It so happened that in the last war year, a local resident Andrei Guskov secretly returned from the war to a distant village on the Angara. The deserter does not think that he will be welcomed with open arms in his father's house, but he believes in the understanding of his wife and is not deceived. Although his wife Nastena is afraid to admit it to herself, she instinctively understands that her husband has returned, there are several signs of this. Does she love him? Nastya did not marry for love, four years of her marriage were not so happy, but she is very devoted to her man, because, having left her parents early, for the first time in her life she found protection and reliability in his house. “They agreed quickly: Nastya was also spurred on by the fact that she was tired of living with her aunt as workers, bending her back on someone else’s family ...”
Nastena rushed into marriage like water - without much thought: you still have to go out, few people do without it - why pull? And what awaits her new family and a strange village, represented poorly. But it turned out that from the workers she got into the workers, only the yard is different, the economy is larger and the demand is stricter. “Maybe the attitude towards her in the new family would be better if she gave birth to a child, but there are no children.”
Childlessness forced Nastena to endure everything. Since childhood, she heard that a hollow woman without children is no longer a woman, but only half a woman. So by the beginning of the war, nothing came of the efforts of Nastena and Andrey. Guilty Nastena considers herself. “Only once, when Andrei, reproaching her, said something completely unbearable, she replied with resentment that it was not known yet which of them was the reason - she or he, she had not tried other men. He beat her half to death." And when Andrei is taken to the war, Nastena is even a little glad that she is left alone without children, not like in other families. Letters from the front from Andrey come regularly, then from the hospital, where he also ends up wounded, maybe he will soon arrive on vacation; and suddenly there is no news for a long time, only once the chairman of the village council and a policeman enter the hut and ask to see the correspondence. "Did he say anything else about himself?" - “No... What's the matter with him? Where is he?" “So we want to find out where he is.”
When an ax disappears in the Guskovs' family bath, only Nastya thinks if her husband has returned: “Who would think of looking under the floorboard?” And just in case, she leaves bread in the bath, and once even heats the bath and meets in it the one she expects to see. The return of her husband becomes her secret and is perceived by her as a cross. “Nastena believed that in the fate of Andrei since he left home, in some way there is her participation, she believed and was afraid that she probably lived for herself alone, so she waited: on, Nastena, take don't show it to anyone."
She readily comes to her husband's aid, is ready to lie and steal for him, is ready to take the blame for a crime in which she is not guilty. In marriage, you have to accept both bad and good: “You and I agreed to live together. When everything is good, it's easy to be together, when it's bad - that's what people come together for.
Enthusiasm and courage settle in Nastena's soul - to fulfill her feminine duty to the end, she selflessly helps her husband, especially when she realizes that she is carrying his child under her heart. Meeting with her husband in a winter hut across the river, long mournful conversations about the hopelessness of their situation, hard work at home, settled insincerity in relations with the villagers - Nastena is ready for anything, realizing the inevitability of her fate. And although love for her husband is more of a duty for her, she pulls her life strap with remarkable masculine strength.
Andrei is not a murderer, not a traitor, but just a deserter who escaped from the hospital, from where they were going to send him to the front, without really treating him. Having tuned in to a vacation after a four-year absence from home, he cannot give up the thought of returning. As a country man, not a city man and not a military man, he is already in the hospital in a situation from which the only salvation is escape. So everything turned out for him, it could have turned out differently if he had been firmer on his feet, but the reality is that in the world, in his village, in his country, there will be no forgiveness for him. Realizing this, he wants to pull to the last, not thinking about his parents, his wife, and even more so about the unborn child. The deeply personal thing that connects Nastena with Andrey conflicts with their way of life. Nastena cannot raise her eyes to those women who receive funerals, cannot rejoice, as she would have rejoiced before when the neighboring peasants returned from the war. At a village celebration on the occasion of the victory, she recalls Andrei with unexpected anger: “Because of him, because of him, she has no right, like everyone else, to rejoice in victory.” The fugitive husband posed a difficult and insoluble question to Nastya: with whom should she be? She condemns Andrei, especially now, when the war is ending and when it seems that he would have remained alive and unharmed, like everyone who survived, but, condemning him at times to anger, to hatred and despair, she retreats in despair: yes because she is his wife. And if so, it is necessary either to completely abandon it, jumping on the fence like a rooster: I am not me and it is not my fault, or go along with it to the end. At least to hell. No wonder it is said: whoever marries whom, he will be born into that.
