Almazova Olga, 9th grade
In her work Almazova O. shares her impressions about the read story by Sholokhov "The Mole". The student notes that the writer is most concerned about the topic of the civil war, as a national catastrophe, not only in the story "The Mole", but also in the cycle "Don Stories". The review draws attention to the features of Sholokhov's style, the artistic originality of the story and the current focus.
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Feedback on the story of Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov "The Mole"
The story "Birthmark" is published in the book of Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov "Don stories". The story "The Mole" was published on the fourteenth of December, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-four. It describes the time of the civil war. A relentless struggle of opposing class forces. The fight is not for life, but for death. And in this struggle the blood of sons, brothers, fathers is shed.
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, a Cossack, was born on the Don. All his works, including the Don Stories, are connected with the Don Cossacks.
Most of all, M.A. Sholokhov, as the writer of Don Stories, is concerned about the loss of moral guidelines in the human soul, the idea of the decomposition of human souls, the terrible fratricidal war. M.A. Sholokhov assessed the civil war as a national catastrophe in which there were and could not be winners.
In the center of the story "The Mole" is the fate of a young commander, eighteen-year-old Nikolka, who is dying at the hands of his father. The missing father of Nikolka recognizes his son by a mole on his leg, taking off his boot from the one he killed. The war placed them on different sides. Ataman did not see his son for thirteen years and, of course, could not recognize him in a dashing commander. Only a mole, which the son inherited from his father, opened his eyes to the tragedy of what had happened. A father found a son when he lost him forever. The author paints a harsh, gloomy picture of a father shedding his son's blood. Life has lost its meaning for the ataman, and he ends his life with a pistol shot.
The author consistently tells first about the difficult childhood of Nikolka, then about becoming his squadron commander and about his tragic death. Sholokhov truthfully describes his heroes. He sees them through the eyes of an artist whose soul is open to all human pain and beauty. Reading the description of the portrait of Nikolka, we clearly imagine a broad-shouldered boy, “looks beyond his years. His eyes are aging in radiant wrinkles and his back, stooped like an old man.
The boy has seen a lot in his short life, from early childhood he went to work, grew up an orphan without parental affection and care. M.A. Sholokhov uses many dialect words in order to authenticate events. Throughout the story, there is an opposition (antithesis) of colorful descriptions of nature, symbolizing life, and gloomy, harsh pictures of war, bringing death with them. This is the individual style of Sholokhov.
We live in difficult times. The theme of the civil war is still relevant today.
There are wars that in history are conditionally (in the assessment of Leo Tolstoy) called just, liberating: they are, as a rule, imposed by an external aggressor, and then an unprecedented rallying of the people takes place, rising to fight the common enemy, to defend the fatherland. The history of Russia knows examples of such Patriotic Wars - 1812 and 1941-1945. It is no coincidence that the word "Patriotic", as if in reminder of the exceptional importance of these wars for the preservation of the people and statehood, is written with a capital letter.
A civil war is never "just" ever. It is usually the result of social explosions and revolutions. So the October Revolution of 1917 gave rise to the Civil War of 1918-1920. And although in the image of many writers of the 20s of the twentieth century it was a heroic time, however, in the perception of others, this event looked like a tragedy - a fratricidal war, when brother fought against brother, and son against father. As a result of some incomprehensible processes, people who speak the same language, sometimes related to each other by blood, became enemies.
This is how the war appears in Mikhail Sholokhov's Don Stories. All works of this cycle are united not just by a common place of action - Don, Kuban, but by similar ideas. The war in these stories runs like a bloody streak through the family, confronts father and son, and the death of both happens absurdly. Many critics even condemned Sholokhov for too bloody details of the deaths of both the “whites” and the “reds”. At the same time, the writer did not give any assessments of the events described, but allowed the reader himself to figure out who is right and who is wrong.
In the story "The Mole", the analysis of which will be discussed later, the action unfolds in two plans: in the external plot, the author introduces readers to the young Red Army squadron commander Nikolai Koshev, whom even experienced soldiers affectionately call Nikolka. At the age of 18, he has been in command of a squadron for half a year and during this time he defeated two gangs. He is an orphan, because his father perished in the German war, and his mother died. Until the age of 15, the guy had to do odd jobs, and then he left to fight the Reds.
