed on his chest, are also crooked; his cheerful eyes are tightly covered with black circles of copper coins, his kind face is dark and frightens me with badly bared teeth.

Mother, half-naked, in a red skirt, is on her knees, combing her father's long soft hair from her forehead to the back of her head with a black comb, with which I used to saw through the rinds of watermelons; mother continuously says something in a thick, hoarse voice, her gray eyes are swollen and seem to melt, flowing down large drops of tears.

My grandmother is holding my hand - round, big-headed, with huge eyes and a funny, loose nose; she is all black, soft and surprisingly interesting; she, too, is crying, somehow especially and well singing to her mother, trembling all over and pulling me, pushing me to my father; I resist, I hide behind her; I'm scared and embarrassed.

I had never seen the big ones cry, and I did not understand the words repeatedly said by my grandmother:

- Say goodbye to your aunt, you will never see him again, he died, my dear, at the wrong time, at the wrong time ...

I was seriously ill, I had just got to my feet; during my illness - I remember it well - my father fiddled with me cheerfully, then he suddenly disappeared, and his grandmother, a strange person, replaced him.

– Where did you come from? I asked her.

She answered:

- From the top, from the Lower, but did not come, but arrived! They don't walk on water, shish!

It was ridiculous and incomprehensible: upstairs, in the house, lived bearded, dyed Persians, and in the basement, an old yellow Kalmyk sold sheepskins. You can ride down the stairs on the railing or, when you fall, roll somersault - I knew that well. And what's with the water? Everything is wrong and funny confused.

- And why am I shish?

“Because you make noise,” she said, also laughing.

She spoke kindly, cheerfully, fluently. I made friends with her from the very first day, and now I want her to leave this room with me as soon as possible.

My mother suppresses me; her tears and howls kindled in me a new, unsettling feeling. This is the first time I see her like this - she was always strict, she spoke little; she is clean, smooth and big like a horse; she has a rigid body and terribly strong arms. And now she is somehow unpleasantly swollen and disheveled, everything on her is torn; the hair, lying neatly on the head, in a large light hat, scattered over the bare shoulder, fell on the face, and half of it, braided, dangles, touching the sleeping father's face. I have been standing in the room for a long time, but she never once looked at me, she combs her father's hair and growls all the time, choking with tears.

Black men and a watchman peep in at the door. He angrily shouts:

- Hurry up and clean it up!

The window is covered with a dark shawl; it swells like a sail. One day my father took me on a boat with a sail. Suddenly thunder struck. My father laughed, squeezed me tightly with his knees and shouted:

- Don't worry, Luke!

Suddenly the mother threw herself heavily from the floor, immediately sank down again, rolled over on her back, scattering her hair across the floor; her blind, white face turned blue, and, baring her teeth like a father, she said in a terrible voice:

- Shut the door ... Alexei - out!

Pushing me away, my grandmother rushed to the door, shouted:

- Dear ones, do not be afraid, do not touch, leave for Christ's sake! This is not cholera, childbirth has come, have mercy, fathers!

I hid behind a chest in a dark corner and from there watched how my mother wriggled along the floor, groaning and gritting her teeth, and grandmother, crawling around, said affectionately and joyfully:

In the name of father and son! Be patient, Varyusha! Holy Mother of God, intercessor ...

I'm scared; they fumble around on the floor near the father, hurt him, groan and shout, but he is motionless and seems to be laughing. It went on for a long time - a fuss on the floor; more than once a mother got to her feet and fell again; grandma rolled out of the room like a big black soft ball; then suddenly a child screamed in the darkness.

- Glory to you, Lord! Grandma said. - Boy!

And lit a candle.

I must have fallen asleep in the corner - I don't remember anything else.

The second imprint in my memory is a rainy day, a deserted corner of a cemetery; I stand on a slippery mound of sticky earth and look into the pit where my father's coffin was lowered; there is a lot of water at the bottom of the pit and there are frogs - two have already climbed onto the yellow lid of the coffin.

At the grave - me, my grandmother, a wet alarm clock and two angry men with shovels. Warm rain showers everyone, fine as beads.

“Bury it,” said the watchman, walking away.

Grandmother began to cry, hiding her face in the end of her headscarf. The peasants, bending over, hurriedly began to dump the earth into the grave, water splashed; jumping off the coffin, the frogs began to rush to the walls of the pit, clods of earth knocked them to the bottom.

“Go away, Lenya,” said my grandmother, taking me by the shoulder; I slipped out from under her arms, I didn't want to leave.

- What are you, Lord, - grandmother complained, either at me, or at God, and stood silently for a long time, head down; the grave has already been leveled with the ground, but it still stands.

The peasants thumped the ground with their shovels; The wind came up and drove away, carried away the rain. Grandmother took me by the hand and led me to a distant church, among many dark crosses.

- You won't cry? she asked as she stepped outside the fence. - I would cry!

“I don't want to,” I said.

“Well, if you don’t want to, you don’t have to,” she said softly.

All this was surprising: I rarely cried and only from resentment, not from pain; my father always laughed at my tears, and my mother shouted:

- Don't you dare cry!

Then we drove along a wide, very dirty street in a droshky, among dark red houses; I asked my grandmother

- Aren't the frogs coming out?

“No, they won’t come out,” she replied. - God be with them!

Neither father nor mother pronounced the name of God so often and relatedly.

A few days later I, grandmother and mother were traveling on a steamer, in a small cabin; my newborn brother Maxim died and lay on the table in the corner, wrapped in white, swaddled with red braid.

Perching on bundles and chests, I look out the window, convex and round, like a horse's eye; muddy, foamy water pours endlessly behind the wet glass. Sometimes she, throwing herself up, licks the glass. I involuntarily jump to the floor.

“Don’t be afraid,” Grandma says, and, lightly lifting me up with her soft hands, puts me back on the knots.

Above the water - a gray, wet fog; somewhere far away, a dark land appears and disappears again into mist and water. Everything around is shaking. Only the mother, with her hands behind her head, stands leaning against the wall, firmly and motionless. Her face is dark, iron and blind, her eyes are firmly closed, she is silent all the time, and all of her is different, new, even her dress is unfamiliar to me.

Grandmother said to her more than once quietly:

- Varya, would you like something to eat, a little, huh?

She is silent and motionless.

My grandmother speaks to me in a whisper, and to my mother - louder, but somehow carefully, timidly and very little. I think she is afraid of her mother. This is understandable to me and very close to my grandmother.

“Saratov,” my mother said unexpectedly loudly and angrily. - Where is the sailor?

Her words are strange, alien: Saratov, sailor.

A broad, gray-haired man dressed in blue came in and brought a small box. Grandmother took him and began to lay down his brother's body, laid him down and carried him to the door on outstretched arms, but, being fat, she could only go through the narrow cabin door sideways and hesitated comically in front of her.

