Abstract: Sociological research: Young people’s attitudes towards reading. The problem of classical literature in modern society

Research project "Problems of youth in modern literature (based on the work of Zoe Sugg "Girl Online")"

In the adult world, it is generally accepted that childhood should be happy. However, in life we ​​have to observe episodes that are very far from well-being and happiness. I seriously thought about the problem of my peers when I read Zoe Sugg’s work “Girl Online”. Of course, in modern society this topic regarding the problems of adolescents is not new. But now it seems especially relevant to me. It is raised on television, on the radio, and in newspaper publications. The interest of writers in the “teenage” topic is due, first of all, to the opening opportunity to explore the initial, complex and dramatic process of the formation of a person, his worldview, and the ethical foundations of personality. The image of a teenager in literature is shown in dynamics: the moral and ethical content and the way of characterizing the hero change.
An object- Zoe Sugg's youth novel "Girl Online"
Item- problems of the heroes of Zoe Sugg’s work “Girl Online” and teenagers of our school.
Hypothesis: If we look at Zoe Sugg’s novel “Girl Online,” we can identify a range of youth problems and prove that they correspond to the modern psychological and pedagogical concept of “teenager.”
The purpose of this work: identify the range of problems of adolescents reflected in modern literature (using the example of Zoe Sugg’s work “Girl Online”) and in life.
Tasks:
-study theoretical material about the characteristics of adolescence;
- consider how the image of a teenager is portrayed in modern literature;
- read and analyze Zoe Sugg’s work “Girl Online”;
-study the characters of the heroes of the story, the motives of their actions;
- identify difficult situations in the world of the characters in the novel and the reasons for their occurrence;
- conduct a survey to identify the range of problems of adolescents;
-analyze questionnaires of students in grades 7-9;
-summarize the problems in the lives of teenagers and draw conclusions.
The work represents an experience of independent research. Research methodology:
- studying theoretical material,
- analysis of Zoe Sugg’s work “Girl Online”
- survey of students;
- analysis of the results obtained;
- drawing up diagrams,
- speaking to students.
The structure of the work is: introduction, 2 chapters, conclusion, list of references, appendix.

Adolescent in psychology and literature.
Features of adolescence
Who can be considered a teenager and what is the significance of this period in the development of personality? The works of many researchers in the fields of psychology, philosophy and sociology are devoted to this issue.
Humanity has not always had the concept of “teenager” in its vocabulary. As F. Aries notes, in pre-industrial Europe they did not distinguish between childhood and adolescence, and the very concept of “adolescence” arose only in the 19th century. Art. was the first to propose considering this period as a transition from childhood to adulthood. Hall.
When considering the image of a teenager from the point of view of his psychological characteristics, it should be noted that in science there is no precise definition of the age boundaries of adolescence. Medical, psychological, pedagogical, legal, sociological literature defines different boundaries of adolescence: 10-14 years, 14-18 years, 12-20 years, etc. In this study we rely on the opinion of supporters social approach(Averin, Dolto) when determining the boundaries of adolescence, i.e. We consider the main criterion to be social influence on personal development. According to T.M. Prostakova, “personal development in its content is determined by what society expects from a person, what values ​​and ideals it offers him, what tasks it sets for him at different age stages.”
The study of adolescence is a very complex, long and multifaceted process that has not been completed to this day. It is no coincidence that this age is called “transitional” from childhood to maturity, but the path to maturity for a teenager is just beginning; it is rich in many dramatic experiences, difficulties and crises. At this time, stable forms of behavior, character traits and methods of emotional response take shape, which in the future largely determine the life of an adult, his physical and psychological health, social and personal maturity. Adolescence (adolescence) is a time of achievements, rapid growth of knowledge and skills, the formation of morality and the discovery of the “I,” and the formation of social attitudes.
A feature of adolescence is the task of moral maturation, i.e., determining one’s own attitude towards oneself and the world, forming a worldview and moral values, norms and personal meanings.
It is known that the moral, intellectual, aesthetic development of children and adolescents is directly related to the spiritual food they receive. As a rule, teenagers, in search of the correct answer to moral questions, turn to sources such as scientific and popular literature, fiction, works of art, print, and television.
Our immediate future, our tomorrow's society, depends on how today's teenagers solve their problems and what values ​​they choose for themselves. And we need to seriously think about this problem. But what about teenagers and adults, when the frantic pace of life and the struggle for existence leave no time even to think about themselves.
Adolescence is characterized by imitation of models. As noted by modern psychotherapist A.A. Shchegolev, a teenager with his characteristic maximalism, tries not only to copy, but also in many ways to surpass his idol. It is important that such a role model be a worthy, aesthetically elevated and morally stable example. Such an example, in our opinion, could be artistic image literature.

1.2 The image of a teenage hero in modern literature
One of the main aesthetic functions of literature is the formation of a fully developed personality. A child’s entry into the book universe occurs primarily with the help of literature specially created for children.
Along with changing life, the image of a literary hero also changes, which is especially evident in works of teenage literature. The process of a teenager entering adulthood is becoming more complicated due to changes in socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions.
Modern teenage prose, worthily continuing the traditions of the classics, reflects the realities of modern life and serves as its illustration; In addition, it creates a feeling of a living image of teenagers.
Today, modern teenage prose is undergoing some stagnation. As Sergei Kolosov notes, at present, despite the fact that the book industry is experiencing a rapid rise (book shelves are literally choking with all kinds of books: from frivolous detective “reading” in cheap bindings to weighty tomes, sometimes costing several thousand rubles), literature about teenagers is in serious decline. "The most important series of books may not be visible - about modern 13-16 year old teenagers. Our Russian ones."
But not everything is as bad as it seems. Several are currently operating interesting writers, who in their creativity have paid and are paying considerable attention teenage theme. These are such authors as L. Matveeva, T. Kryukova, G. Gorlienko, O. Dzyuba, E. Lipatova, T. Mikheeva, V. Zheleznikov, E. Murashova.
The genre originality is not rich, these are: a fantastic story (works by T. Kryukova), a story of a socio-psychological nature (works by E. Murashova, V. Zheleznikov) and romance novels(works by G. Gordienko, T. Mikheeva, L. Matveeva, E. Lipatova).
As a rule, the heroes of modern teenage prose are ordinary, at first glance unremarkable girls and boys. Teenage heroes strive to gain social independence in the absence of such an opportunity. However, the situations they find themselves in help them gain self-confidence and realize their own importance.

Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Lukhmanova

The influence of modern literature on modern youth

Part one

Many educated and gifted writers began and ended their careers in poverty. Others, following some general fatal law, remained in the shadows and received pennies from the editors, precisely at the very peak of their talent, while the thirst for goodness and justice burned in their hearts, an ebullient and inspired thought flowed so that the pen could not keep up with it, and achieved fame and security only when the strength of the soul and mind faded away, when life polished off their too brilliant conscience, their too sharp truth. Many did not live to see the turning point when their name was finally ingrained in the reader’s memory and gained popularity, after which material success began. From time to time, exceptional darlings of fortune appeared on the horizon of the literary world, whose talents developed among enthusiastic fans, which allowed them to immediately step into fame and glory. But for talent and only talent to immediately throw a person out of the very abyss of insignificance, for just the power of a word, and even for the first time heard in the dark little newspaper "Caucasus", which has so little circulation, to immediately stir the minds of readers, this is an exceptional case. If we take from Gorky’s first story to the production of his play “At the Lower Depths,” we will see that ten years have passed, during which the dark tramp, sawing wood and carrying loads, turned into a European famous writer, conquered enemies and envious people with the magnitude of his talent, gained crazy fans and made a fortune for himself. What is the reason that Gorky’s stories made him immediately popular and spread not only throughout Russia, but throughout Europe? The reason for this lies, firstly, in the fact that before him they wrote about the people only, so to speak, from the outside: need, grief, suffering, drunkenness, debauchery, murder, all this was described by intelligent people who heard, saw, observed, but did not experience who were not active participants in body and soul, in passion and hatred, in all that they described. We could be captivated by the artistry of the stories and believe that it was all true. It was as if we were listening to a magnificent mechanical nightingale, and suddenly a real one began to sing, with rolls, aspirations, moaning and crying, as he only sings on moonlit nights in the spring, in those inaccessible thickets where his female sits on the nest. And everyone perked up, their hearts began to beat, their blood began to stir... What is this? Where? Who took us to the very depths of the forest? Who brought us face to face with a living singer, with living nature? This is the impression of spontaneity one got from Gorky’s stories. The content in Gorky's stories frightened and attracted the reader; it made him think and feel sorry for those people whom until now he had not even recognized as people. It was a whole world of shadows, puppets, rabble, who turned into living people with a completely special worldview, special logic, morality, special happiness, which is often much higher than ours, because it can neither be given nor taken away from a person, because it comes from his own soul and most often harmonizes with the nature around him. The second reason for Gorky's worldwide success is the melancholy with which almost all of his works are imbued. This is not sleepy or angry boredom, which can be walked around and entertained, this is a deep melancholy, pulling along with it, causeless, sometimes causing a desire to express an insane protest against life itself. We have so narrowed, decolorized our life, pressed it so carefully into narrow frames that sometimes we suffocate in it. Everyone, literally every thinking and feeling person, has experienced this melancholy at least at times. A person goes every day to the department or wherever he goes to work, every day at the same hour, along the same streets, past the same houses, signs, cab drivers; for years he hears the same phrases of the doormen and servants who open the door for him. door, enters the same room, sits down at the same table, among the same colleagues and takes on the same work, this work is sometimes not even a screw, but only one thread of a screw entering a huge complex machine called “state improvement” . And drawing a pen every day along the same thread of the screw, without knowing either the beginning or the end of the line, should, of course, make the work meaningless and routine. And this official, who spends three quarters of his life doing stupid, unprincipled work, walking obediently like a squirrel in a wheel, suddenly, in a moment of rest, instead of “Niva” or “Zvezda”, picks up Gorky’s stories. And it opens before him new world. He reads (volume two, story “Konovalov”, p. 49): “You need to be born in cultural society in order to find the patience to live among him all his life and never want to leave somewhere from the sphere of these difficult conventions, legalized customs, small, poisonous lies, from the sphere of painful pride, ideological sectarianism, all kinds of insincerity, in a word, out of all this fuss and bustle that chills the senses and corrupts the mind." "But where to go?" "In the village," says Gorky, "it is almost as unbearably bitter, sickening and sad as among the intelligentsia. It is best to go to the slums of cities, where, although everything is dirty, everything is so simple and sincere; or go for a walk along the fields and roads of the homeland, which is very interesting, very refreshing and does not require any means other than good, hardy legs.” [ "Mallow". Note ed. ] It's well said, tempting, beautiful, but is it fair? Is it true that if we realize that the conditions of our life are difficult and unfair, then we must go to the slums of the cities, where everything, although dirty, is still simple and sincere? Will the sight of simple and sincere debauchery and drunkenness satisfy our search for truth? And is it true that there, in the slums, there is only external, apparent dirt, which often covers a sublime soul? Why is it that on the day that Gorky showed us in his play, we see the same people, weak-willed, evil, greedy, intriguing on the misfortune or simplicity of their fellow man, people with the same painful pride, with the corrupting boredom of idleness and even with the addition of terrible environment? I ask again: “Would we, intellectuals, find peace and consolation if we left our lives for these slums?” In Dostoevsky’s story “Underground,” the hero exclaims: “No, no, the underground is in any case more profitable. There, at least, it’s possible”... and suddenly adds: “Eh, but I’m lying here too. I’m lying because and I myself know that two and two make four, which is not at all better underground, but something else that I crave, which I just can’t find. To hell with the underground.” But Gorky’s readers, especially young people, take his word for it that strength lies underground, that is, in renunciation of everything. You read in Gorky’s stories about the sea how the wind gently strokes his powerful satin chest, how the surface of the sea sighs drowsily under the gentle power of these caresses, saturating the air with the salty aroma of its vapors, how greenish waves run onto the yellow sand, into a sand spit jutting out into the sea, and you see how Malva floats here in a shuttle, funny and cute like a well-fed cat; Vasily, an old fisherman, is waiting for her. Malva has greenish eyes, small white teeth, she is all round, soft, fresh, with dimples on her cheeks. And what are her opinions? “I don’t want to go to the village, I don’t want to, but I have to get married, and a married woman is an eternal slave, reap and spin hair, go after cattle and give birth to children, what is left for herself - only her husband’s beatings and swearing... And I’m a nobody here, I’m free like a seagull, wherever I want, I’ll fly there.” [" On rafts." Ed. . ] And a wild free life, strong, purely animal love unfolds before the reader... He dreams of a quiet splash of a salty wave and the fervent laughter of a bathing Malva, her body is pink, her caresses are passionate, and in comparison with his life all this seems so tempting to him, so insanely good and at the same time so terribly accessible that he begins to yearn, yearn with a new fantastic longing, which in itself is already pleasure, because it woke him up from a stultifying, gray sleep - the sleep of reality. Leaning on the granite embankment of the Neva, the reader looks at the lights of far-floating rafts and remembers another female figure - Marya, whose face is burning under the lips of the old man Silan, who passionately kisses her. [" Zuzubrina". Ed. . ] And the reader dreams, his chest aches under the influx of sensations unknown to him... And in his mind there are still the same thoughts: “After all, you just have to want, shake... and this damned chain of gray, meaningless work will break, you just have to decide and step over the human prejudice, through human laws, which bound me for life family ties , with bonds that have long been rotten, meaningless"... And he may not shake off these bonds, will not leave his parents, wife and children, will not go to work on the pier, will not become a free tramp, because he has neither the strength nor health for this , not even a sincere desire. But he will dream about it, images of Gorky’s heroes will lie in his soul, and in difficult moments, in an angry outburst, he will shout: “I’ll give up this damned life, break off all my shackles and go free, into tramps.” "How can the reader not bow before the writer, whose word pierced his soul like a spear. Both a rich merchant and a well-fed businessman who loves to go on a spree and throw money for a gypsy song, and his heart will ache when he reads how they sang in a tavern for a bored miller (“Melancholy,” p. 269, Vol. I): “Oh, yes, in bad weather, the Wind howls and howls, And my little head is tormented by an evil sadness. Eh, yes, I’ll go to the steppe, In the steppe, I’ll look for shares there... Mother desert... And the miller, hanging his head on his chest, sits, greedily listening to the sounds of the song. Having read this, is it a merchant, whether a businessman, a little ashamed of his revelry, his tavern adventures, receives a kind of sanction; he suddenly understands all the poetry of such revelry, all the spiritual renewal that comes from such songs. He feels himself not just a man on revelry, but a man with a Russian broad, yearning soul ". Melancholy will tear your chest if you don't give it such an outcome from time to time. And Gorky revealed this to him, and he will never forget the name of this writer-man, who alone understands all the bends of the melancholy soul. The miller was seized with melancholy from meeting him with the funeral of some then a poor writer, over whose coffin some speaker said the words: “We have covered our souls with the rubbish of everyday worries and have become accustomed to living without a soul, so accustomed that we do not notice how wooden, insensitive, and dead we have all become.” suddenly, in the miller’s soul, as if some voice rang out: “That’s right... it’s so.” And then one morning, going out into the garden at dawn, he heard through the fence how his worker Kuzma, cheerfully and passionately responding to the kisses of the girl who passionately loved him, still said goodbye to her, abandoned her only because he was afraid of stagnation, that passion for a wandering life, curiosity for life, “greed for life,” as Gorky says about his heroes, called him to leave his quiet corner, love and a secure job and again go wandering in wide Rus'. The girl is ready to share his every share and begs him: “Oh, you dear, my Kuzya... you are my good one. Take me, I’m grieving.” - Here you go. She's doing her thing again... I kiss her, sweet as a good woman, and she hangs like a stone on my neck... Well, girl... And this rigmarole is always with you. - Yes, or am I not a person?.. - Well, a person... Well. And I? So I'm not human? He will also say... You and I fell in love... well, the time has come, now, to part ways. I need to love it too. You need to live, and so do I, we shouldn’t confuse each other... And you’re nagging. Goosey. And remember: it’s sweet to kiss me. Well. Eh, you... aladya "... The kisses began again, interrupted by passionate, breathless whispers and deep moaning sighs. This freedom, this ultra-simple view of relationships, the ability to cheerfully and calmly break all sorts of shackles, captivates the miller and brings him into a completely new world of thoughts and feelings, all this devalues ​​in his eyes his own well-fed, aimless existence, all this leads him to revelry with a whining song, with the desire not only to empty his pockets, but also his soul, if it were possible, and the ending all this - a sore head, physical and moral weakness, and the same vague, heavy thoughts... Life... There is only one hesitation... ripples... Gorky also well expressed the boredom, the cruel terrible boredom that forced him in the story " "to hunt down the unfortunate Arina, the silent, submissive mistress of the guard Gomozov. And "Zuzubrina", the cheerful, active, noisy idol of the prison, who with her antics and reckless gaiety brightens up and infuses life into the dull and boring prison. “Zazubrina” is an artist and envies everyone who the crowd of prisoners pays attention to besides him. He even envies the little fat kitten that everyone is fussing with, and so he dips this kitten in green paint . There are jokes, jokes, songs - and the kitten is christened amid an explosion of wild laughter and unbridled joy of the crowd. And suddenly the kitten dies before their eyes, and in these simple, rough hearts, from under the cloud of oppressive boredom that forces them to pounce on any kind of entertainment, a terrible pity for the tortured animal suddenly awakens, and they beat their former favorite “Zazubrin”. This feeling of at least brutal pity did not awaken in the more cultured hearts of the people who persecuted Arina. The reader often asks himself: who are Gorky’s heroes, the people or the proletariat? By the word “people” we are accustomed to understand a peasant and, at the same time, not only a peasant, inextricably linked with the field and plow, but also a cab driver, a janitor, a craftsman, i.e., everyone temporarily or periodically cut off from the village, but still recognizing himself as a peasant, related to the village by kinship, memories and village property in the form of land and hut. This people, this man is not Gorky’s hero. In the story "" Gorky brings out a peasant, a young guy, stupid, greedy, cruel and cowardly and compares him with a tramp, free, brave, predatory and generous. And the reader is left with complete disgust in his soul for the young, blue-eyed, simple-minded guy, with all the strength of his soul attached to the village, to the land and deciding to kill for the sake of money. All his sympathies are on the side of the thief, the drunkard, the tramp; Chelkash is a hero, his spontaneous nature, his strength captivates and captivates. No, the peasant is not Gorky’s hero. Not a hero of Gorky and a proletarian. What is a proletarian? One will not be born a proletarian, but any of us can enter this category: an officer, an official, a writer, an aristocrat, and a craftsman, having lost money, having no income, having reached a cowardly state of despair, can find ourselves in the ranks of the proletariat. The hand doesn’t reach out to ask, the tongue doesn’t turn to express your need and you’re done... The worse, the better, sooner you’re in the headspace. And the former master today, the former countess, will spend the night tomorrow side by side with the tramp in a flophouse, like the baron in the play “At the Lower Depths,” like Satin and the actor - all weak, phrase-mongers, all bending before life. His hero is a real tramp. Not a barefoot man, unshod by need, not a beggar, shooting the name of Christ from around the corner, but a real tramp, who cannot be tied by any money, by any benefits, either to the land, or to work, or to people. Chelkash is a tramp, Konovalov is the same, he says: “There is nothing comfortable for me on earth, I haven’t found a place for myself”... Konovalov tells about his love for a beautiful merchant’s wife: “It’s impossible for any person to live without love . No matter how my planet is, I would not have left it... But still I left it, because of melancholy." Konovalov does not respond to the love of the walking girl Capitolina, he frees her from shameful slavery, but connects her life with He can’t do it with his own. “Well, where do I need a wife?” It's such a mess. And now I don’t like her... So she sucks me in, and she pulls me somewhere like a bottomless quagmire.” And Gorky notes: it was the tramp instinct that began to speak in him, the excited feeling of the eternal desire for freedom, for which he was made assassination attempt. Out of despair, Kapitolina becomes an alcoholic and disappears. A drinking binge begins with Konovalov. “I’m sick, I’m so sick,” Konovalov sobs in the Zastenok tavern, during the last meeting of Maxim Gorky with Konovalov - in Feodosia. In Konovalov’s soul there is still the same melancholy, the same rust of bewilderment before life and a series of thoughts about it: “And there are many in Rus',” says the author, “such thoughtful people, and the weight of their thoughts is increased by the blindness of the mind.” Notice this. This is and there are real heroes, there is nothing to list them, but their characteristic signs are clear: physical strength, the strength of an internal large but undeveloped mind, this blind mind breaks into them like a spirit imprisoned in the prison of the body, it helps them guess, but not resolve the issues of life. This mind constitutes their secret seductiveness, expressed in clear eyes, in childish joy, in good intentions, attracts the hearts of women to them, and it also torments them like a gloomy spirit, makes them struggle in the nets of the incomprehensible contradictions of life and seek a way out in drunkenness, debauchery, heartless trampling of weaker individuals. Gorky's tramp is an allegory, a prototype of every Russian people - a natural mind, a spark of God in the heart and the impenetrable darkness of ignorance, he struggles in these snares, distorts himself and breaks, and where is the light when it comes - God knows. Gorky's heroes are not rejected by life, they are not yet called to live, they have not yet found a form of life, they are not enlightened; truth and light only reach them from afar, indirectly, and sometimes in a distorted form. He has already raised questions in their minds, generated in their souls aspirations somewhere, for something, but still covers all their thoughts and aspirations with the same thick fog of ignorance. Russia is too sharply divided into light and darkness: into people with higher education, striving for the development of the spirit and even beyond the bounds, and to complete ignorance, with a spirit submissive to witchcraft, dark forces, groveling among the dirt and the most stultifying backbreaking work. The peasant, getting into the city from a smoking kerosene lamp, from kvass and onions, from under a leaky thatched roof and a dirty hut, where he lives next to his cattle, - to the capital, where every step unfolds before him the wonders of science and insane luxury, where art, architecture, painting, music begin to come across at every step... He becomes completely confused, and the stronger the nature, the more receptive, the more capable of mental and spiritual culture, the worse, because life does not respond to his awakening internal demands gradually, with gradual explanations, but on the contrary, it hits right on the nerves, confuses all concepts, gives rise to questions: why, why. As Konovalov says: “Where is the point that we can lean on in order to keep ourselves from falling? How can we build a life if we don’t know how to do this, and our life has failed.” And it comes out: “Why did my mother give birth to me? Nothing is known... darkness... cramped conditions.”