Composition

The problem of morality has become especially relevant in our time. In our society, there is a need to talk and think about the changing human psychology, about the relationships between people, about the meaning of life that the heroes and heroines of novels and short stories so tirelessly and so painfully comprehend. Now at every step we encounter the loss of human qualities: conscience, duty, mercy, kindness. In Rasputin's works we find situations close to modern life, and they help us understand the complexity of this problem. The works of V. Rasputin consist of “living thoughts”, and we must be able to understand them, if only because for us it is more important than for the writer himself, because the future of society and each individual depends on us.

The story “The Last Term,” which V. Rasputin himself called the main one of his books, touched on many moral problems and exposed the vices of society. In the work, V. Rasputin showed relationships within the family, raised the problem of respect for parents, which is very relevant in our time, revealed and showed the main wound of our time - alcoholism, raised the question of conscience and honor, which affected every hero of the story. The main character of the story is the old woman Anna, who lived with her son Mikhail. She was eighty years old. The only goal left in her life is to see all her children before death and go to the next world with a clear conscience. Anna had many children. They all left, but fate wanted to bring them all together at a time when the mother was dying. Anna's children are typical representatives of modern society, busy people with a family and a job, but for some reason they remember their mother very rarely. Their mother suffered greatly and missed them, and when the time came to die, only for their sake she stayed a few more days in this world and she would have lived as long as she wanted, if only they were nearby. And she, already with one foot in the next world, managed to find the strength to be reborn, to blossom, and all for the sake of her children. “Whether it happened by a miracle or not by a miracle, no one will say, only when she saw her children did the old woman begin to come to life.” What about them? And they solve their problems, and it seems that their mother does not really care, and if they are interested in her, it is only for the sake of appearances.

And they all live only for decency. Don’t offend anyone, don’t scold anyone, don’t say too much – everything is for the sake of decency, so as not to be worse than others. Each of them, on difficult days for their mother, goes about their own business, and their mother’s condition worries them little. Mikhail and Ilya fell into drunkenness, Lyusya was walking, Varvara was solving her problems, and none of them thought of spending more time with their mother, talking to her, or just sitting next to her. All their care for their mother began and ended with “semolina porridge,” which they all rushed to cook. Everyone gave advice, criticized others, but no one did anything themselves. From the very first meeting of these people, arguments and swearing begin between them. Lyusya, as if nothing had happened, sat down to sew a dress, the men got drunk, and Varvara was even afraid to stay with her mother. And so the days passed: constant arguments and swearing, insults against each other and drunkenness. This is how the children saw off their mother on her last journey, this is how they took care of her, this is how they took care of her and loved her. They were not imbued with the mother’s state of mind, did not understand her, they only saw that she was getting better, that they had a family and work, and that they needed to return home as soon as possible. They couldn't even say goodbye to their mother properly. Her children missed the “last deadline” to fix something, ask for forgiveness, and just be together, because now they are unlikely to get together again.

In this story, Rasputin very well showed the relationships of a modern family and their shortcomings, which clearly manifest themselves at critical moments, revealed the moral problems of society, showed the callousness and selfishness of people, their loss of all respect and ordinary feelings of love for each other. They, dear people, are mired in anger and envy. They care only about their interests, problems, only their own affairs. They don’t even find time for their loved ones. They didn’t find time for their mother, the dearest person. For them, “I” comes first, and then everything else. Rasputin showed the impoverishment of morality of modern people and its consequences. The story “The Last Term”, on which V. Rasputin began working in 1969, was first published in the magazine “Our Contemporary”, in issues 7, 8 for 1970. She not only continued and developed the best traditions of Russian literature - primarily the traditions of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky - but also gave a new powerful impetus to the development of modern literature, giving it a high artistic and philosophical level.

The story was immediately published as a book in several publishing houses, was translated into other languages, and published abroad - in Prague, Bucharest, Milan. The play “The Deadline” was staged in Moscow (at the Moscow Art Theater) and in Bulgaria. The fame brought to the writer by the first story was firmly established. The composition of any work by V. Rasputin, the selection of details, and visual means help to see the image of the author - our contemporary, citizen and philosopher.

One of the most famous modern Russian writers is Valentin Rasputin. I read a lot of his works, and they attracted me with their simplicity and sincerity. In my opinion, among Rasputin’s defining life impressions, one of the most powerful was the impression he received from ordinary Siberian women, especially old women. There were many things that attracted them: calm strength of character and inner dignity, selflessness in difficult village work and the ability to understand and forgive others.

This is Anna in the story The Last Term. The situation in the story is set right away: an eighty-year-old woman is dying. It seemed to me that life, introduced by Rasputin in his stories, is always taken at the moment of a breakthrough in its natural course, when suddenly a great misfortune looms with inevitability. It seems as if the spirit of death is hovering over Rasputin's heroes. The old tofamark from the story And Ten Graves in the Taiga thinks almost exclusively about death. Aunt Natalya is ready for her date with death in the story Money for Maria. Young Leshka dies in the arms of his friends (I forgot to ask Leshka...). A boy accidentally dies from an old mine (There, on the edge of the ravine). Anna in the story The Last Time is not afraid to die, she is ready for this last step, because she is already tired, feels that she has lived down to the very bottom, has boiled away to the last drop. All my life I’ve been running, on my feet, in work, in worries: children, house, garden, field, collective farm... And then the time came when there was no strength left at all, except to say goodbye to the children. Anna couldn’t imagine how she could leave forever without seeing them, without finally hearing her own voices. During her life, the old woman gave birth many times, but now she has only five left alive. It turned out this way because first death began to wander into their family, like a ferret into a chicken coop, and then the war began. They separated, the children scattered, they were strangers, and only the imminent death of their mother forces them to come together after a long separation. In the face of death, not only the spiritual depth of a simple Russian peasant woman is revealed, but also the faces and characters of her children appear before us in a revealing light.

I admire Anna's character. In my opinion, it has preserved the unshakable foundations of truth and conscience. There are more strings in the soul of an illiterate old woman than in the souls of her urban children who have seen the world. There are also heroes in Rasputin who, perhaps, have few of these strings in their souls, but they sound strong and pure (for example, the old Tofamarca woman from the story The Man from This World). Anna and, perhaps to an even greater extent, Daria from the story Money for Maria, in terms of wealth and sensitivity of spiritual life, in intelligence and knowledge of a person, can be compared with many heroes of world and Russian literature.

