Topic: Analysis of A. Platonov's story "Return

Lesson of extracurricular reading by story

Andrei Platonovich Platonov

"Return".

Moral issues of the story.

Target : to deepen students' knowledge about the personal and creative biography of A.P. Platonov; reveal the moral meaning of the story, bring someone else'sfate to everyone, to make empathize; improve skillsliterary text analysis.

During the classes

1. A word about a writer

2. Analysis of the story.

What is the theme of the story? (The destruction of the family as one of the consequenceswars)

Determine the idea of ​​​​the work (In any conditions, under anycircumstances, a person must remain a person and not giveharden your soul, petrify your heart; need to be higherdestructive passions, jealousy of selfishness, cruelty, revenge; adultsit is necessary to find moral strength in oneself and save the family,stand up for the sake of the children; children are also responsible for the fate of adults; ByAccording to Platonov, it was they who suddenly grew old, in no waythe innocent carried the truth of life, only they knew the value of the family andsaw the world in an undistorted light.)

What is the meaning of the title? (Return from the war to the world, home to the family to his wife and children, to his former self, kind and humane)

Which of the names "Ivanov's Family" or "Return" is the mostsuccessful? (The name "The Ivanov Family" emphasized the typicalsituation, "Return" focuses on the moral sideworks)

Who is the hero of the story?

What attracted Ivanov to Masha? Why did he talk to her?(The train that was supposed to take mother and Ivanov home wasno one knows where in the gray space. The only thing that couldcomfort, entertain the heart of a person, was the heart of another person.Masha was pretty, simple soul, kind).

What is the state of nature at this moment? (It's already cold,autumn night, in the nature around them it was dull and sad thishour). Platonov describes nature hostile to man. By this, inIn particular, the mutual attraction of Ivanov and Masha is explained.

Another reason for their rapprochement was that "both feltnow orphaned without an army.” People are accustomed to routineorder, to army everyday life and by inertia, although they strove forcivilian life, home, could not adjust to peacefullife.

Why is Captain Ivanov not in a hurry to go home? (He didn't know why.did so - perhaps because he wanted to take a walk in the wild).

Do you think any of the characters are guilty? (guilty of thisthere is no situation. In the war, people often lived one day, this habitpersisted for a long time afterwards. Masha is not to blame: she "did not knowmarital status of Ivanov and due to girlish shyness

asked him about it." Actually, for her it didn’t matter his familyposition - Masha did not demand anything. Not to blame and Lyuba, wifeIvanova, who worked day and night throughout the war, raised children,waiting for her husband, starving.)

At the station, Alexei was met by his son Petrusha. Describe the portraitboy.

Reading the first conversation between son and father

How does this conversation characterize Petrusha?

How did Ivanov meet his wife Lyubov Vasilievna? (Ivanov approached his wife, hugged her and stood there with her, not parting,feeling the forgotten and familiar warmth of a loved one).

What did Lyuba have to do when Alexei was at war? (Workedin a brick factory, raised children).

How did the children take care of their mother?

Ivanov could not clearly understand "why Petrusha had such acharacter". How to explain it? (Ivanov did not know exactly that life,which the family lived without him).

Reading the scene "Frank Night Talk" by roles.

How do Lyuba and Alexei behave during this scene?

Private family conflict Platonov manages to raise to a powerthe broadest generalization, the drama of two loving people to reveal howhuman tragedy. For the Ivanov family (typical Russiansurname) there is a war that has created so much grief for millions of familiesRussia. Behind the drama of Alexei and Lyuba, difficulties are also revealedreturn to a new post-war life, which cannot be as cloudless as it seemed to the hero. Afterbattles that have died down, you must courageously face the consequences of the war,hardships of the first years of a new life. Ivanov is not yet ready for them, and that is why he takes the first trials of post-war life so hard.Ivanov became shy; he expected that everything would be easier and simpler, more pleasant forhim. Through the bark of selfishness, resentment, jealousy do not reach himthe holy confessions of his wife, he is not touched by her bright tears. He is afraid, although he does not admit it, to take on the main work,build your life and loved ones. He leaves the family. And exposedlast test.Find the passage that is the climax of the story.