“Oh, mother,” mother shouted, took the coffin from her, and both of them disappeared, and I remained in the cabin, looking at the blue peasant.

- What, your brother left? he said, leaning towards me.

- Who are you?

- Sailor.

- And Saratov - who?

- City. Look out the window, there it is!

Outside the window the earth was moving; dark, steep, it smoked with mist, resembling a large piece of bread, just cut off from a loaf.

- Where did grandma go?

- Bury a grandson.

Will they bury it in the ground?

– But how? Bury.

I told the sailor how the living frogs had been buried to bury my father. He picked me up in his arms, hugged me tightly and kissed me.

“Oh, brother, you don’t understand anything yet! - he said. “You don’t need to feel sorry for the frogs, God bless them!” Have pity on your mother, look how her grief has hurt her!

Above us buzzed, howled. I already knew that it was a steamer, and I was not afraid, but the sailor hurriedly lowered me to the floor and rushed out, saying:

- We must run!

And I also wanted to run away. I went out the door. It was empty in the semi-dark narrow crack. Not far from the door, the copper on the steps of the stairs gleamed. Looking up, I saw people with knapsacks and bundles in their hands. It was clear that everyone was leaving the ship, which meant that I also had to leave.

But when, together with a crowd of peasants, I found myself at the side of the steamer, in front of the bridges to the shore, everyone began to shout at me:

- Whose is it? Whose are you?

- I do not know.

I was pushed, shaken, felt for a long time. Finally, a gray-haired sailor appeared and seized me, explaining:

- This is Astrakhan, from the cabin ...

At a run, he carried me to the cabin, put me on the bundles and left, shaking his finger:

- I'll ask you!

The noise overhead became quieter, the steamer no longer trembled and thumped on the water. Some kind of wet wall blocked the cabin window; it became dark, stuffy, the knots seemed to be swollen, embarrassing me, and everything was not good. Maybe they will leave me forever alone in an empty ship?

Went to the door. It does not open, its brass handle cannot be turned. Taking the bottle of milk, I hit the handle with all my might. The bottle broke, the milk spilled over my legs, leaked into my boots.

Disappointed by the failure, I lay down on the bundles, wept softly and, in tears, fell asleep.

And when he woke up, the ship was thumping and trembling again, the cabin window burned like the sun.

Grandmother, sitting next to me, combed her hair and grimaced, whispering something. She had a strange amount of hair, they densely covered her shoulders, chest, knees and lay on the floor, black, shimmering blue. Raising them from the floor with one hand and holding them in the air, she with difficulty inserted a wooden, rare-toothed comb into the thick strands; her lips curled up, her dark eyes sparkled angrily, and her face in this mass of hair became small and comical.

Today she seemed angry, but when I asked why she had such long hair, she said in yesterday's warm and soft voice:

- Apparently, the Lord gave it as a punishment - comb them here, damned ones! From my youth, I boasted of this mane, I swear in my old age! And you sleep! It's still early - the sun has just risen from the night ...

- I don't want to sleep!

“Well, don’t sleep otherwise,” she agreed at once, braiding her braid and looking at the sofa, where her mother was lying face up, stretched out like a string. - How did you crack a bottle yesterday? Speak softly!

She spoke, singing the words in a special way, and they were easily strengthened in my memory, like flowers, just as tender, bright, juicy. When she smiled, her pupils, dark as cherries, dilated, flashing with an inexpressibly pleasant light, the smile cheerfully revealed strong white teeth, and, despite the many wrinkles in the dark skin of her cheeks, her whole face seemed young and bright. This loose nose with swollen nostrils and red at the end spoiled him very much. She sniffed tobacco from a black snuffbox adorned with silver. All of her is dark, but she shone from within - through her eyes - with an inextinguishable, cheerful and warm light. She was stooped, almost hunchbacked, very plump, but she moved lightly and dexterously, like a big cat - she is soft and the same as this affectionate animal.

Before her, it was as if I had been sleeping, hidden in the dark, but she appeared, woke me up, brought me to the light, tied everything around me into a continuous thread, wove everything into multi-colored lace and immediately became a friend for life, closest to my heart, the most understandable and dear person - it was her disinterested love for the world that enriched me, saturating me with strong strength for a difficult life.

Forty years ago steamships sailed slowly; we drove to Nizhny for a very long time, and I remember well those first days of saturation with beauty.

Good weather has set in; from morning to evening I am with my grandmother on deck, under a clear sky, between the banks of the Volga, gilded in autumn, with silks embroidered. Slowly, lazily and resonantly thumping with their plates on the grayish-blue water, a light-red steamer stretches upstream, with a barge in a long tow. The barge is gray and looks like a wood lice. The sun floats imperceptibly over the Volga; every hour everything around is new, everything changes; green mountains - like lush folds on the rich clothes of the earth; cities and villages stand along the banks, as if gingerbread from afar; a golden autumn leaf floats on the water.

- You look how good it is! - Grandma says every minute, moving from side to side, and everything is shining, and her eyes are joyfully widened.

Often, looking at the shore, she forgot about me: she stands at the side, arms folded on her chest, smiles and is silent, and there are tears in her eyes. I tug at her dark, floral-heeled skirt.

- Ash? she will startle. - And I seemed to doze off and see a dream.

- What are you crying about?

“This, my dear, is from joy and from old age,” she says, smiling. - I'm already old, for the sixth decade of summer-spring my spread-gone.

And, sniffing tobacco, he begins to tell me some outlandish stories about good robbers, about holy people, about every beast and evil spirits.

She tells fairy tales quietly, mysteriously, bending down to my face, looking into my eyes with dilated pupils, as if pouring strength into my heart, lifting me up. He speaks, sings exactly, and the further, the more fluently the words sound. It is indescribably pleasant to listen to her. I listen and ask:

- And here’s how it was: an old brownie was sitting in the oven, he stuck his paw with noodles, swayed, whimpered: “Oh, mice, it hurts, oh, mice, I can’t stand it!”

Raising her leg, she grabs it with her hands, shakes it in the air and wrinkles her face funny, as if she herself is in pain.

Sailors are standing around - bearded gentle men - they listen, laugh, praise her and also ask:

“Come on, grandma, tell me something else!”

Then they say:

- Let's have dinner with us!

At dinner, they treat her with vodka, me with watermelons, melons; this is done secretly: a man rides on the steamboat, who forbids eating fruit, takes it away and throws it into the river. He is dressed like a watchman - with brass buttons - and is always drunk; people hide from him.

Mother rarely comes on deck and keeps aloof from us. She is still silent, mother. Her large, slender body, her dark, iron face, her heavy crown of plaited blond hair—she is all powerful and firm—are remembered to me as if through a mist or a transparent cloud; straight gray eyes, as large as my grandmother's, look out of it distantly and unfriendly.