Take a look from the outside: a useless old woman is living out her life, she hardly gets up in recent years, why should she continue to live? But the writer describes her to us in such a way that we see how in these last, seemingly completely worthless years, months, days, hours of her , minutes there is intense spiritual work going on in her. Through her eyes we see and evaluate her children. These are loving and pitying eyes, but they accurately notice the essence of changes. The change in face is most clearly visible in the appearance of Ilya’s eldest son: Next to his bare head, his face seemed unreal, painted, as if Ilya had sold his own or lost at cards to a stranger. In him, the mother either finds traits familiar to her, or loses them.

But the middle daughter, Lyusya, became all city, from head to toe, she was born from an old woman, and not from some city woman, probably by mistake, but then she still found her own. It seems to me that she has already been completely reborn to the last cell, as if she had neither childhood nor village youth. She is offended by the manners and rustic language of her sister Varvara and brother Mikhail, and their indelicacy. I remember one scene when Lucy was going to take a healthy walk in the fresh air. A picture of the once native place appeared before her eyes, painfully striking the woman: an abandoned, neglected land lay spread out before her, everything that had once been well-groomed, brought into expedient order by the loving labor of human hands, now converged in one alien, wide desolation. Lucy understands that she has been tormented by some silent long-standing guilt, for which she will have to answer. This is her fault: she completely forgot everything that happened to her here. After all, she was given to know both the joyful dissolution in her native nature, and the daily example of her mother, who felt a deep kinship with all living things (it was not for nothing that Lyusa remembered the incident when her mother, affectionately, like a loved one, raised the hopelessly exhausted horse Igrenka, who had fallen hopelessly behind the plowing), remembered it is also the terrible consequences of national tragedies: split, struggle, war (the episode with the hunted, brutalized Bandera member).
Of all Anna's children, I liked Mikhail the most. He stayed in the village, and Anna is living out her life with him. Mikhail is simpler, ruder than her city children, he gets more shots at him with complaints and complaints, but in fact he is warmer and deeper than the others, not like Ilya, he rolls through life like a cheerful little boy, trying not to touch any corners.

The two chapters in the story are magnificent about how, having bought two boxes of vodka for the supposed wake, the brothers, overjoyed that their mother had suddenly miraculously recovered from death, began to drink them, first alone, and then with their friend Stepan. Vodka is like an animated creature, and, like an evil, capricious ruler, you need to be able to handle it with the least possible losses for yourself: you need to take it out of fear, ... I don’t respect drinking it alone. Then she, cholera, is angrier. The highest moment in the lives of many, especially men, alas, was drinking. Behind all the colorful scenes, behind the picaresque stories of drunkards (here is the story of Stepan, who fooled his mother-in-law and snuck into the underground for moonshine), behind the comical conversations (say, about the difference between a woman and a woman) there arises real social, popular evil. About the reasons for drunkenness, Mikhail said: Life is completely different now, almost everything has changed, and they, these changes, demanded supplements from a person... The body demanded rest. It's not me who drinks, it's him who drinks. Let's return to the main character of the story. In my opinion, old woman Anna embodied all the best aspects of the original Siberian character in her tenacity in carrying out everyday tasks, in her firmness and pride. In the last chapters of the story, Rasputin focuses entirely on his main character and the final segment of her life. Here the writer introduces us to the very depths of a mother’s feelings for her last, most beloved and closest child, her daughter Tanchora. The old woman is waiting for her daughter to arrive, but she, unfortunately, did not arrive, and then something in the old woman suddenly snapped, something burst with a short groan. Of all the children, again only Mikhail was able to understand what was happening to his mother, and he again took sin upon his soul. Your Tanchora will not arrive, and there is no point in waiting for her. I sent her a telegram not to come, overpowering himself, he puts an end to it. It seems to me that this act of his cruel mercy is worth hundreds of unnecessary words.

Under the pressure of all the misfortunes, Anna prayed: Lord, let me go, I will go. Let's go to the mine of my death, I'm ready. She imagined her death, her mortal mother, as the same ancient, emaciated old woman. Rasputin’s heroine envisions her own departure to the far side with amazing poetic clarity, in all its stages and details.

Leaving, Anna remembers her children in those moments when they expressed the best in themselves: young Ilya very seriously, with faith, accepts his mother’s blessing before leaving for the front; Varvara, who grew up such a whiny, unhappy woman, is seen in early childhood digging a hole in the ground just to see what is in it, looking for something that no one else knows about her, Lucy desperately, with all her being, rushes from the departing ship to meet her mother, leaving home; Mikhail, stunned by the birth of his first child, is suddenly pierced by an understanding of the unbreakable chain of generations in which he has thrown a new ring. And Anna remembered herself at the most wonderful moment of her life: She is not an old woman, she is still a girl, and everything around her is young, bright, beautiful. She wanders along the shore along a warm, steamy river after the rain... And it is so good, so happy for her to live at this moment in the world, to look at its beauty with her own eyes, to be among the stormy and joyful action of eternal life, consistent in everything, that she feels dizzy head and a sweet, excited ache in my chest.

When Anna dies, her children literally abandon her. Varvara, citing the fact that she left the boys alone, leaves, and Lyusya and Ilya do not explain the reasons for their flight at all. When the mother asks them to stay, her last request goes unheard. In my opinion, this will not be in vain for either Varvara, Ilya, or Lyusa. It seems to me that this was the last of the last terms for them. Alas…

That night the old woman died.

Thanks to Rasputin's works, I was able to find answers to many questions. This writer remains in my opinion one of the best, leading modern prose writers. Please do not pass by his books, take them off the shelf, ask at the library and read slowly, slowly, thoughtfully.

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Lyceum of Modern Management Technologies No. 2

Abstract on the topic:

“Moral problems in the works of V. Rasputin”

Completed by: student of grade 11 “B”

Chubar Alexey Alexandrovich

Checked by: literature teacher

Bliznina Margarita Mikhailovna

Penza, 2008.