The only thing left of his father is the memories of how his father put him, a six-year-old boy, on his horse, and a birthmark on his leg the size of a pigeon's egg: his father had the same. For more than three years of the war, Nikolai was tired of such a life and now dreams that the war would end and he could study. However, at the very beginning of the story, it becomes known that the commander receives news of the appearance of a gang of whites in the district, which means that he is back in battle. And Nikolai gloomily reflects: “And here is the gang… Blood again, and I’m already tired of living like this… Everything is disgusted…”
In parallel with the image of Nikolai Koshevoy, the reader learns about the fate of the ataman of the White Cossack gang. For seven years he had not seen his father's house - since he left to fight the Germans: German captivity, service with Wrangel, "Molten Constantinople in the sun", "Kuban reeds" and, finally, a gang of former White Guards, at the head of which he turned out to be. And now his heart is also not calm: “a wonderful and incomprehensible pain sharpens from the inside, fills the muscles with nausea”. The chieftain is tired of the war, his hands remember the plow and scythe, and he has to fight, instead of doing the usual farming. And do not forget this pain, and "do not pour any moonshine".
Stopping at the old miller Lukich, the members of the gang, the Cossacks, "Dissatisfied with Soviet power", offend him by taking the last grain for their driven horses. In addition, the old ataman, disappointed in everyone and not trusting anyone, makes the old man eat the earth in order to prove that he "not for the reds". Lukic imperceptibly from "lacking vodka in the upper room" bandits runs away to the red commander to tell that the gang, which the detachment has been chasing for three days, hid in his mill and "washed away" above him.
And here is the culmination of the story: a battle during which Nikolka, at the head of the squadron, overtakes the gang, but in the end remains one on one with the chieftain. This fight resembles a duel: on the one hand, a hardened wolf (it’s not for nothing that a wolf appears from the forest at the beginning of this last chapter), and a young commander with "beardless face, twisted with malice, and eyes narrowed by the wind". And if the Ataman's bullet does not take "white-lipped puppy", then the ataman decides to take it by cunning: he swoops in only when Nikolka's clip is over. He flew in like a kite and waved his saber. Only one old chieftain did not know that, pulling off his chrome boots from "dead", he will see on his leg, just above the ankle, a birthmark the size of a pigeon's egg - just like his own.
That's when the moment of truth came: it turns out that the father unintentionally kills his own son. Recognizing in the red commander, hacked by him, his son, he hugs him, says kind words to him, in vain trying to bring him back to life, calling him both Nikolushka and "blood", and son. And making sure that the son is dead, “The ataman kissed the freezing hands of his son and, clenching the misted steel of the Mauser with his teeth, shot himself in the mouth ...” Who is to blame? Fatal coincidence? What elemental force standing above people pushes them against each other against their will?
Presentation for the lesson
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Goals:
- consider the texts of M. Sholokhov's stories "The Mole" and "The Family Man" in order to form the cognitive competence of students;
- consolidate the skills of information technology and communication competencies;
- educate the competence of social interaction and personal self-development.
Lesson type: learning a new topic.
Conduct forms: individual, collective and group.
Methods: problem presentation, partially exploratory.
Equipment: texts of works, schemes: principles of plot construction, plot and composition.
Lesson plan.
I stage. Introduction to the topic:
1. Organizational moment.
2. Setting goals.
3. Understanding the epigraph for the lesson.
II stage. The study of the topic.
1. Work according to the schemes of literary analysis of the work.
2. Compilation of clusters based on the images of literary characters.
III stage. Summarizing.
1. Conclusions on the problem of the lesson.
2. The results of the lesson.
3. Homework.
Preparatory work for the lesson: prepare a message “Attitude
M. Sholokhov to the Cossacks”; read “Don stories” by M. Sholokhov; pay special attention to the stories “Birthmark”, “Family Man”, make clusters according to the images of Nikolka Koshevoy, ataman, Mikishara. (In a “weak” class, these tasks can be given individually)
Board decoration
Topic: The impact of the civil war on the fate of people.