The climax of the story carries a liberating power andenlightenment of the soul that has cooled down during the war.

Ivanov sees his children, who, stumbling, falling and hurting themselves,run after the train that takes him to another, as he hopes, carefreelife. “Ivanov closed his eyes, not wanting to see and feel the pain of fallen exhausted children, and he himself felt how hot it wasit became in the chest, as if the heart, enclosed and languishing in it, was beatinglong and in vain all his life, and only now it has made its way tofreedom, filling his whole being with warmth and shudder. He found outsuddenly everything that he knew before is much more accurate and real. Beforehe felt another life through the barrier of pride and self-interest, and now he suddenly touched it with a bare heart.

These are perhaps the best lines in all of Platonov's prose. oh went to themmany years: in Ivanovo, too, woke up, woke up "secretman” and through all obstacles came out to the world and people.

Having experienced a moral shock, the hero comes to a moralpurification, enlightenment.

Which of the characters did you like the most? Why? (Briefcharacteristics of heroes).

Summary of the lesson.

Moral problems of A. Platonov's story "Return"

"There is a time in life when it is impossible to avoid one's happiness. This happiness comes not from kindness and not from other people, but from the strength of a growing heart, warming with its warmth and meaning."

War stories always leave an indelible mark on our souls. Many well-known writers addressed the topic of war. Surely you have read V. Astafyev's story "The Shepherd and the Shepherdess", the story "The Horse with a Pink Mane" and "The Photograph Where I'm Not", remember B. Vasiliev's work "The Dawns Here Are Quiet", heard about M. Sholokhov's novel "They fought for their country." Today we will talk about a short story by our fellow countryman - writer A. Platonov "Return". Is the title of the story symbolic? What do you associate the word "RETURN" with? (Home, family, love, motherland). It's always nice to come back, isn't it? Andrei Platonov wrote the story in 1946, but it was published under the title "The Ivanov Family". Critics have spoken out against the story. Yermilov wrote: “Platonov always loved spiritual slovenliness, had a dirty imagination, he had a craving for everything ugly and dirty, in the spirit of bad Dostoevism, he turned even an 11-year-old hero into a preacher of cynicism” The critic said that the hero is shown as just the most ordinary , a mass person, it is not for nothing that he was given such a multimillion-dollar surname Ivanov. This surname carries a demonstrative meaning in the story: they say that many families are like that. By changing the title, Platonov strengthened those aspects of the story for which he was scolded. He showed what war does to a person, how it kills the soul, forcing them to break away from the family, from the most important values ​​of mankind.

- There is no open description of the war in the work, but it is present here. Through what details, perhaps, the landscape? (In the surrounding autumn nature, everything was sad and depressing at that hour ...)

- Is the main character in a hurry to go home or is he slow? Why?

- Why does Ivanov go after Masha?

- How is Masha's condition described? Does she want to go home? Where are her family members? (And now Masha was somehow unusual, strange and even afraid to go home to her relatives, from whom she had already lost the habit).

- Can we say that Masha and Alexey are people who understand each other? They found solace in their fellowship.

- How is Ivanov received at home? How many days are his wife and children waiting for him?

- The son meets the father. Find his portrait. Read. What does the boy's appearance tell us? ( He was met by his son Peter ...)

- The return of the hero takes place in the house. He feels “a quiet joy in his heart and a calm contentment. The war is over." How does the father look at the objects in the house? Why? (He gets acquainted with objects, remembers smells. This helps him feel like a family among his own, warms his soul).

- Who is in charge of the house? (Petka). How does he run the business?(Episode about the stove, about potatoes). “I’m not angry, I’m on business ... You need to feed your father, he came from the war ...”. The boy understands how hard it was for his father, in the house he became the owner out of need, and not at will.

- What is Lyubov Vasilyevna's job? She does everything for the sake of her children, for the sake of her family. Why is she crying over the pie?(I thought about if my husband was killed)

- Alexei does not understand why Peter behaves like an old grandfather, why the children matured early, and the face of his daughter Nastya is “focused” not at all childish. Why do you think Alexey does not see the troubles of his family, perceives the house as it was before the war?