... And from these questions to a spree, to shout: “Drink, guys! Drink, take your soul away... Blow in full!" - one step, a step from a man to a tramp - to a tramp who has rejected a life in which there is no light for him. In the minds and souls of Gorky’s heroes there is an eternal revaluation of values. Everything that a person has achieved values ​​seems despicable in the eyes of those who cannot achieve anything in the right way. Material value just as money, which constitutes leverage in the hands of a civilized man, has no value in the eyes of a tramp. “Do you want to go with me to Samarkand or Tashkent?” Konovalov asks Maxim Gorky. “Let’s go!” I, brother, decided to walk through the lands in different sides, this is the best thing - you go out and see everything new... And you don’t think about anything... The breeze blows towards you and seems to drive all sorts of dust out of your soul. Easy and free... There is no constraint from anyone: if you want to eat, you pester, you work for half a dollar... there is no work, ask for bread, they will give you. So at least you will see a lot of land... All kinds of beauty... let's go"... And the thought of traveling, which the intellectual so cherishes, which, due to economic considerations, hovers before him as an unattainable dream, this enormous value of freedom of movement, is resolved completely simply by a tramp and depends entirely from desire: “Do you want? Ida." The value and value of money disappears, he rejected it, and it becomes an absurdity for him: you will be well-fed, and you will see a lot of land, and all kinds of beauty. The second value is love. What meaning does a person of society attach to it, what painful question does it create from her... so much suffering, drama and incomprehensible trampled feelings. And Konovalov says: “A woman lives, and she’s bored, and the people are all rundown... Let’s say I’m a coachman, but it doesn’t matter to a woman, because the coachman, and the master, and the officer - all men. And everyone in front of her is a pig." This expressed opinion is naive and false, it only proves that for people like Konovalov, a woman represents nothing but feminine nature, and therefore for him, indeed, there is no difference between the prostitute Capitolina and the merchant's wife who loved him . But Gorky has many such rude, cynical, strongly and authoritatively expressed opinions, and they are accepted by the reader as truth. And the woman? This is still an unsolved creature. How many volumes have been written about women, how many learned treatises, what a huge question, the “women’s question.” " is now raised both in life and in literature, and the same Konovalov says: "Well... so you say: “and the woman is a person.” It is known that she walks alone hind legs, doesn’t eat grass, speaks words, laughs... that means he’s not cattle. Still, our brother is no company. Nah... Why? And... I don’t know... I feel it doesn’t fit, but I can’t understand why." And this value is devalued by him. And the book? The book that the intellectual cannot live without and says: “Well, imprison me Send me wherever you want, but give me a book... A book... this is the world." And the tramp says: "Books. Well, it’s a good time to read books, that’s not what you were born for... And the book... is nonsense... Well, buy “it” (that is, literally one good book) , put it in your bag and go." And learning, without which we feel darkness, and work, without which there is no healthy morality - this is the assessment of learning and work according to the words that Gorky puts into the mouth of Makar Chudra: "To study and to teach - you say? Can you learn to make people happy? No you can not. You turn gray at first and say that you need to teach. Everyone knows what they need. Those who are smarter take what they have, those who are dumber get nothing, and everyone learns on their own. Funny ones work. For what? To whom? No one knows. You see how a man plows and you think: “Here, drop by drop with sweat, he will exhaust his strength on the ground, and then he will lie down in it and rot in it. There will be nothing left for him, he can’t see anything from his field and he dies like he was born a fool.” ". Was he born, then, or something, to dig up the earth and die, without even having time to dig out his own grave? As soon as he was born, he was a slave and a slave for the rest of his life, and that's it. What can he do with himself? Just hang himself , if he grows a little wiser." And the price of human society, without which one cannot live, the price of friendship, camaraderie, the price of mental communication? After all, in solitude, an intelligent person can disappear, go crazy. And Konovalov says: “The sister of mercy read me a book about an Englishman - a sailor who escaped from a shipwreck to a deserted island and made a life for himself on it. I wonder how fear is. I really liked the book. So I would have gone there to see him. You understand what life is like! Island, sea, sky, you live alone, and you have everything, and you are completely free. There was still a wild one there. Well, I would drown a wild one - why the hell do I need him, huh? I’m not bored even on my own.” And Malva says: “I would sit in a boat and far away in the sea, so that I would never more people not to be seen." And so the tramp overestimates all the life, material, and moral values ​​of the intellectual. Our principle of life: stretch your legs by clothes... and the task of the happiness of an intellectual is to adapt to life and make life fit with oneself in order to achieve contentment and peace enjoying life is incomprehensible and funny to a tramp; he needs life to the fullest. Grigory Orlov says: “My soul is burning... I want space for it... so that I can unfold with all my strength... Ehma! I feel an irresistible strength in myself... You see, I would throw myself at a hundred knives... So I want to experience this very joy, and for there to be a lot of it... and for me to suffocate in it."... [ The Orlovs. Ed.] And his wife Matryona is looking for work “to the fullest,” and Marya is “greedy to live” on the rafts, and Chelkash’s soul is “greedy for impressions,” and the miller’s backfill, Kuzka says: “You have to live this way and that way... to the fullest.” . Gorky combines with this thirst for life the amazing cruelty of life. Malva, at the moment of the influx of this evil power, says: “I would beat the whole people, and then myself terrible death". Orlov dreams: “I wish I could crush the whole earth into dust, stand taller than all people, spit on them from a height and then down upside down and into pieces.” Sledgehammer (“ Former people"), he would like with furious pleasure "for the whole earth to burst into flames and burst into pieces, if only I would die last, looking first at others." And all of Gorky's heroes suffer from this delusion of grandeur, not having the strength to understand their spiritual disorder, without having any moral development, nor universal, cultural life, they cannot feed their starving mind and are looking for an outcome in struggle, in exploits, in revelry, just to pour out, move forward, deploy their power. The power chained in their chest seeks an ugly outlet and gives them direct pleasure. The author himself speaks for them: “No matter how low a person may fall, he will never deny himself the pleasure of feeling stronger, smarter, or at least better fed than his neighbor.” Makar Chudra says: “If you live, then live as kings over the whole earth.” And everywhere in all of Gorky’s stories, as the basis of the characters of all his heroes, this is the desire to rise above all else. But such people are often found in life, precisely among embittered, dark or underdeveloped people. Wine or resentment, which stirs the blood and intoxicates a person no less than wine, suddenly makes him, as they say, break down over people, do not care about everything, reach the point of blasphemy. U worthless people who have achieved power, no matter to what extent and over whom it is granted to them by chance, there will always be an intoxication with this power, there will always be torture and insults of the one who is subordinate to them. The merchant's "what does the leg want", the police slap with the words "they ask with honor", and to the childish torture of a dumb animal, everyone knows this cruelty as a sick side of life, and not as an uplifting force. Love as the right to torment is also one of the theses that runs like a red thread in all of Gorky’s stories. The idea of ​​love as the right to torment is not new. This refers to the enjoyment of physical pain. In Dostoevsky's stories there is also a keen pleasure in tormenting each other out of love; love consists in the voluntarily granted right to tyrannize and mock. Malva teases the old man Vasily, who is in love with her, to the point that he brutally beats her, but she does not even groan. Orlov loves and is jealous of his wife, and kicks her in the stomach. His wife, Matryona, “was embittered by the beatings, and this feeling of anger gave her great pleasure.” The author says that she did not extinguish his jealousy, on the contrary, she smiled at him mysteriously, and he beat her mercilessly. Why did she do this? And then, what kind of beatings and insults did I expect passionate, tender words of reconciliation... When Konovalov parted with his merchant’s wife, she grabbed his hand with her teeth and snatched a whole piece of meat. The old woman Izergil says that when her lover once hit her in the face, she jumped up on her chest like a cat and grabbed his cheek with her teeth, from then on he had a dimple on his cheek, and he loved it when she kissed her. ["Old Isergil". Note ed.] And so everywhere, subtly and roughly, the acute pleasure of torment in love and the right to torture and torment, as if granted to love, are scattered everywhere. In all of Gorky's stories there are real tramps, although they are undoubtedly embellished with mental suffering and strength, which the author has endowed them with too much. They are sculpted by the author roughly, boldly, but we still recognize them as people, listen to their words, and they touch our soul, demand an account, disturb our conscience, awaken pity, and partly give rise to envy and admiration. This is all a description of those people with whom Gorky met, lived and worked, but we must not forget that he wrote about them not when they stood in front of him, but when he moved away from them, when he had already emerged from the pool of taverns and underground, evoked by memories, softened by pity for them, they appeared before his soul in their best outlines, and he thickly painted them. Each of us knows that in bright moments past suffering is poeticized; in the terrible pain already suffered, there lies some kind of sweet bitterness. But Gorky also has abstract tramps. It was not for nothing that he was given a haphazard reading of French spectacular literature about poetic vagabonds, about the noblest robbers. Gorky has many such legendary heroes; he loves fairy tales and tells them to himself flowerily and passionately. His Makar Chudra, the handsome Loiko, the beautiful Radda, Izergil - a fantastic old woman, all this is a melodrama, all this is a tribute to the naive, poetic soul of a brilliant tramp, enchanted by the sun, the sea, freedom, a vagabond life, wide steppes, the blue sky and exciting song. All this is unrealistic, all this is naive, but all this is terribly talented and terribly beautiful. Gorky sings, and his song is so good, poetic, so loud and strong that everyone listens to it, and sensitive youth in particular, and they feel sorry for his impossible hero Larra, under own name which we must understand all of Gorky’s tramps. A whole class of people thrown overboard from life, thrown out not through their fault, but due to some strange predestination of fate. Larra is an illegitimate child, a foundling, the son of an eagle and a woman, an unrequited slave who only kneels and cries. He grew up in hatred, lives by violence. Gorky's tramps are nothing new. Such people, with a pile of demands for life, with the shackles of an undeveloped mind that cannot give an answer to these requests, and with an insurmountable aversion to any work, with hatred of society, among which they have not found the right place for themselves, are scattered everywhere. Their types are found in all layers of life, and in the literature of the whole world, scattered among many authors. In French literature, Jean Rictus in his “Loliloques du pauvre” has the same protesting accusatory speech of a ragamuffin, sometimes cynical and rude, sometimes full of noble pride. In Richepin's drama "The Roadside Man" - "Le chemineau" the same melancholy tramp is depicted, handsome and slender, curly-haired, with a song that awakens strength and hope in all hearts; he walks along the roads from village to village, from city to city, everywhere with a powerful shoulder, a resilient back, strong hands helps with his work and finally enters a village where he has not been for 22 years, and there he meets a girl, once beloved, whom, out of passion for vagrancy, he abandoned just like Kuzma, the miller’s worker, his Lyuba, like Konovalov his merchant’s wife. He also finds his son there, an adult guy, and despite this family, ready to accept him with affection and love, he still leaves her again, and that’s it, and leaves. He is a “roadman”, the road is his homeland, and next to it, in some ditch, is his grave. And this type is often found in modern French and German literature. But, nevertheless, tramps are not a class, tramps are not society, tramps cannot be reborn or re-educated. But such tramps as Gorky describes cannot be created, just as a poet, artist, genius cannot be created... One must be born with the germ of such tramps, such aspirations, such strength, beauty and pride. Such a tramp can come out of all layers of society, he will carry within himself the mysterious heritage of the totality of a million past lives from which his soul was born. And it was in vain that Gorky, in his pity for the wandering homeless Rus', attributed to her the titanic properties of an ideal tramp. He poeticized, clothed the dirt he saw with gold, filled their speeches with his own inspiration, his unfermented acquaintance with philosophers, scientists and writers, with the help of everything he studied and read, forced them to philosophize and speak in a language that was alien to them in a language impossible for them. But he described it all so well, made the youth think so much, suffer, worried them so much that they were deeply grateful to him for the mirage he created. Everyone is so accustomed to listening with longing and grief to life, to the cawing of crows, to their song: “In the fight against harsh fate, We, insignificant ones, have no salvation, Everything you look at with your eye is Pain and grief, dust and decay. The blows of fate are terrible, Let the wise one submit to them." And suddenly the song of Chizh, the ordinary little, gray Chizh, was heard: "I hear the cawing of crows Confused by the cold and darkness... I see darkness, - but what is it to me, If he is cheerful and My mind is clear... Follow me, whoever is brave. Let the darkness disappear. There is no place for a living soul in it. Let us ignite our hearts with the fire of the mind, And light will reign everywhere... Whoever honestly accepted death in battle, Has he fallen and been defeated? He fell who timidly covered his chest and left the battle... Friends! And he fell who, fearing Labor, unrest, the pain of wounds, judges the battle, plunging into a philosophical fog "... Isn’t the discord of the old clearly expressed here And younger generation , fathers, tired of the struggle and conquered by life, and young fighters, ready to lay down their lives for ideals? Yes, all this is strong, beautiful and terribly sad, because nowhere is the middle indicated, nowhere is it said: “Armed with experience and knowledge, be strong, hope,” but only - either submit, or accept death in battle. Gorky does not mention Nietzsche anywhere, one might think that he has not read him, and yet both Nietzsche and Schopenhauer are so much in his ideas and judgments. True, the Germans do not recognize Nietzsche as a populist and say about him that, despite the fact that he destroys the aristocracy and capital, he is still durch und durch imbued with aristocracy, but he also dreams of dying in some great unattainable feat, he in the same way, for the strong he preaches loneliness - Einsamkeits - lehre, that is, the science of loneliness, he recognizes that in the strong there lives a passionate thirst for power, and that this strong has the right to be cruel to the weak and cowardly, and that this cruelty in brings pleasure to itself. In "Dawn" Nietzsche says that he who is cramped in his fatherland, let him go, go and look for new countries where he can establish his dominion. And even Gorky’s song about “Chizhe” echoes strangely and consonantly in one of Nietzsche’s articles. Gorky's heroes, rude, drunken, criminal people, have a lot in common with Dostoevsky's heroes, especially in painful questions, in anguish, in enjoying the pain and suffering of others, and most importantly - in recognizing the right to be a superman, to be a judge and executioner all ordinary little people. Are Gorky's tramps sitting in a hole? No. In this pit sit and suffocate the involuntary poor, small, vicious, crushed by life people who got there by accident and who have no strength to get out of there. But, after all, these are not Gorky’s heroes, these are the spoils of police stations and the beggar committee; Gorky's heroes are eagles. These people consider our life, the life of the slaves of civilization, to be a pit; we are the cautious woodpeckers who do not believe that there is a way out of our life, who, having once learned that the earth is round, are convinced that no matter where we go, the earth will turn us to the same place - the source of slavery, the pit in which such tramps as Konovalov, Chelkash, various Zobars and Loikos live, where there are such meetings as Gorky himself had in “One Autumn” with the girl Natasha. Gorky filled the hole with rays of the sun, nightingale songs and fragrant roses so that we, people beaten by life, are drawn to it, and the youth are breathtaking, and dizzy from the mere thought of it. Poorly outlined, cloudy figures, like spots in Gorky's stories, are an intellectual and a woman, but the child is missing. For Nietzsche, a woman is a toy, and her best vocation is one: to give birth to a superman, and about the relationship with her, he is of the opinion that if you go to a woman, do not forget to take a whip with you. And in Gorky, the woman is for the most part just a voluptuous female, she cries and clings to the person. There is a lot of debauchery and cruelty in her. Malva pits her fans against each other, Kapitolina Konovalovskaya sees all the salvation in his love and almost needs him, again plunges into the same mud, and Natasha sees nothing higher than a baker with a red mustache, and only the superwoman Radda laughs at Zobar, who is in love with her, yes Varenka Olesova does not succumb to the vile quests of Privatdozent Polkanov and for his nasty peeking while she is bathing, she calls him a “nasty dog” and, rolling up the sheet with a tourniquet, spanks him into unconsciousness. In "Foma Gordeev" he also exhibits a superwoman, reminiscent of both Malva and Izergil - Sasha, who, at Gordeev's tavern trick - to cut the rope of a raft on which some drunken company with women is carousing, responds by throwing herself into the water, sails to the raft where Foma is and, wet, cold as a fish, with insane caresses, chains the heart of this tyrant hero to herself. But we will have to return to Gorky’s heroes and heroines when analyzing his plays “The Bourgeois” and “At the Lower Depths,” but for now, ending with his small stories, I just want to repeat once again that Gorky conquered our youth, firstly, by the power of his talent, and, secondly, by the fact that he bombarded them with a mass of questions, awakened thousands of thoughts, and most importantly, with an imperious hand he squeezed their young heart and made them suffer and cry, suffer and cry like a person who could fly, but where Somehow, in the rubbish of life, I lost my wings. This is where Gorky’s strength lies. This is Gorky’s fault, that under the guise of rough real life, he showed us such a rainbow where you cannot distinguish the main color from the mass of tints and rays. So, summarizing Gorky’s influence on young people, I repeat once again that he owes his exceptional success to: 1) unconditional talent; 2) beautiful, rich and expressive language and 3) not because his heroes are tramps, but because, due to the fact that they are tramps, that is, people who have broken with all the laws of society, he invests in them speech hatred of the authorities, established law, order, life, passionate love for freedom, not only in the form of movement, but for freedom in all respects, for the freedom of familylessness, contempt for women, he seems to give them the right to hate everything that is before Until now, a person obeyed as a family man and as a citizen. Gorky’s heroes have no children, there are no mothers among the women, there is strength everywhere, overwhelming weakness, physical strength as triumph and self-indulgence, moral strength only as resistance to violence, and he calls work, love, and family violence. All this makes a huge impression on young people, because youth itself is strength, and strength is always ready to protest and fight back. Young blood boils quickly within itself, and therefore, if there is a leader who will write on his banner: “Follow me! Let all violence perish, all oppression, and long live justice and freedom!” - he can be sure that the crowd will rush after him, passionately rush, without even considering what power he wants to overthrow, what freedom to win, and with such strong in beautiful words Gorky throws the reader around, blinds him, not even allowing him to sort out his feelings. His enormous talent captivates young people, and they are blinded to the point that they do not even allow impartial, conscientious criticism of Gorky’s works. Andreev's unexpected and major success is partly based on scandal. I will tell you a small scene that I witnessed. Leaving Moscow, at the Nikolaevskaya railway station. On the way, I stopped near a kiosk with books. Two ladies came up, one asked: “Do you have Andreeva’s “In the Fog”?” The seller replied: “This is not in the publication.” “Oh, what a pity,” the lady was sincerely worried and explained to another, “you know, they say it’s such disgusting, such disgusting that you need to read it... I couldn’t get it anywhere... When Countess Tolstaya printed her letter, in Essentially speaking, it was completely unnecessary, but this raised interest in Andreev’s stories to such an extent that they were immediately translated into French. In "Russkie Vedomosti" there was a whole correspondence from fathers and "children", many letters were from young people who, with indignation and disgust, justified themselves from the slander leveled at them in the story "The Abyss". But there were also letters in which the writers, even if they found the narrated fact ugly, nevertheless agreed that “the nature of love is base and rude, and therefore immoral, take away from it the everyday atmosphere of tenderness, courtship, well at least simply that necessary introduction, without which people of any conscientiousness cannot do without, and love will turn into animal, rude and cruel lust.” The most accurate thing that could be extracted from all the letters received by the newspaper is that among a certain part of Russian youth there lives the consciousness that chastity and purity are not unnatural violence against nature, but simply a state compatible with a sense of true human life, for whom the sexual issue, not conditioned by love and the rights of marriage, is something base and shameful. If this consciousness, expressed in many letters, is sincere, then it greatly facilitates preaching about the possibility and necessity of the same chastity among young people, which is required of young girls. This means that this sermon will be based not only on the severity and purity of religion, on the arguments of morality, social justice and hygiene, but also on one’s own deep need for purity. There is no point in deluding yourself that such views are shared by the majority of young people; you cannot demand that a young man, ardent to the point of unbridledness, also reason like this. But we must rejoice in the fact that the desire for purity and abstinence is often expressed by many. Between the letters there were also hymns of praise to Mr. Andreev. Letters from mothers boil down to one thing in most cases. Let every father understand that while earning a living, this does not exhaust all his responsibilities towards the family, since he cannot be replaced by a mother in some aspects of raising his sons. How to talk to a mother about certain things with her son, how to start? These are the painful questions. A father, devoting at least a little time to wisely monitor the development of his son, can warn him against many things. And while fathers do not recognize the need to delve into the upbringing of their sons, our children will be “in the fog.” So, some admire the courage of the author, who tore the veil off the secret, others are indignant, saying that the stories push him, impose him with the premature revelation of ulcers and secrets to those who have not yet thought about them. And heated polemics, oral and written, with equally passionate praise and attacks, ensured that the name of Mr. Andreev