(Comparative analysis of M.A. Sholokhov’s stories “The Mole” and “The Family Man”)
Problem: How did the civil war affect the fate of people?
Twenties in the picture
Sholokhov is time, irreversible
split the Russian world; this is
the era of great grief of the people.
T.R. Gavrish
Plan.
1. The plot and composition of the stories "Birthmark", "Family Man".
2. Dramatic split of the Cossack world based on the images of Nikolka Koshevoy, Ataman and Mikishara.
I stage. Introduction to the topic.
1. Organizational moment.
2. Setting goals. In a “strong” class, students deduce the objectives of the lesson with the help of the teacher. In a “weak” class, the teacher himself sets goals:
Reveal Sholokhov's concept of a civil war;
To consolidate the skills of analyzing a prose work;
Cultivate a sense of compassion, kindness and attention to others.
3. Comprehension of the epigraph. Statement of the problematic question: how do you understand the words of the epigraph? What does T.R. Gavrish write about?
II stage. The study of the topic.
1. Message “M. Sholokhov about the life of the Cossacks in the Don stories”
Teacher - Sincere experience for the fate of the Cossacks M. Sholokhov outlined in many of his works, including in the "Don stories". We will consider these feelings, based on the stories “The Mole” and “The Family Man”. Let's compare the plots of these works. Please describe the plot of the story "Birthmark". (The story uses temporary
(chronicle) principle of plot construction, with digressions into the past (retrospectives). First, we see Nikolka Koshevoy, the squadron commander, who dreams of studying. Then the author shows a small retrospective of Nikolka's childhood, from which we learn about his father, who disappeared during the German war. The storyline is continued by the arrival of a courier who brought a package with a request from the chairman for help and protection from the gang ... etc. The story is told from the perspective of the author.
Why is the story called "The Mole"?
What is the composition of the story? (linear)
And now introduce us to the plot of the story "Family Man".
(The narrator tells about the events that took place during the years of the civil war. His image plays a big role in assessing the image of Mikishara. The plot is based on the temporal principle, characterized by constant flashbacks to the past, as well as a direct chronological sequence of events. We see the hero of the story working on the ferry, a demobilized (narrator) approaches him, with whom Mikishara opened up and spoke about the pain that lies on his soul ... etc.) The composition is linear.
Let's summarize our work.
Conclusion: Although the stories in the structural construction have slight differences, however, they are subject to a common theme: the image of a person in a civil war, the impact of war on relationships between loved ones.
And now let's turn to the story "The Mole" and make clusters according to the images of Nikolka and the chieftain.
When compiling clusters, the following questions are used:
What do Nikolka and his father have in common?
Can we call them “strong personalities”? Why?
What happens when strong personalities collide?
- Nikolka = chieftain
- in a collision, equivalent natures
- destroy each other
Could it have happened differently with Nikolka and the ataman? Let's find the episode of their collision. (The ataman turned his horse ... leaning from the saddle, waved his saber, for a moment felt how the body went limp under the blow and obediently slid to the ground) The father, like the son, was not used to retreating.
And if the chieftain recognized his son? (He would not have killed Nikolka.) Prove it. (- Sonny! .. Nikolushka! .. Dear! .. My little blood ...
Blackened, shouted:
Yes, just say a word! How is it, huh?
He fell, looking into the fading eyes; his eyelids, covered with blood, lifted his limp, supple body, shaking... But Nikolka firmly bit the blue tip of his tongue, as if he was afraid to let it slip about something immeasurably large and important.
Pressing to his chest, the ataman kissed his son's freezing hands and, clenching his teeth
steamed Mauser steel, shot himself in the mouth ...)
Why does Mikishara, unlike the ataman, kill his beloved sons? To answer this question, let's make a cluster in the image of Mikishara.
