Andrey Platonovich Platonov... A man who adamantly follows humanistic ideals. The story "Yushka" is a confirmation of this. A summary of Platonov's "Yushki" is the subject of this article.
The reason for this is several factors. On the one hand, a special creative style, where inversions play a significant role. As you know, inversion is a change in the classical order of words in the presentation. To a large extent, this artistic technique characterizes the style of any author. Platonov, according to literary critics, reached unprecedented heights in it.
On the other hand, the writer's fundamental departure from (the leading method of literature in the USSR). He preferred to be unpublished and disgraced, but nevertheless continued with his work the tradition of classical Russian literature of the late 19th century. The author's style of Platonov was formed not under the influence of party congresses, but also thanks to Tolstoy.
Is foolishness relevant today
It is obvious that the summary of Platonov's "Yushki" written by us reflects in a more concise and concise form than the original story, the personality of the protagonist - a foolish man of about forty, nicknamed Yushka on the street. Yushka is an outdated Old age, this word in Rus' was called the blessed, holy fools. Why did Andrey Platonov choose such a character, atypical for the Iron XX century? Obviously, because he considers the theme of holy foolishness for Russia to have not exhausted itself, not fulfilled its mission, undeservedly rejected by a pragmatic society.
On the one hand, the notorious worldly common sense portrays the holy fool as such a harmless fool deprived of social guidelines. However, this is only the outer side. Much more important in understanding the essence of holy foolishness is its essence: it is a voluntary martyrdom undertaken by its adept, hiding his secret virtue. Perhaps this essence is expressed to a certain extent by the well-known phrase from the Gospel of Matthew: that good should be done secretly, so that the right hand does not know what the left is doing.
Portrait of Efim Dmitrievich - Yushka
Much has been said in this story. Therefore, following the writer, we will initially abstract from the present time and argue that the events described in it occurred in ancient times. With this, in fact, our brief retelling begins.
Platonov's "Yushka" tells us about a frail, lonely peasant Efim Dmitrievich (who, in fact, is practically not called by his first name or patronymic), who grew old prematurely, with sparse gray hair where a mustache and beard usually grow in an adult man. He was always dressed in the same clothes, did not take off his clothes for months. In the summer, he wore a gray shirt and sooty trousers, burnt by the sparks of the Kuznetsk forge. In winter, he threw on top of all of the above a leaky old sheepskin coat, left to him by his late father.
Summary of Platonov's "Yushki" introduces us to a lonely forty-year-old man: untidy, outwardly looking much older than his age. The reason for this is a serious, fatal disease. He is ill with tuberculosis, his wrinkled face is that of an old man. Yushka's eyes are constantly watery and have a whitish tint. Beneath this, let's face it, miserable appearance hides a beautiful soul. According to the writer, it is people like the holy fool Yushka, who know how to love the whole world around them and even people who mock them and bring them suffering, are able to change the whole world for the better.
Forge work
Yushka always got up for work before dark, and went to the forge when the rest of the people were just waking up. In the morning he brought into the smithy the necessary coal, water, sand. As an assistant to the village blacksmith, his duties included holding the iron with tongs while the blacksmith was forging it. At other times, he watched the fire in the furnace, brought everything necessary to the forge, and handled the horses that were brought in to be shod.
The main character is not a dependent. Despite the deadly disease, he earns his hard work. To reveal the image, it is important to include this circumstance in the summary of the story "Yushka" by Platonov. He works as a blacksmith's assistant.
To hold heavy metal blanks with pincers, which at that time are being beaten by a blacksmith's heavy hammer... To be under the influence of the high temperature of the crucible... Perhaps such work is beyond the strength of a sick person. However, the holy fool Yushka does not grumble. He bears his burden very honorably.
Horses, even the nimble ones he shod, for some reason always obeyed him. You should, of course, read the entire Platonic story in order to feel how harmonious and whole this unusual person is. Such an impression will not remain if you read only a brief retelling.
Platonov's "Yushka" tells about the loneliness of the hero. His parents died, he did not start his own family, he did not have his own home. Efim Dmitrievich lived at the blacksmith's kitchen, taking advantage of the latter's location. By mutual agreement, food was included in his wages. However, tea and sugar were a separate item of expenditure. Efim Dmitrievich had to buy them himself. However, the thrifty peasant made do with drinking water, saving money.