Noticing Nastena's pregnancy, her former friends begin to laugh at her, and her mother-in-law completely kicks her out of the house. “It was not easy to endlessly withstand the grasping and judgmental looks of people - curious, suspicious, angry.” Forced to hide her feelings, to restrain them, Nastena is more and more exhausted, her fearlessness turns into a risk, into feelings wasted in vain. It is they who are pushing her to suicide, dragging her into the waters of the Angara, flickering, as if from a terrible and beautiful fairy tale rivers: “She is tired. Who would know how tired she is and how much she wants to rest.
The writing
The works of modern writers sharply describe our everyday, everyday life, showing its shortcomings and omissions. Writers on real episodes of modern reality are trying to identify, designate and show the negative aspects of public and individual life of people.
I have been given the opportunity to reflect on one of the works of the contemporary Russian writer V. Rasputin - "Live and Remember".
I, as a reader, am glad that I had a chance to read the works of the wonderful and talented Russian prose writer V. G. Rasputin, who created wonderful works about Russian people, about Russian nature, about the Russian soul. His novels and short stories are included in the golden fund of modern Russian literature.
The events described in the story take place in the winter of forty-five, in the last war year, on the banks of the Angara in the village of Atamanovka. The name, it would seem, is loud, and in the recent past even more frightening - Razboinikovo. “... Once upon a time, in the old days, the local peasants did not disdain one quiet and profitable trade: they checked the goldsmiths coming from Lena.” But the inhabitants of the village had long been quiet and harmless and did not hunt for robbery. Against the backdrop of this virgin and wildlife the main event of the story takes place - the betrayal of Andrei Guskov.
In any work of art The title plays a very important role for the reader. The title of the book “Live and Remember” prompts us, readers, to a deeper concept and understanding of the work. These words - "Live and remember" - tell us that everything that is written on the pages of the book should become an unshakable eternal lesson in the life of every person. “Live and remember” is treason, baseness, human fall, the test of love with this blow.
Before us main character of this book is Andrey Guskov, “an efficient and brave guy who married Nastya early and lived with her not well, not badly for four years before the war.” But in the peaceful life of the Russian people the Great Patriotic War. Together with the entire male part of the population, Andrei also went to war. Nothing foreshadowed such a strange and incomprehensible alignment, and now, like an unexpected blow for Nastena, the news that her husband Andrei Guskov is a traitor. Not every person is given to experience such grief and shame. This incident abruptly turns and changes the life of Nastya Guskova. “...Where were you, man, what toys did you play with when you were assigned a fate. Why did you agree with her? Why, without thinking, cut off your wings, just when they are most needed, when you need not to crawl, but to run away from trouble in the summer. ”Now she is under the power of her feelings and love. Lost in the depths of village life, the female drama is extracted and shown by Rasputin. A living picture, which is increasingly seen against the backdrop of the war. The author brings to the readers that Nastena is a victim of the war and its laws.
She could not act differently, along the universal chosen path, not obeying her feelings and the will of fate. Nastya loves and pities Andrei, but when shame for the human judgment of herself and her unborn child defeats the power of love for her husband and life, she stepped overboard in the middle of the Angara, dying between two shores - the shore of her husband and the shore of all Russian people. Rasputin gives readers the right to judge the actions of Andrei and Nastena, emphasize for themselves all the good and realize all the bad. The author himself is a kind writer, inclined to forgive a person rather than condemn, all the more to condemn mercilessly. He tries to leave room for his heroes to correct. But there are such phenomena and events that are unbearable not only for the people around the heroes, but also for the author himself, for the comprehension of which the author does not have the mental strength, but there is only one rejection.
Valentin Rasputin, with inexhaustible purity of heart for a Russian writer, shows a resident of our village in the most unexpected situations.