Why did Mikishara open his soul to a stranger? (You are not your own person, an outsider)
How did Mikishara end up at the front? (Refused to go with his sons, but could not resist strangers at the gathering)
Why is he killing Danilka? Does he feel sorry for his son? (Yes. Telling, he worries. The ellipsis is a sign of restlessness of the soul. But he worries more about himself. After all, “I understood here: if I don’t hit him, then their own farms will kill me, little children will remain bitter orphans ...”)
What reward did Mikishara receive for killing his son? (I was promoted to senior officer for this case)
How did Mikishara feel about the murder of his second son? (... slanting eyes looked hard and impenitently ... If I had let you in, the Cossacks would have killed me, children around the world would have gone to Christ ...)
How do others feel about his victim? (“Too bad with you, dad, sit at the same table!” - says daughter Natasha)
How does the narrator feel about Mikishara? (The narrator rejects Mikishara’s “arithmetic”. “Hanging his head, the ferryman Mikishara looks at me with a heavy, standing look; a muddy dawn curls behind him.” Mikishara has no repentance, for there is no awareness of sin. The hero makes his choice, based on reason, approaching to human lives with quantitative measurements, rejecting God, despising the Christian commandment of love for one's neighbor, drowning out the voice of one's heart.)
What is common and what is the difference between the ataman from the story "The Mole" and Mikishara? (Both are strong, courageous. Getting into the whirlwind of civil war, they kill their children. But if the ataman kills his son out of ignorance, kills him as an enemy on the battlefield, then Mikishara kills his sons purposefully, having come up with an justifying “arithmetic” - “A there are seven of me on benches". Ataman, recognizing a son in the man he killed, repents and pronounces a sentence on himself - death. Mikishara, having killed his sons, lives, works, slightly worries, remembering the past, but does not repent of his deed)
III stage. Summarizing.
And if there had been no civil war, what would have been the fate of the heroes?
Let's answer the problematic question of our lesson: how did the civil war affect the fate of people? (Acute class struggle demarcated not only the Don, the village, the farm, but also the Cossack families. Father and son find themselves on opposite sides of the barricade. Thus, the conflict between red and white more and more gives way to another, more important conflict - between the centuries-old norms of human life and the inhumanity of fratricidal war. The civil war for M. Sholokhov is a catastrophe in which human ties collapse. There are no right and wrong, and therefore there can be no winners )
Lesson results.
Homework: level 3-4 students write a mini-essay on the topic “If there had been no war in the life of Nikolka Koshevoy”; Level 1-2 students describe the image they like.
Sample text of the message “M. Sholokhov about the life of the Cossacks in the Don Stories”
No one conveyed the life of the Cossacks so wonderfully as the great Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov in his immortal works "Quiet Don", "Virgin Soil Upturned", as well as in "Don Stories". Mikhail Sholokhov himself is a hereditary Cossack, so he was able to preserve the brightness of their speech, imagery, traditions, and wisdom of the people. Mikhail Alexandrovich managed to describe the customs and manners of the Cossacks with maximum accuracy and incredible interest. It is very painful to read about what happened to the Cossacks after the revolution, when continuous destruction of the way of life begins, both from whites and from reds. Human destinies are collapsing, people are dying, the quiet Don begins to split. Some from the neighborhood go for the reds, others for the whites. The unity of the Cossacks is breaking down and it is very disappointing to watch all this, because this rift has hooked their souls.
The young writer Mikhail Sholokhov began his work on Don Stories in 1923. And already at the end of this year, his first stories are published, in which an acute tragedy is outlined, while his stories were not devoid of melodramatic elements. Most of these stories (nineteen in total) were included in the collection "Don Stories", which was published in 1926, and the collection "Azure Steppe", which was an addition to the first collection, was also published in 1926. There were only three stories in this collection: “A Family Man”, “Azure Steppe” and “Alien Blood”. Ultimately, the cycle consisted of 27 stories.
In the Don stories of M. Sholokhov there is no poetization of death, which is typical for romantic poems about the heroes of the revolution. In Sholokhov, people die ugly simply. The heroes of the Don stories do not indulge in sublime thoughts, they talk about their own - sometimes everyday and completely unpoetic. Such is life, but it is precisely such that it is beautiful for Sholokhov. He could repeat the words of L. Tolstoy: "The hero of my story ... who has always been, is and will be beautiful is true."