Cruelty of people to Yushka
Our hero lived a quiet lonely working life, as evidenced by our short story. Platonov's "Yushka" also tells us about the unreasonable cruelty of people and even their children towards Yefim Dmitrievich.
Some kind of pathological need to do unrequited evil ... Quiet, not violent, timid Yushka never rebuffed his offenders, he never even shouted at them, did not swear. He was like a lightning rod for the evil that had accumulated in people. He was beaten and stoned for no reason even by children. For what? To rise above this unrequited beggar and kind man? So that, throwing off the burden of your own meanness, to cleanse yourself and communicate with other people with dignity? To feel your power over a person who despises the laws of self-interest?
When the children, throwing stones at him, angry at his unresponsiveness, caught up with him and stopped him, began to shout, pushing him, he only smiled. Platonov's short story "Yushka" shows the special attitude of the holy fool to what is happening. There is not even a shadow of reciprocal aggression in it. On the contrary, he sympathizes with children! He believed that they really loved him, that they needed to communicate with him, only they simply did not know what to do for love.
Unfortunately, the adults beat him even more severely, apparently enjoying their impunity. Beaten Yushka, with blood on his cheek, with a torn ear, got up from the dust of the road and went to the smithy.
It was like martyrdom: daily beatings... Did the tormentors of this sick and unfortunate man understand how low they were!
"Yushka" by Platonov as an analogue of "Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
Recall, drawing a conditional parallel, the work of classical American literature "To Kill a Mockingbird". In it, the unfortunate, defenseless person is still spared. He is generously freed from the looming and inevitable violence. The people around him are sure that it is impossible to act cruelly with him. This means - to take sin on the soul, it's like killing a mockingbird - a small, gullible, defenseless bird.
A completely different plot displays our summary of the story "Yushka" by Platonov. The holy fool is severely beaten, humiliated, mocked.
He lived the hard life of an outcast in his own homeland. Why? For what?
What in the image of Efim Dmitrievich is personally close to A. Platonov
Let's digress from the plot of the story. Let us ask ourselves the question of why Andrei Platonov so penetratingly managed to create a living image of the Russian holy fool? But because, in essence, he himself was an outcast in his homeland. The Russian general reader was able to get acquainted with his works only thirty years after the tragic death of the writer in 1951.
Undoubtedly, it is Andrei Platonov himself who cries out through the lips of his holy fool hero, trying to convince the society that does not recognize his talent through the lips of this martyr that all sorts of people are needed, that everyone is valuable, and not just "walking in step." He calls for tolerance and mercy.
How Yushka fought the disease
Yushka is seriously ill, and he knows that he will not be a long-liver ... The holy fool was forced every summer to leave the blacksmith for a month. He was traveling from the city to a distant village, where he was from and where his relatives lived.
There, Yefim Dmitrievich, leaning over the ground, greedily breathed in the smell of herbs, listened to the murmur of the rivers, looked at the snow-white clouds in the blue-blue sky. A.P. Platonov's story "Yushka" very heartfeltly tells how a terminally ill person seeks protection from nature: breathing the caress of the earth, enjoying the gentle rays of the sun. However, every year the disease becomes more and more merciless to him ...
Returning to the city, after therapy by nature, without feeling pain in his lungs, he took up blacksmithing.
Doom
In that fatal summer for himself, at the time when he was just supposed to leave for a month and improve his health, in the evening on the way from the forge he was met by one of his tormentors, seized with an obvious desire to humiliate and beat this blessed one.
Platonov's story "Yushka" describes the terrible events that led to the death of the holy fool. At first, the tormentor deliberately provoked the unfortunate with a word, arguing about the futility of his existence. The holy fool answered this dirty lie justly and reasonably. It was his first worthy response to an offender in his life, in which real wisdom, kindness, and understanding of the place of each person in God's world sounded. The scoundrel clearly did not expect such words from the holy fool. He, being unable to object to the simple and clear truth that sounded from the lips of the holy fool, in response, with all his might, pushed the unfortunate man, tormented by a terrible illness. Yushka hit the ground with his chest, eaten away by tuberculosis, and as a result, the irreparable happened: Efim Dmitrievich was not destined to rise again, he died in the same place where he fell ...