• 3
• "Farewell to Matera" 4
• "Money for Maria" 7
• "Deadline" 9
• "Live and Remember" 11
• Conclusion 13
• 14

The range of moral problems in the author’s work

V. Astafiev wrote: “You always have to start with yourself, then you will reach the general, national, universal problems.” Apparently, Valentin Rasputin was guided by a similar principle on his creative path. He covers events and phenomena that are close to him in spirit, which he had to endure (the flooding of his native village in the work “Farewell to Matera”). Based on his personal experiences and observations, the author outlines a very wide range of moral problems, as well as many different human characters and personalities who solve these problems in their own way.

Sergei Zalygin wrote that Rasputin’s stories are distinguished by their special “artistic completeness” - completeness and completeness of “complexity”. Be it the characters and relationships of the heroes, be it the depiction of events - everything from beginning to end retains its complexity and does not replace the logical and emotional simplicity of some final, indisputable conclusions and explanations. The pressing question is “who is to blame?” in Rasputin’s works does not receive a clear answer. As if in return, the reader realizes the impossibility of such an answer; we guess that all the answers that come to mind are insufficient, unsatisfactory; they will not ease the burden in any way, will not correct anything, will not prevent anything in the future; we remain face to face with what happened, with that terrible, cruel injustice, and our whole being rebels against it...

Rasputin's stories are an attempt to find something basic and decisive in the mentality and consciousness of modern man. The author approaches his goal by highlighting and solving in his works such moral problems as the problem of memory, the problem of relationships between “fathers” and “children”, the problem of love and attachment to the native land, the problem of pettiness, the problem of empathy, compassion, mercy, conscience, the problem of the evolution of ideas about material values, a turning point in the spiritual life of mankind. It is worth noting that the author does not have works devoted to any of the above problems. Reading Rasputin's novels and stories, we see the deep mutual penetration of various moral phenomena, their interconnection. Because of this, it is impossible to clearly identify one specific problem and characterize it. Therefore, I will consider the “tangle” of problems in the context of certain works and in the end I will try to draw a conclusion on the moral issues of Rasputin’s work as a whole.

"Farewell to Matera"

Each person has his own small homeland, that land that is the Universe and everything that Matera became for the heroes of the story by Valentin Rasputin. All of V.G.’s books originate from love for his small homeland. Rasputin, so I would like to consider this topic first. In the story “Farewell to Matera” one can easily read the fate of the writer’s native village, Atalanka, which fell into a flood zone during the construction of the Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station.

Matera is both an island and a village of the same name. Russian peasants inhabited this place for three hundred years. Life goes on slowly, without haste, on this island, and over those more than three hundred years, Matera has made many people happy. She accepted everyone, became a mother to everyone and carefully fed her children, and the children responded to her with love. And the residents of Matera did not need comfortable houses with heating, or a kitchen with a gas stove. They did not see happiness in this. If only I had the opportunity to touch my native land, light the stove, drink tea from a samovar, live my whole life next to the graves of my parents, and when the turn comes, lie next to them. But Matera leaves, the soul of this world leaves.

Mothers stand up to defend their homeland, try to save their village, their history. But what can old men and women do against the almighty boss, who gave the order to flood Matera and wipe it off the face of the earth? For strangers, this island is just a territory, a flood zone.

Rasputin skillfully depicts scenes of people parting with the village. Let’s read again how Yegor and Nastasya postpone their departure again and again, how they do not want to leave their native land, how Bogodul desperately fights to preserve the cemetery, because it is sacred to the inhabitants of Matera: “And the old women crawled around the cemetery until the last night, stuck put back the crosses, installed bedside tables.”

All this once again proves that it is impossible to tear a people away from the land, from its roots, that such actions can be equated to brutal murder.

The main ideological character of the story is the old woman Daria. This is the person who remained devoted to his homeland until the end of his life, until the last minute. This woman is a kind of guardian of eternity. Daria is a true national character. The writer himself is close to the thoughts of this sweet old woman. Rasputin gives her only positive traits, simple and unpretentious speech. It must be said that all the old residents of Matera are described by the author with warmth. But it is through Daria’s voice that the author expresses his judgments regarding moral problems. This old woman concludes that the sense of conscience has begun to be lost in people and society. “There are a lot more people,” she reflects, “but my conscience is the same... our conscience has grown old, she has become an old woman, no one looks at her... What about conscience if this happens!”

Rasputin's characters directly associate the loss of conscience with a person's separation from the earth, from his roots, from age-old traditions. Unfortunately, only old men and women remained faithful to Matera. Young people live in the future and calmly part with their small homeland. Thus, two more problems are touched upon: the problem of memory and the peculiar conflict of “fathers” and “children”.

In this context, “fathers” are people for whom breaking with the earth is fatal; they grew up on it and absorbed love for it with their mother’s milk. This is Bogodul, and grandfather Egor, and Nastasya, and Sima, and Katerina. “Children” are those youth who so easily left the village to the mercy of fate, a village with a history of three hundred years. This is Andrey, Petrukha, Klavka Strigunova. As we know, the views of “fathers” differ sharply from the views of “children,” therefore the conflict between them is eternal and inevitable. And if in Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons” the truth was on the side of the “children”, on the side of the new generation, which sought to eradicate the morally decaying nobility, then in the story “Farewell to Mother” the situation is completely opposite: young people are ruining the only thing that makes it possible preservation of life on earth (customs, traditions, national roots). This idea is confirmed by Daria’s words, expressing the idea of ​​the work: “The truth is in memory. He who has no memory has no life.” Memory is not just events recorded in the brain, it is a spiritual connection with something. The writer makes you wonder whether a person who left his native land, broke with his roots, will be happy, and, by burning bridges, leaving Matera, will he not lose his soul, his moral support? Lack of connection with one’s native land, readiness to leave it and forget it like a “bad dream”, disdainful attitude towards one’s small homeland (“It should have been drowned a long time ago. There is no smell of living things... not people, but bugs and cockroaches. They found a place to live - in the middle of the water ... like frogs”) does not characterize the heroes from the best side.

The outcome of the work is deplorable... An entire village disappeared from the map of Siberia, and with it the traditions and customs that over the centuries shaped the human soul, his unique character, and were the roots of our lives.