His first story "The Mole" was published in 1924 in the magazine "Young Leninist". He represented a kind of figurative epigraph to the entire cycle of his stories. In his stories, Sholokhov tries to describe the pre-war life of the Don Cossacks. At that time, few people understood what they were, the Cossacks. The writer decided to show everyone the whole world of special habits, norms of behavior and psychology, the world of the most complex human relationships. "Don stories" - the dramatic fate of the Don Cossacks during the First World War and the Civil War. All stories are united by the place of action - the events unfold in the open spaces of the Don. The pages of the works are thickly saturated with blood, and the blood of the closest relatives: “Brother against brother”, “son against father”, “father against son” rise up in the most literal sense. Many of the heroes of the stories are real people, mostly residents of the Kargina farm. But Sholokhov sharpens all the events, exaggerates: death, blood, torment, hunger, torture is presented in an exclusively naturalistic way.
Very accurately, sociologically, Sholokhov draws two main types of people into which the Cossacks, reflected in his stories, were divided at that time. The first type represents the majority and is most often the fathers, rooted in tradition, in the meager economy acquired by generations, serving, first of all, for the well-being of their family and the continuation of the clan, work and tradition. These are vigorous and indigenous Cossacks, such as the father of the food commissar Bodyagin (“Food commissar”), who drove his fourteen-year-old son out of the house after being shot with the consent of his father. There are many such hosts, unrestrained in anger, who are ready to wash away the insult with blood for an encroachment on their way of life and values.
If for the elders their traditions and the age-old father-grandfather way of life are sacred, then the young oppose all this, try to break and destroy this way of life. These are orphans or younger sons who take the side of the Bolsheviks. They stop going to church, being baptized into icons before eating, and instead run to the club, to Komsomol meetings. This is represented by the twenty-year-old Fyodor (“Bakhchevnik”), who dreams of universal equality. The fight against the younger and disobedient generation can be carried out only with the help of one method: strictly - "Chop the sick branch without regret." And it was under this slogan that bloody crimes were committed against the younger generation.
The heroes of the "Don Stories" do not indulge in lofty dreams, their language is quite simple everyday and not at all poetic. Also in these stories there are no doubting heroes, those who have chosen the “third way”. The writer draws his pictures only in black and white, soaked in red blood, and there can be no intertones.
Chelyshev Stanislav, Kapustina Alina
Sholokhov's early stories are very relevant to our time. The presentation on the story "The Mole" contains not only an analysis of the story, but also immerses the writer in the creative laboratory, notes the artistic features of the work.
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THE STORY OF M.A. SHOLOHOV "THE MORNEL".
The twenties in the image of Sholokhov are a time that irreversibly split the Russian world; This is the era of great grief of the people. T.R. Gavrish
In the story "The Mole", the tragedy is revealed not in terms of social class, but in terms of humanity, it is largely accidental: the father does not know that he is chasing his son.
EPISODE FROM THE STORY "MOLE".
SUMMARY OF THE STORY. Cartridges, a mutton bone, a field map, a summary, a bridle, a loaf of bread are lying on the table. Nikolka Koshevoy, the squadron commander, is sitting at the table, he fills out a questionnaire. “The rough leaf says sparingly: Nikolai Koshevoy. Squadron commander. Earthman. Member of the RKSM, age - 18 years. He looks like a green boy, but he managed to eliminate two gangs almost without damage and led the squadron into battles and fights for half a year no worse than any old commander. Nikolka hates his age and is ashamed of it. Nikolka's father is a Cossack, and Nikolka himself is also a Cossack. He recalls how, at the age of five or six, his father put him on a horse, taught him to ride. In the "German" father disappeared. Mother died. From his father, Nikolka inherited a love for horses, incredible courage and a mole the size of a pigeon's egg on his left leg above the ankle. At the age of fifteen, Nikolka left with the Reds for Wrangel. Nikolka lodges in a hut standing over the Don itself. In the morning he went out into the yard and lay down in the dewy grass. A Cossack came for him and reported that a courier had arrived, reporting on a new gang from the Salsky district, which had already occupied the Grushinsky state farm. The messenger galloped forty miles without rest, drove the horse to death. Nikolka read the order to go to the rescue. He began to get ready, thinking that it would not hurt to learn somewhere, and then the gang showed up.