The philosophical meaning of Yushka's death
The hero of A. Platonov, Yushka, is martyred, defending his place under the sun, his views on God's world. And it's touching. Recall the analogy from the novel Doctor Zhivago, where the idea is that the ideal of this world cannot be a trainer with a smashing scourge in his hand, but a martyr who sacrifices himself ... Only he can change this world. That is how, with faith in God's just arrangement of everything around, Efim Dmitrievich dies. How, after all, can the death of only one beautiful person affect the world around him? .. Platonov also talks about this, further developing the plot.
nobility lesson
Sacrifice everything... An analysis of the story "Yushka" by Platonov shows that it is this last part of the story that most vividly shows the validity of the last words of the deceased, that he "is needed by the world, that it is impossible without him ...".
Autumn has come. Once a young lady with a clean face and large gray eyes, which seemed to be filled with tears, came to the forge. She asked if it was possible to see Yefim Dmitrievich? Initially, the hosts were taken aback. Like, what Efim Dmitrievich? Didn't hear it! But then they guessed: is it Yushka? The girl confirmed: yes, indeed, Efim Dmitrievich spoke about himself like that. The truth, which the guest then told, shocked the blacksmith. She, a village orphan, was once placed by Efim Dmitrievich in a Moscow family, and then in a school with a boarding house, he visited her every year, bringing her money for a year of study. Then, through the efforts of the holy fool, the girl received a doctor's degree from Moscow University. This summer her benefactor did not come to see her. Worried, she herself decided to find Yefim Dmitrievich.
The blacksmith took her to the cemetery. The girl began to cry, crouching on the ground, and for a long time was at the grave of her benefactor. Then she came to this city forever. She settled here and worked as a doctor in a tuberculosis hospital. She earned herself a good reputation in the city, became "her own". She was called “the daughter of the good Yushka”, although, however, those who called her did not remember who this very Yushka was.
The disgraced author of "Yushka"
What do you think, what kind of literary review "Yushka" could deserve in Soviet times? Platonov, in essence, was a sincere, whole person. At first, enthusiastically accepting the arrival of Soviet power (he always sympathized with the poor and ordinary people), the eighteen-year-old young man soon realized that the Bolsheviks who came to power, often hiding behind revolutionary phrases, were doing something that did not at all go to the benefit of the people.
Not being able to kowtow to the authorities, this writer extremely honestly sets out in his writings what he thinks, what he feels.
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin at that time personally monitored the "ideological restraint" of Soviet writers. After reading Plato's story "The Poor Chronicle", the "father of peoples" made his review directly on it - "The Kulak Chronicle!" and then added a personal brief description of the writer himself - "Bastard" ...
You don’t have to guess for a long time to understand what kind of review “Yushka” would have received in the Soviet press. Platonov, of course, felt the suspicious attitude of the authorities towards him. He could turn himself in a thousand times, “work off”, “correct”, writing an ode to his ideological opponents in the spirit of socialist realism, while multiplying his daily bread.
No, he did not bow his head, did not betray the high literature created by the Russian classics. It was published until the 80s of the last century, mainly abroad. In 1836, in the American almanac, under the heading "best works", his "Third Son" was published, by the way, Hemingway's early work was also published in the same heading. There he was really recognized for the essence of his talent, the successor of the search for the soul, a student of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
Conclusion
Literary scholars, speaking of the continuation in Soviet literature of the traditions laid down by the classics (L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky), invariably mention Andrei Platonovich Platonov.
What characterizes this writer? Rejection of all dogmas. The desire to know and show his reader the world in all its beauty. At the same time, the writer feels the harmony of all things. With special respect, he reveals the images of people, sometimes modest and inconspicuous, but really making this world a better, cleaner place.
To feel the artistic style of this author and enjoy it, we recommend that you read the story written by Andrey Platonov - "Yushka".
