aitmatov chopping block moral spiritual
“I have been looking for God among Christians for a long time, but He was not on the cross
I visited a Hindu temple and an ancient Buddhist monastery,
But even there I did not find even traces of Him.
I went to the Kaaba, but God was not there either.
Then I looked into my heart.
And only there he saw God,
Which was nowhere else…”
We will begin our conversation about Chingiz Aitmatov's novel "The Scaffold" with the study of the religious aspect this work. What motivates our choice? First, religion has been one of the most important institutions of the individual for many centuries. In the darkness of the Middle Ages, during the troubled times in Rus', during all wars and conflicts, when people had nothing left, not even a roof over their heads, faith did not leave them, helped them live, gave hope for tomorrow, in general, was a support, which helped man to withstand the hurricane of our vast world. This statement gives us the right to consider faith and religion as factors that have the strongest influence on the formation human personality. And since the purpose of this scientific work is a comparison of the microcosm of man and the cosmos of the universe, then consideration of the religious component of his personality becomes necessary in order to understand how Aitmatov draws inner world contemporary man.
New One Many-Faced God
When reading the Block, it is impossible not to notice that the entire action of the novel is based on religious motives, spiritual quests force the characters to do things, reconcile and quarrel them, in general, the course of the story is largely determined, as noted above, by religious motives. The second feature inherent in this novel by Aitmatov is the study of various social groups, or rather the social bottom, and what people who belong to this social class believe. We will try to analyze the author's point of view and understand why he comes to such conclusions.
First social group described in the novel was "The Junta". This name hides five people, demoralized people cut off from human society, or, to be more precise, five chronic alcoholics. The first of them was Ober-Kandalov, the second Mishash, the third Hamlet-Galkin, the fourth Aborigine-Uzyukbay, the fifth Kepa. Avdiy Kallistratov turned out to be the sixth in the Junta, but in this case he appears only as a formal member of the group, since he is neither a chronic alcoholic nor a person close in moral and personal qualities to the rest of the team members. What gives us reason to consider the people included in this community as a single subject-bearer of any religious beliefs After all, as you know, everyone believes in their own way and everyone has their own way to God? Chingiz Aitmatov answers this question in this way: “These people could serve as an example that the ways of the Lord are inscrutable, when we are talking about even the most trifling group of people. It means that it was so pleasing to the Lord that all of them turned out to be amazingly unambiguous people. Proceeding from this conviction, the author characterizes not every member of the Junta, but the entire group as a whole. So, what kind of relationship do these people have with God?
It would be correct to say that these people have no relationship with God at all. This conclusion can be drawn if only because the leader of the “Junta” Ober-Kandalov, who is also the bearer of the main qualities of his team, sincerely considers the priests a misunderstanding of the time, moreover, he never even crossed the threshold of the church even out of interest. What can we say about his subordinates, who, in terms of moral and personal development, are a step below Auber, because at least he knew how to understand people and organize a team, acting as a leader. But what, then, fills the emptiness of the inner world of the members of this collective, how do they fill the spiritual and moral crisis of their souls? Analyzing the text of the novel, we came to the conclusion that the meaning of existence for these people is an escape from reality, and in particular, a painful craving for alcohol, which, in their opinion, helps them relax, throw off the burden of their unsuccessful life feel like people. When sober, the members of this collective are rude people, embittered at the world, at their broken destiny, and, therefore, understanding only the language of power, because words for them have long lost their moral, creative influence. In fact, alcohol, coupled with rough physical force just is God for the "Junta". The consciousness of the members of this collective is subject to a painful desire to drink, “to inflate oneself so that there are no barriers left to completely beat off the consciousness.” It turns out a paradox: consciousness is subject to the desire to turn off consciousness. But this only at first glance seems like a paradox, but in fact, if you look closely, you can easily guess the features of a destroyed, demoralized personality in this desire. So it turns out that without strong faith, without spiritual strength, a person begins to degrade as an individual, gradually turning into a humanoid being. The substitution of true ideals, the perversion of religious views only exacerbates the moral crisis of the individual, this is what happens with the members of the Junta, who have only a low desire to flood their consciousness with alcohol in their souls. These people have lost touch with human society forever, they have become, as it is called scientifically, lumpen.
The second social group described in Chingiz Aitmatov's novel "The Scaffold" was a group of young people called "Messengers". What is remarkable about this group of people? It is notable for the fact that it brought together boys who want to earn extra money on the extraction of drugs. To do this, they united in groups of several people and went by train to the distant Moyunkum and Chui steppes, where there were places of growth special kind cannabis, namely, marijuana. Further, if everything went well, they returned to Moscow, where they received honestly earned money, and then, they dispersed in all directions. It would seem, what kind of relationship can these people have with God, because most of them, probably, do not think about anything other than profit and high from the use of weed. Clarity in this question introduces a dialogue between Avdiy Kallistratov, who found himself among the messengers in order to study hemp routes and people operating in this area, and Grishan, who is the head of the group. The results of their conversation can be reduced to the following conclusions. The god of the messengers is money, for the sake of which they are ready for literally anything. We see this from the conversations between the messengers and, of course, from the dialogue between Grishan and Avdiy Kallistratov. So it turns out that money for messengers replaces both father and mother, and God, in general, the whole moral world of man. This explains their careless, consumerist attitude to life, because people who have nothing in their souls except the notorious assertion that everything is bought and sold cannot be otherwise. Further, from the controversy between Obadiah and Grishan, an even more paradoxical fact emerges: the messengers do not just get marijuana because big money, but even put forward their own concept of faith in God and the ways of coming to Father's house. So, in particular, Grishan says that he helps people to know God in a high, so to speak, to come to him from the back door. This theory, in his opinion, is the only saving one, because everything else in our vicious world cannot give happiness, and, therefore, you have to somehow replace it, because you don’t disappear at all. But for everything that we do, there is a retribution, Grishan understands this very well. So for the rapid approach to God, the buzz has to be paid for at no small price, because the state of indescribable happiness after drug use is followed by “a streak of madness and the final degradation of the soul.” Therefore, the concept of God and faith in him, as presented by Grishan, does not withstand the criticism of Obadiah, because true faith contributes to the strengthening and improvement of the human spirit, and not to its decomposition, impoverishment, and destruction. The conclusion about the moral values among messengers suggests itself: these boys have lost their human essence due to the substitution of true ideals for false ones. The concept of finding God in pleasure and money cripples, mortifies their souls, the messengers become more cynical, selfish and indifferent to the world around them. So they not only destroy themselves, but also other people who find themselves in their sphere of influence, depending on drugs. Gradually, the messengers turn into inveterate repeat offenders, with repeated convictions and, one way or another, are thrown to the sidelines of human society, thereby poisoning the lives of themselves and others.