- Alexei cannot understand Semyon Evseevich, who came to play with Nastya and Petya. What is the personal tragedy of Semyon Evseevich himself?(The jealousy of the hero is unfounded, because the war united people, united their common misfortunes, destroyed families. A person wants to feel needed by other people.)

- Does the reader empathize with the Ivanov family? Pay attention to details such as clothes, children's shoes, their food? What is their life? Do they have a farm?

Father and mother sort things out, not understanding who is right and who is wrong. After all, there are no right and wrong ones. There is a human life that must be lived with dignity. Petya tells about this - about the relationship between Khariton and Anna. In difficult times, the heart of a person needs comfort. But the father does not understand the son. In what works have we already come across images of father and son? (Quiet Don, Food Commissioner, Mole).

- At the end of the story, the railroad appears before us again. This is the path symbol. But which one: new or old? The father of the family wants to leave the house. What is Ivanov thinking about?(about Masha).

The theme of the railway in Platonov is found in many works, because the writer's life was connected with trains. And now the rails carry Ivanov away from his native hearth, his heart hardened. Read the final episode(Two children…)

- Why is Petka, always so neat, wearing different shoes?(Hurries to return the father).

- Did Ivanov manage to transgress through his own vanity? How did the war make him? (AND estkm, incredulous, rude). Can we say that Alexei, after getting off the train, returns to his real self? Souls crippled by war can only be cured by love and understanding.

- What is the meaning of the story's title?

- What do you think, what would be the further fate of the Ivanov family?

- What meaning can the reader, who has become acquainted with the work of A. Platonov, endure for himself?

What did the war teach people?

War is an evil that destroys destinies, breaks lives, families. But a person, despite the circumstances, must remember his destiny, must be able to open his heart to meet warmth and love. Returning to his present self, the hero destroys thereby the hatred, evil and doubt that tormented his heart.

Sections: Literature

By itself, the plot of the return can be realized in at least three ways. First, as a mythological return, similar to the return of Odysseus to his native Ithaca after decades of wandering. Here the return is the completion of the cycle and demonstrates the closedness of the cosmos and the inviolability of its foundations. It is this understanding that is revealed in the etymological analysis of the word "return". Secondly, the return can be external, physical, like a return to a place once abandoned. Thirdly, the return is, so to speak, internal, as a return to some desired state of peace, harmony, carelessness, etc. And it is precisely here that the possibility of conflict lies: the return can take place as an external one, but not as an internal one, as happens in the case of Captain Ivanov, the hero of Plato's story.

Plato's story is very difficult for the perception of schoolchildren. To work with the text successfully, students are advised to read the story at home beforehand. For class analysis, we offer an episode of the meeting between Alexei Ivanov and his family, which is the beginning of the conflict.

Let us summarize the questions that determine the logic of the analysis of this episode, and the expected answers of the students.

1. What did you learn about Captain Ivanov?

Alexei Ivanov, captain of the guard, served in the army throughout the war. Colleagues treated him with respect. The army became a family for Ivanov: "Ivanov and Masha now felt orphaned without an army." In the rear, he left a family: his wife Lyuba and two children, Petrushka and Nastya.

2. What did you learn about his family?

Alexei Ivanov has a wife, Lyuba, and two children, Petrushka and Nastya. Lyuba works at a brick factory. The work takes her a lot of time: “It’s good to work, only the children are alone and alone ...”. During the war, Lyuba “learned how to mend shoes for herself and for him [Petrushka. - N.V.] with Nastya, so as not to pay dearly to the shoemaker, and fixed electric stoves for neighbors for potatoes.

Petrushka is 11 years old, but he looks older than his age and his father does not immediately recognize him. During the war, Petrushka took on the role of the head of the family, got used to everyone in the house and to dispose of everything. This irritates Captain Ivanov, who does not understand why such a change has occurred to his son.

Ivanov's daughter Nastya was very young when her father went to war, so she does not remember Alexei and at first cries out of fear. She got used to another person, Semyon Evseevich, who treated Nastya and Petrushka "like a father, and even more attentive than any other father."