V. Rasputin touches on many moral issues in his story, but the fate of Matera is the leading theme of this work. Not only is the theme traditional here: the fate of the village, its moral principles, but also the characters themselves. The work largely follows the traditions of humanism. Rasputin is not against change, he does not try in his story to protest against everything new, progressive, but makes one think about such transformations in life that would not destroy the humanity in a person. Many moral imperatives are also traditional in the story.

“Farewell to Matera” is the result of an analysis of one social phenomenon, carried out on the basis of the author’s memories. Rasputin explores the branchy tree of moral problems that this event exposed. Like any humanist, in his story he addresses issues of humanity and solves many moral problems, and also, which is not unimportant, establishes connections between them, demonstrates the inseparability and dependence on each other of the processes occurring in the human soul.

"Money for Maria"

For many of us, the concepts of “humanity” and “mercy” are inextricably linked. Many people even identify them (which, however, is not entirely true). The humanist writer could not ignore the topic of mercy, and it is reflected in the story “Money for Mary.”

The plot of the work is very simple. An emergency occurred in a small Siberian village: the auditor discovered a large shortage from the seller of Maria’s store. It is clear to both the auditor and fellow villagers that Maria did not take a penny for herself, most likely becoming a victim of the accounting neglected by her predecessors. But, fortunately for the saleswoman, the auditor turned out to be a sincere person and gave her five days to repay the shortfall. Apparently, he took into account both the woman’s illiteracy and her selflessness, and most importantly, he took pity on the children.

Such a seemingly completely everyday situation reveals human characters quite well. Maria's fellow villagers take a kind of test of mercy. They are faced with a difficult choice: either help out their conscientious and always hard-working fellow countrywoman by lending her money, or turn away, not notice the human misfortune, preserving their own savings. Money here becomes a kind of measure of human conscience. The work reflects the author’s perception of various kinds of misfortunes. Rasputin's misfortune is not just a misfortune. This is also a test of a person, a test that reveals the core of the soul. Here everything is revealed to the bottom: both good and bad - everything is revealed without concealment. Such crisis psychological situations organize the dramaturgy of the conflict both in this story and in other works of the writer.

Maria's family always treated money simply. Husband Kuzma thought: “yes - good - no - oh well.” For Kuzma, “money was patches that were put on the holes necessary for living.” He could think about stocks of bread and meat - it was impossible to do without this, but thoughts about stocks of money seemed funny, clownish to him, and he brushed them aside. He was happy with what he had. That is why, when trouble knocks on his house, Kuzma does not regret the accumulated wealth. He thinks about how to save his wife, the mother of his children. Kuzma promises his sons: “We will turn the whole earth upside down, but we will not give up our mother. We are five men, we can do it.” The mother here is a symbol of the bright and sublime, incapable of any meanness. Mother is life. Protecting her honor and dignity is what is important to Kuzma, not money.

But Stepanida has a completely different attitude towards money. She can’t bear to part with a penny for a while. School director Evgeniy Nikolaevich also has difficulty giving money to help Maria. It is not a feeling of compassion for his fellow villager that guides his action. He wants to strengthen his reputation with this gesture. He advertises his every step to the whole village. But mercy cannot coexist with rude calculation.

Thus, in the person of the head of the family, we see an ideal that we need to emulate when resolving questions about wealth and its influence on people’s consciousness, about family relationships, the dignity and honor of the family. The author again demonstrates the inextricable connection of several moral problems. A minor deficiency allows you to see the moral character of representatives of society, revealing different facets of the same quality of a person.

"Deadline"

Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin is one of the called masters of “village prose”, one of those who continues the traditions of Russian classical prose, primarily from the point of view of moral and philosophical problems. Rasputin explores the conflict between a wise world order, a wise attitude towards the world and an unwise, fussy, thoughtless existence. The search for the roots of this conflict in the 1970 story “The Deadline.”

The narration is led, on the one hand, by an impersonal author-narrator, depicting the events in the house of the dying Anna, on the other hand, it is narrated as if Anna herself, her views, thoughts, and feelings are conveyed in the form of improperly direct speech. This organization of the story creates a feeling of dialogue between two opposing life positions. But in fact, the author’s sympathies are clearly on Anna’s side; the other position is presented in a negative light.

Rasputin's negative position belongs to the author's attitude towards Anna's already adult children, who gathered in the house of their dying old mother to say goodbye to her. But you can’t plan the moment of death, you can’t calculate it in advance, like a train stopping at a station. Contrary to all forecasts, old woman Anna is in no hurry to close her eyes. Her strength weakens and then returns again. Meanwhile, Anna’s children are primarily occupied with their own concerns. Lyusya hurries to sew herself a black dress while her mother is still alive in order to look appropriate at the funeral; Varvara immediately begs for this unsewn dress for her daughter. Sons Ilya and Mikhail thriftyly buy a box of vodka - “the mother must be seen off properly” - and start drinking in advance. And their emotions are unnatural: Varvara, as soon as she arrived and opened the gate, “as soon as she turned herself on, she began to cry: “You’re my mother!” Lucy “also shed a tear.” All of them - Ilya, and Lyusya, and Varvara, and Mikhail - have already come to terms with the inevitability of loss. The unexpected glimmer of hope for recovery does not cause them relief, but rather confusion and frustration. It was as if their mother had deceived them, as if she had forced them to waste their time and nerves, and had mixed up their plans. So the author shows that the spiritual world of these people is poor, they have lost their noble memory, are concerned only with petty matters, have become divorced from Nature (the mother in Rasputin’s story is the nature that gives life). Hence the author’s disgusted detachment from these heroes.

Rasputin wonders why Anna’s children have such thick skin? They weren't born that way, were they? And why did such a mother produce soulless children? Anna recalls the past, the childhood of her sons and daughters. He remembers when Mikhail’s first child was born, how happy he was, he burst into his mother with the words: “look, mother, I am from you, he is from me, and someone else is from him...”. Initially, the heroes are able to “sensitively and acutely be surprised at their existence, at what surrounds them at every step,” they are able to understand their participation in the “endless goal” of human existence: “so that the world never grows poor without people and grows old without children.” But this potential was not realized; the pursuit of momentary benefits eclipsed the whole light and meaning of life for Mikhail, Varvara, Ilya and Lyusa. They have no time and do not want to think; they have not developed the ability to be surprised by existence. The writer explains the main reason for moral decline, first of all, by the loss of a person’s spiritual connection with his roots.