Finally, the third, whose inner world Chingiz Aitmatov tries to explore, becomes main character novel - Avdiy Kallistratov. This character deserves special attention, because only his personality is shown in the process of development, it is with him that we travel through the pages of the Block, it is he who contacts all the heroes described above, trying to understand them, draw conclusions about himself and the world around him. The life story of the former seminarian Avdiy Kallistratov is presented in the novel most fully, so let's try to trace the main points of his biography and understand how his personality, soul, inner world evolves in the process of knowing our vast and sometimes inexplicable world.
We propose to consider the childhood of Obadiah as the starting point of our study, because, as is known, even at the earliest, almost infancy, the individual lays all the main features of his personality, character, which in one way or another manifest themselves in conscious life, largely determining the fate person. What was the main character's childhood like? It was as follows: Avdiy Kallistratov grew up in the family of a deacon, grew up without a mother, since she died when he was still very young. The father tried to raise his son in the Christian-church spirit, since he himself was a man serving in the church. His young son turned out to be quite inquisitive and began to study with great interest. holy scripture. Thus, Obadiah made his father unspeakably happy, and upon reaching the required age, with their common consent, he was assigned to a theological seminary. That's probably all significant events that occurred in the childhood of the future seminarian, and our task now is to identify the main personality traits of Obadiah, which were formed when he was still a child. The first and main feature is his kindness and responsiveness towards others, because this quality is certainly very rare even for the time when the novel was published only for the first time. And indeed, if you look at the kind, gracious, peaceful atmosphere in which Avdiy Kallistratov was brought up, it becomes clear why there is so much sympathy in his soul, the desire to help others, because the power of childhood impressions, coupled with the competent upbringing of parents, is a great force that forms the personality of a child almost not from "a" to "z". The second no less significant feature laid down in the main character from an early age is his spirituality, inner harmony, because it is this quality, like a life-giving stream that saved the traveler from death in the desert, each time fills Obadiah with the desire to live, exist, internally revives him . This quality is the root of the protagonist's personality, from which, in turn, all his other virtues grow, and, as you know, a plant with strong, healthy roots and above the ground is higher and more beautiful than others of its kind.
Now let's turn to the youth of Avdiy Kallistratov and see what happens in his inner world during this period of his life. At first, everything goes as well as possible: Obadiah is listed as one of the most capable students of the seminary, fathers-teachers love him, and they predict a great future for him. But life is unpredictable, and suddenly the main character turns from a diligent student into a heretic-newthinker, he is expelled from the seminary, and in addition, the apartment where their family lived for many years is taken away in connection with the death of deacon Kallistratov shortly before the events described above. What is the reason for such tragic change in Obadiah, why does fate hit him so hard? Firstly, youthful maximalism could play a certain role, because at the time of adolescence, claims to the canons of life that have developed in society, the desire to change the current course of things, are characteristic. The same story partly happened with Obadiah, who, being a young man, hot and sensitive, tried to make changes in this time and forever the word of God. But he did this not out of self-interest, but out of a desire to help disbelieving people find the Lord again in their hearts and souls. In part, Obadiah himself could have been subject to a crisis of faith, because seeing the suffering of those around him, experiencing constant pressure from the state on believers, and even very deeply experiencing the death of his father, he could doubt the justice of faith, because it’s not worth thinking: “Why For a righteous life and sincere faith in the Lord God, only suffering is sent to me, and to others, less worthy, happiness and grace?!” Maybe this was the reason, because everything can be, but for us the results of Obadiah's searches, the changes that took place in his inner world as a result of dissent, are much more important. The result of these quests can be nothing more than the acquisition by the hero of true faith in God, a radical change in his fate, life, consciousness of his own destiny. As we will see below, this conclusion is far from unfounded, moreover, it is confirmed by the further course of the story.
The next in chronology in the biography of Avdiy Kallistratov is his trip with messengers to the Moyunkum steppes. Why does our hero find himself in a criminal environment, what intentions guide him and what kind of life lesson does he take out of this enterprise?! Of course, he goes not out of self-interest, but out of moral considerations, namely, on the basis of his experience, he wants to create a series of essays on the topic of drug addiction among young people, a problem that is certainly important and requires public outcry. Moreover, with the help of his articles, Obadiah, as an aspiring reporter, hopes to find a new path to the hearts and minds of readers, which, as he thinks, will subsequently open up for him the opportunity to publish his ideas about the modernization of faith and about a contemporary God, to start a conversation on the most intimate theme for him. What actually comes out of Obadiah's plan? At first, everything goes as planned: our hero "joins" the environment of hemp hunters, studies their world, concepts, laws by which they live. And everything would be fine if it were not for the despair growing in his soul, indignation at moral degradation messengers, boys like him. This circumstance, one might say, is fateful for Avdiy Kallistratov, because contrary to all the principles of the instinct of self-preservation, he is trying to convince the messengers, to set them on the right path. A conversation with Grishan, a fight in a freight train - these are the key moments in the fate of the protagonist, because it is then that he overcomes the internal conflict in his personality, regains the lost harmony, realizes the essence of his destiny. It is only in the prism of these events that Obadiah understands the illusory nature, the inexpediency of ideas about a contemporary God and about the reformation of faith; help people, morally resurrect them - that's new meaning the life of Avdiy Kallistratov, and he agrees to do this at any cost, even at the cost of his own life, which is a sign of the hero's return from heresy to the true faith. As Chingiz Aitmatov said: “He who suffered a lot, he learned a lot,” - probably, this phrase contains the whole truth of a person’s stay in this world, because Obadiah, through the suffering he endured, finds a new self, moreover, he meets on that distant nodal station Zhalpak-Saz the love of his life - Inga Fedorovna, but isn't this the highest award for all his suffering ?! In general, after traveling to the Moyunkum steppes, the protagonist becomes a completely different person, a person in whose soul a bright and pure river flows, originating from the streams of faith, consciousness, love. In other words, Avdiy Kallistratov comes to the highest point of understanding of being, when there is harmony between his spirit, body and mind, and he clearly knows what his goal is in this life.