One day she said sternly:

“People are laughing at you, mother!”

- God be with them! Grandmother answered carelessly. - And let them laugh, for good health!

I remember my grandmother's childhood joy at the sight of the Lower. Pulling my hand, she pushed me to the side and shouted:

- Look, look, how good! Here it is, father, the Lower one! Here it is, gods! Churches, look at you, they seem to be flying!

And the mother asked, almost crying:

- Varyusha, look, tea, huh? Come on, I forgot! Rejoice!

The mother smiled grimly.

When the steamer stopped in front of the beautiful city, in the middle of the river, closely cluttered with ships, bristling with hundreds of sharp masts, a large boat with many people swam up to its side, hooked to the lowered ladder with a hook, and one by one the people from the boat began to climb onto the deck. In front of everyone, a small, scrawny old man walked quickly, in a long black robe, with a beard as red as gold, with a bird's nose and green eyes.

- Papa! her mother shouted thickly and loudly and tipped over on him, and he, grabbing her by the head, quickly stroking her cheeks with her small red hands, shouted, screeching:

- What-oh, fool? Aha! That's it ... Oh, you-and ...

Grandmother hugged and kissed everyone at once, turning like a screw; she pushed me towards the people and said hurriedly:

- Well, hurry up! This is Uncle Mikhailo, this is Yakov... Aunt Natalya, these are brothers, both Sashas, ​​sister Katerina, this is our whole tribe, that's how many!

Grandpa told her:

- Are you well, mother?

They kissed three times.

Grandfather pulled me out of a close crowd of people and asked, holding my head:

- Whose will you be?

- Astrakhan, from the cabin ...

– What is he saying? - Grandfather turned to his mother and, without waiting for an answer, pushed me away, saying:

- Cheekbones, those fathers ... Get off into the boat!

We drove down to the shore and in a crowd went uphill, along a ramp paved with large cobblestones, between two high slopes covered with withered, flattened grass.

Grandfather and mother walked ahead of everyone. He was tall under her arm, walked small and fast, and she, looking down at him, seemed to float through the air. Their uncles silently followed them: black smooth-haired Mikhail, dry as a grandfather; light and curly Yakov, some fat women in bright dresses and about six children, all older than me and all quiet. I was walking with my grandmother and little aunt Natalia. Pale, blue-eyed, with a huge belly, she often stopped and, panting, whispered:

- Oh, I can't!

Why did they bother you? grumbled the grandmother angrily. - Eko stupid tribe!

Both adults and children - I didn’t like everyone, I felt like a stranger among them, even my grandmother somehow faded, moved away.

I especially did not like my grandfather; I immediately sensed an enemy in him, and I had a special attention to him, a cautious curiosity.

We reached the end of the convention. At the very top of it, leaning against the right slope and starting a street, stood a squat one-story house, painted dirty pink, with a low roof pulled down and bulging windows. From the street it seemed large to me, but inside it, in small semi-dark rooms, it was crowded; everywhere, as on a steamboat in front of the pier, angry people bustled about, children darted about in a flock of thieving sparrows, and everywhere there was a pungent, unfamiliar smell.

I found myself in the yard. The yard was also unpleasant: it was all hung with huge wet rags, stuffed with vats of thick multicolored water. The rags were also wet in it. In the corner, in a low, dilapidated annex, firewood was burning hot in the stove, something was boiling, gurgling, and an invisible man was loudly saying strange words:

II

A dense, motley, inexpressibly strange life began and flowed with terrible speed. I remember her as a harsh tale, well told by a kind, but painfully truthful genius. Now, reviving the past, I myself sometimes find it hard to believe that everything was exactly as it was, and I want to dispute and reject a lot - the dark life of the “stupid tribe” is too abundant in cruelty.

But the truth is higher than pity, and after all, I am not talking about myself, but about that close, stuffy circle of terrible impressions in which I lived, and still lives, a simple Russian person.

Grandfather's house was filled with a hot fog of mutual enmity of everyone with everyone; it poisoned adults, and even children took an active part in it. Subsequently, from the stories of my grandmother, I learned that the mother arrived just in those days when her brothers insistently demanded from the father the division of property. The unexpected return of their mother further aggravated and strengthened their desire to stand out. They were afraid that my mother would demand a dowry assigned to her, but withheld by my grandfather, because she had married with a "hand-rolled" one, against his will. The uncles believed that this dowry should be divided among them. They also long and cruelly argued with each other about who should open a workshop in the city, who - beyond the Oka, in the settlement of Kunavin.

Soon after arrival, in the kitchen during dinner, a quarrel broke out: the uncles suddenly jumped to their feet and, leaning over the table, began to howl and growl at grandfather, showing their teeth plaintively and shaking themselves like dogs, and the grandfather, banging his spoon on the table, blushed. all and loudly - like a rooster - shouted:

- I'll let you in the world!

Painfully contorting her face, the grandmother said:

- Give them everything, father, - it will be calmer for you, give it back!

"Shush, slut!" shouted the grandfather, his eyes sparkling, and it was strange that, being so small, he could scream so deafeningly.

Mother got up from the table and, without hurrying, went to the window, turned her back on everyone.

Suddenly Uncle Mikhail hit his brother in the face with a backhand; he howled, grappled with him, and both rolled on the floor, wheezing, groaning, cursing.

The children began to cry, the pregnant aunt Natalya screamed desperately; my mother dragged her somewhere, taking in an armful; the cheerful, pockmarked nanny Evgenya drove the children out of the kitchen; chairs fell; the young, broad-shouldered apprentice Tsyganok sat astride Uncle Mikhail's back, while foreman Grigory Ivanovich, a bald-headed, bearded man in dark glasses, calmly tied his uncle's hands with a towel.

Stretching out his neck, my uncle rubbed his sparse black beard on the floor and wheezed terribly, while grandfather, running around the table, cried plaintively:

- Brothers, ah! Native blood! Oh you and...

Even at the beginning of the quarrel, frightened, I jumped up on the stove and from there, in terrible amazement, watched how my grandmother washes away the blood from the bruised face of Uncle Yakov with water from a copper washstand; he wept and stamped his feet, and she said in a heavy voice:

“Cursed, wild tribe, come to your senses!”

Grandfather, pulling a tattered shirt over his shoulder, shouted to her:

- What, witch, gave birth to animals?

When Uncle Yakov left, Grandmother leaned into the corner, howling amazingly:

- Holy Mother of God, restore the mind to my children!

Grandfather stood sideways to her and, looking at the table, where everything was overturned, spilled, he said quietly:

- You, mother, look after them, otherwise they will bring Varvara out, what good ...