The work of Andrey Platonov, a writer who was erased from the history of Russian literature for many years, is still very difficult to perceive to this day. His concept of the world is unusual, his language is complicated. Everyone who opens his books for the first time is immediately forced to abandon the usual fluency of reading: the eye is ready to glide over the familiar outlines of words, but at the same time the mind refuses to keep up with the thought expressed. Some force delays the perception of the reader on every word, every combination of words. And here is not the secret of mastery, but the secret of a person, the solution of which, according to F. M. Dostoevsky, is the only thing worthy of devoting one's life to it. The works of A. Platonov are based on the same humanistic ideals that Russian literature has always preached.
An incorrigible idealist and romantic, Platonov believed in "the vital creativity of the good", in "peace and light" stored in the human soul, in the "dawn of the progress of mankind" on the horizon of history. A realist writer, Platonov saw the reasons forcing people to “save their nature”, “turn off their consciousness”, move “from inside to outside”, leaving not a single “personal feeling” in their souls, “lose the feeling of oneself”. He understood why “life leaves this or that person for a while, subordinating him without a trace to a fierce struggle, why “the inextinguishable life goes out in people every now and then, giving rise to darkness and war around. “You need to write not with talent, but with humanity - a direct sense of life - this is the writer’s credo. In A. Platonov, the idea and the person expressing it do not merge, but the idea does not close the person from us tightly.
In Plato's works we see precisely the "socialist substance" which strives to build an absolute ideal out of itself. Of whom does the living "socialist substance of A. Platonov" consist? From the romantics of life in the most direct sense of the word.
They think in large-scale, universal categories and are free from any manifestations of egoism. At first glance, it may seem that these are people with asocial thinking, since their mind does not know any social and administrative restrictions. They are unpretentious, they endure the inconveniences of everyday life easily, as if not noticing them at all.
All of them are world changers. The humanism of these people and the quite definite social orientation of their aspirations lies in the set goal of subordinating the forces of nature to man. It is from them that we must expect the achievement of a dream. It is they who will someday be able to turn fantasy into reality and will not notice it themselves. This type of people is represented by engineers, mechanics, inventors, philosophers, dreamers - people of liberated thought.
The heroes of the first stories of A. Platonov are inventors who dream of rebuilding the world and know how to do it ("Markun"). In later works, a missionary hero appears who believes that he knows the truth and is ready to bring the light of his consciousness to people. "I thought strongly, for everyone," say the Platonic preachers.
However, Platonov's most interesting hero is undoubtedly a doubting person, a "natural", "organic" person. Foma Pukhov (the story "The Secret Man") resists external circumstances. His pilgrimage is undertaken for the sake of gaining inner truth.
The fate of builders-philosophers in the works of A. Platonov, as a rule, is tragic. And this is quite consistent with the logic of the era. A. Platonov belongs to those few authors who heard in the revolution not only "music", but also a desperate cry.
He saw that good desires sometimes correspond to evil deeds, and in the plans of good, someone provided for the strengthening of his power to destroy many innocent people, allegedly interfering with the common good. Romantic heroes of Platonov are not involved in politics, as such. Because they view the completed revolution as a settled political issue. All who did not want it were defeated and swept away. The second group of characters are the romantics of the battle, people who formed on the fronts of the civil war.
Fighters. Extremely limited natures, such as the era of battles usually produces in droves. Fearless, disinterested, honest, extremely frank.
Everything in them is programmed for action. For obvious reasons, it was they who, having returned from the front, enjoyed unconditional trust in the victorious republic and the moral right to leadership positions. They set to work with the best of intentions and with their characteristic energy, but it soon becomes clear that most of them, under the new conditions, lead in a purely automatic way, as they commanded regiments and squadrons in the war. Having received posts in management, they did not know how to dispose of them.
Lack of understanding of what was happening gave rise to heightened suspicion in them. They are entangled in deviations, excesses, distortions, slopes. Illiteracy was the soil in which violence flourished. In the novel "Chevengur" Andrey Platonov portrayed just such people.
Having received unlimited power over the county, they decided by order to abolish labor. They reasoned something like this: labor is the cause of people's suffering, since labor creates material values that lead to property inequality. Therefore, it is necessary to eliminate the root cause of inequality - work.
You should feed on what nature gives birth to. Thus, due to their illiteracy, they come to substantiate the theory of primitive communism. The heroes of Platonov had no knowledge and no past, so they were replaced by faith.