The last event in the biography of the protagonist is his second trip to the Moyunkum steppes. He was brought there by nothing more than a desire to meet again with Inga Fedorovna after a long separation, especially since they had to decide on the creation of a family, because both managed to fall in love with each other very much and wanted to start a new one. happy life . And everything would have been fine if fate had not intervened again: beloved Avdiy left for Dzhambul to resolve the issue of custody of her son from her first marriage, and Avdiy, who arrived just at the time of Inga’s absence, was forced to dutifully wait for her arrival, because he had no control over the situation. Little things, circumstances, incidents and accidents, to which we, in fact, do not attach importance, but which, oddly enough, determine our fate, invisibly interfering with our planned actions, played a role this time as well. It so happened that it was at the very moment when Avdiy was walking around the Zhalpak-Saz station in a turmoil of thoughts about his future with Inga Fedorovna (and her trip to Dzhambul really had a fateful character for their relationship), he caught the eye of Ober-Kandalov, who gathered a group for a raid in Moyunkum. The protagonist, without hesitation, responded to Aubert's proposal, because thoughts of his beloved weighed him down, like a Gordeev knot tightly tightened around his neck, a knot that he was unable to untie - at most just forget about him for a while. The nature of a person is such that the longer he waits for the verdict, the more he dramatizes the events, the more clearly he imagines the most tragic outcome of the circumstances. Apparently, such a combination of circumstances was destined for the protagonist by fate itself, and therefore he had no choice but to agree to the unexpectedly turned up “coven”, because in this way he could distract himself from heavy thoughts about their future with Inga and, importantly, earn some money. A trip to the raid in Moyunkumy turned out to be a fatal accident for Avdiy Kallistratov: he could not withstand the violence against nature that his partners did in the steppe, and instead of helping to throw saiga carcasses into the truck, the main character tried to set the members of the Junta on the right path . But again, Obadiah was not lucky: the members of this team turned out to be people so demoralized that it was even difficult to determine what, apart from the ability to speak, distinguished them from animals?! Cruelty, ignorance, rudeness, unreasonable aggression, thirst for bloodshed - these are the qualities that determined the behavior of the Junta members. Obadiah only gave them a reason to show their bestial nature; the reprisal against him was terrible, probably worse than the torture in the Gestapo. But Avdiy Kallistratov did not give up before the last, most difficult test in his life, for he firmly believed that he was dying for the truth, for faith, for love for this land and for the whole world as a whole, dying for and in the name of others, in the name of good and justice on earth. The protagonist meets his death, being crucified on a saxaul tree, just as Jesus Christ was once crucified on the cross. And such an ending is not accidental, it sums up the life and moral and spiritual searches of the hero, even on the cross, because the phrase is not accidental: “Maybe it is not accidental that best sons the most bitter sufferings are sent to the human.” Avdiy Kallistratov goes through a very complex cycle of internal development, so at the beginning of this path he appears as an arrogant teenager, hatching plans to renew faith and God, if not the entire universe, but then, in the process of learning about life with its harsh reality and the laws of survival, the hero rethinks his views on the world around and the order of being, acquires true faith into God, spiritual harmony and purpose in life. If we turn to the question: “What is God for Obadiah after all?!” - then we will find an unequivocal answer, because God is in his heart, and not in a bottle of vodka or a cigarette stuffed with grass. This is the main idea that Chingiz Aitmatov wanted to convey to us from the pages of his novel “The Block”: God cannot be subordinated to uniform standards, if a person has a God, then everyone has a different one, different even due to the fact that we represent his image differently; relations with God are also different for everyone, who trusts, relies on him in all his affairs, who simply pours out his soul before him, someone even quarrels with him. But the main thing that unites all believers is the hope that faith in God gives us, because after turning to the Almighty, everyone in his soul has a hope that his prayers will be heard, that the Lord will ease his suffering. Thus, Chingiz Aitmatov shows his concept of understanding faith and God: everyone has a different God, everyone comes to him along his own special path, everyone expects something important from Him only, everyone’s relationship with God is also different, but the hope is the same because if the Lord is just and merciful, then he will not deprive anyone of his love.
The story of Avdiy Kallistratov ends tragically: he dies, crucified on a saxaul tree, but this, in our opinion, is his fate: he found his God and his faith and did not betray his views, just as Jesus Christ did not compromise his on Golgotha. He dies without asking for an extension of his days, without cursing his murderers, the only thing he does not stop crying about is the salvation of human souls, the eradication of evil in the deeds and minds of people. Obadiah remains true to himself even in the face of death, this is his high moral feat likening him to Christ, because, like the Son of God, he sacrificed himself for the sake of others, carried the cross of his life proudly and humbly, accepted death in the name of life and the atonement of human sins.
The last person considered by Chingiz Aitmatov in the system of religious and moral values in his novel "The Block" is Boston Urkunchiev. This person is a conscientious worker, a leading shepherd, he, the only one from the entire state farm, tries to live with dignity, and not exist, as other shepherds do. When he talks about something, he does not wag around the bush, but, on the contrary, expresses his thoughts directly, clearly and to the point. This is the kind of person Boston Urkunchiev is: hard-working, honest, direct, respectable. Oddly enough, but at first glance it seems that Boston is a non-believer. But a detailed analysis of the entire history of the shepherd shows that, nevertheless, his relationship with God developed, although they were very difficult. They, so to speak, are in Boston on a subconscious level, because if you think about it, when should he start a debate about the moral duty of a person, about the need for faith in God, as about the most important institution personality improvement. But it would also be foolish to believe that subconsciously, that means thoughtlessly, just religion, faith is in Boston's blood, he observes its customs in all his affairs. If you ask yourself what is God for this hero, then after studying his lifestyle, attitude towards it, we can assume that God for Boston is his work, which he does every single day. And indeed, he gets up every day at six in the morning to fuss with the sheep all day and go to bed after midnight, but this does not prevent him from sacredly believing in what he is doing, and if you believe, then Boston has something God. Only at the end of the novel did he give up his principles, but there were good reasons for this, which we will talk about in the conclusion of our work. As for the rest, as we have already seen, Boston is a person who loves his work and firmly believes in its benefit. So what if his God is work, because it is still better than any other destruction; Work, just like Obadiah's awareness of his destiny, brings harmony to the life of Boston Urukchiev, fills it with meaning, and this is why his work is spiritualized, that is, one in which one wants to put one's soul into, which brings not only fatigue, but also pleasure. In general, everyone has their own God, and Boston has one; the main thing is that, as already noted above, faith brings harmony and meaning to life, creates, and does not destroy, and how and what to believe in is everyone’s business, because we all have our own road to the Almighty.
That summer, in the Moyunkumsky reserve, wolf cubs were born for the first time to the she-wolf Akbara and the wolf Tashchainar. With the first snow, it was time to hunt, but how could the wolves know that their original prey - saigas - would be needed to replenish the meat-delivery plan, and that someone would offer to use the "meat resources" of the reserve for this.