- Completely, God bless you! Take off your shirt, I'll sew it up ...

And, squeezing his head in her hands, she kissed her grandfather on the forehead; he, - small against her, - poked his face into her shoulder:

- It is necessary, apparently, to share, mother ...

“We must, father, we must!

They talked for a long time; at first friendly, and then the grandfather began to shuffle his foot on the floor, like a rooster before a fight, threatened his grandmother with his finger and whispered loudly:

- I know you, you love them more! And your Mishka is a Jesuit, and Yashka is a freemason! And they will drink my good, squander ...

Turning awkwardly on the stove, I dumped the iron; rattling up the steps of the climb, he plopped down into a tub of slops. Grandfather jumped onto the step, pulled me off and began to look into my face as if he had seen me for the first time.

- Who put you on the stove? Mother?

- No, myself. I was scared.

He pushed me away, lightly hitting my forehead with his palm.

- All in the father! Go away…

I was glad to escape from the kitchen.

I clearly saw that my grandfather was watching me with intelligent and keen green eyes, and I was afraid of him. I remember I always wanted to hide from those burning eyes. It seemed to me that grandfather was evil; he speaks to everyone mockingly, insultingly, encouraging and trying to anger everyone.

- Oh you-and! he often exclaimed; a long "ee-ee" sound always gave me a dull, chilly feeling.

At the hour of rest, during evening tea, when he, his uncles, and the workers came into the kitchen from the workshop, tired, with their hands dyed with sandalwood, burnt with vitriol, with their hair tied with a ribbon, all like dark icons in the corner of the kitchen, into this dangerous for an hour grandfather sat opposite me and, arousing the envy of other grandchildren, talked to me more often than to them. It was all foldable, chiseled, sharp. His satin waistcoat, embroidered with silk, was worn out, his cotton shirt was wrinkled, large patches flaunted on the knees of his trousers, but nevertheless he seemed dressed and cleaner and more beautiful than his sons, who wore jackets, shirt-fronts and silk scarves around their necks.

A few days after his arrival, he made me learn prayers. All the other children were older and were already learning to read and write from the deacon of the Assumption Church; its golden heads were visible from the windows of the house.

I was taught by the quiet, timid Aunt Natalya, a woman with a childish face and eyes so transparent that it seemed to me that through them one could see everything behind her head.

I liked to look into her eyes for a long time, without looking away, without blinking; she screwed up her eyes, turned her head, and asked softly, almost in a whisper:

- Well, please say: "Our Father, who art..."

And if I asked: "What is it - how is it?" - she, looking around timidly, advised:

Don't ask, it's worse! Just say after me: "Our Father" ... Well?

I was worried: why is it worse to ask? The word "just like" took on a hidden meaning, and I deliberately distorted it in every possible way:

- “Yakov”, “I am in leather” ...

But the pale, as if melting, aunt patiently corrected in a voice that kept breaking off:

- No, you just say: "like" ...

But she herself and all her words were not simple. This irritated me, making it difficult to remember the prayer.

One day my grandfather asked:

- Well, Oleshka, what did you do today? Played! I see a nodule on my forehead. This is not great wisdom to make nodules! Did you memorize "Our Father"?

The aunt said softly:

- He has a bad memory.

Grandfather chuckled, raising his red eyebrows cheerfully.

- And if so, - it is necessary to carve!

And he asked me again:

- What is your father?

Not understanding what he was talking about, I remained silent, and my mother said:

- No, Maxim did not beat him, and he forbade me.

- Why so?

- He said you can't learn by beating.

- He was a fool in everything, this Maxim, the dead man, God forgive me! - Angrily and clearly said the grandfather.

I was offended by his words. He noticed it.

- Did you pout your lips? Look you...

And, stroking the silver-red hair on his head, he added:

- And I'll flog Sasha for a thimble on Saturday.

- How to screw it up? I asked.

Everyone laughed, and the grandfather said:

- Wait, you'll see...

Hidden, I thought: to flog means to embroider dresses given in paint, and whip and beat - one and the same thing, apparently. They beat horses, dogs, cats; in Astrakhan, watchmen beat the Persians—I saw that. But I have never seen little ones beaten like that, and although here the uncles hit theirs first on the forehead, then on the back of the head, the children were indifferent to this, only scratching the bruised place. I asked them more than once:

- Painfully?

And they always responded bravely.

- No, not at all!

I knew the noisy story with the thimble. In the evenings, from tea to dinner, the uncles and the craftsman sewed together pieces of dyed fabric into one “thing” and fastened cardboard labels to it. Wanting to play a trick on the half-blind Grigory, Uncle Mikhail ordered his nine-year-old nephew to glow the master's thimble on the fire of a candle. Sasha clamped the thimble with tongs to remove carbon deposits from the candles, heated it up to a great heat and, imperceptibly putting it under Grigory's arm, hid behind the stove, but just at that moment grandfather came, sat down to work and put his finger into the red-hot thimble.

I remember when I ran into the kitchen to the noise, my grandfather, clutching his ear with burned fingers, jumped funny and shouted:

- Whose business, basurmans?

Uncle Mikhail, bending over the table, drove the thimble with his finger and blew on it; the master calmly sewed; shadows jumped over his huge bald head; Uncle Yakov came running and, hiding behind the corner of the stove, laughed softly there; grandmother grated raw potatoes.

- This is Sasha Yakovov arranged! Uncle Michael suddenly said.

- You're lying! Yakov shouted, jumping out from behind the stove.

And somewhere in the corner his son was crying and shouting:

- Dad, don't believe me. He taught me!

The uncles began to fight. Grandfather immediately calmed down, put a grated potato to his finger and silently left, taking me with him.

Everyone said - Uncle Mikhail is to blame. Naturally, over tea, I asked if he would be whipped and flogged?

“We should,” my grandfather grumbled, looking askance at me.

Uncle Mikhail, striking the table with his hand, called out to his mother:

- Varvara, calm your puppy, otherwise I will turn his head off!

Mother said:

- Try, touch ...

And everyone was silent.

She knew how to say short words somehow, as if she pushed people away from her with them, threw them away, and they diminished.

It was clear to me that everyone was afraid of their mother; Even Grandfather himself spoke to her differently than he did to others—quietly. This pleased me, and I proudly boasted to my brothers:

My mother is the strongest!

They didn't mind.

But what happened on Saturday shattered my relationship with my mother.

Until Saturday, I also had time to be guilty.

I was very interested in how cleverly adults change the colors of fabrics: they take yellow, soak it in black water, and the fabric becomes deep blue - “cubic”; they rinse gray in red water, and it becomes reddish - "bordeaux". Simple, but incomprehensible.