The nobility of Nastya is compared by the author with the wild mind of Guskov. On the example of how Andrei pounces on the calf and bullies him, it is clear that he has lost his human image, completely moved away from people. Nastya is trying to reason and show her husband's mistake, but she does it lovingly, does not insist.
The author introduces many thoughts about life into the story “Live and Remember”. We see this especially well when Andrei and Nastya meet. Heroes languish in their reflections not from melancholy or idleness, but wanting to understand the purpose of human life.
Great and multifaceted images described by Rasputin. Here we see the collective image of grandfather Mikheich and his wife, the conservatively strict Semyonovna, typical of village life. Soldier Maxim Volozhin, courageous and heroic, who spared no effort, fought for the Fatherland. The many-sided and contradictory image of a truly Russian woman - Nadya, left alone with three children. It is she who confirms the words of N. A. Nekrasov: "... a Russian share, a female share."
Everything was reflected and it seemed - life during the war and its happy ending - on the life of the village of Atamanovka. Valentin Rasputin convinces us with everything that he wrote that there is light in a person, and it is difficult to extinguish it, no matter what the circumstances! In the heroes of V. G. Rasputin and in himself there is a poetic sense of life, opposed to the established perception of life. Follow the words of Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin - "live a century - love a century."
The concepts of "tradition" and "innovation" are inextricably linked. In art, any innovation is possible only with a deep understanding of what has already been discovered, created by predecessors. So, only strong roots allow the tree to grow and bear fruit. The work of Rasputin, as it were, "grows" out of the work of Dostoevsky and Gorky; our contemporary continues to reflect on the problems that tormented his great teachers. But in his novels, he seeks to understand how these eternal problems sound today. The novel "Live and Remember" is consonant, first of all, with "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky.
Guskov himself would like to shift the blame to "rock", before which the "will" is powerless. It is no coincidence, therefore, that the word “fate” runs like a red thread through the whole story, to which Guskov clings so. The unwillingness to recognize the need for personal responsibility for one's actions is one of those "touches to the portrait" that open a wormhole in Guskov's soul and cause his desertion. The writer revealed to us the cause of Guskov's crime, showing this feature of his character. However, Rasputin elevates a concrete historical fact to the rank of socio-philosophical generalizations, which brings him closer to such predecessors as Dostoevsky and Gorky. Rasputin could rely on artistic experience Dostoevsky. Showing the destruction of the personality of a person who betrayed the interests and ideals of the people, as an irreversible process, without a moral resurrection, R. follows the path laid by Gorky. Here we have come to the most powerful manifestation of the destruction of the personality of the “violator of moral (social) and “natural” laws. to the destruction by him of nature, its main incentive for the continuation of life on earth. First of all, it is the killing of a calf in front of the mother cow.
This is surprising: the cow “screamed” when Guskov raised the ax over her child. The fall of Guskov and the impossibility of a moral resurrection for him become obvious precisely after this highly artistic, amazing plot situation. killing a calf. The idea of the story is impossible to comprehend without the fate of Nastya, who also "transgressed", but in a completely different way. In criticism, the fact of Nastya's suicide has already been interpreted, firstly, as "the highest court over the deserter Andrei Guskov."
And, secondly, as "a judgment on oneself, one's woman's, female, human weakness." Nastya has reason to consider herself guilty: she really opposed herself to people. The story ends with the author’s message that they don’t talk about Guskov, “they don’t remember” for him “the connection of times has broken up”, he has no future. The author speaks of Nastya as if she were alive (nowhere replacing the name with "body" or "dead woman"). “And Nastya was washed ashore on the fourth day ... A laborer Mishka was sent for Nastya. He delivered Nastya back on a boat ... And they betrayed Nastya to the ground among their own ... After the funeral, the women gathered at Nadya for a simple wake and wept: it was a pity for Nastya. With these words, which signify the “connection of times” restored for Nastya (a traditional folklore ending about the memory of a hero through the ages), V. Rasputin’s story ends, which is a synthesis of a socio-philosophical and socio-psychological story, an original story that inherits the best features of Russian literature , traditions of Dostoevsky and Gorky.