Captain Ivanov is saddened by what he learned about the life of his relatives. This was not the picture he expected to see. “... Something prevented Ivanov from feeling the joy of his return with all his heart - probably he was too unaccustomed to home life and could not immediately understand even those closest to him. native people."

3. How did Alexey Ivanov expect to see his relatives?

Probably the way he remembered them before the war.

4. Who or what is the cause of the changes that have taken place in the Ivanov family?

The reason for the change is the war.

5. What is war in the view of Captain Ivanov?

Obviously, these are military operations in which the captain took part. “I fought the whole war, I saw death closer than you ...” - this is what he says to his wife. Moreover, Alexey thinks that only he knows what war is, for which his wife rightly reproaches him: “What do you understand in our life?” . It is noteworthy that it is Captain Ivanov who owns the refrain of the words repeated in the episode: “the war is over”, “there is no war”, that is, the actual military operations. The task of the teacher is to lead the students during the conversation to the conclusion that for the author of the story "Return" war is a broader and therefore much more tragic concept.

6. What is war in the mind of his wife Luba?

This is hard work, need, the need to take care of children and longing for a husband. “... I kept waiting for you, for many terrible years, I didn’t want to wake up in the morning,” she admits to Alexei. And further: “I worked day and night ... I became thin, terrible, a stranger to everyone, a beggar will not ask me for alms. It was difficult for me too, and the children were alone at home.

7. What is war in the mind of his son Petrushka?

This is the need to help the mother, to replace the father who went to the front in the role of the owner of the house, that is, premature growing up. Upon careful reading of the episode of Ivanov's meeting with his family, it becomes obvious that Petrushka is a very sensitive and attentive boy: he feels his mother's mood well and sincerely empathizes with her.

For the author, war is a complex and multidimensional concept, it is made up of the ideas about the war of all the heroes of the Platonic story. War is also battles, but it is also a hard life full of hardships for those. who stayed behind. War is a violation of the natural, habitual order of things, fathers and mothers cannot be near children, and children are forced to grow up prematurely. The war as a series of hostilities has ended, but it continues to live in the soul of each of its participants: Captain Ivanov, who does not understand the new way of life of his family; Petrushka, who manages the house like an adult; Luba, who yearned for her husband; Nastya, who does not remember her father. War, understood as a special internal state of a person, is very insidious and difficult to eradicate. In this sense, the reader cannot be sure that the war is over for Captain Ivanov: the story "Return" has an open ending.

At the end of the analysis of Plato's story, students are asked to answer a few seemingly simple questions. One of them: "Who's coming back?" This, of course, is Captain Alexei Ivanov, who will come to his hometown after a long absence. However, the hero does not immediately return home. Ivanov's departure from the unit is delayed for a completely objective reason: the train is late. Colleagues escort the captain to the station twice. Further, it turns out that Ivanov, feeling "orphaned without an army," consciously "put off the joyful and anxious hour of meeting with his family." Thus, the former captain will have to experience not only an external, physical return to his hometown, but also an internal, psychological return to the role of father and husband.

The need for an internal return becomes obvious when Ivanov meets his son Petrushka, who "seemed older than his age" and "looked like a small, poor, but serviceable peasant." A child who has matured before his time and is forced to take on cares beyond his age is a sign of trouble in the artistic world of A. Platonov. In the hard times of war, Petrushka was forced to play the role of the head of the family and got used to it so much that he gives instructions not only to his mother, sister and father, but also to the fire in the furnace - how best to burn. Petrushka will also have to return and, like his father, the inner one - to childhood.

And Ivanov's wife, Lyuba, will also have to return to the role of wife and mother.

The second question that needs to be answered is “To what / to whom do Platonic heroes return?”

In general, we can say that each of the heroes of the Platonic story will have their own return from war to peace. The former captain believes that a new, post-war life will begin when he crosses the threshold of his home. However, in the life of his family, much is not clear and alien to him. He turns out to be unable to take the place of his father allotted to him, thereby restoring the world order destroyed by the war. This is clearly demonstrated by the scene of a quarrel between the former captain and his wife, in which Ivanov plays the role of an offended child (“... in a plaintive voice, like small, exclaimed the father "), and Petrushka - a sensible adult. Frightened and angry, Alex decides to leave his family. Only after seeing his children running after the train, he finally decides to return and steps off the train onto the railway embankment. Here begins the true return of Ivanov.