FOR THREE DAYS THE GANG LEAVES FROM THE PURSUIT OF NIKOLKA KOSHEVOY'S TEAM. THE PEOPLE IN THE GANG ARE EXPERIENCED, LEAVING LIKE A WOLF. ATAMAN IS DRUNK AND ALL THE COACHERS AND MACHINE GUNTERS ARE DRUNK. FOR SEVEN YEARS THE ATAMAN WAS NOT IN THE NATIVE LANDS: FIRST WAS IN GERMAN CAPTIVITY, THEN WITH WRANGEL, LEFT TO TURETCH, BUT THEN RETURNED WITH A GANG. “HERE IT IS, ATAMAN'S LIFE, IF YOU LOOK BACK OVER YOUR SHOULDER. HIS SOUL IS STUNNED, LIKE IN THE SUMMER IN ZHARYN THE TRAILS IN THE STEPPE ARE STALLY... THE PAIN IS WONDERFUL AND INCOMPLETE, GEARS FROM THE INSIDE, POURS THE MUSCLES WITH VOICE, AND THE ATAMAN FEELING: DO NOT FORGET HER AND DO NOT FILL LIHOMANKA WITH ANY MOONASHON. THE DAWN HAS BEEN FROZEN. MELNIK LUKITCH HAS BEEN SICK, ON THE BEEP HOUSE HE LIES TO REST; WHEN Woke up, he was called out by two military men who had left the forest. THE ATAMAN POINTED RED AND STARTED INQUIRYING FROM THE MILLER IF THERE ARE ALIEN ALIEN NEARBY. HE GET DOWN FROM THE HORSE AND ADMITTED THAT WE WILL LIQUIDATE THE REDS, THEN DEMANDED GRAIN TO THE HORSES. THE MILLER IS SORRY FOR THE GRAIN GATHERED BY THE CRUMBER, DOES NOT WANT TO GIVE IT AWAY; THE ATAMAN THREATS TO KILL HIM FOR ASSISTING THE RED. THE OLD MAN WALKED AT THE FEET, ASKING FOR MERCY. ATAMAN LAUGHING FORGIVED THE OLD MAN. AND THE ARRIVAL BANDITS ARE ALREADY FEEDING GRAIN TO THE HORSES, SLEEPING GOLD GRAINS UNDER THE FEET.
Through the fog, at dawn, Lukich moved to the farm and got on a horseman, who led him to the commander. Lukich was led into Nikolka's house. The miller was glad that he got to the Reds. He recalled to Nikolka how he had recently given him milk to drink when his detachment passed by the mill. The miller complains about the bandits who poisoned all his grain. He reports that they are still at the mill, drunk, sleeping. Nikolka orders to saddle the horses and attack the gang, which was already advancing along the path (road). The chieftain saw a commander with a saber galloping at him, whom he identified by binoculars hanging on the chest of a young soldier. The ataman took aim angrily and fired. The horse under Nikolka fell, and he himself, shooting, ran closer to the ataman. The ataman was waiting for Nikolka to shoot the clip, and then he ran into the guy like a kite. He waved his saber, and Nikolka's body went limp, slid to the ground. The ataman removed the binoculars and chrome boots from the dead man. With difficulty pulling off his boots with socks, the ataman saw a mole. He turned Nikolka to face him and cried: “Son! Nikolushka! Native! My little blood...” Ataman, realizing that he had killed his son, took out a revolver and shot himself in the mouth. And in the evening, when horsemen loomed over the copse, a kite-vulture fell off the ataman's shaggy head.
Showing that the class struggle that has engulfed the Don destroys family foundations, Sholokhov depicts reality as contrary to the norm of human relations, and resolves this contradiction between the ideal and the real absolute negation of the latter.