The confrontation between the "external and" internal man ends tragically for the hero of "Chevengur" Sasha Dvanov. He lives for a long time only with an idea, faith, and therefore goes into the lake from a life that has lost its value. . He wants to materialize the idea and fill the matter with meaning.
That is why he rejoices, having learned about the "substance of existence", and remains to work on the foundation pit. The test of this idea is the fate of the child, the little girl Nastya, who is perceived by the workers as "a little person destined to be a universal element."
Nastya dies, and the surviving heroes of the story lose their vitality. "For what...
Do you need the meaning of life and the truth of universal origin, if there is no small, faithful person in whom the truth would become joy and movement? - reflects Voshchev. And the writer exposes the created "universal happiness". The enthusiasm of the first years of the revolution turns out to be nothing more than digging one's own grave. The peasants appearing at the construction of the pit work "with such zeal of life, as if they wanted to be saved forever in the abyss of the pit."
But what can be saved from the abyss? So gradually A. Platonov comes to the idea of alienating people from the truth to which they were ready to devote themselves without a trace. That is why, in my opinion, the tragedy of a generation is fully embodied in his works.
Andrei Platonovich Platonov began to write very early. His fame grew stronger and stronger. He wrote about everything: about the hard work of workers and peasants, about the intelligentsia, about the Great Patriotic War. The main thing for him was the problem of human freedom, true harmony, which manifests itself at all levels. In real life, it could not be, so Platonov had tragic notes caused by the impossibility of momentary universal happiness. The greatness of simple hearts ... The greatness of people, their ability to transform the world, to live when it seems impossible to live - these are truly Platonic heroes.
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"What is the peculiarity of the heroes of A. Platonov."
Novosibirsk Institute for Advanced Studies
and retraining of educators
Department of Humanitarian Education
What is the peculiarity of the heroes of A. Platonov.
The work was prepared by the teacher of the Russian language and literature of the MKOU Troitskaya secondary school of the Chistoozerny district of the Novosibirsk region Safinreider Olga Anatolyevna.
Novosibirsk, 2012.
Everything is possible - and everything succeeds,
But the main thing is to sow souls in people.
A. Platonov.
Andrei Platonovich Platonov began to write very early. His fame grew stronger and stronger. He wrote about everything: about the hard work of workers and peasants, about the intelligentsia, about the Great Patriotic War. The main thing for him was the problem of human freedom, true harmony, which manifests itself at all levels. In real life, it could not be, so Platonov had tragic notes caused by the impossibility of momentary universal happiness. The greatness of simple hearts ... The greatness of people, their ability to transform the world, to live when it seems impossible to live - these are truly Platonic heroes.
Platonov belonged to those writers who felt the revolution with their skin. He was faced with the fact that good intentions correspond to bad deeds. In a writer, a person does not merge with the idea, the idea does not close the person tightly. Heroes sometimes did not understand what was happening, so they became suspicious. All these deviations and excesses confused them. Platonov's characters could never and never have become those faceless people over whom ideology has worked.
The writer with his heroes went against the current, refused to participate in the creation of a new man of the era of socialism. The images of Platonov are helpless before the experiments that brought down on the people something alien, incomprehensible, tempting. His heroes are unpretentious, easily endure difficulties in everyday life, sometimes they do not notice them at all. It is not always known where these people came from, what their past is. But for Platonov this is not the most important thing. After all, his heroes are the transformers of the world, they strive to subordinate the forces of nature to man. It is from such people that one should expect the achievement of a dream. These are ordinary engineers, mechanics, dreamers, philosophers, inventors. These people have loose thoughts. They are not passionate about politics, they consider the revolution from a political point of view. All those who did not want to follow this path were defeated.
Platonov conveyed to his heroes an inspired devotion to work. He wrote: "Besides the field, the village, my mother and the ringing of bells, I also loved locomotives, a car, a whining whistle and sweaty work."
The writer chose for his heroes the thorny path of suffering in search of the truth, which should restore the disturbed order of life and spirit. The heroes of Platonov are looking for a clue to death, they believe in the scientific resurrection of the dead. Orphanhood from the characterization of the hero can unfold into the whole plot of the work and turn into a symbol of the destroyed integrity of life, "the great mute grief of the universe." An orphan and a child live in almost every hero of Platonov; they are abandoned, abandoned, they have no home, mother and father.