It is worth drawing students' attention to the fact that the story was originally called "The Ivanov Family" and it was under this title that it was first published. Then A. Platonov changed the title of the story. "Return" is a more capacious name and more fully reflects the essence of the author's thoughts about post-war reality.

Finally, the third, most important question that must be answered when analyzing Plato's story: "Did the return take place?" It is impossible to answer this question unambiguously. It was the open ending of the story that caused sharp criticism of A. Platonov. The author of The Return poses a problem, inviting readers to participate with him on an equal footing in reflections about time and about themselves.

Literature

1. Platonov A.P. Chevengur // Selected: Chevengur; Happy Moscow: Novels; Pit: A Tale; Stories. - M., 1999. - S. 559-577.

"There is a time in life when it is impossible to avoid one's happiness. This happiness comes not from kindness and not from other people, but from the strength of a growing heart, warming with its warmth and meaning." These words can be attributed to Alexei Ivanov, the hero of the story "Return". The story tells not about the joy of victory, but about the "wounds" inflicted on the family and soul of a person by war. The plot of the story is the return of the captain of the guard Alexei Alekseevich Ivanov from the front. This is not so much the return of the hero home to his family, but rather the "return to himself", lost four years ago. The war is over, but he continues to live the way he lived during the war. Evidence of this is Ivanov's meeting with "Masha, the daughter of a spaceman," whose hair "smells like fallen autumn leaves in the forest." He needs to return home, to his wife and children, but "he follows Masha out of the car." For the first time, the mention of the hero's family appears after his meeting with Masha. In contrast to her husband, who wanted to "walk a little more in the wild," Ivanov's wife "went three days in a row to all the trains arriving from the west" ... It is quite clear that for Lyubov Vasilievna and her husband, the waiting time for a meeting moves and feels differently. Returning, the father feels that Petrushka needs care and affection more than others, because the war turned him into a "peasant": "the father did not immediately recognize his child in a serious teenager who seemed older than his age", "his face was calm, as if already accustomed to worldly worries", "Petrushka looked like a small, not rich, but serviceable peasant." And in relation to Petrushka (a complete human character), he does not experience paternal feelings, but a kind of awkwardness for the boy’s habit of leading households, for his “male” character, and even for his commanding voice (fire in the furnace and he obeys him). The father does not understand that it was the boy who saved the family for him, took care of his mother and sister. The answer to the question, inappropriate in the mouth of the father: “How did you live here without me?”, - is contained both in the character of the son and in the behavior of Nastya, when the whole family gathered at the table. The main idea of ​​the story is revealed in the words of Petrushka: "We have a business, we need to live, and you swear, how stupid you are...". Separated from home, Ivanov arrogates to himself the exclusive right to judge his loved ones, not at all thinking about what his family had to endure without him. But still, Ivanov is not completely deaf to the feelings of his family members. For the first time in the story, his conscience makes itself felt when Petrushka tells the story of Anyuta and Khariton, which is so strongly reminiscent of the story of the captain of the guard and his wife. Perhaps Ivanov recognizes himself in Khariton, who cheated on his wife, deceived her, but demanded fidelity from her. Petrushka and his father are in a state of "moral dispute", because, as it turns out, the son's business is to save the family, and the father's only to assess how he was expected at home. The story ends with a significant episode - the father decides to break with his family out of pride. When he sees the children running after the train, he becomes embarrassed: "Two children, holding hands, were still running along the road to the crossing. They both fell, got up and ran forward again. And then they fell to the ground again," and suddenly Ivanov "himself felt how hot it became in his chest, as if the heart, enclosed and languishing in it, had been beating long and in vain all his life, and only now it broke free, filling his whole being with warmth and shudder." The motives of insight, "return" to oneself are the main ones in the Platonic story.

In this lesson, you will get acquainted with A. Platonov's story "Return". We will analyze the text of the story, consider its subtext and the symbolic meaning of the artistic images that the author uses. Let's talk about the lost generation.