"Live and Remember" is one of the most tragic works not only of Valentin Rasputin, but of all Soviet literature. The theme chosen by the author is remarkable, significant and dramatic - the story of a deserter and his wife.
What led Andrei Guskov to the idea of escaping from the front, and Nastya to the fact that she became his accomplice? Why does Guskov gradually turn into a beast, and why does the innocent Nastena die, tormented by guilt? In a word, what are the motives for the moral choice of the husband and wife of the Guskovs?
Let's remember how we first encountered Andrey Guskov. He tumbles into the bath like something terrible, inanimate, frightening Nastena. What are the first words she hears from her husband? "Be quiet!" And he will repeat this word to her repeatedly throughout the story. So, from the very first pages, the author maintains in us an aversion to Guskov. We perceive it as a kind of animal. And the further, the stronger this perception.
At first, Andrei did not even think about desertion. Along with his comrades, he fought for three years. And all these years the thought of his own salvation constantly lived in him, more and more growing into fear for his life. The fact that the hospital where he was lying was near the house, the fact that he was not allowed to go on leave after recovery - all this pushed Andrei to that step, the thought of which haunted him. But this is not at all the objective reason for his desertion. The reason is in himself, in his character. Selfishness, resentment, anger form the basis of Guskov's character. And he strives for a wife only because he sees in her a breadwinner, a person who can provide him with everything necessary, if only for that semi-wild existence that he led in the winter hut. Guskov is initially lonely, so he is not afraid of the need to live, hiding from people. He himself made this choice, deciding to live contrary to the laws of society. Often he looks for excuses for himself, for example, thinking that motherland does not know about his betrayal, remembers and accepts it. He somehow forgets about amazing property character!) that he himself betrayed this land and no longer has the right to consider it his own.
He also applies to Nastya, trying to find in her an excuse for his guilt. He is little concerned about her feelings, worries, problems. So, when he finds out about her pregnancy, he is not even able to realize how much difficulty and suffering she will bring to Nastya. For him, the main thing is that "the blood will continue."
We do not see anything attractive in Andrey Guskov. At first, he resembles a goblin, and then completely becomes like an animal to such an extent that with his howl he drives away the wolf from the dwelling. In the scene of the killing of a calf, which cannot be read without a shudder, it is shown to what degree of bitterness this man has reached. He himself embarked on this wrong, dead-end path, at the end of which - only death. Therefore, all the excuses invented by him seem pathetic. Having escaped from the front, Andrei wanted to save his life, but as a result, he killed both himself and Nastena.
Nastena is a person who is strikingly different from Andrei. She not only has no guilt, she is also a pure, honest, noble person. Why does she need this burden? The burden is almost unbearable, because she feels guilty for both of them. And why did she nevertheless agree to help Andrei, contrary to her conscience?
The most amazing thing is that Nastena's self-sacrifice cannot be explained by reckless love. For it is clear that her attachment to her husband is explained more by habit than by passion. Nevertheless, she is ready to share the whole burden of responsibility with Andrey. To some extent, she considers Andrei and herself guilty of desertion, as she used to blame herself for not having children. It seems to her that, perhaps, she showed selfishness in that she was waiting for Andrei for herself alone. Although it is most difficult to accuse Nastena of selfishness. It's just that many noble people tend to exaggerate their flaws and underestimate their merits.
As Andrei was pushed forward by fear for himself, so Nastya was driven forward by fear for him and for the child. Andrey can’t even half feel the heaviness that befell Nastena. She lives among people. Not accustomed to lying, after the appearance of Andrei, she is forced to dodge in every possible way in front of his parents, in front of her neighbors. Even on Victory Day, she feels like a stranger, lonely, abandoned. All women's husbands have either died or must return. Her husband "disappeared", or rather, cowardly hiding on the other side of the Angara.
The fate of both Andrei and Nastena is only death (Rasputin does not show the death of Guekov, but it is felt that she is not far off). The difference between their fates is that Andrei himself chose a similar path, he himself became like a beast. Maybe that's why he perceives everything so easily and more primitively. No less than in desertion, it must be seen in the broken fate of Nastena. He knew in advance that she, noble, merciful, generous, would help him. He did not even think about how easy it would be to destroy her world, her harmony. She had no other choice but to rush to the Angara. For Andrei, such an outcome is just retribution. His "blood" should not be "continued". Who knows what is best for a child: not to be born or to bear the stigma of "the son of a deserter" all his life?