IMAGE OF NIKOLKA KOSHEVOY Squadron commander, although he is 18 years old. Fearless (as his father taught him) Nikolka is broad-shouldered, looks beyond his years. Immeasurable love for horses (from father). Dreaming about studying. Mole, same as father's.
THE IMAGE OF ATAMAN For seven years I have not seen my native kurens. He drinks, because the pain, wonderful and incomprehensible, sharpens from the inside. The soul withered. Attentive. Strong. A mole the size of a pigeon's egg, on the left leg, above the ankle.
CONCLUSION. A sharp class struggle demarcated not only the Don, the village, the farm, but also the Cossack families. Father and son find themselves on opposite sides of the barricade. The conflict between reds and whites gives way to a conflict between the norms of human life and the inhumanity of fratricidal war. The civil war for M. Sholokhov is a catastrophe in which human ties are destroyed. There are no right and wrong here, which means there can be no winners.
The years of the First World War, the revolution and especially the civil war became a test for all the inhabitants of Russia. The Cossacks felt the consequences of political events very sharply. The freedom-loving people by nature could not reconcile themselves to the fact that the well-established life, settled for centuries, was collapsing. But that wasn't even the scariest part. The split that took place between the people spread former neighbors, comrades and members of the same family on different sides of the barricades.
The writer M. Sholokhov paid much attention to the depiction of the horrors of the civil war and the analysis of its influence on the fate of people. The work “The Mole”, written in 1924 and marking the beginning of the “Don Stories” cycle, was the first in his work, where the truth about that terrible time was shown. And for the epic novel "Quiet Flows the Don", in which the writer summarized all the material on the topic, the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Features of the image of the Cossacks by Sholokhov
"Don stories" became an important event in the literature of the twenties. They were not similar to what was created during the formation of Soviet power by proletarian writers. A hereditary Cossack and an excellent connoisseur of life on the Don, M. Sholokhov managed to recreate in small works the unique flavor and originality of the way of life of the local population. He paid special attention to moral convictions and ideals, originally based on kindness and humanism, but crossed out by fratricidal war.
The attitude towards the stories was ambiguous. Many were embarrassed by the naturalism and unconventionality of the depiction of the civil war, but this is what allowed the writer to convey the true scale of the tragedy. It was these principles that guided Sholokhov when writing the story "The Mole".
Summary of the work: acquaintance with Nikolka
The plot of the story is quite simple and is built in chronological order with small digressions (retrospectives) into the past. The main character is Nikolai Koshevoy, a young Red Army squadron commander. Nikolka is the name of an eighteen-year-old guy experienced Cossacks, who respected him for his courage and courage. Despite his young age, he had already led a squadron for six months and managed to break two gangs during this time. This was a great merit of his father, a prominent Cossack, who "disappeared" in the German war. It was he who instilled in his son courage, endurance, love for horses: at the age of five or six he taught his son to stay in the saddle. And Nikolka also inherited from her father (and Sholokhov's future will be based on this) a mole on her left leg, the size of a pigeon's egg.
The plot begins with a letter brought to the commander with the news of the appearance of whites in the district. The need to speak again causes the commander to gloomy thoughts about how tired he was of military life: “I would like to study ... but here is a gang.”
Valiant Ataman
On the comparison of two strong characters, Sholokhov builds the story "The Mole". An analysis of the internal state of an elderly Cossack, who has not seen his father for 7 years at home, is the next part of the work. He went through German captivity, served under Wrangel, visited Constantinople, and now he has returned to his native land at the head of a gang. The ataman has become hardened in soul over the years, he feels as if something is sharpening him from the inside, he does not give rest.
For three days the gang left Nikolka's squadron, then settled down at the miller, about which the latter informed the Red Army men. And now a brave young Cossack is already rushing to the chieftain. His still beardless face covered with anger and the desire to achieve the goal - even a bullet did not stop him - caused bitterness in the ataman. In addition, binoculars on his chest clearly spoke of the rank of a warrior. The ataman flew up to him, and the young body went limp from the swing of the saber. Experience prevailed over youthful prowess. Then, with a stocking, he pulled the old Cossack off his leg, and under it (Sholokhov depicts this episode incredibly truthfully and emotionally strongly) - a mole. The analysis of the story is especially acute in this scene, which has become the climax in the whole story.