Platonov was born in Voronezh, in the family of a railway worker. There were eleven children in the family, Andrei was the eldest. Platonov began to work very early, at the age of thirteen. It was necessary to feed the family, help raise brothers and sisters. In 1918, the future writer entered the Voronezh Polytechnic Institute in the electrical department. And already in 1919, he began active cooperation with many newspapers as a poet and correspondent.

Soon he begins to write prose - stories, novels, novels. Platonov's work was perceived with hostility by the Soviet authorities, many of his works were criticized. The fact is that Platonov wrote honest prose about a person, and this contradicted the ideology of socialist realism.

Platonov's literary activity begins with poetry. In his poems, the poet creates images of little people deprived of fate. Here, for example, are a few lines about a blind man:

You are alive, you are alive, you are the only one
And the wall is just smoke before our eyes,
You are blind, but there is a mysterious light in you,
You are the only one in the world."

In 1922, the first collection of Platonov's poems "Blue Depth" was published. Platonov's poems received high marks from critics. In particular, the poet of the Silver Age V. Bryusov wrote: "... he has a rich imagination, a bold language and his own approach to topics."

Socialist realism (Sotsrealism) is an artistic method in literature and art officially encouraged by the party bodies of the USSR, built on the socialist concept of the world and man.

The method was formulated by Soviet cultural figures under the leadership of Stalin in 1932. It covered all areas of artistic activity: literature, drama, cinema, painting, sculpture, architecture. M. Gorky was recognized as the leading writer of socialist realism. (Fig. 2.)

Rice. 2. Maxim Gorky and Joseph Stalin ()

Gorky wrote: “It is vitally and creatively necessary for our writers to take a point of view, from the height of which - and only from its height - all the dirty crimes of capitalism, all the meanness of its bloody intentions are clearly visible, and all the greatness of the heroic work of the proletariat-dictator is visible."

During the Great Patriotic War, Platonov, a correspondent captain, worked for the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper. His war stories appear in print. At the end of 1946, Andrei Platonov publishes the story "Return". The working title of the story was The Ivanov Family. In 1947, the writer was criticized and persecuted for this story. What was the reason for this?

In the story "Return" A. Platonov tells how a soldier returns from the war. With the theme of victory, each of us is associated with joyful emotions, associations with spring, with the triumph of life. However, in Platonov's narrative we do not see this joy. The action in the story takes place in autumn, everything around is gloomy and dull. The artist Platonov outlined the landscape with just a few strokes, but he did it masterfully. Autumn is the time of the year, which is associated with the period of withering, dying. Autumn in the story is a symbol of war. And even those who survived this war are experiencing autumn in their souls. They have already forgotten what real full-fledged happiness and joy are. They live content with simple joy at hand, little moments of little happiness that they can find in the conditions of war. Thus, Platonov through the landscape conveys the mood of the protagonist Alexei Ivanov, a soldier returning from the war.

At first, we do not understand the reasons for the autumn mood of the hero. It would seem that the soldier himself is intact, they are waiting for him at home, all his relatives are alive and well, but the hero is in no hurry to go home. First, Alexei returns to the unit because the train was late, and then he leaves the station with his fellow soldier and spends several days with her. And his wife and children are waiting for him home, go to the station and meet the trains. Reading this, we begin to condemn Alexei Ivanov, because it is easier to condemn than to understand.

In the story, Platonov wanted to show that for a soldier who spent four years in the war, there is no longer a concept of a peaceful life. He forgot what it was, a military unit became his family, and fellow soldiers became his relatives. That is why the soldier Ivanov feels orphaned without an army. A soldier cannot suddenly break with his military past and therefore stops for a few days with his fellow soldier Masha. Then he remembers for a long time that her hair smells like autumn. Because Masha is part of his military life, and in civilian life everything is unfamiliar, everything has long been forgotten. It is these feelings that a soldier experiences when he returns home.

“Ivanov examined all the objects of the house in order - a wall clock, a cupboard, a thermometer on the wall, chairs, flowers on the windowsills, a Russian kitchen stove ... They lived here for a long time without him and missed him. Now he returned and looked at them, getting to know each one again, as with a relative who lived without him in anguish and poverty. He breathed in the settled, familiar smell of the house - smoldering wood, warmth from the bodies of his children, burning on the stove. This smell was the same before, four years ago, and it did not dissipate or change without it. Ivanov did not feel this smell anywhere else, although he visited hundreds of dwellings in different countries during the war; there smelled of a different spirit, in which, however, there was no property of a native home.