did not leave the lips of young people, and his book, where “The Abyss” was published, sold 24,000 copies. I will not analyze the story "The Abyss". For me, as a woman, as one of the thousands of women who have already spoken about this story, it is inaccessible, incomprehensible, especially if its hero is a student, a normal young man who loved the dead girl. The second no less famous story, “In the Fog,” I can only make out in its middle part, concerning Pavel Rybakov’s attitude towards his family. I skip the beginning of this story with the youth walking in the forest, jokes, laughter and singing; it is written well, but no better, no brighter than many such descriptions scattered across novels and stories by various authors. I don't take it either last part story, i.e. Rybakov’s meeting with a prostitute and the picture of the murder, because in this part only disgusting, anti-literary and implausible details belong to the pen of Mr. Andreev, the rest was taken by him protocol from the murder of a prostitute by a high school student in 1901 in Moscow, in Bogoslovsky lane. When I read the middle part of the story “In the Fog,” I became scared, because here I sensed the truth, the truth of the enormous gap between parents and children, the complete inability of some to approach the other, the complete helplessness of the son and the complete unconsciousness of the father. The father may not know that his son is physically sick, but he found a drawing made by his son, a drawing so cynical that he understands that his son is morally sick, that his mind is distorted, his blood is infected, his thoughts are dirty. And so, with this drawing in his pocket, he goes to his son’s room, and a game of cat and mouse begins between them. The son feels that something is about to break out, that all these “smart” and “comradely” conversations of his father are just a prelude, but now something menacing, terrible is coming, which is the real thing. The mother enters, also a kindly, not bad woman, but probably just like the father, she believes that if their children are well-fed, dressed cleanly and provided with the opportunity to learn correctly, then everything has been done for them, and no one has the right to demand more from their parents. The mother affectionately pats her son on the cheek, and obviously delighted that she found him in conversation with his father, leaves without noticing anything, without feeling anything. Her maternal instinct, like maternal blood, is silent, does not feel either the physical or moral suffering of her child, and yet all of us, women, know how painfully sensitive we are to those we love, how difficult it is to hide and deceive our instinct even to more skilled people than the boy standing in front of her, her son. So the mother leaves. The father suddenly takes out the drawing: “Did you draw this?” And this piece of paper, this rubbish with a vulgar design, which still means absolutely nothing, which could not have of great importance like sometimes a cynical, rude curse in the mouth of a completely good-natured and unspoiled street boy, at these moments it seems most important to him, and in the consciousness of his son, anger and disgust overwhelm him so much that he finds nothing, cannot say anything, nor evoke anything from the soul of his son and almost runs away, slamming the door and shouting that they wouldn’t expect him for dinner. He could not foresee what happened after with his son, because he did not delve into the depths of his soul, but with his lordly, disgusting judgment he focused only on the depravity of his son’s thoughts, he did not even make out whether the thought came after the facts, or whether the fact led to thought. Is the drawing a consequence of a fall, or, on the contrary, is the drawing the first step that can lead to a fall. He did not try to penetrate this secret and, abandoning the crumpled, nervously exhausted, painfully broken child to the mercy of his own thoughts and discussions, he fled. This is the horror of how far children are from their parents. The mother still finds her way to her daughter’s heart, she is for the most part the keeper of her purity and girlish secrets, but the father is almost always alien to the spiritual world of his sons, and since the mother in most cases does not know how to approach her son in this matter, our sons are left to their own devices to yourself. And they fight, and fall, and die without help. A mother is required to ensure that her daughter is pure before marriage. Every mistake, and especially the daughter’s fall, is entirely attributed to the mother’s oversight or, even worse, to her criminal indifference. The mother of a dead girl is almost always judged more harshly than even the daughter herself. So wouldn’t it be fair if society blames the fathers for the death and fall of their sons? After all, it is difficult, almost impossible, to fight alone against temptations, bad advice from comrades and a million corrupting side effects of literature, exhibitions, servants and the street, but with the help of the father, whose friendship the son is proud of, with the help of his example, his advice, his society - it is easy or completely to remain pure or, if possible, to treat every phenomenon morally and calmly. I think that the question of involving fathers in raising their sons, not just by words, but also by example of life, has come. Previously, only one thing was required from the father - earning a livelihood, but since the woman agreed to take part in this in one way or another and herself stepped out of the role of an adult child, a burden lying in the arms of her husband, the parents together could resolve the damned issue , destroying sons, and help them, as best we can, to move beyond adolescence sanely and morally. I do not blame Mr. Andreev for writing stories in which he rudely and directly calls the facts by their proper names and exposes terrible secrets from the lives of our sons, no - we could thank the author for this. Even isolated cases, if they are taken from life by him and placed before the eyes of mothers and fathers like the specter of death, are useful for life, but I accuse him of corrupting youth. Its unnecessary, detailed and at the same time vague descriptions , for example, a drawing found by Pavel Rybakov’s father and a lot of unbearably cynical details, too real and written in fragmentary words, hints that can tease a poorly directed imagination. His stories are harmful to young people not so much in essence as in form, for which he is certainly to blame. Mr. Andreev's story "Thought" is probably known to everyone. The hero, who recognizes himself as a superman, wants to test his nerves and sneaks into the room of the maid, who shared her caresses equally with him and with his father, on the night when his father’s corpse lies in the room nearby. As a student, he steals money from a friend and squanders it in a restaurant, knowing that at that time the robbed friend is starving. He feigns fits of insanity in order to kill his friend with impunity. Throughout this entire story, the author plays with the reader’s soul, presenting his hero, Kerzhentsev, as either an insane person or a completely normal person. After reading this story, you are left with a feeling of anger and disgust. For a while it torments you like a nightmare, but then you dismiss it as too crude, too bright, too ugly a caricature. You consider it a conglomerate of thousands of human passions and thousands of human dirty motives. You are waiting for criticism to test your thoughts, and suddenly you read that the hero of “Thoughts” is an extremely intelligent, energetic and only too lonely person, a superman who has neither a suitable environment nor a friend, and there were several such critics, and these are... It’s the critics who terrify you. This means that there are reasonable, calm people who consider Pavel Rybakov, Nemovetsky from “The Abyss” to be a common phenomenon among our youth, and Doctor Kerzhentsev to be a type often encountered in our society. This explanation of Andreev’s stories is much more terrible than the text itself. It confuses reading young people, it takes away instinctive, healthy disgust, makes them think, hesitate and, finally, relying on the authority of criticism, agree that this is possible. I accuse Mr. Andreev of the fact that the stories “Thought” and “Abyss” were not caused by his observation of life, but were fabricated, manipulated, painfully conceived and thrown into the public like a stone into the crowd: “Go figure, I’m a hero going alone against everyone, am I a madman who killed a person for no reason, or am I a well-aimed shooter who hit exactly the one whose life I needed.” And it is in this “take it apart and guess” that modern success lies. What did Mr. Bunin want to say by undressing Leo Tolstoy in his painting? Whether this is a mockery of the great writer’s desire to “sorry” or, on the contrary, a symbol of a man who traps people in nets, or whether these are not even portraits at all, but a random resemblance - just take it apart and guess. Mr. Repin paints a student with a young lady walking on the sea as if on dry land, and again all the critics, all the newspapers sound the alarm. What is this? Are they the brave youth who “don’t care about the rocks, the stormy shallows, and the storms of life.” Or is it golden youth that is happy to test its nerves under the influx of a cold wave? Is this just a scandal between a young couple who really don’t care if they gather a crowd around them, or is this finally the resolution of everything? women's issue, with proof that no wave of life will knock a woman off her feet if she walks trustingly leaning on a man’s hand? Yes, figure it out here, but in essence Andreev’s stories and the paintings of Bunin and Repin are the only and Right way in our time to fame. The key to success depends neither on strength, nor on beauty, nor on truth, but on dexterity, courage, on the choice of topic and on the amount of noise that arises around. Like in the old one, French song“La corde sencible” everyone is now in pursuit of this sensitive string - to expose a nerve and pull on it, and how it will respond to others - pain, suffering, scandal, who cares - find the exposed nerve, touch it, and in a terrible cry your name will be heard - glory is created. This especially applies to Andreev. Moving on to Anton Chekhov's play "The Seagull", I must remind you that the play had both its success and its failure. It was taken off the stage as a failure and put on the stage as a first-class play. I will not analyze the advantages and disadvantages of this work, I only want to point out how gray, pale, and how vulgarly female love is expressed in this play. However, this is not even love, this is precisely that painful infatuation that so often replaces love in a woman. The hero of the play Treplev, a young aspiring writer, the son of actress Arkadina, loves a young girl Nina. He says: “I hear footsteps... I can’t live without her... Even the sound of her steps is beautiful... The sorceress... my dream.” Nina answers him: “My heart is full of you.” Treplev kisses Nina and believes that the girl loves him. But Treplev’s play, in which Nina plays, is ridiculed by his mother, actress Arkadina, is not understood by others, and this is enough for the girl not only to turn away from the man who loves her, but, forgetting both her words and her kisses, falls in love with a fashionable writer Trigorin, whom he meets for the first time on the evening of a failed performance, falls in love because this man uses both literary and love success . Treplev tells her: “If you knew how unhappy I am. Your cooling is terrible, incredible, as if I woke up and see, this lake has suddenly dried up or flowed into the ground... You didn’t like my play, and you despise me.” Women do not forgive failure. He places a dead seagull at the girl’s feet, and when the girl asks what it is, what it means, he replies: “Soon I will kill myself in the same way.” But this doesn’t bother Nina either, she no longer understands and doesn’t feel sorry for Treplev, she’s glad that he left and left her with Trigorin who came up. Trigorin does not pay attention to her, but she looks after him and flatters him. “You are dissatisfied with yourself,” she tells him, “but for others you are great and beautiful.” When Trigorin leaves, she gives him a medallion on which the title of his story, page and lines are carved, and when he finds these lines, he reads: “If you ever need my life, come and take it.” Nina engraved this inscription on her medallion, of course, not now and, of course, not for Trigorin, it’s just a beautiful motto of the need for love that already lives in her, but which she is only trying on on the men she meets. Trigorin takes this as a tribute and hurries to take the life of a young girl who threw her love at his feet for no reason. Nina runs away from her father to Moscow, Trigorin lives with her for a short time and leaves her with the child. Then Nina acts like a murderer, who, according to legend, returned to the corpse. She knows that she broke the heart of the young poet Treplev, and now, beaten by life, having lost her child, not finding any satisfaction on stage, faded, even cold, she comes to Treplev at night. For what? Heal the wound? Ask for forgiveness for a previous deception? Say goodbye and rest on the chest of the person who loves her? No, she comes because of a momentary, beautiful fantasy and irritates a half-healed wound: “When you see Trigorin, (and Trigorin is quietly having dinner right outside the door) don’t say anything to him... I love him, I love him more than before, I love him passionately "I love you to the point of despair." And then, having recited an excerpt from a play written by Treplev in a mad fit of youth and love, she hugs him and runs away. And Treplev, before whom everything was resurrected: that starry, clear, joyful night in which his poem, which no one understood, was played out, and the voice of his beloved girl, who recited the unforgettable, foggy thoughts of that play, into which he put all the questions and dreams that tormented him, and her love, and affection, and fall, and the exhausted, hungry ghost he had just seen, could not stand it and shot himself. But here is the second love from the same “Seagull”, the love of the manager’s wife, Polina Andreevna, an old woman, burning with absurd jealousy of Doctor Dorn. She does not want and cannot understand that a woman is dead, funny, ugly, disgusting, if she failed to grasp the line that should turn love into a good, lasting friendship. A woman died if she did not cease to be only a woman in certain years and was not reincarnated into a human woman, into a female comrade. Polina Andreevna says to Dorn: “I can’t stand my husband’s rudeness, Evgeny, dear, beloved, take me to you.” Dorn, who did not do this and did not want to lead her to this decision in her youth, while they were connected at least by passion, answers reasonably: “I am 55 years old, it’s too late to change my life now.” “That’s why you refuse me,” Polina Andreevna can no longer hold back, “because besides me there are women who are close to you. I suffer from jealousy.” She cries, and Dorn hums and does not know how to get rid of this funny and pathetic scene. Nina arrives and gives the doctor a bouquet of flowers. The doctor, touched by the attention, takes it, and Polina Andreevna hisses dully: “Give me these flowers... give me”... snatches them, tears them and tramples them. And how embarrassing it is to look from the stage at the humiliation of this gray-haired woman, at the amazing lack of sensitivity and self-love in this woman. All around her is nature, work, farming, her own family, and she, like a blind mole, scurries around in her little selfish world. Of all the women around her, she understands only her daughter Masha and only because she, in the same way, probably due to heredity and upbringing, is completely immersed in her love. Masha is in love with Treplev. She knows very well that he doesn’t pay any attention to her, and even to her, such as she is, sloppy, snuffing tobacco, drinking vodka, the young poet could not help but pay attention, she doesn’t care. Love does not regenerate her, does not inspire her, she, like her mother, tearfully and submissively crawls on the ground, begging only for affection. Masha marries a teacher, whom she herself characterizes as follows: “He is not smart, but he is a kind man and loves me very much,” and in order to break her hopeless love, she marries him. But now a year has passed. Nina has already disappeared, Treplev, who shot himself after her escape, has recovered, works in magazines, is successful. Masha is married, she has a child, but she is still in love with Treplev and, apart from her love, she does not understand anything and does not want to know anything. “-Masha, let’s go home,” her husband pleads. “I’ll stay here overnight...” she answers. The husband begs: “Let’s go, Masha, our child is probably hungry.” - No big deal, Matryona will feed him. “It’s a pity... this is the third night without my mother.” - You're boring... Just child... home... child... home... - Let's go, Masha. - Go yourself. - Will you come tomorrow? Masha, sniffing tobacco: “Well, tomorrow... has arrived.”... And indifferent to the child’s hunger, to the melancholy of her husband, she almost snatches the sheets from her mother’s hands in order to prepare the bed for Treplev herself. And this is done and said in Treplev's presence, which means Masha doesn't even realize what a feeling of disgust she should arouse in the young poet with her heartlessness, rudeness towards her child, husband and slavish ingratiation towards him. And to top it all off, her mother immediately says to Treplev, running her hand through his hair: " How handsome he has become... Dear Kostya, good, be more affectionate with my Mashenka. She's nice." Treplev leaves silently. And again, both women do not understand to what extent they must be disgusting in his eyes. "So they made me angry," says Masha. “I feel sorry for you, Mashenka, I see everything, I understand everything.” “Eh, nonsense, Mama, don’t just let yourself go and keep waiting for something, waiting for weather by the sea.” And meanwhile this woman is waiting... What? So that this person who doesn’t love her, in a moment of boredom or pity, will call would have her to himself and thereby give her the right, as it were, in the name of a high feeling of love, to abandon her baby and finally laugh at her husband who loves her. And here is the fourth woman from the same “The Seagull”, and the fourth love: actress Arkadina, mother of the poet Treplev, and her lover, writer Trigorin. She is not young, but beautiful, talented, stingy. She needs both material support and a brilliant connection. Unexpectedly captured by Nina’s passion, he does not want to leave the village, but Arkadina entangles him with an invincible weapon - - flattery: “My beautiful, marvelous... (kneels). My joy, my pride, my bliss (hugs his knees)." Trigorin, intoxicated by flattery, without which he cannot live, weak-willed, spineless, incapable, of course, of the real one, pure love , Arkadina answers: “Take me, take me away, but just don’t let me go a single step.” Of course, this does not in the least prevent him from casually ruining Nina’s life, abandoning her with the child and continuing his relationship with Arkadina. And Arkadina, who can neither love nor understand her son, who regrets giving him any money even for a decent dress, also plays on high feelings and calls her connection with Trigorin love. And here is the play "The Seagull", full of female love. Here are four types of loving women. And when you leave after the performance of this play, in your female heart you carry away such a heavy, offensive feeling for the female mind, for the female heart, for the female understanding of the word “love”. And here is Chekhov's "Three Sisters". Here he brought out Natasha, seemingly so simple, young, and bashful; Her fiancé Andrei Prozorov says to her: “Oh, youth, wonderful, wonderful youth. My dear, my good one, don’t worry so much... I loved you, I love you, I love you like never before.” And now, in the second act, they are already husband and wife. They have their first child, and Natasha has already developed into a female, self-confident, unceremonious, beginning to subjugate everything and everyone. She takes away a room from one of her husband’s sisters, where there is sun all day long, and Andrei himself, who once dreamed of being a professor at Moscow University, serves as a secretary in the zemstvo government. Then, when the chairman of this council, Protopopov, is sitting with his wife, he pushes the child’s stroller around the garden, and little by little she disperses the old servants, then, with the second child, he unceremoniously says to the maid: “Protopopov will sit with Sofochka, and let Andrey give Bobik a ride.” Sergeevich, i.e. husband." And she evicts her husband from his room somewhere where you can’t hear him sawing on the violin, and so little by little on someone else’s grief, on someone else’s melancholy, with the joyless moans of his sisters: “To Moscow, to Moscow”... The monstrous vulgarity, stupidity and debauchery of Natasha, the only woman in the play who succeeded in love, to whom life gave the satisfaction of being a wife, mother, housewife, flourishes magnificently and calmly. This is how gray and vulgar female love is presented in these two plays by a talented author. So little by little the type of woman - mother, friend, sister, bride, the type of kindness, purity, love and fidelity disappears from literature, only the passionate female or selfish girl, seagull, half-virgin remains. If the best people are writers, young people are assured of this, then they should believe them. But if you believe it, is a family conceivable? Is happiness conceivable? Is life itself conceivable with such a woman? There was a time when a woman was compared to a hen, to that simple hen who, having expanded and spread her wings, sheltered all the chickens under them, warming them, sheltering them from rain, wind and bad weather. But a hen, when making a nest, plucks the feathers on her chest, heating the eggs to bring out the life hidden in them, sits without food, without drink, often dies of exhaustion on the nest if people forget to bring her food, this weak, little hen - the mother, ruffling her feathers, with a cry funny in her impotence, rushes at the kite, at the hawk, in defense of her children. This comparison is now outdated. A woman is compared only to a female, and a girl is a lily, a mimosa branch, now she is a seagull, half-fish, half-bird, a beautiful, white creature, unfit for food, not for a cage, not for a poultry yard, she has neither a voice nor the ability to act manual. Shoot a seagull out of daring and throw it away. Should our youth really believe modern authors and see modern girl a seagull, and in a woman - a female?