When the wolf pack surrounded the saigas, helicopters suddenly appeared. Circling in the air, they drove the frightened herd towards the main force - the hunters in the "UAZ". The wolves also ran. At the end of the chase, only Akbara and Tashchainar survived among the wolves (two of their cubs died under the hooves of a crazy mass, the third was shot by one of the hunters). They, tired and wounded, wanted to get to their native lair as soon as possible, but there were also people near it who collected saiga corpses - the meat-delivery plan gave these homeless people a chance to earn extra money.
The senior in the company was Ober, in the past the foreman of the disciplinary battalion, immediately after him - Mishka-Shabashnik, a type of "bull ferocity", and the former artist occupied the lowest position regional theater Hamlet-Galkin and the "native" Uzyukbay. In their military all-terrain vehicle among the cold carcasses of saigas lay Avdiy Kallistratov, the son of the late deacon, expelled from the seminary for heresy.
At that time, he worked as a freelancer for the regional Komsomol newspaper: readers liked articles with his unusual reasoning, and the newspaper willingly printed them. Over time, Obadiah hoped to express on the pages of the newspaper his “new-thinking ideas about God and man in modern era as opposed to the dogmatic postulates of the archaic dogma,” but he did not understand that he was opposed not only by church postulates that had not changed for centuries, but also by the powerful logic of scientific atheism. However, "it burned its own fire."
Obadiah had a pale, high forehead. Bulging gray eyes reflected restlessness of spirit and thought, and shoulder-length hair and a chestnut beard gave a benevolent expression to his face. Obadiah's mother died in early childhood, and the father, who invested his whole soul in the upbringing of his son, soon after he entered the religious school. "And perhaps that was the mercy of fate, for he would not have suffered the heretical metamorphosis that happened to his son." After the death of his father, Obadiah was expelled from the small service apartment in which he lived all his life.
Then his first trip to Central Asia took place: the newspaper gave the task to trace the ways of penetration of the marijuana drug into the youth environment of the European regions of the country. To complete the task, Obadiah joined the company of "messengers for marijuana". The messengers went for marijuana to the Primoyunkum steppes in May, when hemp blooms. Their groups formed at the Kazansky railway station in Moscow, where messengers from all over the Soviet Union gathered, especially from port cities, where it was easier to sell the drug. Here Obadiah learned the first rule of the messengers: communicate less in public, so that in case of failure they would not betray each other. Usually the messengers collected cannabis inflorescences, but the most valuable raw material was "plasticine" - a mass of hemp pollen, which was processed into heroin.
A few hours later, Obadiah was already driving south. He guessed that at least a dozen messengers were on this train, but he knew only two, whom he joined at the station. Both messengers arrived from Murmansk. The most experienced of them, Petrukha, was twenty years old, the second, sixteen-year-old Lenya, went fishing for the second time, and already considered himself an experienced messenger.
The more Obadiah delved into the details of this fishery, the more he became convinced that "in addition to private and personal reasons that give rise to a tendency to vice, there are social reasons that allow the possibility of this kind of youth illness." Obadiah dreamed of writing "a whole sociological treatise" about this, or, best of all, to open a discussion - in print and on television. Because of their detachment from real life he did not understand that “no one is interested in talking about such things openly, and this was always explained by considerations of the supposed prestige of our society,” although in reality everyone was simply afraid to risk their official position. Obadiah was free from this fear and longed to help these people "with personal participation and personal example to prove to them that the way out of this pernicious state is possible only through one's own rebirth."
On the fourth day of their journey, the Snowy Mountains appeared on the horizon - a sign that their journey was almost over. The messengers had to get off at the Zhalpak-Saz station, hitchhike to the Moyunkumsky state farm, and then go on foot. The entire operation was invisibly directed by Himself, whom Obadiah never saw, but realized that this mysterious man was very distrustful and cruel. Having had a bite to eat at the station, Avdiy, Petruha and Lyonka went on under the guise of seasonal workers.
In the remote Kazakh village of Uchkuduk, where they stopped to rest and earn some money, Avdiy met a girl who soon became the main person in his life. She drove her motorcycle up to the building they were plastering. Obadiah especially remembered the combination of blond hair and dark eyes, which gave the girl a special charm. This visit of the motorcyclist alerted the messengers, and the next morning they moved on.
Soon they came across very dense thickets of hemp. Each novice messenger had to present Himself with a gift - a matchbox of "plasticine". “The case turned out to be simple, but exhausting to the limit and barbaric in its way. It was necessary, having stripped naked, to run through the thickets, so that pollen from the inflorescences would stick to the body. Then a layer of pollen was scraped off the body in the form of a homogeneous mass. Obadiah was forced to do this only by the prospect of meeting Himself.
Soon they set off on the return journey with backpacks stuffed to overflowing with marijuana. Now the messengers faced the most difficult task: to get to Moscow, bypassing the police round-ups at the Asian stations. Again, the mysterious Himself was in charge of the whole operation, and all the way Obadiah prepared himself for a meeting with him. At the railroad, where the messengers were supposed to board the freight wagon, they met Grishan with two messengers. When Obadiah saw him, he immediately realized that this was Himself.
Part two
Grishan had an ordinary appearance and resembled "a predatory animal driven into a corner, which wants to rush, bite, but does not dare and still takes courage and assumes a threatening pose." He joined the group of Obadiah under the guise of a simple messenger. After talking with Obadiah, Grishan quickly realized that he belongs to the breed of "obsessed idiots" and went to Moyunkum only in order to correct what cannot be corrected by one person. Obadiah and Grishan had absolutely opposite life positions from which none of them was going to retreat. Grishan wanted Obadiah to leave and not disturb the messengers with his reasoning about God, but Obadiah could not leave.
In the evening it was time to board the freight train. Grishan sent two people to create an "illusion of fire" on the tracks. Noticing the fire laid out on the rails, the driver slowed down, and the whole company managed to jump into an empty car. The train moved towards Zhalpak-Saz. Soon everyone relaxed and passed around a circle of cigarettes with weed. Only Avdiy and Grishan did not smoke. Obadiah realized that Grishan allowed them to "get high" to spite him. Although Obadiah pretended that he did not care, in his heart he "was indignant, suffered from his impotence to oppose anything to Grishan."
It all started with the fact that Petruha, who had finally gone crazy, began to pester Obadiah with a proposal to take a puff from a greasy bull. Unable to stand it, Obadiah grabbed the bull and threw it into open door carriage, then began to shake out the cannabis from the backpack there, urging everyone to follow his example. The messengers pounced on Obadiah, "he is now personally convinced of the ferocity, cruelty, sadism of drug addicts." One Lyonka tried to separate the fighting. Grishan looked at it, not hiding his gloating. Obadiah understood that Grishan would help him, one had only to ask, but Obadiah could not ask Grishan for help. In the end, beaten to a pulp, Obadiah was thrown out of a moving on at full speed trains.