Household items remained the same, and the smell of the house is the same, but this is perhaps the only thing that has been preserved from that distant, past life, and everything else has changed.

Initially calling the story "The Ivanov Family", the author wanted to emphasize the main task of the story, to show that the war destroys and destroys everything in its path, and even the spiritual connection between loved ones. Alexei Ivanov met with his wife and children, as with strangers, strangers to him. All these four years, the Ivanov family lived a difficult military life. They have their own view of the war, for them it is first of all - hard and exhausting work, devastation, hunger, cold. The trouble they experienced apart from their father changed them and alienated them from him.

“Strange and still not entirely clear was Ivanov's home. The wife was the same - with a sweet, shy, although already very tired face, and the children were the same that were born from him, only grown up during the war, as it should be. But something prevented Ivanov from feeling the joy of his return with all his heart - he was probably too unaccustomed to home life and could not immediately understand even the closest, dearest people. (Fig. 3.)

Rice. 3. Frame from the film based on the story ()

Wife Lyuba does not complain to her husband, does not tell all the details of the harsh working military everyday life. However, we learn a lot from snippets of conversation. All these years, Lyuba worked hard and took care of the children, giving them the last. She herself was malnourished, she altered her husband's clothes so that the children would not be cold, she sold her coat and went in winter in a short padded jacket. She did everything for the children to survive in this war. In return, children pay their mother with love and care, they are very attached to her. Their father became a stranger to them. The eldest son Peter did not even recognize him, and little Nastya does not remember her father at all. It hurts Ivanov to realize how much a stranger he has become for his family.

“... he was too unaccustomed to home life and could not immediately understand even the closest, dearest people. He looked at Petrushka, his grown-up first-born son, listened to how he gave orders and instructions to his mother and little sister, watched his serious, preoccupied face, and shamefully admitted to himself that his paternal feeling for this little boy, attraction to him as to son is not enough. Ivanov was even more ashamed of his indifference to Petrushka from the realization that Petrushka needed love and care more than others, because it was a pity to look at him now. Ivanov did not know exactly the life that his family lived without him, and he could not yet clearly understand why Petrushka had such a character.

Reading the story, we understand that the war forced the son of Petrushka to grow up early. This is what the father notices when he meets the boy at the station.

“He was met by his son Peter; now Petrushka was in his twelfth year, and the father did not immediately recognize his child in a serious teenager who seemed older than his age. Father saw that Peter was a short and thin boy, but big-headed, with big foreheads, and his face was calm, as if already accustomed to worldly cares, and his small brown eyes looked at the white light gloomily and displeasedly, as if they saw everywhere one mess. Petrushka was neatly dressed and shod: his shoes were worn, but still fit, his trousers and jacket were old, altered from his father's civilian clothes, but without holes - where necessary, mended there, where necessary, a patch was put there, and all Petrushka looked like small, poor, but serviceable peasant.

Having become more familiar with the character of Petrushka, we involuntarily recall the lines from the song of Bulat Okudzhava:

“Ah, war, what have you done, vile:
our yards became quiet,
our boys raised their heads,
they have matured for the time being ... "

Looking at his early grown-up children, Ivanov understands that his task is to help them begin to live a peaceful life.

“He needs to get down to business as soon as possible, that is, go to work in order to earn money, and help his wife raise their children properly, then gradually everything will go for the better, and Petrushka will run with the guys, sit at the book, and not command with stag by the stove.

It seems that the soldier understands everything, but four years of war continue to stand between him and his family. At the moment when Ivanov begins to reproach his wife for not devoting enough time to raising children, her son Petrushka defends her.