Part two

Naydenov's play "Vanyushin's Children" is one of those plays that parents in charge of raising children should read before taking their children to see it. The play "Vanyushin's Children" is snatched directly from life, but as the heaviest, darkest page, it leaves a bad aftertaste in young, impressionable souls. A word spoken from the stage, life played out in faces, gives the impression of truth, and the better the acting, the more real and deeper the impression. Old man Vanyushin, all penniless for profit, his good-natured weak-willed wife, six children, of whom two daughters are married, their husbands, General Kukarnikova, her daughter Nina... These are the main ones characters. The eldest son Konstantin, 24 years old, a man without morals, without principles, as they say - without God in his soul, leads cupids with his orphan niece, who lives right there in his father’s house. Alyosha, a high school student who is already beginning to go on a drinking spree, steals money from his mother. Among all this dirt of debauchery, blackmail, reproaches and mutual squabbling, a father’s heart is revealed. He had already said before: “I always wish only good things for all my children, but it turns out wrong. I looked - my soul was crying, and you only saw anger and enmity in my eyes... You don’t know your father.” But when talking with Alyosha, he finally begins to see the light. The son says: “I’m not a boy, and have not been a boy for a long time, but they consider me to be some kind of little one, they don’t talk to me, they bully me, they feed me with truisms. The school authorities, from the height of their greatness, spewed out their instructions and scolded and gossiped to you like the last cook.” . At these words there is always laughter and applause. “I didn’t even know that you could talk like that. So where did you come from like that?” "From above: you lived below, and we lived above. We came to you when we needed something, and you went upstairs when you found it necessary to scold us or beat us. And so we grew up and came down from above as adults, with our own tastes, desires, demands, and you ask: where are we from?" His father kisses him, and Alexey exclaims: “You are kissing. After all, this is his father’s first kiss!” This comedy concerns not the merchant’s or the bourgeois life at all, but all mothers, all fathers. Does it really matter whether it’s an apartment with mezzanines, where the children literally live upstairs and the parents downstairs, or whether it’s an amfilad of rooms where behind the boudoir, halls and living rooms there are rooms for governesses and children? Doesn’t it make the same difference when the children’s parents punish and beat them? or they do it in French and English language reprimands, the fact is that parents feed, water, teach children and do not know their souls or their thoughts at all. The day comes when children come to us as ready-made people, and we ask them: “Where did you come from?” And it was painful for me to attend the performance of Vanyushin’s Children, and it seemed to me that this was not a theater hall, but a courtroom where a terrible indictment of the parents was being read. One more play, and again the parents and children will be judged. This is Gorky's "The Bourgeois". Bessemenov, the foreman of the painting shop, his wife, Akulina Ivanovna, children: Peter - a student, Tatyana - a school teacher, student - Neil, Polya - a seamstress, the daughter of a bird catcher Perchikhina, lodger Elena Nikolaevna Krivtsova and other persons. There is no up and down here anymore, everything is in a heap, and there is nowhere for them to go. The education of Peter and Tatiana pushed them out of their environment, but did not inspire them, for they are lethargic, gloomy, embittered; poor nutrition, bad air gave them bad blood, they despise both their situation and their environment, but they cannot rise from it, cannot take off, and both, due to their weakness of will and at the same time the impulses of a mind enlightened by education, are drawn to the light and instinctively look for support, other people's wings, other people's energy. Peter goes to the empty but cheerful Elena, and Tatyana goes to Neil. For their parents, they also imperceptibly became ready-made people - while they were making pennies, working and fighting, they could not even be interested in the spiritual world of their children, and perhaps they never thought that they had one, and the children did not even imagine , that parents pray to a different God than profit and saving pennies. They cannot stand their mother’s grumbling, their father’s remarks, do not put up with their narrow views, and do not hesitate to express their impatience and irritation; father and mother literally feel cramped in their home, they feel superfluous, unnecessary. The question arises in their minds: “Why is this?”, and they involuntarily come up with the following answer: “It was in vain, without thinking well, that I let you into education - now Peter was kicked out, you’re sitting in the girls.” Tatyana is in the girls because she loves Neil. But the healthy instinct of a worker, strong and courageous, tells Neil that he does not need a sluggish, chilly, half-young lady who cannot even want anything strongly, but he needs a semi-literate, healthy, strong, cheerful and courageous Polya. Such a girl will sing songs while working, and will be able to love, and will give birth to healthy children, and her work will not fall out of her hands. Neil is Gorky’s real hero, he is also greedy to live, and also will not be ashamed to throw the weak out of his way, because he feels that strength, health and courage are three chances against four in the struggle for life. Gorky, without regret, puts so many good, strong words into the mouth of his hero, such an impulse forward, a challenge to fight, a protest against boredom, that the youth are enchanted, they are no longer able to see Nile’s ingratitude to the family that fed him, the terrible dryness, heartlessness , self-adoration and recognition of oneself as a superman who, while walking uphill, is allowed to step on others along the way. Neil is elevated to the ideals of a fighter. To the complaints of Tatyana, who grew up as a sister next to him, he replies: “You really like to complain about everything and everyone... Who will help you? No one will help, and there is no one... it’s not worth it”... And she leaves him That’s why she was waiting for help, and she was reaching out to him for it. "- Where do you get such callousness, Neil? - And this is callousness? - Cruelty... You are inattentive to people. - Not to everyone. - To me. - To you. No, yes... You see, I’m coming to you, that is, I’m you, (Tatyana, waiting for the word “love”, makes a movement towards Neil, but Neil doesn’t even notice him)... I respect it very much... and... I love you, but I don’t like it, why you're a teacher... This thing is not to your liking, it's a huge thing. Children - after all, these are people in the future... You know, I really love forging, in front of you is a shapeless red mass, angry, burning. Hitting it with a hammer - pleasure. She spits at you with hissing, fiery spittle, wants to burn your eyes out, blind you, throw you away from her. She is alive, elastic, and with strong blows from your shoulder you make of her everything you need." Crackling beautiful phrases... A girl who loves him stands sadly in front of him, and he... he tells her: “I... my strength, my feelings”... because for himself he is God, and besides he is not interested in anyone or anything in himself and his feelings. After the scene of explanation with Bessemenov that he is marrying Paul, Neil says: “How I hate this man... this house... all my life, rotten life. Everyone here... is some kind of freaks.” Again, this curse is strong for the weak and old, but is it fair? If instead of hatred there had been a little reflection, a little gratitude to the family, maybe he would have found an excuse for them. After all, Bessemenov does not say anything new, does not demand anything, he stands by his old covenants and acts according to the wisdom bequeathed to him by his father and grandfather. It is not his fault that from the oak roots he grew not into a flexible hazel, not into a flowering linden, but into the same strong and rough oak. But Neil doesn’t think about anyone or anything else. I hate it and it’s over, so I took an ax and chopped it off. When he kisses Polya and, leaving the room, stumbles upon Tatyana, who, according to the author’s remark, silently looks at him with dead eyes, with a crooked smile on her face, he again does not see someone else’s suffering, nor a spark of sympathy for the girl, almost to the sister who grew up before his eyes - almost nothing but contempt: “I eavesdropped. I peeked. Eh-oh you"... And this “uh-oh you” is worse than a slap in the face, worse than spitting... For what? Tatyana was poisoned, but remained alive; sick, weak, she lies on the couch. Teterev explains to her that it is calmer in Russia to be a drunkard, a tramp, than an honest person, sober, efficient, that only people are mercilessly straight, hard as swords, only they will pierce... What... he doesn’t finish speaking, because Neil enters, mercilessly straight and hard as a sword. enters cheerfully after a battle with the clubheaded depot chief, whom he defeated. Why is it only good for scoundrels to live in Russia, and why are all the bosses clubheads? Because anyone who says otherwise, and even though he finds an exception, will himself be counted among the clubheads. That's why , that these biting, sweepingly accusing phrases always have enormous success among young people. An argument arises, and Peter says: “If a person has a different opinion, I won’t grab him by the throat for this.” Neil says: “But I will.” “Who gave you the right to do this?” Neil replies: “They don’t give you the right. Rights are taken... A person must win rights for himself if he does not want to be crushed by brutal duties." Again, a beautiful phrase and completely immoral, because only he has rights who recognizes duties, otherwise people would again return to fist law, - - some would have only rights, others - only duties." “You, Neil,” says Peter, “at every step you try to show your father that you do not respect him.” “Why hide it?” Is this effort to insult the old man at every step - this answer: “Why hide it?” is not cynical and stupidly childish? But Neil talks about life and as he speaks, poetically and powerfully, and too literary for a simple worker. “Living is a glorious occupation, on crappy steam locomotives on autumn nights in the rain and wind, in winter in a blizzard, when there is no space around you, everything on earth is covered in darkness... tiring... dangerous... but This has its own charm. Only one thing is that I and other honest people are commanded by pigs, fools and thieves."... If this is so, if only pigs, fools and thieves really have the right to leadership and vote, then, of course, life is not worth living. But is it so? ? Is everything really so black all around? And most importantly, it is not the first generation that accuses the authorities of cruelty, corruption and inertia, but who is in power? Isn’t it the youth who completed the course and little by little took the highest places? I hear with youth, 30 years ago, the same groans... But a lot could have changed and brightened at the age of 30. Isn’t it the youth’s fault, isn’t it they who forget the impulses, the covenants of youth? Doesn’t it boil and tear the skins like unfermented wine, while it still has no strength, and calms down, goes back to normal when it gains strength? And then again a passionate monologue about life, which ends with words that cause a storm of applause: “Ours will take it! And with all the means of my soul I will satisfy my desire to intervene in the thick of it, knead it this way and that, to prevent this, to help this... That's the joy of life." But this is an eternal dump... because the thick of life for everyday life inaccessible, God willing, even in the area where life revolves, in those requests, needs and sufferings that meet on the way of people, help only with reason, composure and enormous kindness and attention, patience and justice, i.e. those qualities that in a landfill are unthinkable, and which the literary “Niles” do not at all possess. But what he says is beautiful and powerful. Finally, Neil teases, intensifies Bessemenov to the last scandal, even Peter, who does not love his father, says to Neil: “Well. I’ve waited. Oh, you should be ashamed.” But Neil still breaks down until, finally, Peter, exhausted for himself, and for his sister, and for his father by this scene, shouts to him: “Go away, damn it.” And then he, taken aback, leaves with the words: “I’m going... Goodbye... What, however, are you.” And this Nile, this impossible Nile - a collective tramp, because in cruelty, selfishness and phrase-mongering he surpasses several typical tramps from Gorky's stories, many consider him a bright type, a prophet of life. In a lecture, I cannot go into detail about all the faces from this, nevertheless, remarkably talented comedy - I want to say only a few words about Elena Nikolaevna and her relationship with Peter. Many critics called her a bright personality - I cannot agree with this. Yes, the author gave her a few good, warm words about the prisoners, for whom she dressed in light clothes to brighten their lives, but then - what is she? A cheerful widow who can only remember about her husband that he had a three-inch mustache. She flirts with Peter, but it’s hard to believe why she loves him. This is a man without a face, as even his father says about him. Always gloomy, lethargic, irritable, never completed the course. Already in one monologue of Peter, any woman whose heart is in the right place and whose head thinks would be imbued with contempt for his formlessness - I don’t know how to express it otherwise. Here is this monologue: “I think when a Frenchman or Englishman says: “France, England,” he certainly imagines behind this word something real, tangible, understandable to him. And I say: “Russia” and I feel that for me this is a sound empty. And I have no way of putting any clear content into this word." Is it really possible for us, Russian mothers, to live to see our children talk like that about their homeland? But then we died, then we no longer have any fatherland, no language, no religion, nothing. This means that we were not able to convey to them with our milk, with children's lullabies, with the graves of their fathers, with prayer at their bedside when they were ill, the Russian feeling - love for our Russian land. What criminal mothers we are, how unhappy our children are. An Englishman, a Frenchman, a Pole, a German has both pride and passionate love for his homeland, but with us it is an empty phrase. Isn't this slander against young people? Is this Peter without a face really not a degenerate, but one of many? He goes on to say: “The devil pulled me to take part in these stupid unrest. I came to the university to study and studied. I didn’t feel any regime that prevented me from studying Roman law. No, I didn’t feel it at all. I felt the regime of camaraderie... and "I gave in to him. Two years have been erased from my life... yes... This is violence. Violence against me. Isn't it?" That's right, violence, since he was a Panurgian sheep, which itself, without knowing what, bleated and followed the herd. But can such a sheep inspire love in a reasonable, energetic woman? Is this a friend, comrade? No, but this could be a convenient spineless husband, under the shoe, the kind that Elena Nikolaevna is looking for. She unceremoniously, despite the obvious antipathy of the old people towards her, appears to them and takes part in the persecution of them by both Neil and the children. Peter is not enamored with the prospect of marrying Elena; he tells Neil: “Firstly, students are not allowed to get married, secondly, I will have to endure a battle with my parents, thirdly”... (he does not say what thirdly). Perchikhin says to Peter: “I don’t love you, Peter. You are a proud and empty person”... But Elena takes Peter’s head in her hands and forces him to repeat after himself: “I love you.” (Peter becomes a sheep). “Oh, yes, yes... But no, you’re joking”... “Really, I’m completely serious - I decided to marry you a long time ago. Maybe it’s very bad, but I really want it.” At this time, a groan is heard from a sick, suffering woman who has just been poisoned because of Tatyana’s rejected love. Peter’s conscience stirred, he said, rushing to his sister: “She’s lying there, and we... we.” And Elena answers him cheerfully and heartlessly to the point of vulgarity: “What’s wrong with that? Even in the theater, after the drama, they give you something funny.” And he takes him by the arm. She doesn’t even hear how Tatyana, abandoned by them, groans dully: “Lena... Lena”... As a final characterization of Elena, I give the latter’s monologue, before leaving the parental home with Peter: “Yes, that’s true. Yes, I took him from you myself, myself. I myself, I was the first to tell him, offered to marry me. Do you hear, you owl? Do you hear? It was I who snatched him from you. You know, I may not marry him. You're happy, right? Oh, this is very possible. Don't be alarmed ahead of time. I'll just live with him without a crown, but I won't give it to you. I'm not giving it. No. And he will never come to you. Never. Never. Never." Isn’t that what a woman calls it, pouring as much poison as you can into your skin, and at the same time, everyone has the conviction in their souls that when this hated, abandoned owl, Peter, married to Elena Nikolaevna, dies (because that, of course, she needs him as a husband), will gladly inherit the pennies he despises, especially since before this inheritance he will have to live on Elena Nikolaevna’s means, and she will then reward herself and sew herself several light blouses to dispel her husband’s melancholy. And the philosopher Teterev says to Bessemenov: “He will not go far from you. He went upstairs temporarily, but he will come down. If you die, he will rebuild this barn a little, rearrange the furniture in it and live like you: calmly, rationally and comfortably.” New play Gorky's "At the Depths" and a new noise, literally an alarm bell, both in the press and among the public. Prohibition, permission, hope to see her, complete disappointment, and finally, Stanislavsky’s troupe arrives, subscriptions for tickets are open, and around the Maly Theater there is a camp of intelligent youth, capable of enduring hunger, cold, sleepless nights , just to get to this “bottom” discovered by Gorky. And, meanwhile, this play is certainly inferior to "Philistines". She does not glorify strength, does not call for a fight like Neil’s tirades, but still she asks questions and stirs up controversy. It contains types of tramps that have long been familiar from Gorky’s stories. And there are no colorful, sunny tramps there, there are just thieves, cheaters, drunkards or losers at work, driven into the “pit”. There is Ash, a hero who resembles a pale shadow of the Nile, but he is just a young, daring thief who still wants to live like a human being, because, obviously, in addition to the shelter, he is well acquainted with the plots, and with the prison, and maybe to be subjected to merciless beatings, which the janitors and ordinary people who have caught a thief are so not shy about. He himself is cruel by nature, vicious, he nevertheless dreams of the kind and quiet Natasha. It is very possible that later, like the tramp Orlov, also a dreamer, he would beat his wife with both his heels and his fists (at one word from Natasha: “There’s nowhere to go... I know... I thought”... Ash replies: “ I won’t let you in, I’d rather kill you”), but now he doesn’t need his former mistress, Natasha’s sister, the beautiful Vasilisa, the hostess of the shelter, not because she is vicious, but he is virtuous, that she is evil, and he is kind, no, simply because that two wolves cannot live in one hole. Ash and Natasha are a wolf and a lamb. Ash and Vasilisa are two beasts that sooner or later must rip each other's throats out. Vasilisa persuades Ash to kill her husband. Ash does not agree, he is disgusted by the idea of ​​deliberately killing an old man, but a few hours later, under a flash of anger, he already grabs Vasilisa Kostylev’s husband by the throat, and if not for the accidental presence of the wanderer Luka, the murder would have been committed, and he kills him in the last act and on Vasilisa’s charges goes to prison. Natasha is as colorless as Tatyana in “The Bourgeois”, although she still dreams sluggishly and formlessly: “I think, tomorrow... someone will come... someone... special... or something will happen... also unprecedented... I’ve been waiting for a long time... I’m always waiting.”... She doesn’t have the strength to actively move, and when, after the murder, she, scalded by her sister, first ends up in the hospital and then disappears, then one must think that she’s going to precisely on that road, for the mere thought of which Ash already wanted to kill her. Natasha is weakly outlined, just as she herself is weak in her inner content; her sister Vasilisa, angry, passionate, vile, dreaming of killing her husband, who tortured and scalded her sister, does not value the life of her lover who left her, and with her denunciation throws him into prison. This is the most ordinary type of woman-fist. Satin, the actor, the baron - these are all tramps, voluntary and involuntary, two or three degrees paler than those already described by Gorky in his stories. A prostitute who dreams of the student Gaston in patent leather boots, with a left-hander, is a pitiful, touching type, but has long been used by our literature. The audience's attention is drawn to the wanderer Luke, a blessed dreamer who accidentally fell to the bottom, but the viewer is confused by the fact that this is the best man, who has left the untruths of life in voluntary wandering, forces two hungry thieves, under the pointed muzzle of his gun, to flog each other with rods in the most merciless way and only then does he give them bread, but if you remember that the peasants still have flogging according to the verdict of the volost court, then you become afraid for simple truth that the best of the peasants, like Luka, is also dark, also absolutely deaf to the sense of human dignity; he acts naturally, in his own way he admonishes the guilty, and this is the whole horror. Satin was tired of human words, but this has a deep meaning: nineteen centuries ago, a teacher gave people a simple and short lesson: “Love God, love your neighbor.” These words have become ordinary human words, everyone repeats them, but where is the fulfillment of these words? How strange is it that you can hate such human words and exclaim like Satin: “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters, truth is the God of a free man.” Satin gives the inhabitants of the shelter the highest lesson of love for a woman as a person. Taking revenge for his sister's insulted honor, he kills her offender and ends up in prison, where he is corrupted, learns to cheat and is pushed to the bottom. And, despite all this, his love for his sister has not died, not the slightest anger awakens in him towards her as the culprit of his suffering. He says: “My sister was a good person.” Note, not a woman, but “human being”, which means he is at the bottom, the scum of society, giving his sister the right that many higher minds take away from us women. He recognizes his sister as a good person, and the truth of life is felt in this... But when the same dark Luka, who, laughing, tells how hungry poor people flog each other, answers Satin’s question: “Why do people live?” , - quotes from Schopenhauer, then one can already feel the lie and inconsistency not in the answer, but in its depth. "Why do people live?" - says Satin. Luka replies: “But people live for the best, my dear... Everyone thinks that they live for themselves, but it turns out that they live for the best. People live for a hundred years, and maybe more, for the best.” And Schopenhauer says: “Life is by no means a gift given for enjoyment, but the task is to work out a lesson, and accordingly, everywhere we create in both big and small general need, tireless work, tireless striving, endless struggle, forced work with with the extreme tension of all vital and spiritual forces, the blood and sweat of entire nations flows in order to enable individuals to achieve their goals." Luke tells the actor about a house with marble floors where alcoholics are cured, and about how one convict in Siberia, having learned from a scientist exiled there that there was no righteous land, went and hanged himself. Let’s forget that Luke says this, what the author tells us, but how painful and scary it is to learn that there is no righteous land, when all of us, both young and old, live and die all our lives, even with the hope that if not us, that at least our grandchildren will enter the righteous land. Yes, sometimes we need a lie, a lie that, with its rainbow prism, would keep us from despair and suicide. And so, although we feel that all the heroes of the play “At the Bottom” have no connection with each other, no inner world, no ideals, no strength to work, and have no desire to do so, that it is impossible to get them out of there, that neither hospitals with marble floors nor righteous lands will save them, yet the play is captivating, and in the hearts of many it is a huge success. Why? Firstly, because it is Gorky, a man who won the sympathy and admiration of the reader, secondly, because it was banned for a long time, thirdly, it contains many good, deep thoughts, and there is a song that It’s sung in such a way that it grabs everyone’s heart: “The sun rises and sets, And it’s dark in my prison, Days and nights, sentries, yes, eh, Guard my window. Guard it as you wish, I won’t run away anyway, I want to be free , yes eh, I can’t break the chain”... The youth listens, their hearts boil, and they don’t think that this song is sung not by freedom fighters imprisoned, but by petty thieves, drunkards, who Gorky attributed ideas and feelings incompatible with their concepts. God is with them, with those who sing, and it is hard and sweet for those who listen to it. The very setting of the play “At the Bottom” makes a huge impression: “The basement looks like a cave, and the spring sun comes through the window with slanting rays”... And the stage directions: “The noise on the stage goes out like the fire of a fire, doused with water.” After all, this is just a tuning fork. Now we can only wait to see what the writer will give next, who began by wandering alone among empty buildings and trading ports and thinking about how good it was to be well-fed, and now has received European fame and a wealthy fortune. He once said in the story “Once Upon a Time in Autumn”: “By God, the soul of a hungry person always eats better and healthier than the soul of a well-fed one.” Let's see what he will eat now, what songs his soul of a well-fed person will sing next.