In this story, there is one image that is completely opposed to the images of Anna’s insensitive children - this is the youngest daughter Tanchor. Tanya retained the consciousness of her connection with the whole world, coming from childhood, and a grateful feeling for her mother, who gave her life. Anna remembers well how Tanchora, diligently combing her head, said: “You’re doing great for us, Mom.” - “What else is this?” - the mother was surprised. “Because you gave birth to me, and now I live, and without you no one would have given birth to me, so I would never have seen the world.” Tatyana differs from her brothers and sisters in her sense of gratitude to her mother, to the world, hence all the best, morally bright and pure, sensitivity to all living things, joyful liveliness of disposition, tender and sincere love for her mother, which neither time nor distance can extinguish . Although she is also capable of betraying her mother, she did not even consider it necessary to respond to the telegram.

Anna Stepanovna never lived for herself, never shied away from duty, even the most burdensome one. No matter whoever was close to her in trouble, she looked for her guilt, as if she had overlooked something, was too late to intervene in something. There is a conflict between pettiness, callousness and a sense of responsibility for the whole world, a certain selflessness and kindness. The author's position is obvious; he is on the side of the rich spiritual world. For Rasputin, Anna is the ideal image. The writer said: “I have always been attracted to images of ordinary women, distinguished by selflessness, kindness, and the ability to understand another.” The strength of the characters of Rasputin's favorite heroes lies in wisdom, in the people's worldview, and in people's morality. Such people set the tone and intensity of the spiritual life of the people.

In this work, the connection of several moral problems is less noticeable. The main conflict of the work, however, can be associated with the conflict between “fathers” and “children”. It should be noted that the problem of crushing the soul posed by the author is very large-scale and deserves consideration in a separate work.

"Live and Remember"

This story was born from the contact between the writer’s experiences in childhood and his present-day thoughts about the village during the war years. And again, as in “Money for Maria” and in “The Deadline,” Valentin Rasputin chooses a critical situation that tests the moral foundations of the individual.

Did the main character know at that very moment when, succumbing to mental weakness, he jumped on a train heading not to the front, but from the front to Irkutsk, what this action would turn out to be for him and his loved ones? Perhaps he guessed, but only vaguely, indistinctly, for fear of fully thinking through everything that was going to happen after this, after this.

Every day that Andrei avoided war did not delay, but brought closer the tragic outcome. The inevitability of tragedy is contained in the very plot of “live and remember,” and all pages of the story breathe with a foreboding of tragedy. Rasputin does not lead his hero to a choice, but begins with a choice. From the first lines, Guskov is at a fork in the road, one of which leads to war, towards danger, while the other leads away from war. And by giving preference to this second road, he sealed his fate. He disposed of it himself.

Thus, one of the most important moral problems arises in the author’s work - the problem of choice. The work shows that one should not succumb to temptation (even such a “high” one as meeting with family) or give in to slack. The hero is lucky on his way home; in the end he achieves his goal without being put on trial. But, having avoided the tribunal, Guskov still did not escape the trial. And from punishment, perhaps more severe than execution. From moral punishment. The more fantastic the luck, the more clearly in “Live and Remember” is the roar of an impending disaster.

Conclusion

Valentin Rasputin has already traveled a long creative path. He wrote works that raise a huge number of moral problems. These problems are very relevant in modern times. What is especially noteworthy is that the author does not look at the problem as an isolated, separate phenomenon. The author explores the interconnection of problems by studying the souls of people. Therefore, you can’t expect simple solutions from him.

After Rasputin’s books, the idea of ​​life becomes somewhat clearer, but not simpler. At least some of the many schemes with which the consciousness of any of us is so well equipped, in contact with this artistically transformed reality, reveal their approximateness or inconsistency. The complex in Rasputin remains complex and ends in a complex way, but there is nothing deliberate or artificial about it. Life is truly replete with these complexities and an abundance of relationships between phenomena.

Valentin Rasputin, with everything he wrote, convinces us that there is light in a person and it is difficult to extinguish it, no matter what circumstances happen, although it is possible. He does not share a gloomy view of man, of the original, undaunted “depravity” of his nature. In Rasputin's heroes and in himself there is a poetic feeling of life, opposed to the base, naturalistic, its perception and depiction. He remains faithful to the traditions of humanism to the end.

Used literature and other sources:

1. V.G. Rasputin “Live and Remember. Stories" Moscow 1977.

2. F.F. Kuznetsov “Russian literature of the 20th century. Sketches, essays, portraits" Moscow 1991.

3. V.G. Rasputin “Down and Upstream. Stories" Moscow 1972.

4. N.V. Egorova, I.V. Zolotareva “lesson developments in Russian literature of the 20th century” Moscow 2002.

5. Critical materials of Internet libraries.

6. www.yandex.ru

7. www.ilib.ru

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Biography and creativity of the writer. "Money for Maria." "Deadline". "Farewell to Matera." "Live forever, love forever." The work of Valentin Rasputin is a unique, unique phenomenon in world literature.

