A stuffy circle of terrible impressions. Lead abominations

1868–1936

A book about the poverty and wealth of the human soul

This book is hard to read. Although, it would seem, none of us today would be surprised by the description of the most sophisticated cruelties in books and on the screen. But all these cruelties are comfortable: they are make-believe. And in M. Gorky’s story everything is true.

What is this book about? About how the “humiliated and insulted” lived in the era of the birth of capitalism in Russia? No, this is about people who humiliated and insulted themselves, regardless of the system - capitalism or another “ism”. This book is about family, about the Russian soul, about God. That is, about you and me.

The writer Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, who called himself Maxim Gorky (1868–1936), truly acquired bitter life experience. And for him, a man who had an artistic gift, a difficult question arose: what should he, a popular writer and already accomplished person, do - try to forget about his difficult childhood and youth, like a terrible dream, or, once again stirring up his own soul, tell the reader an unpleasant the truth about the "dark kingdom". Maybe it will be possible to warn someone about how you cannot live if you are a human being. And what should a person who often lives dark and dirty do? Should you distract yourself from real life with beautiful fairy tales or realize the whole unpleasant truth about your life? And Gorky gives the answer to this question already in 1902 in his famous play “At the Lower Depths”: “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters, truth is the God of a free man!” Here, a little further, there is an equally interesting phrase: “We must respect a person!.. do not humiliate him with pity... we must respect him!”

It is unlikely that it was easy and pleasant for the writer to remember his own childhood: “Now, reviving the past, I myself sometimes find it hard to believe that everything was exactly as it was, and I want to dispute and reject a lot - the dark life of the “stupid tribe” is too rich in cruelty “. But truth is higher than pity, and I’m not talking about myself, but about that close, stuffy circle of terrible impressions in which I lived, and still live, a simple Russian man.”

The genre of autobiographical prose has long existed in fiction. This is the author's story about his own destiny. A writer can present facts from his biography with varying degrees of accuracy. “Childhood” by M. Gorky is a real picture of the beginning of the writer’s life, a very difficult beginning. Remembering his childhood, Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov tries to understand how his character was formed, who and what influence had on him in those distant years: “As a child, I imagine myself as a hive, where various simple gray people, like bees, carried the honey of their knowledge and thinking about life, generously enriching my soul in whatever way he could. Often this honey was dirty and bitter, but all knowledge is still honey.”

What kind of person is the main character of the story, Alyosha Peshkov? He was lucky to be born into a family where his father and mother lived in true love. That’s why they didn’t raise their son, they loved him. This charge of love, received in childhood, allowed Alyosha not to disappear, not to become bitter among the “stupid tribe.” It was very difficult for him, since his soul could not stand human savagery: “... other impressions only offended me with their cruelty and dirt, arousing disgust and sadness.” And all because his relatives and acquaintances are most often senselessly cruel and unbearably boring people. Alyosha often experiences a feeling of acute melancholy; He is even visited by the desire to leave home with the blind master Gregory and wander around begging, just to avoid seeing his drunken uncles, tyrant grandfather and downtrodden cousins. It was hard for the boy also because he had a developed sense of self-esteem: he did not tolerate any violence either towards himself or towards others. So, Alyosha says that he could not stand it when street boys tortured animals and mocked beggars; he was always ready to stand up for the offended. It turns out that this life is not easy for an honest person. And his parents and grandmother raised in Alyosha a hatred of all lies. Alyosha's soul suffers from the cunning of his brothers, the lies of his friend Uncle Peter, from the fact that Vanya Tsyganok steals.

So, maybe try to forget about the sense of dignity and honesty, and become like everyone else? After all, life will become easier! But this is not the hero of the story. There lives in him a keen sense of protest against untruth. In defense, Alyosha may even commit a rude act, as happened when, in revenge for his beaten grandmother, the boy spoiled his grandfather’s favorite Saints. Having matured a little, Alyosha enthusiastically takes part in street fights. This is no ordinary hooliganism. This is a way to relieve mental stress - after all, injustice reigns around. On the street, a guy in a fair fight can defeat his opponent, but in ordinary life, injustice most often avoids a fair fight.

People like Alyosha Peshkov are now called difficult teenagers. But if you look closely at the hero of the story, you will notice that this person is drawn to goodness and beauty. With what love he talks about mentally talented people: about his grandmother, Gypsy, about a company of faithful street friends. He even tries to find the best in his cruel grandfather! And he asks people for one thing - a kind human attitude (remember how this hunted boy changes after a sincere conversation with him from a kind man - Bishop Chrysanthus) ...