In Rasputin's story "Live and Remember" the characters become victims of the war, hostages of their actions. There is no condemnation, evaluation of heroes in the work, the author emphasizes that the culprit of human misfortunes is war. Because of his attachment to his family, to the village, Andrei Guskov becomes a deserter - this is worse than death. Nastya turns out to be neither a widow nor a happy wife: she chooses death as the solution to all problems. The main characters of “Live and Remember” are people without a future, doomed; unlike Andrei, Nastya understands this, she is strong in spirit and wise.
Andrey Guskov |
A young guy, Nastya's husband. Before the war, they lived together for 4 years, there were no children. He, like everyone else, fought in the war, was not a traitor. After another serious wound, without having healed, they are not sent on vacation, but back to the unit. Andrei, yearning for home, not being a fighter and insane patriot by nature, deserts. Later, he realizes what he has done, but there is no going back. Secretly meets with his wife, she feeds him, regrets. Together they reminisce about their lives before the war. Nastya realizes that she is pregnant, but Andrei does not think about her or the unborn child. It degrades, runs wild, there is little human left in it. |
Nastya |
She married not for love, but to go to another house, from her aunt. Life with a husband, with a mother-in-law is even harder. Noticing the loss of the ax, Nastya realizes that Andrei is somewhere nearby. She brings him bread, steals, hides, secretly meets with her husband. Neither the father-in-law nor the mother-in-law admits that their son is here, close. She carries her female cross, accepts everything, realizing that there is no future. At times, Nastya hates her husband for his act, he does not allow her to rejoice in victory, live openly and raise children. Conscience does not allow Nastya to live, as Andrei lives, she suffers, suffers. Being pregnant, tired of hopelessness, Nastya decides to drown herself. |
Andrei's father, Mikheich |
Kind, ingenuous person. He, unlike his wife, suspects that his son lives nearby, that he is a deserter. He tries to talk with Nastya about Andrei, feels trouble, worries, but she does not betray Andrei, as she promised him. Mikheich already understands that his son has run away. At the end of the story, when Nastya's body needs to be taken away, Mikheich lies near death. |
Maxim Volozhin |
Neighbor of the Guskovs. He returns from the war alive. He is a real hero. His wife is proud of her husband, she is happy. The neighbors invite the Guskovs to a celebration in honor of Maxim's return, Nastya cannot stand her thoughts, she becomes unbearable, she runs away. |
Semyonovna |
Mother-in-law of Nastya. Strict, adheres to old views. Due to the lack of children, she considers her daughter-in-law inferior. Loads with hard work, controls, scolds. Noticing Nastya's pregnancy, he kicks her out of the house. |
Rasputin's story is a strong, deep work, it teaches that life is complex and multifaceted, the truth is different, and each person has a limit of spiritual strength. In the list of military-themed works, this is the best story by Valentin Rasputin. It is deeply philosophical, original, multifaceted in terms of subject matter. Rasputin's heroes are very humane, "drawn" to the smallest detail, simple and understandable. Nastya, who chose death, turns out to be stronger and more determined than her husband, who crippled her and his own destiny. The tragedy of the finale is inevitable, the fate of two people who could not resist the circumstances turns out to be too difficult. Characteristics of heroes can be useful in the design reader's diary, writing test papers, preparing for a literature lesson.
Artwork test
The richest material for understanding moral questions is provided by modern literature. Today our conversation is about V. G. Rasputin’s story “Live and Remember”. The story "Live and Remember", written in 1974, stands out from a number of other works of the writer. Readers were shocked by the brightness, strength, and sharpness of the experience of her characters. But they explained the meaning of the story in different ways.
With all the drama of the fate of Andrei Guskov, it is not he who occupies the main attention of the author, but Nastya. Her image is larger, it shakes our imagination. If Nastya is emotionally singled out in the story, therefore, it is with this image that the author associates some deep-seated problems.