Valentin Rasputin is one of the most famous writers of our time, in whose work the most important place is occupied
the problem of the relationship between man and nature.
The image of a “single reality”, an ideal world-order, forcibly destroyed by man, is created by the author in
story “Farewell to Matera”,
written in the mid-seventies of the 20th century. The work appeared at a time when the process
destruction of the connection between man and nature
water has reached a critical point: as a result of the construction of artificial reservoirs,
fertile lands, projects were developed to divert northern rivers, and unpromising villages were destroyed.
Rasputin saw a deep connection between ecological and moral processes - the loss of the world's original
harmony, destruction of connections between the ethical world of the individual and the Russian spiritual tradition. In “Farewell to Matera” this
harmony is personified by the villagers, old men and women, and above all, grandmother Daria. Rasputin showed
the ideal world of nature and man living in harmony with it, fulfilling his labor duty - preserving
memory of our ancestors. Daria’s father once left her a will: “Live, move, to hook us more firmly with
white light, to prick into it that we were...” These words largely determined her actions and relationships with
people. The author develops in the story the motif of the “last deadline”, the essence of which is that every person
with its presence in the world, it establishes a connection between the past, present and future. There are two
world: the righteous one, whom grandmother Daria calls “here!
”, - this is Matera, where everything is “familiar, lived-in and well-trodden”, and the sinful world - “there” - arsonists and the new
village. Each of these worlds lives according to its own laws. Mother's old people cannot accept life "there" where
“they forgot about the soul,” the conscience was “worn out,” the memory was “thinned,” but “the dead... will ask.”
The most important problem of the story is the feasibility of human intervention in the natural world. "Which
“at the price?”, Pavel, the son of Daria’s grandmother, is tormented by the question. It turns out that work, which from the Christian point of view
psychology is a benefactor, can become a destructive force. This idea arises in Paul's thoughts about
that the new village was built somehow inhumanely, “absurdly.”
Construction of a hydroelectric power station, as a result of which the island of Matera will be flooded, the destruction of a cemetery, the burning of houses and
forests - all this looks more like a war with the natural world, rather than its transformation. How does he perceive the tragedy?
everything that is happening Grandma Daria: “Today the world has broken in half.” Old Daria is also sure that ease,
with which people break all ties, the painlessness of leaving their native land, home, are components
“easier life” for people who are forgetful, indifferent and even cruel. Daria calls such people “seedlings.”
V. Rasputin notes with bitterness that the sense of kinship has been lost, the ancestral identity has been lost in the minds of young people
memory, and therefore they do not understand the pain of the old people saying goodbye to Matera as a living being.
An episode of the destruction of a cemetery, which the villagers rush to save -
one of the key ones in the story. For them, the cemetery is a world in which
their ancestors must live. To wipe it off the face of the earth is a crime. Then the invisible thread will break,
connecting the world together. That's why ancient old women stand in the way of the bulldozer.
In Rasputin’s artistic concept, man is inseparable from the outside world - animal, plant,
space. If even one link of this unity is broken, the whole chain breaks, the world loses harmony.
The owner of the island is the first to foresee Matera's imminent death - a small animal that symbolizes
the author's intention, nature as a whole. This image gives the story a special deep meaning. It allows
to see and hear what is hidden from man: the farewell groans of huts, “the breath of growing grass,” hidden
fussing about the birds - in a word, to feel the doom and imminent death of the village.
“What happens, cannot be avoided,” the Owner resigned himself. And in his words there is evidence of the helplessness of nature
in front of a person. “At what cost?” - this question does not arise among the arsonists, the official Vorontsov or the “comrade”
rischa Zhuk from the flood zone department.” This question torments Daria, Ekaterina, Pavel and the author himself.
The story “Farewell to Matera” gives the answer to this question: at the cost of the loss of the “natural harmony”, the death of the righteous
peace. It (the world) is drowning, swallowed up by fog, lost.
The ending of the work is tragic: the old people remaining in Matera hear a sad howl - “a farewell voice
The owner.” Such a denouement is natural. It is determined by the idea of ​​Rasputin. And the idea is this: people without a soul and without
God (“who has the soul, God is in him,” says Grandma Daria) thoughtlessly carry out transformations of nature, the essence
which are in violence against all living things. By destroying the harmonious world of nature, man is doomed to destroy himself.

Composition

Good and evil are mixed.
V. Rasputin

It is difficult to find a work in the history of literature that does not comprehend the problems of spirit and morality and does not defend moral and ethical values.
The work of our contemporary Valentin Rasputin is no exception in this regard.
I love all the books of this writer, but I was especially shocked by the story “Fire,” published during perestroika.
The eventual basis of the story is simple: warehouses caught fire in the village of Sosnovka. Who saves people's property from the fire, and who grabs what they can for themselves. The way people behave in an extreme situation serves as an impetus for the painful thoughts of the main character of the story, driver Ivan Petrovich Egorov, in whom Rasputin embodied the popular character of a lover of truth, suffering at the sight of the destruction of the age-old moral basis of existence.
Ivan Petrovich is looking for answers to the questions that the surrounding reality throws at him. Why “has everything turned upside down?.. It was not supposed to, not accepted, it became supposed and accepted, it was impossible - it became possible, it was considered a shame, a mortal sin - it is revered for dexterity and valor.” How modern these words sound! Indeed, even today, sixteen years after the publication of the work, forgetting elementary moral principles is not a shame, but “the ability to live.”
Ivan Petrovich made the rule of his life “to live according to conscience”; it pains him that during a fire, the one-armed Savely drags bags of flour into his bathhouse, and the “friendly guys - Arkharovites” first of all grab boxes of vodka.
But the hero not only suffers, he tries to find the reason for this moral impoverishment. At the same time, the main thing is the destruction of the centuries-old traditions of the Russian people: they have forgotten how to plow and sow, they are accustomed to only taking, cutting down, and destroying.
The residents of Sosnovka do not have this, and the village itself is like a temporary shelter: “Uncomfortable and unkempt... bivouac type... as if they were wandering from place to place, stopped to wait out the bad weather, and ended up stuck...”. The absence of a Home deprives people of their life basis, kindness, and warmth.
Ivan Petrovich reflects on his place in the world around him, because “... there is nothing easier than getting lost in yourself.”
Rasputin’s heroes are people who live according to the laws of morality: Egorov, Misha Hampo’s uncle, who at the cost of his life defended the moral commandment “thou shalt not steal.” In 1986, Rasputin, as if foreseeing the future, spoke about the social activity of a person who could influence the spiritual atmosphere of society.
One of the important issues in the story is the problem of good and evil. And again I was amazed by the visionary talent of the writer, who declared: “Good in its pure form has turned into weakness, evil into strength.” After all, the concept of “a good person” has also disappeared from our lives; we have forgotten how to evaluate a person by his ability to feel the suffering of others and to empathize.
The story sounds one of the eternal Russian questions: “What to do?” But there is no answer to it. The hero, who decides to leave Sosnovka, does not find peace. The ending of the story is impossible to read without excitement: “A little lost man is walking along the spring land, desperate to find his home...
The earth is silent, either greeting or seeing him off.
The earth is silent.
What are you, our silent land, how long are you silent?
And are you silent?”
The Russian writer Valentin Rasputin, with civil frankness, raised the most pressing problems of the time and touched on its most painful points. The very name “Fire” takes on the character of a metaphor, carrying the idea of ​​moral trouble. Rasputin convincingly proved that the moral inferiority of an individual person inevitably leads to the destruction of the foundations of the life of the people.