I wanted to color something myself, and I told Sasha Yakovov, a serious boy, about this; he was always in full view of adults, affectionate with everyone, ready to serve everyone in every possible way. Adults praised him for obedience, for his mind, but grandfather looked askance at Sasha and said:

- What a sycophant!

Thin, dark, with bulging, crustacean eyes, Sasha Yakovov spoke hastily, quietly, choking on words, and always looked around mysteriously, as if about to run somewhere, to hide. His brown pupils were motionless, but when he was excited, they trembled along with the whites.

He was unpleasant to me.

I much more liked Sasha Mikhailov, an inconspicuous bumpkin, a quiet boy, with sad eyes and a good smile, very similar to his meek mother. He had ugly teeth; they protruded from the mouth and grew in two rows in the upper jaw. This interested him greatly; he constantly kept his fingers in his mouth, swinging, trying to pull out the teeth of the back row, and dutifully allowed anyone who wanted to feel them. But I did not find anything more interesting in it. In a house crowded with people, he lived alone, liked to sit in semi-dark corners, and in the evening by the window. It was good to be silent with him - to sit by the window, closely clinging to it, and to be silent for an hour, watching how black jackdaws curl and rush about in the red evening sky around the golden bulbs of the Assumption Church, soar high up, fall down and, suddenly covering the fading sky black network, disappear somewhere, leaving behind a void. When you look at this, you don’t feel like talking about anything, and pleasant boredom fills your chest.

And Uncle Yakov's Sasha could talk about everything a lot and solidly, like an adult. On learning that I wanted to take up the trade of a dyer, he advised me to take a white festive tablecloth from the closet and dye it blue.

“White is the easiest to dye, I know!” he said very seriously.

I pulled out a heavy tablecloth, ran out into the yard with it, but when I lowered its edge into a vat of “cube”, Tsyganok flew at me from somewhere, tore the tablecloth and, wringing it out with his broad paws, shouted to my brother, who was watching my work from the porch:

- Call your grandmother soon!

And, ominously shaking his black shaggy head, he said to me:

- Well, you will get it for it!

Grandmother came running, groaned, even cried, scolding me funny:

- Oh, Permian, salty ears! So that they lifted and slapped!

Then the Gypsy began to persuade:

- Oh, Vanya, don’t tell your grandfather something! I'll hide the case; maybe it'll work out somehow...

Vanka spoke anxiously, wiping his wet hands with a multicolored apron:

- Me, what? I will not say; Look, Sashutka wouldn't have slandered!

“I’ll give him a seven-packer,” said my grandmother, leading me into the house.

On Saturday, before Vespers, someone led me into the kitchen; it was dark and quiet there. I remember tightly closed doors to the halls and rooms, and outside the windows the gray haze of an autumn evening, the rustle of rain. In front of the black brow of the stove, on a wide bench, sat an angry, unlike himself Gypsy; grandfather, standing in the corner by the tub, picked out long rods from a bucket of water, measured them, stacking one with the other, and whistling them in the air with a whistle. Grandmother, standing somewhere in the dark, sniffed tobacco loudly and grumbled:

- Pa-hell ... tormentor ...

Sasha Yakovov, sitting on a chair in the middle of the kitchen, was rubbing his eyes with his fists and in a voice that was not his own, like an old beggar, he was drawing:

Forgive me for Christ's sake...

Behind the chair stood uncle Michael's children, brother and sister, shoulder to shoulder.

The work of M. Gorky is connected with his personal life experience. The eventful life of Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, the future writer Maxim Gorky, was reflected in the autobiographical trilogy "Childhood", "In People", "My Universities".

The story "Childhood" is of great value for studying the life path of the future writer, for understanding the process of his spiritual development. The liveliness and authenticity of the depicted is achieved by the fact that the pictures, characters, events bear the stamp of children's perception.

The history of the formation and growth of the human personality is shown in it against the backdrop of Russian reality in the 70s and 80s of the 19th century. The author wrote: "... and I'm not talking about myself, but about that close, stuffy circle of terrible impressions in which ... a simple Russian person lived." At the same time, the story is imbued with the idea of ​​the spiritual strength of the people, of the "good - human", which is inherent in it. Therefore, the characterization of those characters in the story that Alyosha encounters, as well as the analysis of pictures of the life of the townspeople, should become an important part of the lesson. At each lesson, students should also pay attention to the psychology of Alyosha, show how his strength matures in constant communication with real people from the people and in the fight against the inertia, cruelty of people disfigured by craving for property.

The autobiographical nature of "Childhood" enhances its educational value, and the skillful use of its emotional impact on children depends on the teacher.

At the first lesson, it is necessary to read the first chapter of the work with students, then move on to a conversation about the main issue of the story - the struggle of “good - human” with the world of inertia and money-grubbing. The feeling of the beauty of the world that opens up while sailing on a steamer along the Volga is combined with a sharp sense of hostile forces in it. Already here the beginning of Alyosha's conflict with the old world is given.

We offer the main range of questions and tasks that should be covered in the lesson: what pictures open before us in the first chapter? What characters are they associated with? Through whose eyes do we look at everything that happens in the story? What and how did Gorky tell about the Volga, its banks and cities? Who opens up a beautiful world for a boy?

What place did grandmother take in Alyosha's life? Answer with the words of the story.

Describe Alyosha's first impression of meeting his grandfather. How does grandfather talk to people? What feeling did he evoke in Alyosha? How is it stated in the text? Read the description of the Kashirins' house. Find epithets and comparisons in this description and determine their role.

In conclusion, the teacher says that in this house, among the people Alyosha did not like, the boy's difficult childhood will flow.

At home, students read the second chapter and answer the questions suggested in the textbook.

The second lesson is devoted to revealing the "lead abominations" of Russian life in the story and understanding the character of grandfather Kashirin.

Almost exhaustive material for elucidating these issues is provided by the second chapter, which draws horrifying pictures of drunken cruelty, mischief, mockery of the weak, family fights over property that pervert human souls.

We begin work on the topic with a discussion of the question: what struck Alyosha in the Kashirins' house? It is necessary to dwell in more detail on the author's description of the situation in the grandfather's house (the first three paragraphs of the second chapter), to find the words and expressions that most accurately characterize it. Then, using specific examples, show the “mutual enmity of everyone with everyone”, which poisoned both adults and children. The following episodes will be in the focus of students' attention: a quarrel between uncles, a scene with a thimble, spanking children, Sasha's denunciation of Alyosha.

The morals in the grandfather's house are most fully conveyed in the quarrel scene (it is read). We draw the attention of schoolchildren to how the author conveys the bestial appearance of the fighting brothers, how grandmother and grandfather behave during a quarrel, and how this characterizes each of them. Although the grandfather is also possessed by the spirit of money-grubbing, at the same time he is pathetic, because he is unable to stop his sons. A bright spot against the gloomy background of a cruel life stands out a grandmother who is trying to bring peace to this house.