“- Why are you crushing the glass of the lamp? Why are you scaring your mother? She is already thin, she eats potatoes without oil, and gives oil to Nastya.
- Do you know what mother did here, what she did? - in a plaintive voice, like a little one, cried the father.
- Alyosha! Lyubov Vasilyevna turned meekly to her husband.
- I know, I know everything! Petrushka said. - Your mother was crying for you, she was waiting for you, and you came, she is also crying. You do not know!
- Yes, you still do not understand anything! - angry father. - Here we have a shoot.
“I understand everything perfectly,” answered Petrushka from the stove. - You don't understand. We have a business, we have to live, and you swear, how stupid you are ... "

After a quarrel with his wife in the morning, Ivanov decides to leave. He did not say anything to his wife or son, only kissed little Nastya, who woke up early. The soldier came to the station, got on the train, the train started moving. Ivanov looks out the window and sees the road.

“The railroad track here was crossed by a rural dirt road that went to the city; on this earthen road lay bundles of straw and hay that had fallen from wagons, wicker and horse dung. Usually this road was deserted, except for two market days a week; rarely, it happened, a peasant would drive to the city with a full load of hay or return back to the village. So it was now; the village road lay empty.

Study this quote carefully and think about the meaning of the description. The road is a symbol of a person, his life path. It is deserted, except for two market days a week. Remember what we said about improvised, temporary joy and full, real joy. Platonov through the landscape conveys not just the mood of the hero, but his attitude to life. And on this empty and deserted road, two fragile figures appear. Ivanov recognizes them as his children, he sees how they run after the train, stumble and fall. At this moment, the soldier realizes that he has one common road with his children and it depends on him, as a father, what their life will be like. It was at this moment that Ivanov seemed to break free from the shackles of war, and all his real and sincere feelings broke through.
“Ivanov closed his eyes, not wanting to see and feel the pain of the fallen, exhausted children, and he himself felt how hot it became in his chest, as if the heart, enclosed and languishing in him, had been beating long and in vain all his life and only now it broke free , filling his entire being with warmth and shudder. He suddenly learned everything that he knew before, much more accurately and more effectively. Previously, he felt another life through the barrier of pride and self-interest, and now he suddenly touched her with a bare heart.

Alexei Ivanov jumped off the train. It was at this moment, at the end of the story, that the soldier truly returned home, and now everything will work out in this family. The father will start working, the children will study, and the wounds left by the war will gradually heal. This family is sure to be happy.

And how many families did not wait for their fathers, husbands, brothers after the war! Semyon Evseevich is mentioned in the story. He has lost his entire family and has no one to return to. That is why he comes to Lyuba's children, plays with them, reads fairy tales to them - he warms up with his soul. It is unfair that Ivanov is jealous of Lyuba for Semyon, nothing connected them except friendship and support.

In 1936, in the magazine Krasnaya Nov, Platonov published a story called The Third Son. This story becomes known outside the country. A year later, the English publisher O'Brien included the novel by the Soviet writer in the collection of the best stories of the year.

Ernest Hemingway, after reading the story, suggested that Platonov is one of those writers who have a lot to learn.

Here is a story written by Andrey Platonov. The writer showed great skill here, the ability to conclude a deep philosophical and psychological meaning in each image. After all, even Platonov does not choose the name of the hero by chance.

The Ivanov family personifies many families who waited for their loved ones from the fronts and faced the problem of disunity by the war. Platonov does not condemn people, he blames the accursed war.

Bibliography

1. Korovina V.Ya . Literature, 8th grade. Tutorial in two parts. -2009 .
2. Vakhitova T.M. Platonov and Leonov. 1930 Object world // Creativity of Andrey Platonov. Research and materials. - SPb., 2004. Book. Z. - S. 214-226.
3. Davydova T.T. Return of Andrey Platonov // Novy Mir, 2006. No. 6.

1. Dissercat.com().
2. Xz.gif.ru ().
3. lit-helper.com().

Homework

• Write an essay: Review of A.P. Platonov's story "Return"
• Answer the questions:

1. Who are the heroes of the story?

2. What is the meaning of the episode with the woman in the padded jacket whom Ivanov wanted to help, but then forgot about her?

3. How did Ivanov meet his wife, Lyubov Vasilievna?

4. How did the father view things in the house? How do you understand Ivanov's thoughts about them: "For a long time they lived here without him and missed him"?

• Describe the image of Alexei Ivanov.