Obadiah was lying in a ditch near the railway, and he saw that memorable conversation between Jesus and Pontius Pilate, in which the future Messiah also did not ask for mercy.
Obadiah came to himself at night, under the pouring rain. Water filled the cuvette, and this made Obadiah move. His head remained clear, and he was surprised at "what amazing clarity and volume of thoughts overshadow him." Now it seemed to Obadiah that he existed in two different eras: in the present tense, he tried to save his dying body, and in the past he wanted to save the Teacher, rushing through the hot streets of Jerusalem and realizing that all his attempts were in vain.
Obadiah waited out the night under the railway bridge. In the morning he found that his passport had turned into a ball wet paper, “and of the money, only two banknotes were more or less preserved - twenty-five rubles and a dozen”, for which he had to get to his native Prioksk. There was a country road under the bridge. Avdiy was lucky - almost immediately a ride picked him up and took him to the Zhalpak-Saz station.
Obadiah looked so skinned and suspicious that he was immediately arrested at the station. At the police station where he was brought, Obadiy was surprised to see almost the entire team of messengers with the exception of Grishan. Obadiah called out to them, but they pretended not to recognize him. The policeman already wanted to release Obadiah, but he demanded that he, too, be put behind bars, saying that they would repent of their sins and thereby be cleansed. Mistaking Avdiy for a madman, the policeman took him to the waiting room, asked him to leave as far as possible and left. The people who beat Obadiah were supposed to make him want to take revenge, but instead it seemed to him that "the defeat of marijuana miners is also his defeat, the defeat of an altruistic idea that carries good."
Meanwhile, Obadiah was getting worse. He felt that he was completely ill. Some elderly woman noticed this, called ambulance and Avdiy ended up in the Zhalpak-Saz station hospital. On the third day, the same motorcyclist girl who came to Uchkuduk came to him. The girl, Inga Feodorovna, was a friend of the station doctor, from whom she learned about Avdia. Inga was engaged in the study of Moyunkum hemp, the story of Obadiah was very interested in her, and she came to find out if he needed scientific information about marijuana. This meeting was the beginning of a "new era" for Obadiah.
Arriving in the fall to Inge, Avdiy did not find her at home. In the letter that Inga left him in the mail on demand, it was said that her ex-husband wanted to take her son away from her through the court, and she had to urgently leave. Avdiy returned to the station, where he was met by Kandalov, nicknamed Ober. On the morning of the next day, Avdiy, together with the "junta", went to raid the Moyunkum Reserve.
The extermination of the saigas had a terrible effect on Obadiah, and, just as then, in the carriage, he began to “demand that this slaughter be stopped immediately, called on the brutal hunters to repent, turn to God.” This "was the reason for the massacre." Ober arranged a trial, as a result of being beaten to a pulp, Obadiah was crucified on a clumsy saxaul. Then they got into the car and left.
And Obadiah saw a huge water surface, and above the water - the figure of the deacon Kallistratov, and Obadiah heard his own children's voice reading a prayer. “Then came the final waters of life.” And the executioners of Obadiah were fast asleep one and a half kilometers from the place of execution - they drove off to leave Obadiah alone. At dawn, Akbara and Tashchainar crept up to their devastated lair and saw a man hanging from a saxaul. Still alive, the man raised his head and whispered to the she-wolf: "You have come...". Those were his last words. At this time, the sound of an engine was heard - it was the executioners returning - and the wolves left the Moyunkum savannah forever.
For a whole year, Akbara and Tashchainar lived in the Aldash reeds, where they had five wolf cubs. But soon they began to build a road to the mining development here, and the ancient reeds were set on fire. And again the wolf cubs died, and again Akbara and Tashchainar had to leave. They made their last attempt to continue the race in the Issyk-Kul basin, and this attempt ended in a terrible tragedy.
Part three
On that day, the shepherd Bazarbai Noigutov was hired as a guide to geologists. After escorting the geologists and receiving 25 rubles and a bottle of vodka, Bazarbai went straight home. On the way, he could not stand it, dismounted by the stream, took out the coveted bottle and suddenly heard a strange cry. Bazarbai looked around and found in the thicket wolf lair with very small wolf cubs. It was the lair of Akbara and Tashchainar, who were hunting that day. Without hesitation, Bazarbai put all four cubs into saddlebags and hurried away in order to have time to go as far as possible before the arrival of the wolves. Bazarbai was going to sell these wolf cubs at a very high price.
Returning from the hunt and finding no children in the lair, Akbara and Tashchainar followed the trail of Bazarbay. Having caught up with the shepherd, the wolves tried to cut off his path to the lakeside and drive him into the mountains. But Bazarbai was lucky - Boston's sheep Urkunchiev was on his way. Bazarbai hated this collective-farm leader and envied him in black, but now there was no choice.
The owner was not at home, and Boston's wife, Gulyumkan, received Bazarbai as a dear guest. Bazarbai immediately demanded vodka, collapsed on the carpet, and began to talk about his today's "feat". The cubs were taken out of the bags, and the one and a half year old son of Boston began to play with them. Soon Bazarbai took the cubs and left, while Akbara and Tashchainar remained near the Boston Compound.
Since then, near the economy of Boston every night, a dreary wolf howl was heard. The next day, Boston went to Bazarbai to buy wolf cubs from him. Bazarbay met him unfriendly. He did not like everything in Boston: he had a good coat, and a good horse, and he himself was healthy and bright-eyed, and his wife was beautiful. In vain did Boston convince Bazarbay that the cubs should be returned to the lair. He did not sell the wolf cubs, he had a fight with Boston.
On that day, the wolves left their lair forever and began to roam the area, fearing no one. “And they started talking about them even more when Akbara and Tashchainar broke the wolf taboo and started attacking people.” About Akbar and Tashchainar "terrible glory went", but no one knew real reason wolf revenge, and did not suspect "about the hopeless longing of the mother wolf for the wolf cubs stolen from the lair." And Bazarbai at that time, having sold the wolf cubs, drank away the money and everywhere boasted about how great he had sent Boston, "this unrevealed secret fist."
And the wolves returned to the Boston courtyard again. The howl of the wolf kept him awake. I involuntarily remembered a difficult childhood. Boston's father died in the war when he was in the second grade, then his mother died, and he, the youngest in the family, was left to his own devices. He achieved everything in his life with hard work, therefore he believed that the truth was on his side, and did not pay attention to the blasphemy. Only in one of his deeds he repented so far.