Lesson objectives:

Lesson equipment: portrait of V.G. Rasputin

Methodical techniques:

During the classes

I. Teacher's word

Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin (1937) is one of the recognized masters of “village prose”, one of those who continues the traditions of Russian classical prose, primarily from the point of view of moral and philosophical problems. Rasputin explores the conflict between a wise world order, a wise attitude towards the world and an unwise, fussy, thoughtless existence. In his stories “Money for Maria” (1967), “The Last Term” (1970), “Live and Remember” (1975), “Farewell to Matera” (1976), “Fire” (1985), one can hear anxiety for the fate of the homeland. The writer looks for ways to solve problems in the best features of the Russian national character, in patriarchy. Poeticizing the past, the writer acutely poses the problems of our time, affirming eternal values, and calls for their preservation. His works contain pain for his country, for what is happening to it.

View document contents
“Lesson 4. Current and eternal problems in the story by V.G. Rasputin "Farewell to Matera"

Lesson 4. Current and eternal problems

in the story by V.G. Rasputin "Farewell to Matera"

Lesson objectives: give a brief overview of the work of V.G. Rasputin, pay attention to the variety of problems posed by the writer; to form a caring attitude towards the problems of one’s country, a sense of responsibility for its fate.

Lesson equipment: portrait of V.G. Rasputin

Methodical techniques: teacher's lecture; analytical conversation.

During the classes

I. Teacher's word

Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin (1937) is one of the recognized masters of “village prose”, one of those who continues the traditions of Russian classical prose, primarily from the point of view of moral and philosophical problems. Rasputin explores the conflict between a wise world order, a wise attitude towards the world and an unwise, fussy, thoughtless existence. In his stories “Money for Maria” (1967), “The Last Term” (1970), “Live and Remember” (1975), “Farewell to Matera” (1976), “Fire” (1985), one can hear anxiety for the fate of the homeland. The writer looks for ways to solve problems in the best features of the Russian national character, in patriarchy. Poeticizing the past, the writer acutely poses the problems of our time, affirming eternal values, and calls for their preservation. His works contain pain for his country, for what is happening to it.

In the story “Farewell to Matera,” Rasputin starts from an autobiographical fact: the village of Ust-Uda, Irkutsk region, where he was born, subsequently fell into a flood zone and disappeared. In the story, the writer reflected general trends that are dangerous primarily from the point of view of the moral health of the nation.

II. Analytical conversation

What problems does Rasputin pose in the story “Farewell to Matera”?

(These are both eternal and modern problems. Environmental problems are especially pressing now. This concerns not only our country. All of humanity is concerned with the question: what are the consequences of scientific and technological progress, of civilization as a whole? Will progress lead to the physical destruction of the planet, to the extinction life? The global problems raised by writers (not only V. Rasputin) are being studied by scientists and taken into account by practitioners. Now it is clear to everyone that the main task of humanity is to preserve life on earth. ecology of the soul.” It is important who each of us feels like: a temporary worker who wants a fatter piece of life, or a person who recognizes himself as a link in an endless chain of generations, who does not have the right to break this chain, who feels gratitude for what past generations have done and responsibility for the future. That is why problems of relations between generations, problems of preserving traditions, and the search for the meaning of human existence are so important. Rasputin's story also poses problems of contradictions between urban and rural ways of life, problems of the relationship between the people and the authorities. The writer initially puts spiritual problems in the foreground, which inevitably entail material problems.)

What is the meaning of the conflict in Rasputin's story?

(The conflict in the story “Farewell to Matera” belongs to the category of eternal: it is a conflict between the old and the new. The laws of life are such that the new inevitably wins. Another question: how and at what cost? By sweeping aside and destroying the old, at the cost of moral degradation, or by taking the best , what is in the old, transforming it?

“The new in the story set the goal of breaking the old, age-old foundations of life in half. The beginning of this turning point began during the years of the revolution. The revolution gave rights to people who, in their aspiration for a new life, did not want and could not appreciate what had been created before them. The heirs of the revolution, first of all, destroy, create injustice, and show their short-sightedness and narrow-mindedness. According to a special decree, people are deprived of the houses built by their ancestors, property acquired by labor, and the very opportunity to work on the land is taken away. Here the eternal Russian question of land is solved simply. It does not consist in who should own the land, but in the fact that this land is simply taken out of economic circulation and destroyed. Thus, the conflict acquires a socio-historical meaning.)

How does the conflict develop in the story? What images are opposed?

(The main character of the story is old Daria Pinigina, the patriarch of the village, with a “strict and fair” character. The “weak and suffering” are drawn to her; she personifies the people’s truth, she is the bearer of folk traditions, the memory of their ancestors. Her house is the last stronghold of the “habitable” world, in contrast to the “unthinking, undead” that the men from the outside bring with them. The men are sent to burn down houses from which people have already been evicted, destroy trees, destroy the cemetery. They, strangers, do not feel sorry for what is dear to Daria. These people are just a blunt instrument, cutting at the living without pity. The same is the chairman of the former “village council, and now the council in the new village” Vorontsov. He is a representative of the authorities, which means he is responsible for what is happening. However, responsibility is shifted to the higher authorities that act. nationwide. A good goal - the industrial development of the region, the construction of a power plant - is achieved at a price that is immoral to pay. The destruction of the village is hypocritically covered up with words about the good of the people.)

What is the drama of the conflict?

(The drama of the conflict is that Daria, her loving, caring attitude towards Matera, is opposed by her own son and grandson - Pavel and Andrey. They move to the city, move away from the peasant way of life, indirectly participate in the destruction of their native village: Andrey is going to work at the power plant.)

What does Daria see as the reasons for what is happening?

(The reasons for what is happening, according to Daria, who is watching with pain the destruction of Matera, lie in the human soul: a person is “confused, completely overplayed”, imagines himself as the king of nature, thinks that he has ceased to be “small”, “Christ-like”, has too much self-importance "Daria's reasoning is only naive in appearance. They are expressed in simple words, but, in essence, they are very deep. She believes that God is silent, “tired of asking people,” and evil spirits have reigned on earth,” Daria thinks. , but the main testament of our great-grandfathers is “to have a conscience and not suffer from conscience.”)