Grandfather and grandmother's conversations about the need to divide property will show students that the main reason for the enmity in the Kashirin family was the craving for property, which gives rise to merciless cruelty. The teacher should explain to the students that the enmity of the brothers was exacerbated by the precarious position of small enterprises in the era of the development of capitalism.

What especially struck Alyosha in the Kashirin family? Attention is drawn to the attitude in this house towards women and children. The scene of punishment is analyzed, which is important not only for depicting cruelty, on the one hand, and humility, on the other. It is also interesting because it shows how cruelty, in turn, gives rise to such no less terrible and vile qualities as hypocrisy and betrayal. Having adapted to the world of violence and lies, Sasha became an informer and sycophant of Uncle Jacob, slavishly submissive and weak-willed - the son of Uncle Mikhail. We find out: what did Gorky say about the children of Yakov and Mikhail? What epithets and comparisons most vividly convey their character? How does Sasha Yakov make students feel? In what episodes does he most fully manifest himself?

Who is the most sympathetic character and why? An analysis of the episode with the thimble will show what place Grigory occupies in the Kashirins' house, that his fate is the typical fate of a worker in Tsarist Russia. A former companion of his grandfather, who devoted his whole life to the Kashirins, now, half-blind and sick, he endures bullying even from children.

A natural continuation of the conversation on this topic will be the discussion of the question: who was the main culprit of that "abundant cruelty" of life in the Kashirins' house? So students move on to the analysis of the image of Kashirin. They should be brought to an understanding of the complexity and inconsistency of the image of a grandfather, the guardian of possessive principles, the victim of his own greed and greed, to show why cruelty and greed have become the predominant features of his character.

After listening to the opinion of the students about how they felt when they first met their grandfather, we proceed to the analysis of episodes in which his character is especially clearly manifested. We find out his manner of talking with people, we look for imperative intonations characteristic of grandfather's speech in the first and second chapters.

Students think over the answers to the questions: how is Kashirin's appearance depicted? What is the difference between a grandfather and his sons, Jacob and Mikhail? How is the portrait characteristic of the grandfather confirmed by his actions and judgments about people? Why did Alyosha have "special attention, cautious curiosity" towards his grandfather?

Having comprehended the features of the character of the grandfather, we read and analyze further his story about his past; pay attention to what and how the grandfather tells. To understand the content of his story, the following questions can be asked:

What were your grandfather's childhood and youth like? What pictures are drawn to Alyosha in the grandfather's story about his youth? Compare these pictures with the description of the Volga in the works of Nekrasov N.A. and in the painting by Repin I.E. "Barge Haulers on the Volga". The richness of intonation, the melodiousness and figurativeness of speech, its closeness to folklore give a complete picture of the folk basis of the grandfather's character, the richness of his imagination, and craving for beauty.

How did Alyosha see his grandfather in this conversation? It turns out that grandfather can be both affectionate and cordial, he knows how to tell interesting stories. Alyosha and his appearance seem different (compare with the original portrait). The boy realized that his grandfather advanced thanks to his mind.

What embittered grandfather? The analysis of the reasons should be considered in more detail. Having drunk the bitter cup of the burlak to the bottom, having experienced humiliation and beatings, the grandfather finally made his way into the people, became the owner. But the cruel morality of capitalism, the pursuit of a penny, the constant fear of losing the dye house gave rise in him to the spirit of the owner, anger, distrust of people. Kashirin gradually lost all the best that was in him from the people, opposing himself to working people. It is advisable to read separate lines from the thirteenth chapter, telling about the future fate of the grandfather, when he, having gone bankrupt, loses the remnants of his human appearance.

At home, students prepare an expressive reading of their grandfather's story about their past, read the third and fourth chapters and answer questions from the textbook.

In the third lesson, the teacher will begin work on the second theme of the story - "bright, healthy and creative" in Russian life. The focus is on the history of the formation of Alyosha's character and the image of the Gypsy.

At the beginning of the lesson, we find out what the third chapter says about the cruel customs in the Kashirins' house (evil "jokes" of the uncles with the grandfather's former companion, their attitude towards the Gypsy). It is desirable that students express their attitude towards their uncles, give an assessment of Grigory's behavior: is he right, so patiently enduring all insults? Summing up the conversation on the first topic, you can ask the students: what kind of author's feeling is permeated with the pages of the story that tell about life and customs in the Kashirins' house?

Working on the main theme of the story - the formation of the character of Alyosha Peshkov, it is necessary to help students understand why Alyosha felt like a "stranger" among the "stupid tribe". Alyosha got into the Kashirins' house when he was four years old, but the impressions of a different life already lived in him. He remembered a close-knit family, father Maxim Savvateevich, an intelligent, cheerful and talented person, at first he was proud of his mother, who was not like the people around her. For the rest of his life, Alyosha remembered the “first days of saturation with beauty” while sailing on a steamer.

How was the first impression of the Kashirin family reflected in the sensitive soul and big heart of the boy? We single out those lines that say that Alyosha did not like everything: both adults and children, and even “grandmother somehow faded”, painful thoughts evoked in him the words of his mother, whom he “prevents from leaving home , where she cannot live. "Dense, motley, inexpressibly strange life" in the Kashirin family is perceived by Alyosha as "a harsh tale, well told by a kind, painfully truthful genius." Behind the epithets and comparisons that the author conveys the state of mind of the boy, one can guess a subtle, poetic nature, a man of good feelings who does not put up with evil.

How has Alyosha changed during the days of "ill health"? - The teacher will help the children to better understand the changes that have taken place in Alyosha with the help of narrower questions: how does Gorky convey the state of Alyosha? What new things did the boy have in relation to people?

We reveal the changes that have taken place in Alyosha on the material of the seventh chapter. Students will tell how Alyosha is infuriated by the cruelty of street fun, how he is ashamed in front of the blind master Grigory because his grandfather does not feed him.

Another source that strengthened Alyosha on his path was communication with real people from the people. A significant role in Alyosha's moral maturation belongs to Gypsy, with whose image the second theme of the story is connected - the image of how "through ... a layer ... of bestial rubbish, bright, healthy and creative sprouts." Gypsy embodies wonderful human qualities: extraordinary kindness and humanity, diligence, deep inner decency, talent, craving for the best.

The image of the Gypsy does not cause any particular difficulties for students.