Bychkova Ekaterina

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ANNOTATION

Bychkova Ekaterina

Municipal budgetary educational institution Glyadenskaya basic secondary school No. 11

"Classics and Youth"

Head: Marina Ivanovna Bychkova – Russian language teacher at the Glyadensky basic secondary school No. 11.

scientific adviser:

The purpose of the research project: to explore how classical literature influences a person’s outlook and morality, why young people nowadays hardly read the classics, why they don’t want to be like wonderful heroes classic books.

Methods of the research: observation method, questioning, comparison, analysis. The main results of the research project: literature on the topic was selected and studied, a survey was conducted, a presentation was designed and carried out for the survey participants, the results obtained were summarized and compared, an “inviting” essay “Read” was written. The hypothesis was partially confirmed: if a student reads more classical fiction, reflects on the actions of heroes, gets acquainted with masterpieces of music and painting, then he will become smart, developed, educated and moral person capable of self-improvement. The prepared materials and presentation provided positive influence on the opinion of the children who participated in the survey. The questions studied in the topic are interesting and relevant.

1. Introduction p.4

2. Questionnaire and its results p.5

4. Works of fiction about the role
books p.14

5. Conclusion p.15

6. Experience of an “inspirational” essay p.16

7. Literature p.17

INTRODUCTION

The teacher of Russian language and literature constantly reminds us that today our country needs smart, independent, creative, conscientious people. Such people read and know a lot, but we don’t want to read. I began to think about the question: “Why do young people in our time hardly read the classics, why don’t they want to be like the wonderful heroes of classical books?” And I came to the disappointing conclusion that today Russian classical literature (essentially educational!) is not in demand among young people.

The ability to understand what you read, compare, ask questions, reflect, think about the meaning of life, set noble goals - these are the most relevant skills for a modern person. This is exactly what the classics teach, forgotten today, turned into material for dreary homework and (unfortunately!) ready-made essays, answers, practically reduced to the level of American comics.

The identified contradictions make it possible to formulateresearch topic:"Youth and classics"

I put forward the next one mortgage: If a student reads more classical fiction, reflects on the actions of heroes, gets acquainted with masterpieces of music and painting, then he will become an intelligent, developed, educated and moral person, capable of self-improvement.

Target: to explore how classical literature influences a person’s outlook and morality, why young people nowadays hardly read the classics, why they don’t want to be like the wonderful heroes of classical books.

I set myself these tasks:

1. Study the reading range and outlook of graduates of our school.

2. Compare the results of a survey of current graduates and graduates of the 20th century.

3. Explore how literature influenced the formation of the personality of famous and authoritative people.

4. Find in works of fiction thoughts about the role of books in human life.

5. Convincingly present to modern schoolchildren the need for reading.

Subject of study:The breadth of outlook and level of morality of school graduates.

Object of study:Graduates of the 20th century, graduates of 2012 from the Glyadensky secondary school No. 11.

Research methods:

1. Questionnaire.

2. Comparison and analysis of the results of the questionnaires.

4. Work with fiction and journalistic literature, information sources.

5. Writing an “inviting” essay “Read!”

Analysis of questionnaires from 9th grade students and responses from 20th century graduates(Questions developed by the Russian State Library).

1. Which person have you seen, heard about, or read about that you would like to be like?

9th grade

1. Fedor Emelianenko
2. On myself.
3. Dad.
4. I am me and no one else.
5. Gogol.

Graduates of the 20th century

1) Pushkin

2) Lomonosov

3) Tolstoy

4) Ulyanova Maria Ilyinichna, mother of V.I. Lenin

5) Peter the Great

6) Tatyana Larina

7) Krylov

8) those people from whom you can take an example

9)Gogol

Conclusion: Only 50 9th graders answered the question. This means that most of them do not have worthy ideals to follow. 20٪ respondents do not want to imitate anyone, but want to be like themselves, thereby showing their selfishness and posturing. But the good news is that 10٪ high school students have a worthy role model - parents (10٪) and the famous writer N.V. Gogol (10٪).

Graduates of the 20th century see writers, generals, men of science, and historical figures as their ideals.

2.Your favorite book.

9th grade

1. "The Fate of Man"
2. Alexander Pamonikov "Afghan Gladiator"
3. Reference books on motorcycles
4. Horror and fantasy
5. Poems
6. "Master and Margarita"

Graduates of the 20th century

1) Poems by Yesenin

2) Kuprin's stories

3. Astakhov “Zatesi”

4) “Dead Souls”

5) "Red horse"

6) “Petersburg slums”

7) “The Master and Margarita”

8) “Shadows disappear at noon”

Conclusion: Of the ninth graders, 80 responded. Of these, 10٪ chose reference literature, 30٪ - lyrics, 40٪ - Russian literature and 20٪ prefer foreign literature. The remaining 20٪ do not have a favorite book. The books they chose belong to writers of the 20th century. The work of M. Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita” coincides with the graduates of the 20th century. It’s sad that neither our ninth-graders nor our 20th-century graduates have favorite classic works by 19th-century writers.

9th grade

1. Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
2. "Tom Sawyer"
3. I don't read foreign books

Graduates of the 20th century

1. "Last bow"
2. "Baby and Carlson"
3. "Tom Sawyer"
4. "The Thorn Birds"

Conclusion: Of the ninth graders, 60 responded. Most of them chose Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet.

Graduates of the 20th century wrote works by children's writers. Based on the small number of answers to this question, we can conclude that the majority of respondents simply do not read the classics of foreign authors.

4.Your favorite poet.

9th grade.

1. Yesenin
2. Pushkin
3. Bunin
4. Lermontov

Graduates of the 20th century

1) Pushkin

2) Yesenin

3) Lermontov

4)Block

6) Gumilyov

7) Tsvetaeva

8) Akhmatova

9) Nikitin

10)Shevchenko

11)Balmont

12) Solovyov

Conclusion: All ninth graders answered this question. The good news is that most people’s favorite poet is A.S. Pushkin (a poet of the 19th century), he was chosen by 40٪ respondents. The answers of the 20th century graduates were matched by the following poets: Pushkin, Yesenin, Lermontov.

Of course, modern schoolchildren do not have the same choice as graduates of the 20th century. Perhaps the lyrics are not so relevant today?

5. Favorite artist and painting.

9th grade.