How is the moral ideal of a person embodied in the image of Daria?

(Daria is the embodiment of conscience, people's morality, its guardian. For Daria, the value of the past is undeniable: she refuses to move from her native village, at least until the “graves” are not moved. She wants to take away the “graves... "to a new place, wants to save not only the graves, but also the conscience itself from blasphemous destruction. For her, the memory of her ancestors is sacred. Her words sound like a wise aphorism: “He who has no memory, has no life.”)

How is Daria's moral beauty shown?

(Rasputin shows the moral beauty of Daria through the attitude of people towards her. People go to her for advice, they are drawn to her for understanding, warmth. This is the image of a righteous woman, without whom “the village does not stand” (remember Solzhenitsyn’s heroine from the story “Matrenin’s Dvor”).)

Through what is the image of Daria revealed?

(The depth of Daria’s image is also revealed in communication with nature. The heroine’s worldview is based on the pantheism characteristic of Russian people, the awareness of the inextricable, organic connection between man and nature.)

What is the role of Daria's speech?

(The speech characteristics of the heroine occupy a large place in the story. These are Daria’s thoughts, and her monologues, and dialogues, which gradually develop into a simple but coherent system of people’s views on life, ideas about life and man’s place in it.)

We read and comment on the key scenes that reveal the image of Daria: the scene in the cemetery, the argument with Andrei (Chapter 14), the scene of farewell to the hut, to the House.

The teacher's word.

“I have always been attracted to images of simple women, distinguished by selflessness, kindness, and the ability to understand another,” Rasputin wrote about his heroines. The strength of the characters of the writer’s favorite heroes lies in wisdom, in the people’s worldview, and in people’s morality. Such people set the tone and intensity of the spiritual life of the people.

How is the philosophical plan of the conflict manifested in the story?

(A private conflict - the destruction of a village and an attempt to defend and save one’s loved one, rises to a philosophical level - the confrontation between life and death, good and evil. This gives special tension to the action. Life desperately resists attempts to kill it: fields and meadows bring a bountiful harvest, they are full of living sounds - laughter, songs, the chirping of mowers. Smells, sounds, colors become brighter, reflecting the inner rise of the characters, people who have long left their native village feel at home again, in local life.”)

(Rasputin uses one of the traditional symbols of life - a tree. The old larch - “royal foliage” - is a symbol of the power of nature. Neither fire, nor an ax, nor a modern weapon - a chainsaw - can cope with it.

There are many traditional symbols in the story. However, sometimes they take on a new sound. The image of spring does not mark the beginning of blossoming, not an awakening (“greenery flared across the earth and trees again, the first rains fell, swifts and swallows flew in”), but the last flash of life, the end of “an endless series of days of Matera - after all, very soon Angara will be at the behest of the builders of the power plant will flood the earth with water.

The image of the House is symbolic. He is depicted as spiritual, alive, feeling. Before the inevitable fire, Daria cleans the House the way a dead person is cleaned before a funeral: he whitewashes, washes, hangs clean curtains, stokes the stove, cleans the corners with fir branches, prays all night, “guiltyly humbly saying goodbye to the hut.” Associated with this image is the image of the Master - the spirit, the brownie of Matera. On the eve of the flooding, his farewell voice is heard. The tragic conclusion of the story is the feeling of the end of the world: the heroes who are the last to remain on the island feel “lifeless,” abandoned in the open emptiness.” The feeling of otherworldliness is enhanced by the image of the fog in which the island is hidden: All around there was only water and fog and nothing but water and fog.”

The main symbol appears to the reader already in the title. “Matera” is both the name of the village and the island on which it stands (this image is associated with both the Flood and Atlantis), and the image of mother earth, and the metaphorical name of Russia, the native country, where “from edge to edge ... there was enough ... and expanse, and wealth, and beauty, and wildness, and every creature in pairs.")

III. We listen to messages on individual tasks(given in advance): image of fire (fire) - chapters 8, 18, 22; the image of “leaf” - chapter 19; the image of the “Master” - chapter 6; image of water.

IV. Lesson summary

Rasputin is worried not only about the fate of the Siberian village, but also about the fate of the entire country, the entire people, he is worried about the loss of moral values, traditions, and memory. Heroes sometimes feel the meaninglessness of existence: “Why look for some special, higher truth and service, when the whole truth is that you are of no use now and will not be later...” But hope still prevails: “Life is for that she and life, in order to continue, she will endure everything and will take up everywhere, even on bare stone and in an unsteady quagmire...” The symbolic image of grain sprouting through chaff, “blackened straw” seems life-affirming. A person, Rasputin believes, “cannot get angry,” he is “at the tip of a centuries-old wedge,” which “has no end.” The people, as the writer shows, demand “more and more impatiently and furiously” from each new generation, so that it does not “leave without hope and future” the entire “tribe” of people. Despite the tragic ending of the story (the ending is open), moral victory remains with responsible people who bring goodness, preserve memory and support the fire of life in any conditions, under any trials.

Additional questions:

1. After the release of the story “Farewell to Matera,” critic O. Salynsky wrote: “It is difficult to understand Rasputin when he does not at all elevate the great breadth of views of his heroes to dignity. After all, it is difficult for them to see a person in a person who lives not even far away, but only on the other side of the Angara... And Daria, although she has children and grandchildren, thinks only about the dead and considers them with an unexpectedness for the heroes of V. Rasputin selfishness that her life ends... Those who accept moving to a new place are portrayed as empty, immoral people by nature... the truths that were revealed to Daria before the “end of the world” are quite trivial and are not folk wisdom, but her imitation."

Do you agree with the critic's opinion? What do you think he is right about, and what are you willing to argue with? Justify your answer.

2. What role do semantic antitheses play in the story: Matera is a new village on the right bank of the Angara; old men and women are “sowing” people. Continue the series of contrasts.

3. What is the role of landscape in the story?

4. By what means is the image of the House created in the story? In what works of Russian literature is this image found?

5. What do you see in common in the titles of Rasputin’s works? What is the significance of the titles of his stories?