Gulyumkan was the second wife of Boston. He worked and was friends with her late husband Ernazar. At that time, Boston sought to ensure that the land on which his flocks grazed was assigned to his brigade for permanent use. No one agreed to this - everything looked very much like private property. The state farm party organizer Kochkorbaev was especially against it. And then Boston and Ernazar had an idea: to overtake the cattle for the whole summer over the Ala-Mongyu pass, to the rich Kichibel pasture. They decided to go to the pass and chart a path for the flocks. The higher they climbed into the mountains, the thicker the snow cover became. Because of the snow, Ernazar did not notice a crack in the glacier and fell into it. The crack was so deep that the rope did not reach the bottom of it. Boston could do nothing to save his friend, and then he hurried for help. He put all the harness on the ropes, so he had to go on foot, but here he was lucky - one of the shepherds was playing a wedding in the foothills. Boston led people to the crack, then the climbers arrived and said that they could not get Ernazar's corpse out of the crack - he was firmly frozen into the thickness of the ice. And to this day, Boston has a dream about how he descends into a crack to say goodbye to a friend.
Six months later, Boston's first wife died. Before her death, she asked her husband not to walk in bobs, but to marry Gulyumkan, who was her friend and distant relative. Boston did so, and soon their son Kenjesh was born. The children of Boston and Gulyumkan from their first marriages have already grown up and started families, so this child has become a joy for both mother and father.
Now the wolves howled outside the Boston home every night. Finally, Boston could not stand it and decided to watch for a pair of wolves near the flock. They would have to be killed - there was no other way out. It was not easy for Boston: the charge of protecting wolves was added to the charge of Ernazar's death. Two of his enemies - Kokchorbaev and Bazarbai - united, and now they were persecuting him, driving him into a dead end. Only Tashchainar managed to kill Boston, Akbara managed to escape.
The world for Akbara has lost its value. At night, she came to Boston's house and silently sniffed, hoping that the wind would carry the smell of wolf cubs to her. Summer came, Boston overtook the cattle for summer grazing and returned for the family. Before leaving, they drank tea, and Kenjesh played in the yard. No one noticed how Akbara crept up and carried away the child. Boston grabbed a gun and started shooting at the she-wolf, but missed all the time - he was afraid to hit his son, whom Akbara carried on her back. And the she-wolf, meanwhile, went further and further. Then Boston aimed more carefully and fired. When he ran up to the fallen Akbara, she was still breathing, and Kenjesh was already dead.
Beside himself with grief, Boston loaded his gun, went to Bazarbay and shot him at point-blank range, avenging everything. Then he turned and went “to the side of the lake to surrender to the authorities there. That was the end of his life."
This work, written in 1986, is presented below.
First of all, let us briefly describe the biography of the author. Chingiz Aitmatov was born in 1928, on December 12, in the Kyrgyz village of Sheker. He graduated with honors from the Dzhambul zootechnical school, and then from the Kyrgyz Agricultural Institute, after which he worked as a veterinarian. This author appeared in print in 1952. His pen belongs to many famous works many of which have been made into feature films. Aitmatov himself repeatedly took part in their creation, acting as a co-author or screenwriter. This writer died in 2008.
Among his other works are the stories: "Jamila", "Camel's Eye", "White Ship", "The First Teacher", "Mother's Field", as well as a collection published in 1963 ("Tales of the Mountains and Steppes"), for which he received the Lenin Prize, etc.
The first part: the death of the offspring of Tashchainar and Akbara
The first part of the work, which was created by Aitmatov Ch.T., consists of six chapters. ("Blacha"). A brief summary of the chapters of the events taking place in it is as follows.
The action of the novel that interests us begins in the Moyunkum Reserve. A pair of wolves lived here - Tashchainar and Akbara. They had wolf cubs in the summer. After the snow fell, the couple went hunting and found that the reserve was full of people. The hunters arrived here in order to fulfill the plan for the delivery of meat. These people were shooting saigas. The wolves that lived in the reserve also died during the hunt. Only Tashchainar and Akbara managed to survive, but their wolf cubs were dead.
Avdiy Kallistratov
Aitmatov Chingiz Torekulovich ("The Scaffold") introduces a new hero into the story - Avdiy Kallistratov. He first appears in the next episode.
The hunters who arrived at the reserve put saiga carcasses into the all-terrain vehicle. The bound Kallistratov Avdy, a freelancer for the Komsomol regional newspaper, who had been expelled from the seminary at one time, was also there. This man had his own ideas about what kind of life can be called "righteous." He openly fought with all his strength against those who, as he believed, did not live as they should.
The task given to Obadiah in the editorial office of the newspaper
We continue to describe the work of Chingiz Aitmatov "Blach". The summary conveys only the main events of the novel.
Once Obadiah was given a task from a newspaper to find out how drugs get into. Kallistratov, in order to fulfill this mission, joined one of the companies of "messengers for marijuana", following in He realized at the station that among these people there are their own special rules. So, for example, they practically did not communicate with each other so that they could not extradite anyone in case of capture. Kallistratov also realized during the journey that there is a person who manages everything. He is the one who comes up with the plan. His "messengers" called "Sam". Kallistratov decides to go all the way to meet this man. He collects cannabis with the rest of the messengers, stuffs his backpack with it, and then returns back. A significant meeting takes place on the way to the field - Obadiah meets a brown-eyed blond girl who managed to leave a deep mark on the hero's heart.
Kallistratov, having finally reached the railroad, notices Grishan at the freight train and guesses that he is "Himself", the mysterious person, to meet whom Obadiah has come so hard.
Second part: meeting with "Sam"
Let's move on to the second part of the work written by Chingiz Aitmatov ("Blach"). The summary of the novel is divided into three parts. Note that, in turn, each of the parts has several chapters. The first and third consist of six, and the second - of five chapters.
"Sam" immediately realized that Kallistratov was not just a "messenger", that he was a man with principles that were directly opposite to his own convictions. Grishan wanted Kallistratov to give him the booty and leave, but he decided to stay with everyone. "Messengers" managed to jump into the carriage of a passing freight train. Here Grishan allowed them to smoke a cigarette with weed. "Sam" did it on purpose, in order to annoy Kallistratov. Grishan did not smoke, as did Avdiy. Kallistratov understood that in this moment can do nothing. However, his nerves still could not stand it. When one of the "messengers" began to pester him, demanding to join the rest of the smokers, Kallistratov snatched his bull from his fingers and threw it out the open door of the car. Then he began to empty the grass from the backpack, urging others to do the same. As a result of this, Obadiah was thrown out of the car, severely beaten. We will not describe this episode in detail, since we present Aitmatov's work "The Scaffold" in a summary.