1. "Three heroes"
2. "Three Bears"
3. Savrasov “The rooks have arrived”

Graduates of the early twentieth century

1) Z. Serebryakova “At lunch”

2) Shishkin “Three Bears”

3) Vasnetsov “Three Heroes”, “Alyonushka”

4) Surikov

5) A. Deineka “Mother”

6) Leonardo Da Vinci “Madonna Litta”

7) Serov “Girl with Peaches”

8) Savrasov “The rooks have arrived”

9) “Morning in a pine forest”

Conclusion: 60 ninth graders answered this question. One gets the feeling that they were not naming their favorite artist and painting, but those they had heard about and remembered. It worries me that the guys don’t name the authors of the paintings.

But the artists Savrasov, Shishkin, Vasnetsov coincided with the answers of twentieth-century graduates. The knowledge in this area of ​​XX graduates is deeper. Most likely, this is explained by their greater opportunities to see masterpieces of painting in museums and albums.

6. Favorite composer and favorite musical composition.

9th grade

1. Shainsky “They teach at school”
2. Western "hits"
3. D. Malikov
4. Beethoven, "Sonata No. 20"
5. Mozart

Graduates of the 20th century

1) Dogu “My affectionate and gentle beast”

2) Shostakovich

3) Igor Krutoy “Falling Leaves”

4) Tchaikovsky “Waltz of the Flowers”, “Swan Lake”

5) Beethoven " Moonlight Sonata»

6) Tukhmanov “Moonlight Serenade”

7) Glinka

8) D.Verdi

9) F. Chopin

Conclusion: 70 9th graders responded. Again one gets the feeling that they are not naming favorite composers, but popular ones or those they know.

It’s upsetting that classics are on a par with pop music.

Composers such as D. Verdi, F. Chopin (see the selection of graduates of the 20th century) are not mentioned by modern schoolchildren at all. And you can hardly call them minor composers.

7. Favorite hero of Russian literature.

9th grade

1. Timur
2. Davydov
3. Onegin
4. Box
5. Dasha Chernykh
6. Chichikov

Graduates of the 20th century

1) Pavel Korchagin

2) Kutuzov

3) Danko

5) Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

6) grandfather Shchukar

7) Elena Stakhova

8) Tatyana Larina

9) Natasha Rostova

10) Anna Karenina

Conclusion: 90 of our graduates answered the question. But it is unknown by what qualities they chose their favorite hero. If it is because they want to take an example from them, then it is not clear why among the named heroes there are also negative ones. For example, Korobochka, Chichikov. But there are also heroes from whom one can and even should take an example. For example, Timur (from Gaidar’s book “Timur and His Team”). Most of the works whose characters are named here have been made into films. And perhaps graduates’ choice of literary hero is influenced by his stage image.

The choice of Graduates of the 20th century is more independent: respondents choose thinking heroes, extraordinary personalities and, probably, identify themselves with them.

8. Favorite hero of foreign literature.

9th grade

1. Juliet
2. Thumbelina
3. Tom Sawyer
4. Romeo

Graduates of the 20th century

1) Robin Hood

2) Gadfly

3) Scarlett. Oh Hara

4) Maggie

5) Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson

6) D'Artagnan

7)Baby

8) Carlson

9) Thumbelina

10) Faust

Conclusion: Only half of the ninth graders responded. And again, the main characters of Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" are named here. More likely, main reason the fact that they cannot name the heroes is their lack of reading. But compared to graduates of the 20th century, our graduates know foreign works and their heroes less well. But the choice of graduates of the 20th century also makes you think: fairy tale heroes, Dumas.

Modern graduates do not name Faust and Hamlet. Why? Are these heroes not popular now? Or the time for reflective heroes has passed.

9.Favorite historical hero.

9th grade

1. Peter 1
2. Ekaterina 2
3. Stalin
4. Ivan 4 (Grozny)
5. Pugachev
6. Lenin

Graduates of the 20th century

1) Yuri Gagarin

2) Pavel Korchagin

3) Ivan the Terrible

4) Nicholas II

5) Pugachev

6) Pavel Morozov

7) Taras Bulba

8) wives of the Decembrists

9) Peter I

10) Joan of Arc

11) Susanin

12) Catherine II

16) Mary Stuart

Conclusion: 90 9th graders responded. Everyone's favorite people are either rulers (kings) or generals. But it should be noted that among graduates of the 20th century, their favorites were precisely folk heroes who fought for the freedom of the Motherland. Probably, the pre-revolutionary atmosphere shaped such ideals.

10. Favorite contemporary hero.

9th grade

1. Putin
2. S. Bezrukov (Sasha Bely)
3. V. Galkin
4. G. Kachaev

Graduates of the 20th century

1) Putin

2) A. Lebed

3) Andreev

4) Gorky

5) Verbitskaya

6) Princess Diana

7) Thatcher

8)Mother Teresa

9) Kirkorov

10) Swordsmen

Conclusion: Our ninth graders answered this question with 70٪. Alumni consider the president or actors their heroes. Television probably influences the choice. 20% consider the head of the Sharypovsky district G.V. Kachaev as their hero.

Among graduates of the 20th century, their favorite heroes are writers, people of science, and actors.

11.Your slogan.

9th grade

1. “You need to live life in such a way that you don’t experience excruciating pain from years spent aimlessly”
2. “Only time will let us understand who is a friend, who is an enemy, who is just for fun.”
3. “If not me, then who?”
4. “Love and be loved, live and enjoy life”
5. “And why are you worrying, live as you please.”
6. “Love yourself, don’t sneeze at everyone, and success awaits you in life”
7. "Man is a wolf to man"
8. “To live without doing anything, but everything I want to get for nothing”

Graduates of the early twentieth century

1) “Don’t be discouraged, everything will work out”

2) “Always move forward towards your goal”

3) “Be kind, please and help people”

4) “Live according to your conscience”

5) “Never be discouraged, if you fall, get up”

6) “Movement is life”

7) “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today”

Conclusion: 80٪ ninth graders responded, 40٪ of them take a moral position, and 40٪ support an immoral position.

Graduates of the 20th century show 100% altruism

General conclusion: Analyzing the questionnaires, I came to the conclusion that graduates of the twentieth century were more well-read, educated, their horizons were broader, and life position more moral. I believe that the leading role in their education belonged to the book. The culture of reading and reverent attitude towards the classics played a huge role in the education of the last century.

Famous people about classical literature

We turned to periodicals and television news sources to explore whether famous modern people have favorite classic writers and what books played a role in their lives big role.

Galina Volchek (director):

“Chekhov is perhaps the only Russian writer who has been appropriated by the whole world. He became “one of our own” for the whole world from Japan to Brazil, because like no one else he was able to love and accept a person with all the joys and troubles, virtues and vices.” March 27, 2011

Vladimir Pozner (political commentator)

“It is known that it is easy to explain why you don’t love someone or something, but it is extremely difficult to explain why you do.

So it is with regard to the “Master...” There is only one explanation, although a rather weak one: everything is here, from the first to last word, warms my soul, evokes a feeling of joy and delight. Simply put, it's mine. This book even replaced The Little Prince from first place in my heart."

Vladimir Solovyov (TV presenter)about the book by M.A. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita":

“This book is my favorite, and here’s why: in the distant 70s, Bulgakov’s novel was published in a magazine, and my mother read it aloud to me. I cried and laughed, sad and happy. These were moments of happiness. Mom, the book and me"

Yuri Grymov (director):

“The prose of A. Platonov is one of the most powerful reading impressions of my life. This prose cannot be called “easy reading”; on the contrary, it must be overcome like a thorny thorn, walking through mud, through blood, so that in the end, wiping away your tears, you can feel the real tragic happiness that you are a HUMAN. This is very Russian!” March 27, 2011

Chulpan Khamatova (actress):

“In your hands... is a treasure!!! This is the book "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.

If you are still little, then you have an exciting journey imbued with pleasure ahead of you... and if you are no longer little, then you have the joy of looking back when it - this journey - was still ahead. This is neither a children's nor an adult book. There are no boundaries in it; it is unclear at what point adult humor and irony give way to childish naivety and spontaneity! REJOICE!”

Tatyana Ustinova (writer):

“My favorite classic Russian novel! I. Goncharov “Cliff”

Re-read, don’t be lazy!

“The Precipice” is a novel about love, family and the fact that Eternal values enduring.

“The Precipice” is a novel about passion, perhaps the only one in Russian literature.

“The Precipice” is a novel about the fact that nothing is scary if you have close people, and that no sin is fatal!” March 28, 2011

Efim Shifrin (actor):

“In general, the right to sign books is always reserved to the author. But when it comes to classics, dedicatory inscriptions are more like a hint or advice! Read Gogol! His works contain the promise of the entire vastness of Russian literature, all its genres, all its power. And what is very important: priceless and brilliant humor."

Vladimir Voinovich (writer):

“I love many classics and their books, but I’ve read The Captain’s Daughter maybe fifty times. People often ask me what I’m reading now, and of course, I always read something, but I can always say that I’m reading “The Captain’s Daughter,” because it’s from it that I get true anticipated pleasure.”

Eldar Ryazanov (director):

“Romain Gary’s book “Promise at Dawn”, from my point of view, is the best book about a mother - smart, subtle, gentle, ironic, it is imbued with such tenderness, such love that is difficult to find. At the same time, you, dear reader, will always laugh at the author’s mother, even make fun of him, but the writer’s love envelops the entire book, forcing the reader’s soul to rise very high. Be sure to read this book, you will receive untold pleasure.”

Name a book (classical, fiction) that played a big role in your life and why?

We asked people who were authoritative for us to answer this question: our relatives, teachers, respected village residents.

Nina Petrovna Yakovleva, head of the library in the village of Glyaden

One of the works is the novel “Song of Solomon” by Toni Morrison. The main character of the novel, Milkman Pomer, studies the life story of his great-grandfather Solomon; his goal is not only to learn about the life of a distant relative, but also to find his place in life.

Valentina Pavlovna Koval, rural paramedic

I was influenced by the book by V.M. Shukshina “Red viburnum. Tales and Stories". Shukshin knows how to do in literature what he cannot do before. literary language usually passes. He knows how to turn one interjection into a novel. Knows how to give words some real non-dictionary meaning.

Tamara Nikolaevna Smirnova, mathematics teacher

Since childhood, I have been very fond of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov - my favorite Russian writer and poet, who, although he lived a very short life, lived it quite brightly. In my opinion, his poetry may not be as diverse as the poetry of A.S. Pushkin, but deeper, although partially sad and even tragic.

Tatyana Vladimirovna Savelyeva, organizer

Galina Yuryevna Kvashneva, cook

Favorite writer - Maxim Gorky, his story “Mother”, which reveals his care for his children. The heroine sacrificed herself for the sake of her business and the future of her children.

Tatyana Gennadievna Rassokhina, Head Teacher

I really love the book “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren. The author reveals 5 main goals that should be in the life of every person. The book helps you find your purpose.

Bychkova Marina Ivanovna, literature teacher

I love many classics and their books, but I have read The Captain's Daughter maybe fifty times. People often ask me what I’m reading now, and of course, I always read something, but I can always say that I’m reading “The Captain’s Daughter,” because it’s from it that I get real, anticipated pleasure.

Alexey Dmitrievich Pomazkin, director of SPI

Why do I love Pushkin? For the fact that he is with me through life both in joy and in sorrow, he taught me a lot and will never betray me! He's a Genius, damn it, it's nice to be on friendly terms with Pushkin.

Zatsepina Valentina Anatolyevna, primary school teacher

The most important book of my youth, which played a huge role in my formation, is A. Fadeev’s novel “The Young Guard”. The feat of the Young Guard heroes was a moral height to which they looked up.

Conclusion: Classic literature has been shown to have a positive effect on people. She discovers something new and unusual for them. Having read the works of famous writers, they scoop out clever thoughts from there and life experience.

Famous and authoritative people, as we see, were brought up on classical Russian and foreign literature, on the masterpieces of children's classics. Many of them still read the classics. It seems that the book plays a huge role in their lives, the role of a friend, adviser and source of knowledge about life.

Works of fiction about the role of books

IN different works In fiction, we find examples of how reading books influenced the development of a person.

A. Green “Green Lamp”

Poor John Eve, who devoted his time to reading books, became an educated man and a doctor.

A. Green “Scarlet Sails”

As a teenager, the future Captain Gray will read books about sailors and dream about the sea and travel.

V. Kaverin “Two Captains”

The hero of the novel, Sanya Grigoriev, is going to become a captain (becomes a polar pilot), so he reads a lot of books about travelers.

I. Turgenev “Asya”

The character of the heroine of the story Asya was largely formed under the influence of Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”. Asina's favorite heroine is Tatyana Larina. She is even the first to confess her love, just like Pushkin’s heroine.

M. Gorky “Childhood”, “In People”

The autobiographical hero learned to read from the Bible. But the real discovery for him was Pushkin’s poems and fairy tales: “Pushkin surprised me so much with the simplicity and music of the verse that for a long time the prose seemed unnatural to me and it was awkward to read..."

M. Tsvetaeva “My Pushkin”

- “But one more thing, not one, but many, was predetermined in me by “Eugene Onegin.” If then, all my life until this last day, I was always the first to write, the first to extend my hand - and my hands, without fear of judgment - it was only because... Tatyana in the book did this before my eyes. And if later, when they left, I not only didn’t stretch out my hands and didn’t turn my head, it was only because then in the garden, Tatyana froze like a statue. A lesson in courage. A lesson in pride. A lesson in fidelity. A lesson from fate. A lesson in loneliness."

Yu. Bondarev about the books of K. Paustovsky

- “More than one generation was brought up on Paustovsky’s books. I know young people who wanted to become sailors and became after they fell in love with Paustovsky’s “Black Sea.”

K. Paustovsky about A. Green’s books

- “Green’s stories make people want varied life, full of risk, courage and a sense of the high, characteristic of explorers, sailors, and travelers. After Green’s stories, I want to see the whole world..."

K. Paustovsky about Andersen's fairy tales

- “The dear eccentric and poet taught me faith in the victory of the sun over darkness and the kindness of the human heart over evil...”

I still have little reading experience, but now, getting acquainted with works of fiction, reading interviews and memoirs of famous people, I will be interested in: what role did the book play in their lives, what was their reading range.

I would like to end this section with the thoughts of the writer and bibliophile Andre Maurois on reading:

- “There is only one means to become cultured person- reading."

- “Good books never leave a person the same as he was before he met them. Reading them makes him a better person.”

- “Books are doors that open into other people’s souls.”

CONCLUSION

Nowadays, young people read the classics less and less and do not try in any way to be like the heroes of classical literature. And they have many good qualities, for example, kindness, honesty, decency, love for the Motherland, for people, respect, patience, diligence and much more.

Schoolchildren mostly read classics only school curriculum or extracurricular reading and in the summer according to the list of literature. Young people do not want to read books, not only classic ones, but also modern ones. Since they read little classical literature, they therefore do not want to be like the wonderful heroes of its works. And more and more often, modern youth strives to do everything for themselves, and not for the people around them. The classics, on the contrary, strove to make people's lives better, called forward, strove to know as much as possible.

The "inspirational" essay experience

Secondly, you can read classical literature simply for yourself, for the soul.

Thirdly, when reading the classics, you can analyze the characters and actions of the heroes and take an example from them.