In the story, people often insult and beat each other. It’s bad when a person’s conscious life begins with the death of his beloved father. But it’s even worse when a child lives in an atmosphere of hatred: “Grandfather’s house was filled with the hot fog of mutual enmity of everyone with everyone; it poisoned adults, and even children took an active part in it.” Soon after arriving at the house of his mother’s parents, Alyosha received the first truly memorable impression of his childhood: his own grandfather beat him, a small child, half to death. “From those days, I developed a restless attention to people, and, as if the skin had been torn from my heart, it became unbearably sensitive to any insult and pain, my own and someone else’s,” the man no longer recalls one of the most memorable events in his life. first youth.

This family did not know any other way of education. The elders humiliated and beat the younger ones in every possible way, thinking that in this way they were gaining respect. But the mistake of these people is that they confuse respect with fear. Was Vasily Kashirin a natural monster? I think not. He, in his own wretched way, lived by the principle “it wasn’t started by us, it won’t end by us” (by which many still live today). Some kind of pride even sounds in his teaching to his grandson: “When a relative beats one of your own, it’s not an insult, but a science! Don’t give in to someone else’s, but don’t give in to yours! Do you think they didn't beat me? Olesha, they beat me so much that you wouldn’t even see it in your worst nightmare. I was so offended that, go figure, the Lord God himself looked and cried! What happened? An orphan, the son of a beggar mother, but he reached his place - he was made a shop foreman, a boss of people.”

Is it any wonder that in such a family “the children were quiet and unnoticeable; they are beaten to the ground like dust by rain.” There is nothing strange in the fact that the bestial Yakov and Mikhail grew up in such a family. A comparison of them with animals arises at the very first acquaintance: “.. the uncles suddenly jumped to their feet and, leaning over the table, began to howl and growl at grandfather, baring their teeth pitifully and shaking themselves like dogs...” And the fact that Yakov plays the guitar, doesn't make him human yet. After all, his soul yearns for this: “If Yakov were a dog, Yakov would howl from morning to night: Oh, I’m bored! Oh, I'm sad." These people do not know why they live, and therefore suffer from mortal boredom. And when one’s life is a heavy burden, a desire for destruction appears. So, Yakov beat his own wife to death (and not immediately, but through sophisticated torture for years); Another monster, Mikhail, is really tormenting his wife Natalya. Why are they doing that? Master Gregory answers this question to Alyosha: “Why? And he probably doesn’t even know... Maybe he beat her because she was better than him, and he was envious. The Kashirins, brother, don’t like good things, they envy him, but they can’t accept him, they destroy him!” In addition, since childhood, before my eyes is the example of my own father brutally beating his mother. And this is the norm! This is the most disgusting form of self-affirmation - at the expense of the weak. People like Mikhail and Yakov really want to look strong and courageous, but deep down they feel flawed. Such people, in order to feel self-confidence at least for a short time, swagger over their loved ones. But at their core, they are real losers, cowards. Their hearts, turned away from love, are fed not only by causeless rage, but also by envy. A cruel war begins between brothers for their father's property. (An interesting thing, after all, is the Russian language! In its first meaning, the word “good” means everything positive, good; in the second, it means junk that you can touch with your hands.) And in this war, all means will do, including arson and murder. But even after receiving an inheritance, the brothers do not find peace: you cannot build happiness on lies and blood. Mikhail, he generally loses all human appearance and comes to his father and mother with one goal - to kill. After all, in his opinion, it is not he himself who is to blame for living his life like a pig, but someone else!

Gorky in his book thinks a lot about why Russian people are often cruel, why they make their life “gray, lifeless nonsense.” And here is another one of his answers to himself: “Russian people, due to their poverty and poverty of life, generally love to amuse themselves with grief, play with it like children, and are rarely ashamed of being unhappy. In endless everyday life and grief there is a holiday, and fire is fun; in an empty place, a scratch is a decoration...” However, the reader is not always obliged to trust the author’s direct assessments.

The story is not about poor people (at least they don’t immediately become poor); their wealth will allow them to live humanly in every sense. But you will find truly good people in “Childhood”, most likely, among the poor: Grigory, Tsyganok, Good Delo, grandmother Akulina Ivanovna, who came from a poor family. This means that it is not a matter of poverty or wealth. The point is mental and spiritual poverty. After all, Maxim Savvateevich Peshkov did not have any wealth. But this did not stop him from being an amazingly beautiful person. Honest, open, reliable, hard-working, with self-esteem, he knew how to love beautifully and recklessly. I didn’t drink wine, which is rare in Russia. And Maxim became destiny for Varvara Peshkova. Not only did he not beat his wife and son, he had no thoughts of insulting them. And he remained the brightest memory and example for his son for the rest of his life. People were jealous of the happy and friendly Peshkov family. And this muddy envy pushes the degenerates Mikhail and Yakov to kill their son-in-law. But by a miracle, Maxim, who survived, shows mercy, saving his wife’s brothers from certain hard labor.