The scene that Kallistratov dreamed of
It is necessary to say a few words about the vision of Obadiah. Kallistratov, the hero of Chingiz Aitmatov's work "The Scaffold", the summary of which interests us, fell into a ditch located near the railway tracks. He suddenly dreamed of a scene of a conversation between Jesus Christ and Then, when Kallistratov came to his senses, he suddenly imagined that he was living in two worlds at once. One is this world, and the other is the one in which he is trying to save his Master, Jesus.
episode at the police station
Obadiah spent the night under the bridge. In the morning he noticed that his money and passport were soaked through. Obadiah managed to get to the station on a hitchhike. However, he looked so dirty that he was immediately arrested upon arrival and then taken to the police station. Here he saw the "messengers" with whom he rode. Among them was not only Grishan. Hearing that they wanted to let him go, Kallistratov demanded that they put him with these "messengers". He suddenly decided that he could convince them to return to the "right" life. Mistaking Kallistratov for a madman, the policeman brought him to the station and told Avdiy that it was better for him to leave. However, here Kallistratov became ill. He was taken to a local hospital in an ambulance. In the hospital, Kallistratov met again with the girl who had so impressed him. Inga learned about Avdia from a doctor and came to visit him.
Inga tells Avdiy about what happened in her family
Kallistratov, returning to the place where he worked (in the city of Priozersk), suddenly finds out that no one is interested in the material he has collected. He tells Inge about what happened. The girl, in turn, tells him about her problem. The fact is that she divorced her husband. Inga's son now lives with her parents, and the girl wants to take him to her. Obadiy and Inga agree that in the fall he will come to the girl, and she will introduce him to her son.
Obadiah goes to Inga
However, when autumn comes, Avdiy, who came to Inga, finds a letter instead of the girl. In it, she reports that she is forced to hide in order not to give her son to her husband.
Crucifix on saxaul
Returning to the station, Kallistratov meets a man in charge of the extermination operation in the saiga reserve. He decides to join the detachment created for this purpose, but he cannot watch how animals are killed, and demands to stop this extermination. As a result, Obadiah is tied up and then beaten and crucified on a saxaul. In order to leave Kallistratov alone, the detachment drives off to the side. Here, on the saxaul, Tashchainar and Akbara notice him, looking for their wolf cubs. When the hunters return at dawn for Kallistratov, he is already dead.
A new grief for a pair of wolves
Tashchainar and Akbara left the savannah. They decided to find another place for themselves. The couple had cubs again, however, when the construction of the road began, the workers set fire to the reeds in which the animals made a den, and the cubs died again. Again, the couple left, found a new place and acquired new offspring.
Third part: Bazarbai finds wolf cubs
Already in the next, third, part, further events of the work, which was created by Chingiz Aitmatov ("Slaf"), unfold. A summary in parts is offered to you so that you can understand where in the text you can read more about a particular event.
Noigutov Bazarbai was returning past the pit to his home. He heard strange sounds reminiscent of children's crying. Going to them, he noticed four wolf cubs. Bazarbai, without thinking twice, put them in a bag and galloped away, realizing that adult wolves would rush after him. Tashchainar and Akbara followed the trail of Bazarbay in search of their offspring. They caught up with him and tried to make sure that he could not reach people. However, on the road was the house of Boston Urkunchiev, a collective farm leader. In it, Bazarbai hid from the wolves. Urkunchev's wife greeted him cordially. And Bazarbal showed her the wolf cubs and even let her play with them. little son Boston. Then he left.
The wolves don't leave
The short content of the book "The Scaffold" is coming to an end. The author (Chingiz Aitmatov - the creator of the work) is worried about the future fate of the wolves. He could not help but tell readers about it.
And so the wolves remained near the Boston house. Urkunchiev heard their howling every night. He even went to Bazarbai and asked him to sell the wolf cubs in order to return them to their parents. However, he flatly refused, because he hated Boston. The wolves began to roam the area. They attacked people. Having gained a lot of money, Bazarbai sold the wolf cubs. Tashchainar and Akbara finally returned to Boston's house. He decided to kill them, because he saw no other way out of this situation. However, he managed to shoot only Tashchainar. Akbara decided to wait, and she waited.
The final
The she-wolf managed to sneak up to the very house in the summer and grab the Boston child playing in the street. The father tried to shoot the she-wolf, but was afraid to hurt the child. However, he fired and hit. But, running up to the place where the wounded Akbara lay, he realized that she was still breathing, and his son was dead. Then Boston took a gun, went to Bazarbai and shot him, after which he surrendered to the authorities.
This concludes Chingiz Aitmatov's novel "The Block". The summary of the work will help to remember the events of the novel for those who read it, and to get to know it to those who may have yet to do so. The work is quite large, but it is worth reading. Many people like the work of Chingiz Aitmatov ("Blach"). A brief biography of this author was described at the beginning of the article.
One of the most striking works recent years was the novel by Ch. Aitmatov "The Scaffold", written in 1986. It can rightly be attributed to the works of modern Russian literature, since until recently, or rather, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the literature of our multinational country was not divided into Ukrainian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and so on, since the problems, the main topics reflected the living life of the people, and, consequently, the connections were numerous and inseparable in all spheres of life.
Ch. Aitmatov - Kyrgyz. In his works there are features of national color (landscapes, names of heroes), but the problematics of the Block is absolutely international. In addition, Avdiy Kallistratov, the protagonist of the novel, is Russian, the image of Christ generalizes and concentrates the ideas of the work, and all this makes it possible not to narrow the meaning of this remarkable work to a narrowly national one.
The "scaffold" is a kind of culminating work of the author, in which he concentrated his writing and human experience, his civic anxiety caused by the state of society, the life of a large, multinational, such a great and strong country, as everyone used to think.
Indeed, the variety of problems raised by the author in such a small work is striking. This is drug addiction, which has long struck society, but was carefully hidden by official structures, and lack of spirituality, generated by lies and hoaxes. public consciousness. Grishan and Bazarbay grow on such soil. This is the destruction of ethical ties between people, the decline of morals and many, many others.
The novel received a mixed reception from critics. Many saw the really deep meaning of the work, and many condemned Aitmatov for the fact that he collected all the problems that existed at that time in society in the Scaffold, without offering a way out of the current situation. Indeed, showing so many problems, the author does not give their unambiguous solution, does not answer the questions posed. He only cites facts, reveals the images of heroes through their actions, paints a picture of life, warns us of retribution for numerous sins, thereby forcing us to think about our actions, realize our mistakes and find the only right one ourselves. life path.