- The question arises: what is so extremely important that Nastya did that the writer, for the sake of understanding this, puts her in the forefront of the story, relegating to the second person such a terrible fate as Andrei Guskov? Nastya saves her husband, who is in trouble. She stresses him physically and mentally, helps him survive. Don't you think that this answer needs to be clarified? It is very important to expose the depicted situation as much as possible in order to clearly present all its drama. The fact is that Andrei is not just a respectable family man, Nastya's husband, who needs support. He is a man who has committed a crime. And here Rasputin puts Nastya, and after her readers, before the most difficult question: does every person have the right to sympathy? Or, as indicated in the title of the topic of our lesson: is “mercy To the fallen” always justified? Let's first try to reflect on the material of the community, based on our own experience.
At the same time, it must be borne in mind that we have the opportunity to be guided in the assessment of this or that act not only by legal laws (as it should be at a court session). We must also consider moral laws. To do this, it is extremely important to understand the inner motives of Nastya's actions, to realize the logic of her spiritual impulses. What drives the heroine of Rasputin. Could it be that this is concern for one's own well-being, that is, motives of an egoistic nature?
- The thoughts of the main character refute such an assumption: “So how can we refuse it now? It is absolutely necessary not to have a heart, instead of a heart to hold a steelyard, weighing out what is profitable and what is not profitable. Here from someone else. if he is thrice unclean, you just can’t dismiss it, but he is his own, dear. If not God, then life itself connected them in order to keep them together, no matter what happens, no matter what trouble befalls. How to get him out of this trouble. how to live, so as not to make mistakes, not to get confused help? Whatever happens to him now, she is responsible ”; Guilty - who says that he is not guilty! - but where now to get the strength to return him to the place from which he jumped to the wrong place where he was supposed to jump. Nastya's thoughts testify that, saving Andrey. it is not concerned with selfish interests. There is a deep meaning in her actions.
- Imagine: a cruel one is coming, terrible war, as they say, not for life, but for death. The world is shedding blood. Separate human life depreciated. And under these conditions, somewhere in the Russian outback. in a far corner of Siberia. rises weak defenseless woman in order. in order to save from death, not physical, but moral, in spite of universal bitterness, just one person. This is a task of incredible difficulty. And not only personal. This is a public task. Nastya is well aware of her responsibility to people: “Whether it was fate, higher than that, but it seemed to Nastya. that she has been seen. isolated from the people. The story repeatedly emphasizes Nastya's connection with her native, "human" world. What way out of this situation does she see?
- “Nastena was tied to the village for so many years. to home, to work, knew her place, took care of herself, because something was also attached to her. pulled together into one. And suddenly, all at once, the ropes loosened - they didn’t come off completely, but weakened. The most important thing here is the heroine's realization that "... she also fastened something, pulled together into one whole." so Nastya is part of this whole, which can be called folk life. And she is afraid to break it.
- For Nastya, life without people is impossible. Therefore, she is so acutely worried about “torn ties with the world of people”, because she is in a position between her fellow villagers and Andrey. The meaning of all her actions is an attempt to return Andrei to the people. Confirmation of this is in the text of the story: “My mother has long said: there is no such guilt that cannot be forgiven. Not people, are they? The war is over, we'll see. Or it will be possible to go out to repent, or something else.
- For the sake of saving Andrey, Nastya is ready for any hardships: “Andrey ... Maybe we won’t do it, let’s go out? I would go with you anywhere, to whatever hard labor you like - wherever you go, there I am ... ”And how do we find out about the attitude of the second to Nastya? The author does not give direct assessments, but through popular opinion he expresses his attitude towards Nastya and her act. This is manifested in the finale of the story: “On the fourth day, Nastya was washed ashore not far from Karda. They reported to Atamanovka, but Mikheich was dying, and Mishka the laborer was sent for Nastya. He brought Nastya back in a boat, and having delivered, in a businesslike way, he set out to bury her in the cemetery of the drowned. The women didn't. And they betrayed Nastya to the ground among their own, only a little from the edge, near the rickety fence.