The main characters as antipodes of war
At the same moment, the ataman of his son, who had seen a lot, learned a lot, his soul was filled with suffering and pain: “Nikolushka! .. My little blood! ..”. The unfolding bloody struggle scattered native people on different sides, making them irreconcilable enemies. The father could not forgive himself for the murder of his son - he clenched his “Mauser steel” with his teeth and fired. So tragically finished the story "The Mole" Sholokhov.
An analysis of the description and behavior of the heroes shows how disgusting the war was to their nature, especially to Nikolka. From the age of fifteen he had to fight, and at eighteen he looked like a man already tired of life: with a network of wrinkles around his eyes, a stooped back. His dream of getting an education never came true. The only bright moment left for Nikolka was the memory of a calm, peaceful life, when her mother was still alive, and her father was not listed as missing. These nostalgic pictures make it clear how disgusting the very thought of having to go into battle again was. So at the very beginning of the story "The Mole" Sholokhov (a summary of the hero's thoughts looks most eloquent) makes it clear to the reader that war is something unnatural, alien to human nature. He dreams of returning to a peaceful life and how to plow the land before, and the old chieftain, who was trying to drown out the longing that did not let him go with hops.
in the work
The work “The Mole” attracts with unusual colloquial speech and expressiveness. Sholokhov - the problematic of the story is directly related to this - enhances the feeling of tragedy by turning to vivid folklore images. So twice, when describing the chieftain, a wolf is mentioned. At first, this is a vivid, figurative comparison of the old Cossack with the leader of the pack, who has "winned over" and is rapidly advancing. The spoken word helps to better understand the emotional state of the hero. Then, on the eve of the deadly battle, the wolf jumps out of the den in front of people, listens and slowly goes back. According to tradition, the wolf symbolized among the people a hungry, angry, usually lonely animal, causing pity rather than fear. This is how the old ataman seems in the story.
Sholokhov introduces another predator into the story "The Mole". Analysis of the last scene with the vulture, which, on the evening of the same day when the murder took place, flies off the chieftain's head and dissolves in the sky, suggests a tired, tormented soul of a Cossack leaving the body and ascending upwards.
Author's life experience
Sholokhov's persuasiveness and naturalism in describing the events of the civil war are explained by the fact that in 1918-19 he found himself at the center of the confrontation between the whites and the reds in the area of the Yelan capital. The writer witnessed unjustified cruelty and violence on both sides, and once he was even captured by Nestor Makhno, but was released after interrogation. Since 1920, Sholokhov himself "served and roamed the Don land." According to him, they took turns chasing each other with the gangs.
The conclusions to which Sholokhov leads the reader
"Mole" - the full content of the story cannot leave anyone indifferent - makes you really think about the fact that in difficult conditions of devastation and irreconcilable enmity, people become hardened, forget about humanism and sympathy. The author does not name in this, and in other stories, right and wrong, since in such a situation they simply cannot be. became a universal tragedy, which should never be forgotten - Sholokhov wants to draw the attention of the reader to this. A mole (an analysis of the story leads to this conclusion) becomes a symbol of an indestructible blood connection: for Nikolka it is the same as for her father. Consequently, there are no winners in the confrontation between heroes (the father raised a worthy son), this initially contradicts the human essence.
The meaning of "Don stories" by Sholokhov
The civil war became a real catastrophe, as a result of which the ties that existed between people were completely destroyed and destroyed. This is emphasized by the story "The Mole" by Sholokhov. An analysis of the actions and feelings of the characters is a confirmation of this idea. The first work sets the tone for the entire cycle, and before the eyes of the reader, one after another, terrible pictures come to life, telling about immeasurable human grief. And I want to appeal to all living on earth: “People, think again! If a brother kills a brother, and a father kills a son, if everything around is drowned in a sea of blood, why live on?