The main aspiration of a person in Platonov's world is to become involved in people, nature, the universe, to feel his continuous connection with them, to overcome the sadness of an unrequited existence. His characters are romantics in the full sense of the word. They think big and are freed from selfishness.
And the heroes of Platonov are the romantics of the battle, people whose worldview was formed during the civil war. They are fearless, selfless, honest and outspoken, and have the best of intentions. These people seem to us eccentric, and their life - devoid of integrity and meaning. Maxim Gorky called them "eccentrics and crazy." Indeed, many of them do not know life for themselves, they wonder, succumbing to some idea, saturated with the life of nature, they live to benefit others. This is the authenticity of their characters.
The heroes of Platonov are like nature. They live in a dense and multiple interweaving of connections, all at once, because these people are so defenseless against the cruel “surgical intervention that mercilessly cuts these connections.
His images do not have enough knowledge, they do not have a past, all this is replaced by faith. For a writer, the most important thing is that a person should not be destroyed.
Throughout the entire space of Platonov's prose, the "beautiful and furious world" of people extends, which does not need someone else's intervention, since he himself has many faces. Why do the heroes of Platonov so selflessly believe in socialism? Yes, these people are simply unenlightened, subject to pagan traditions, the most difficult living conditions, hence their faith in a good king and in a collective mind.
Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy once said about the possibilities of a person: “I am convinced that not only infinite moral, but also physical strength is invested in a person, but at the same time a terrible brake is put on this strength - love for oneself, memory of oneself, which produces impotence. But as soon as a person breaks out of this brake, he receives omnipotence. The heroes of Platonov live according to this principle, they are ordinary people with their own advantages and disadvantages, but all of them are united by the greatness of simple hearts.
Andrei Platonov is one of the most striking phenomena of Russian literature of the 20th century. Platonov was born in 1899 and died in 1951. Thus, Platonov's life became a kind of frame for the first half of the 20th century. And the first half of the 20th century is a very interesting time.
Literature and painting are making a powerful breakthrough, and cinema is rising to its feet. At the same time, one after another, two world wars happen at once. There is a total recoding of human life. In Russian prose, these changes were introduced and approved by Andrey Platonov.
Platonic hero
Plato's hero is redundant, redundant. It should not be on Earth, but it is. You can often hear that reading Platonov is very difficult, almost impossible. Here's the thing, I think. All of us, being victims of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, carry some idea of man. This is a person saturated with ideas, a thinking person, a person whose inner world is full of emotions and feelings. We were taught that way, We used to think that way. It flatters us, after all. Platonov's man is completely different.
As Makar said about himself from the story "Doubting Makar": "I am empty." Emptiness is the main characteristic of the Platonic world. Accordingly, steppes and fields are the main landscape. Also, the heroes of Platonov's stories are always thoughtless. Knowledge suddenly comes to them out of nowhere. Thought gives way to feeling. And when the reader is introduced to a Platonic character who is his complete opposite, the reader becomes frightened. The reader is not accustomed to living in a void. It's scary to say the least.
The psychoanalytic meaning of the existence of Platonov's heroes
Platonov at one time was extremely passionate about psychoanalysis, so the interpretation of his characters from this side will be highly justified. So, for example, almost all heroes have psychopathological disorders. The main one is schizophrenia. Sasha Dvanov, the protagonist of the novel "Chevengur", is a schizophrenic even at the level of his last name. Dvanov, two, duality. Platonov's man is already immediately split into several personalities. Whereas in culture it is customary to consider a person as a single person.
Also, the problem of birth in Platonov has a psychoanalytic meaning. This refers to Otto Rank's theory that the main experience in a person's life is the pain experienced at birth. Platonov's people are autochthonous, they are born from the earth. This is exactly what was believed in ancient mythological cultures. The theme of death is directly related to the theme of birth. So, for example, Sasha Dvanov's father drowned himself in the lake to find out what was happening there after death. Finding out what will happen after - that's what Plato's heroes want. However, the price to be paid for this knowledge is very high.