The teacher will give direction to the work with the following questions:

What did Alyosha learn about Gypsy's past from his grandmother's stories? Describe his portrait. What place did Tsyganok occupy in his grandfather's house? How did those around him treat him? What characteristics did his grandfather and grandmother give him? How do you understand the expression "golden hands"? In what episodes is the giftedness, talent of the Gypsy shown? Tell about his amusements and expressively read the dance scene (an analysis of this episode can be carried out while watching a movie clip). How does Alyosha see the dancing Gypsy? Find comparisons in the description and determine their role. Did the artist B. A. Dekhterev manage to convey the character of the Gypsy in his drawing? Why did Alyosha fall in love with Gypsy "and was surprised to the point of dumbness"? What influence did Tsyganok have on Alyosha?

In conclusion, we find out (or report) how Tsyganok died, whether his death was accidental.

You can invite students at the end of the lesson to independently draw up a plan for the image of the Gypsy.

At home, students read the fourth chapter and receive individual tasks to collect material for the image of a grandmother.

The fourth lesson is entirely devoted to the analysis of the image of the grandmother. A person of great natural intelligence, bright artistic talent and sensitive heartfelt responsiveness, Akulina Ivanovna inspired her grandson with love for the world and people, opened her eyes to the beauty of nature, made him akin to folk art. According to the high order of her soul, she remained for Gorky all her life, in his words, "a friend, closest to her heart ... the most understandable and dear person"; her disinterested love for the world enriched Alyosha, "saturating him with strong strength for a difficult life." Initially, Gorky even intended to name the story "Grandma".

Students will find material for observing the image in the first - fourth and seventh chapters. The forms of work can be different: a conversation on questions or a teacher's story.

Direct independent work of students on these chapters is also possible, when the student himself understands the meaning of the text and its artistic side, and then informs the class about his observations. In the latter case, specific tasks are needed that can be individualized: the first row prepares observations on the first chapter, the second - on the second, third and seventh chapters, the focus of the third row is the fourth chapter.

Questions and tasks for the first chapter can be as follows:

Describe the portrait of your grandmother. What means of figurative language did Gorky use when creating this portrait? What epithets prevail in this case? Name them. What is the grandmother's talent? How does the grandmother’s conversation with Alyosha and an excerpt from her fairy tale confirm Gorky’s words about the peculiarities of her speech? What words did the writer express his gratitude to his grandmother? For expressive reading, one can recommend a portrait of a grandmother and her conversation with her grandson.

Grandmother's sense of beauty makes her irreconcilable to everything ugly. The writer revealed this side of her character in the second, third and seventh chapters. Akulina Ivanovna is shown in them against the backdrop of the gloomy life of the Kashirin family. Let's ask students the following questions:

What role did grandma play in the home? In what episodes are her kindness, the desire to introduce a spirit of peace into relations between people? (Pay attention to the form of grandmother's address to different people). How does the conversation with Alyosha about master Gregory characterize her (chapter seven)? What is grandma's prayer? How is Akulina Ivanovna shown on festive evenings? How does she appear to Alyosha during the dance, and how did the artist capture her in the drawing? (Read this episode expressively, name words that convey the beauty of grandmother's movements and the richness of her creative powers).

In the fourth chapter, the grandmother is shown at the moment of danger (it is advisable to read the entire chapter in class). We recommend the following questions to prepare for the message:

Why was Alyosha so struck by her grandmother during the fire? What verbs convey the speed of her movements? How does she organize fire fighting? What is interesting about the episode with the horse Sharap? What lines from the story can be signed under the drawing by Dekhterev B.A.? How did the grandfather assess the strength of the grandmother? What lines from N. A. Nekrasov’s poem “Frost, Red Nose” are remembered when reading these pages?

Summing up, let's say about the grandmother's extraordinary humanity, her love for people, her ability to do good to people in an evil environment, her faith in the victory of justice. In the image of his grandmother, Gorky embodied all the best that was characteristic of ordinary Russian people. At the same time, the wisdom of the grandmother is the wisdom of the patriarchal people, it expresses their humility, forgiveness. Grandmother comes to terms even with the cruelty that she herself had to experience more than once from her grandfather, finding justification for outbursts of his anger.

Will complete the work on the image drawing up a plan.

At home, students read the story to the end and prepare answers to questions from the textbook.

At the last lesson, the role of the lodger Good Deed in Alyosha's life is clarified and the writer's faith in the creative forces of the people and its future is discussed (chapters five, eight, twelfth, thirteen).

The lesson begins with a conversation about what people and events influenced Alyosha's character. It should be briefly repeated what impressions Peshkov made from life in the Kashirins' house, what his grandfather taught (additional material is given in the fifth chapter), what influence Tsyganok and grandmother had on the boy. It is important that students understand how Alyosha's unconscious protest against violence develops into a conscious resistance to the injustice and cruelty that he observed around him, and what role in the growth of this feeling belongs to those wonderful people whom his fate encountered.

Alyosha owes his inner growth and spiritual enrichment to the guest, nicknamed the Good Deed, who conquered the boy with his directness and truthfulness.

We listen to students' answers to the textbook questions and deepen them with the help of the following questions:

Who do you think the Good Deed is? (A passage is read that speaks of his mysterious and incomprehensible activities). Why did Alyosha make friends with Good Deed and what did he value in this friendship? Students are invited to give examples of friendly conversations between the lodger and Alyosha and read out the most vivid dialogues. What does Alyosha have in common with a Good Deed? What was it about the grown-ups' attitude to him that evoked Alyosha's particular indignation? How does Alyosha express his protest against injustice? Is he random? Explain how you understand the words: "Thus ended my friendship with the first person from an endless series of strangers in my native country - her best people."

These were the first lessons of the harsh life received by Alyosha in the Kashirins' house. Of undoubted interest will be the question: are there any features in Alyosha that allow us to believe that a person with a big heart can grow out of this boy?

Ordinary Russian people, smart, kind, interesting, talented, strengthened in Alyosha the noble and bright features of his personality: truthfulness and courage, kindness and sensitivity, the desire for knowledge, will and diligence (the thirteenth chapter), which were further developed during wanderings " in people ”(we consider the final drawing to the story).

It should be said about the educational significance of Alyosha's life path. The teacher can give examples of the difficult childhood of many people in pre-revolutionary Russia, when only thanks to their great will and energy they were able to defeat the surrounding evil and enter the wide road of life.

In conclusion, we read the twelfth chapter, which expresses the main idea of ​​the story, and discuss the question: what does the story teach us?

At home, students select material for the topic "Alyosha in the Kashirin family."

The task of the next lesson, a lesson in the development of speech , - bring students' knowledge on this topic into a strict system, that is, draw up a plan, highlight the most important thing in each paragraph, work out the transitions from one point of the plan to another, repeat quoting techniques (one of the forms is plan points), think over a short introduction and conclusion to the topic .