Many critics spoke negatively about the composition of the novel, emphasizing the incoherence of its individual parts. The fact is that the construction of the novel is very peculiar. The novel has three different storylines that are directly or indirectly connected to each other. These are the lines of Avdiy Kallistratov, Boston and Bazarbay and a pair of wolves - Akbara and Tashchainar. They are united by common events described in the work, and on the basis of each of the three storylines, the author reveals one, in my opinion, of the most important problems of the novel - the problem of choosing a certain path, that is, the moral choice of heroes.
And these paths are far from the same for each of the characters in the novel.
Avdia Kallistratova the author gives the best moral qualities such as kindness, sincerity, boundless love for people, the ability to sacrifice. He believes in God, in goodness, in justice, in his rightness, in the power of the word. He sees in every person, even in the most notorious scoundrel, not his negative sides, but, above all, a piece of the human soul. He is convinced that every person deep down strives for harmony, so Obadiah is trying to convince people, set them on the right path, help them gain faith and "live in Christ." But he overestimated his strength, and this is his tragedy. Nobody wanted to listen to him, and he himself becomes a victim of violence against which he fights. And in the end, Avdiy Kallistratov dies, crucified on a saxaul, but not renouncing the faith.
No wonder the novel draws a parallel between Avdiy Kallistratov and Jesus Christ. The former seminarian becomes in the novel a follower of Christ in his faith and beliefs. Both believe that all people are good from the very beginning, both sacrifice their lives in order to save humanity from sin.
Obadiah in the novel is a righteous man. He is the bearer of the idea of Christianity. But he does not serve the dogmas that the church proclaims. Obadiah puts forward an idea modern god, which does not stand still, develops over time. He believes that every person has his own God, whose name is conscience. And trying to convert people to the faith, Obadiah thereby tries to awaken their conscience. But, despite the fact that Avdiy Kallistratov is endowed in the novel with the best human qualities, we see that his life path was not chosen by the author as ideal. Aitmatov does not completely take the side of Obadiah. He does not agree with his hero's idea of the omnipotence of God. We see that it is important for the author to believe not only in God, but first of all in man. The self-sacrifice of a few will not save humanity, will not save the world from absolute evil.
An interesting contrast in the novel by Avdiy Kallistratov is Grishan, the leader of the "messengers" for marijuana. Grishan really looks at life. He knows that there is violence and evil in the world, and that good and justice do not always win. He sees people at their worst, their vices and weaknesses. A person is weak, and this allows the stronger to live according to animal laws, where the strongest must survive. Grishan is confident in himself and in his beliefs, so he does not even try to prevent Obadiah's attempts to convince the "messengers" and convert them to his faith. On the contrary, he says that he will not interfere with this. And, as we see, Grishan is right. "Messengers" are the children of their generation, brought up not only on atheism, but also on unbelief in general, on the denial of faith not only in God, but also in moral human principles, are not able, and do not want to listen and understand Obadiah. Violence is their natural state, and they, without hesitation, commit it again, throwing Kallistratov off the train. But what can we demand from these very young boys - Petrukh and Lenek, who since childhood had neither a normal family nor a home, whom life mercilessly threw into various adventures? Is it possible to demand from them that after they have fully sipped grief, they would retain faith in bright and pure ideals and remain people? Here, against the background of the moral choice of the characters, two more important problems are revealed to us - the social structure that gives rise to the device that gives rise to such people, and drug addiction, which is becoming more and more relevant, despite the fact that it has never been spoken about openly. Of course, the life path of the messengers, even if not chosen by them, but determined by their fate, is a warning for us, people. younger generation looking for answers to the most important and serious questions life.
Interesting from the point of view of choosing a life path, Boston and Barazbay are the main characters of another storyline. Both of them are shepherds living in the Moyunkum steppes. Boston, as we will see from the content of the novel, is a man with a broken destiny. He has the best human qualities, is able to sympathize with others, repent, worry, he has faith and certain ideals in life. In addition, he is very hardworking and does his job responsibly. Barazbai, on the other hand, is a drunkard and an idler. He is dissatisfied with life, embittered and does not believe in anything.
It is from him in the novel that we hear the words that there was no justice in the world, and there is none.
Between these two heroes - Boston and Bazarbay - an open enmity is unleashed, which leads to tragic consequences. Boston, one of the most goodies novel, commits lynching and kills Bazarbay. Desperate and disappointed in life, when, aiming at the she-wolf Akbar, he kills his own son, he commits an act that he will never be able to forgive himself. By killing Bazarbay, Boston destroys his inner world, he himself behaves on the block for the gravest sin - murder, since he cannot live with such guilt in his soul. Here we have not only social conflict personality and society, but also the psychological, internal conflict of the person who committed the murder with himself.
We hardly have the right to condemn or justify Boston for the crime committed. On the one hand, Bazarbay deserved punishment for his sins, but on the other hand, no person has the right to decide the fate of other people.
So what happens? We see that there is no ideal hero in the novel; not a single life path chosen by various heroes is completely correct. The fate of all the heroes ends tragically. Obadiah was crucified, Bazarbai was killed, the "messengers" were arrested, and Boston himself ruined his life by committing the worst sin - murder.
Perhaps, in this tragedy of the finale of the work lies its meaning? Perhaps the author wants to show that since the time of Jesus Christ, the very best have been paying for the sins of mankind? But who then will continue the human race?
From this point of view, the image in the novel of a pair of wolves - Akbara and Tashchainar, who are the main third storyline. The author shows us human society and the life of animals, and we see that animals live according to the laws of nature, in the face of which everyone is equal, while chaos and lawlessness reign in the world of people. The wolves in the novel, paradoxically as it may sound, turn out to be more "human" than the people themselves, and their life path is more correct, and therefore more correct, than the life of any of the characters. Through the images of wolves, the author reveals the theme of freedom, shows the relationship of animals with nature, their relationship with each other. The author contrasts the harmony of the life of wolves with the disharmony of the life of human society, thereby emphasizing its main vices and shortcomings. The author makes us think: is there really no way out for us humans? Are we really behaving ourselves on the chopping block and nothing can prevent this? This is another question left unanswered by the author, a question that we, the readers, have to think about.
Of course, in addition to the problem of the moral choice of characters, which, in my opinion, is one of the most important in the novel, the author also touches on other problems. For example, he does not disregard issues related to ecology, revealed by the example of the ruthless, uncontrolled shooting of saigas. The author warns us that human violation of the harmony of nature can lead to tragic consequences.
The leitmotif of this novel is anxiety - anxiety for the present future. The novel "The Scaffold" is a call to realize one's mistakes, to change one's mind before it's too late. And the fact that Aitmatov touched on so many issues in his novel is not accidental. All of them are the most important problems of society, they require deep reflection and immediate adoption of radical measures.