Fourthly, in works of classical literature there are situations that often happen to us. Therefore, to find a way out of such situations, read the classics!

This means that classics are simply necessary. Read it!

Read!

A book is an inexhaustible source of intellectual pleasure and an invaluable repository of information.

Let him who searches on the road and is bored alone take a book as a companion - there is no better companion than it; let him who is sick and suffering take a book to help him - there is no stronger medicine in the world.

Read as much as possible, gain knowledge and life experience from books

Read! Find works from heroes good qualities, and there are a lot of such heroes...

LITERATURE

1. Introduction to literary criticism. Literary work: study. manual / ed. L.V. Chernets, M. Publishing center "Academy", 1999 Research topic: Youth and Classics The work was completed by: 7th grade student Bychkova Ekaterina Supervisor: Bychkova M.I.

   Hypothesis If a student reads more classical fiction, reflects on the actions of heroes, gets acquainted with masterpieces of music and painting, then he will become an intelligent, developed, educated and moral person, capable of self-improvement. 02/17/2012 2 “Books are doors that open into other people’s souls” (A. Maurois)

   Goal: To explore how classical literature influences a person’s outlook and morality, why young people nowadays hardly read the classics, why they don’t want to be like the wonderful heroes of classical books. 02/17/2012 3

   Objectives: To study the reading range and outlook of graduates of our school. Compare the results of a survey of current graduates and graduates of the 20th century. Explore how literature influenced the formation of the personality of famous and authoritative people. Find thoughts in works of fiction about the role of books in human life. Convincingly present to modern schoolchildren the need for reading. 02/17/2012 4

   Subject of the study: breadth of outlook and level of morality of school graduates. 02/17/2012 5 Object of study Graduates of the 20th century, graduates of 2012 of the Glyadensky secondary school No. 11.

   Research methods: Questionnaire Comparison and analysis of questionnaire results. Survey of authoritative people. Work with fiction and journalistic literature, information sources. Writing an inviting essay “Read!” 02/17/2012 6

   Analysis of questionnaires of 9th grade students of the Glyadensky school and responses of graduates of the 20th century. 02/17/2012 7

   1. Which person have you seen, heard about, or read about that you would like to be like? Gogol (9th grade) On his own (9th grade) Peter the Great (20th century class) Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova, mother of V.I. Lenin (20th century class) Tatyana Larina (20th century class) Parents (9th grade) 17.02 .2012

   2.Your favorite book. “The Master and Margarita”, Horror and fantasy Reference books on motorcycles (9th grade) Poems by Yesenin, Stories by Kuprin, Astakhov “Zatesi”, “Dead Souls”, “Red Horse” (20th century edition) 02/17/2012 9

   4.Your favorite poet. Yesenin, Pushkin, Bunin, Lermontov (9th grade) Graduates of the 20th century Pushkin, Yesenin, Lermontov, Blok, Mayakovsky, Gumilyov, Tsvetaeva, Akhmatova, Nikitin, Shevchenko, Balmont, Solovyov 02/17/2012 11

   5. Favorite artist and painting “Three Heroes”, “Three Bears”, Savrasov “The Rooks Have Arrived” (9th grade) Graduates of the 20th century Z. Serebryakova “At Lunch”, Shishkin “Three Bears”, Vasnetsov “Three Heroes”, “ Alyonushka", Surikov, A. Deineka "Mother", Leonardo Da Vinci "Madonna Litta" 02/17/2012 12

   6.Favorite composer and favorite piece of music. 9th grade Shainsky “They teach at school”, Western “hits”, D. Malikov, Beethoven, “Sonata No. 20”, Mozart Graduates of the 20th century Dogu “My affectionate and gentle beast”, Shostakovich, Igor Krutoy “Falling Leaves”, Tchaikovsky “Waltz of the Flowers” , “Swan Lake”, Beethoven “Moonlight Sonata”, Tukhmanov “Moonlight Serenade”, Glinka, D. Verdi, F. Chopin 02/17/2012 13

   7. Favorite hero of Russian literature. 9th grade Timur, Davydov, Onegin, Korobochka, Dasha Chernykh, Chichikov Graduates of the 20th century Pavel Korchagin, Kutuzov, Danko, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, grandfather Shchukar, Elena Stakhova, Tatyana Larina, Natasha Rostova, Anna Karenina 02/17/2012 14

   8. Favorite hero of foreign literature. 9th grade Juliet, Thumbelina, Tom Sawyer, Romeo Graduates of the 20th century Robin Hood, Gadfly, Scarlett. O Hara, Maggie, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, D'Artagnan, Baby, Carlson, Thumbelina, Faust 02/17/2012 15

   9. Favorite historical hero. 9th grade Peter 1, Catherine 2, Stalin, Ivan the Terrible, Pugachev, Lenin Graduates of the 20th century Yuri Gagarin, Pavel Korchagin, Ivan the Terrible, Nikolai I, Pugachev, Pavel Morozov, Taras Bulba, wives of the Decembrists, Peter I, Joan of Arc, Susanin , Catherine II, Mary Stuart 02/17/2012 16

   10. Favorite contemporary hero 9th grade Putin, S. Bezrukov (Sasha Bely), V. Galkin, G. Kachaev Graduates of the 20th century Putin, A. Lebed, Andreev, Gorky, Verbitskaya, Princess Diana, Thatcher, Mother Teresa, Kirkorov, Mechnikov 02/17/2012 17

   11.Your slogan. 9th grade “If not me, then who?” “Love and be loved, live and enjoy life” “And why do you worry, live as you like.” “Love yourself, don’t sneeze at everyone, and success awaits you in life” “Man is a wolf to man” 02/17/2012 18

   11.Your slogan. Graduates of the 20th century “Don’t be discouraged, everything will work out” “Always move forward towards your goal” “Be kind, please and help people” “Live according to your conscience” “Never be discouraged, if you fall, get up” “Movement is life” “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today” 02/17/2012 19

   General conclusion Graduates of the twentieth century were more well-read, educated, their horizons were broader, and their life position was more moral. The leading role in their education belonged to the book. The culture of reading and reverent attitude towards the classics played a huge role in the education of the last century. 02/17/2012 20

   Galina Volchek (director) - A.P. Chekhov Vladimir Pozner (political commentator), Vladimir Solovyov (TV presenter - M.A. Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita” Yuri Grymov (director) - Prose by A. Platonov Chulpan Khamatova (actress) - Lewis Carroll "Alice in Wonderland" Tatyana Ustinova (writer) - I. Goncharov "Cliff" Efim Shifrin (actor) - Gogol Vladimir Voinovich (writer) - A.S. Pushkin " Captain's daughter» Eldar Ryazanov (director): - Romain Gary “Promise at Dawn” 02/17/2012 21 Favorite books and writers of famous and authoritative people

   Name a book (classical, fiction) that played a big role in your life and why? Nina Petrovna Yakovleva, head of the library in the village of Glyaden: - One of the works is the novel “Song of Solomon” by Toni Morrison. The main character of the novel, Milkman Pomer, studies the life story of his great-grandfather Solomon; his goal is not only to learn about the life of a distant relative, but also to find his place in life. 02/17/2012 22

   Valentina Pavlovna Koval, rural paramedic: - I was influenced by V.M.’s book. Shukshina “Red viburnum. Tales and Stories". Shukshin knows how to do in literature what literary language usually gives in to. He knows how to turn one interjection into a novel. Able to give words some real non-dictionary meaning 02/17/2012 23

   Tatyana Gennadievna Rassokhina, Head Teacher: - I really love Rick Warren’s book “The Purposeful Life.” The author reveals 5 main goals that should be in the life of every person. The book helps you find your purpose. 02/17/2012 24

   Alexey Dmitrievich Pomazkin, director of SPI: - A.S. Pushkin is my favorite author. "Boris Godunov" is my favorite book. Why do I love Pushkin? For the fact that he is with me through life both in joy and in sorrow, he taught me a lot and will never betray me! He's a Genius, damn it, it's nice to be on friendly terms with Pushkin. 02/17/2012 25

   Conclusion Classic Literature: positive influence on people; discovery of something new and unusual; smart thoughts and life experience; The book plays a huge role in a person’s life, serving as a friend, advisor and source of knowledge about life. 02/17/2012 26

   Works of fiction about the role of the book by A. Green " Green lamp» A. Green “Scarlet Sails” V. Kaverin “Two Captains” I. Turgenev “Asya” M. Gorky “Childhood”, “In People” 02/17/2012 27

   General conclusion: Young people are reading the classics less and less and are not trying in any way to be like the heroes of classical literature. Young people try to imitate pop singers and actors. Modern youth strives to do everything for themselves, and not for the people around them. 02/17/2012 28

   LITERATURE Introduction to literary criticism. Literary work: study. manual / ed. L.V. Chernets, M. Publishing center "Academy", 1999 Levidov, A.M. Literature and reality / Publishing house Soviet writer, 1987 “My favorite book” http://www.moscowbooks.ru/projects/my_favorite_book.asp Famous people about books and reading http://bibnout.ru/?page_id=797 17.02 .2012 29

The problem of youth in modern literature

The poison of the criminal world is incredibly terrible. Poisoning with this poison is the corruption of everything human in a person. Everyone who comes into contact with this world breathes this foul breath.

Varlam Shalamov.

We know what it means to be decent in the army. Many guys broke down morally after service, especially the intelligent ones.

From a letter to a newspaper.

“I’m sixteen, I embrace the world lovingly...” wrote the young Volgograd poet, who tragically died at the age of 18. I, too, will soon be 18. Sometimes I feel the immensity of vitality, causeless cheerfulness and love for the whole world. Why worry when everything is going well in life? Why is it that sometimes a cruel melancholy overwhelms me, nothing makes me happy, life seems meaningless? I noticed that most often this happens when, in reality or in art, I encounter phenomena of injustice, cruelty, and inhumanity that are new to me.

How do most of my peers spend their time? They drive motorcycles until they are stupefied, preventing residents from resting, wandering around the streets, looking for a place to drink, or having fun with fights and outrages at discos. It’s interesting that many of my comrades don’t even think about helping their parents. Sometimes I don’t even have anything to talk about with those with whom I belong to the same generation. But what amazes me most is the cruelty of boys and girls. To everyone: To parents who are not pitied at all; to teachers who are driven to illness; to the weak, who can be bullied endlessly; to animals.

I have thought a lot about where cruelty comes from and why it so often triumphs. Of course, there are many reasons: the wars and revolution of this century, Stalin’s camps, through which almost half the country passed through, widespread drunkenness and fatherlessness, even the fact that the school gives C grades for nothing, allowing you to do nothing. And in recent years, when facts of abuse by the authorities became clear, many of us completely lost faith.

But in this essay I would like to talk about two phenomena and times in our society that give rise to cruelty. A lot of people go through the colony, and almost all through the army. There are two works of modern literature about the zone and the army.

Leonid Gabyshev's novel "Odlyan, or the Air of Freedom" is a story about a teenager, later a young man, Kolya, nicknamed first Flounder, then Eye, later Cunning Eye. In short, this is a story about a world dominated by complete humiliation and violence. “It became unbearable for the eye. The vice squeezed the hand so much that it bent in half: the little finger touched the index finger. It seemed that the hand would break, but the flexible bones held out.

Eye, come on, smile. And know: I will slowly squeeze until the bones crack or until you confess.

Okay, Eye, that's enough for now. In the evening we will go with you to the firehouse. I’ll put your hand, your right hand, into the firebox and we’ll wait until you confess.”

The worst thing is that, at the request of the zone manager (in this case Kamani), Kolya himself puts his hand in a vice or exposes his head to a blow. Otherwise it will be even worse. You read the novel and understand: a person ends up in a colony, and society stops protecting him. The camp authorities pretend not to notice anything. No, worse, he deliberately uses some of the prisoners (the so-called horns and thieves), who are given benefits and concessions, so that they keep everyone else in order." And the convicts in charge know how to restore order... There are many scenes confirming what has been said in the novel ". Here is one. Kolya's first days in the zone. The major, nicknamed Ryabchik, checks his duty. He asks the guy:

Have you registered?

Kolya was silent. The guys smiled.

“We did it, Comrade Major,” answered the gypsy.

Did you get the pins?

“I got it,” Kolya answered now.

What nickname did you give?

“Flounder,” answered Misha.

What the major and the prisoners smiled at, registration and cards, were brutal beating and humiliation, but the people assigned to oversee the correction of prisoners treat this as a matter of course.

A significant part of the novel consists of similar episodes. Well, perhaps, thanks to the writer, not only the Cunning Eye, but also the reader understands what freedom is.

Sergei Kaledin's story "Stroibat" shows several days in the life of military builders who perform the "honorable duty of Soviet citizens." This is a prefabricated part, a kind of dump, where the “filth” from many construction battalions was collected. Therefore, the morals here are not so different from the zone, and the interests are the same. “In short, we were going to hell, but ended up in heaven. Here is the gate, and on the right, two hundred meters away, is a store. And in the store there is Moldovan powder, seventeen degrees, two twenty liters. Since ten in the morning. Raspberry!”

The law is here: the powerful are always to blame for the powerless! The strong are grandfathers, the weak are salabons. It would seem that the difference is small: he came to the service a year earlier. But it's like skin color or tongue. Grandfathers may not work, get drunk, or bully first-year children. They must endure everything. Moreover, being separate bosses, the grandfathers give orders like slave owners. “At first, Zhenka decided to give Egorka and Maksimka to Kostya, but then he changed his mind - these two are just plowmen for him. Egorka, in addition to his main work, takes care of Zhenka and Misha Popov: make the bed, bring rations from the dining room, do small laundry, and Maksimka - Kolya, Edik and Stary." The elders also quickly put things in order here: “Zhenka treated Yegorka right away, he barely struggled. A couple of times he bled him lightly, and for some reason the Chuchmeks are afraid of their own blood. And... I tinkered with Maksimka a little longer...”

The story more than once describes how soldiers drink or inject drugs. The central scene is a grandiose fight between companies. After all the terrible bullying, the characterization of Kostya Karamychev is perceived. For the last eight months he had worked as a loader at a bakery and stole what he could. He “didn’t dry out” from drunkenness. When, “completely out of luck,” he was caught, company commander Doschinin “offered Kostya a choice: either he starts a case, or Kostya urgently cleans... all four detachment toilets.” He chose the latter, taking, of course, young assistants. During demobilization, this commander gave Kostya the following characterization: “During his service... private Karamychev K.M. proved himself to be an proactive warrior who fulfilled all statutory requirements... morally stable... The characterization was given for presentation to Moscow University ". Well, the intellectual is ready. Lawlessness, as the prisoners say. Now they are preparing military reform. I'm afraid, however, that my peers will not have time to use it. Perhaps soon I too will have to go to serve. Do you really have to live with guys who have no human feelings for two years? No, I'm not afraid of physical deprivation. As the saying goes: “I would be glad to serve, but being served is sickening.”

Both works have been read. They are not very artistic, there are errors against the style and laws of literature. But there are no errors in them against the truth. You trust the writers. And you also believe that if we really want to, there will be less cruelty.