Sample Plan

I. Alyosha Peshkov - the central character of A. M. Gorky's story "Childhood".

II. The harsh school of Alyosha's life.

1. House of "mutual enmity of all with all."
2. A stranger among the "stupid tribe".
3. Alyosha's protest against the "lead abominations of Russian life."
4. What gave Alyosha friendship with the Gypsy.
5. A friend for life is a grandmother.
6. The role of the tenant Good Deed in the spiritual maturation of Alyosha.
7. "Strong strength for a difficult life."

III. What I like about Alyosha.

One or two students' stories should be listened to in class.

Students write essays at home.

Literature

1. Gorky M. "Childhood". Moscow, Enlightenment 1982
2. Weinberg I. Pages of a big life. Moscow, 1980
3. Gorky at school. Collection of articles edited by Golubkov V.V. Moscow, 1960
4. Dubinskaya M.S., Novoselskaya L.S. Russian literature in grades 6-7. Kyiv, 1977
5. Korovina V.Ya. Literature in grade 7: Methodological advice. The book for the teacher. Moscow, Education, 1995
6. Snezhevskaya M.A., Shevchenko P.A., Kurdyumova T.F. etc. Methodological guide to the textbook - anthology "Native Literature". 6th grade. Moscow, Education, 1986

The first chapter introduces us to Alyosha, his grandmother and mother, who are going to Nizhny Novgorod to visit his mother's family. Only the grief that happened in the family made the mother take her son and go to her father and brothers, and therefore she goes sad, immersed in her thoughts, as if remembering and anticipating the difficult, full of malice and envy, life with her father. Seeing native landscapes, the mother only “smiled gloomily”, unlike her grandmother.

Grandmother is a special, bright, warm person. Having seen much more grief and tears in life, next to such a person as her grandfather, she retained inextinguishable optimism, strength and joy of life: the road to Nizhny Novgorod - albeit short, but happiness, an opportunity to escape from what awaits her at home. That is why she glows with joy at the sight of a clear sky, golden autumn, wide, spacious banks of the Volga:

You look how good it is! - every minute the grandmother says, moving from side to side, and everything is shining, and her eyes are joyfully widened.

Often, looking at the shore, she forgot about me: she stands at the side, folding her arms over her chest, smiling and silent, and there are tears in her eyes ...

... - This, dear, from joy and old age, - she says smiling ...

For Alyosha, the road is the path to something new, unknown, but always beautiful.

However, Alyosha's hopes were not destined to come true: the family meeting them, or the "irrepressible tribe", as their grandmother called them, did not please Alyosha:

... Both adults and children - I didn’t like everyone, I felt like a stranger among them, even my grandmother somehow faded, moved away ...

"Lead abominations" the author called what the Kashirin family lived. The basis of family relations was malice and envy, as master Grigory Ivanovich said: “Kashirins, brother, they don’t like good things, they envy him, but they can’t accept him - they exterminate him!”

The brothers envy sister Varvara, Alexei’s mother, that she will receive a dowry, roll up an ugly fight among themselves, that even the grandfather calls them to remember that they are “native blood”, and the grandmother howling asks the Most Holy Theotokos “to restore the minds of the children ...”. The evil that comes from the brothers passes on to their children; taking advantage of their unreasonableness, the fathers incite them to baseness and meanness (remember the story with the thimble), and the children themselves are ready to inform, offend in order to shield themselves (remember the story with the tablecloth).

Yakov and Mikhail envy Gypsy for his dexterity, dashing, they understand that with whomever Tsyganok remains, he will have the best workshop, and therefore they treat him differently:

... The uncles treated Gypsy affectionately, friendly and never "joked" with him, as with master Grigory ...

and again their meanness is manifested: they “joked” only with weak people who could not answer them: Grigory Ivanovich was almost blind, Uncle Yakov’s wife died for being better than him, and only after getting drunk, the uncle sheds drunken tears over his wife. The cross that he bought for his wife, having given a falsely simulated vow to carry it to the cemetery on his shoulders, is the cause of the death of Gypsy - it was on his shoulders that Uncle Yakov carried the cross, only helping him, and jumping cowardly when he crushed Ivan.

Nothing was sacred to such people. Turning to the end of the story, we see that there are no, and could not be, winners in this family war: complete collapse and ruin, poverty and hoarding:

... will sprinkle tea leaves on his palm and, carefully counting them, will say:

Your tea is smaller than mine, which means I should put in less, mine is larger, richer ...

... This is the truth that needs to be known to the root, in order to root it out of memory, from the soul of a person, from our whole life, heavy and shameful.

And there is another, more positive reason forcing me to draw these abominations. Although they are disgusting, although they crush us, crushing many beautiful souls to death, the Russian person is still so healthy and young in soul that he overcomes and overcomes them ...

But there is another life in the story, other people - worthy, strong, kind, about whom the author said:

“Our life is amazing not only because it contains a fertile and fat layer of all bestial rubbish, but because bright, healthy and creative nevertheless victoriously sprouts through this layer, good - human grows, arousing unshakable hope for our rebirth to life. bright, human ... ".

Alyosha's grandmother, Akulina Ivanovna, amazes with her optimism, preserved during such a life. For Alyosha, she was a friend, closest to her heart:

... woke up, brought to light her disinterested love for the world, enriched me, saturating me with strong strength for a difficult life ...

Her words were flowers for Alyosha, which took root in his memory, his eyes shone with "an inextinguishable, cheerful and warm light."

Grandmother was gifted and talented: her fairy tales poured strength into the soul, liked not only her grandson, but also the bearded sailors on the ship, and the Good Cause, who was moved to tears, her dance fascinated and consoled.

Reread the fire scene. While grandfather sat and howled quietly, and Uncle Yakov was already taunting his brother, grandmother gave orders around the house, rushed into the burning hut for a bottle of dangerous vitriol, grandfather and Yakov only had to run after her, like confused children, and listen to her instructions. The horse, mad with fear and fire, became calm and calmed down when he saw her nearby:

... A mouse, three times her size, dutifully followed her to the gate and snorted, looking at her red face ...

Even my grandfather, with all his stinginess for good things, admired and was apparently proud of her:

Grandma, how are you? After all, the old woman ... Bit, broken ... That's the same! Oh you...

Everyone was drawn to the grandmother as a support, always ready to help, understand, console.

Kind, cheerful, simple-hearted and dexterous was Tsyganok, as if appearing from grandmother's fairy tales, ready to help, console, cheer. His character was like his dance - the same burning, iridescent and bright.

Incomprehensible, frightening and not like everyone else was the tenant Good Deed - a lonely, kind and wise man, to whom Alyosha reached out and for whom he sincerely worried when his grandfather nevertheless evicted him.

After the death of people who were close, beloved and dear to Alyosha, at the insistence of his grandfather, the boy leaves the house “to people”, taking with him all that good and kind that these people managed to invest in him.