Poor, unfortunate Varvara! It’s true, God was pleased to give her such a man - the dream of every woman. She managed to escape from that suffocating swamp where she was born and raised, and to know true happiness. It didn't last long! Maxim passed away offensively early. And since then, Varvara’s life has gone awry. It happens that a woman’s lot develops in such a way that there is no replacement for the one and only one. It seemed that she could find, if not happiness, then peace with Evgeny Maximov, an educated man, a nobleman. But underneath his outer gloss hid, as it turned out, a nonentity, no better than the same Yakov and Mikhail.

The surprising thing about this story is that the author-narrator does not hate those who crippled his childhood. Little Alyosha learned well the lesson of his grandmother, who said about Yakov and Mikhail: “They are not evil. They're just stupid! This must be understood in the sense that they are, of course, evil, but also unhappy in their misery. Repentance sometimes softens these withered souls. Yakov suddenly begins to sob, hitting himself in the face: “What is this, what?...Why is this? Scoundrel and scoundrel, broken soul! Vasily Kashirin, a much smarter and stronger man, suffers more and more often. The old man understands that his cruelty was also inherited by his unsuccessful children, and in shock he complains to God: “In grief-stricken excitement, reaching the point of a tearful howl, he poked his head into the corner, towards the images, and hit the dry, echoing chest with all his might: “Lord, am I more sinful than others?” For what?’” However, this tough tyrant is worthy not only of pity, but also of respect. For he never put a stone instead of bread into the outstretched hand of an unlucky son or daughter. In many ways, he himself crippled his sons. But he also supported! Saved me from military service (which I bitterly regretted later), from prison; Having divided the property, he spent whole days in his sons’ workshops, helping to set up the business. And what about the episode when the brutal Mikhail and his friends, armed with stakes, break into the Kashirins’ house. The father in these terrible moments is mainly concerned with ensuring that his son is not hit on the head in the fight. He is also concerned about the fate of Varvara. Vasily Kashirin understands that his daughter’s life is not going well, and essentially gives his last, only to provide for Varvara.

As already mentioned, this book is not only about family life, about everyday life, but also about God. More precisely, about how an ordinary Russian person believes in God. But it turns out that you can believe in God in different ways. After all, not only did God create man in his own image and likeness, but man also constantly creates God according to his own standards. So, for grandfather Vasily Kashirin, a businesslike, dry and tough man, God is a strict overseer and judge. His God is the one who punishes and takes revenge first and foremost. It is not for nothing that, remembering the Sacred History, the grandfather always tells episodes of the torment of sinners. Vasily Vasilyevich understands religious institutions as a soldier understands military regulations: memorize, do not reason and do not contradict. Little Alyosha's acquaintance with Christianity begins in his grandfather's family with cramming prayer formulas. And when the child begins to ask innocent questions about the text, Aunt Natalya interrupts him in fear: “Don’t ask, it’s worse! Just say after me: “Our Father...” For the grandfather, turning to God is the strictest, but also a joyful ritual. He knows a huge number of prayers and psalms by heart and enthusiastically repeats the words of the Holy Scriptures, often without even thinking about what they mean. He, an uneducated person, is filled with joy by the fact that he speaks not in the crude language of everyday life, but in the sublime structure of “divine” speech.

Grandmother Akulina Ivanovna has a different God. She is not an expert on sacred texts, but this does not in the least prevent her from believing fervently, sincerely and childishly naively. For this is the only way true faith can be. It is said: “Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 18:1). Grandmother's God is a merciful intercessor who loves everyone equally. And not at all omniscient and omnipotent, but often crying over the imperfections of the world, and himself worthy of pity and compassion. For grandmother, God is akin to the bright and fair hero of a folk tale. You can turn to him, as to the closest one, with your innermost thoughts: “Varvara would smile with such joy! How did she anger you, why was she more sinful than others? What is it: a woman is young, healthy, but lives in sadness. And remember, Lord, Grigory - his eyes are getting worse...” It is precisely this kind of prayer, albeit devoid of an established order, but sincere, that will reach God faster. And for all her hard life in a cruel and sinful world, the grandmother thanks the Lord, who helps people far and near, loves and forgives them.

M. Gorky’s story “Childhood” shows us, the readers, that it is possible and necessary in the most difficult life conditions not to become bitter, not to become a slave, but to remain Human.

V. A. Karpov

Childhood

I dedicate it to my son

I

In a dim, cramped room, on the floor, under the window, lies my father, dressed in white and unusually long; the toes of his bare feet are strangely spread out, the fingers of his gentle hands, quietly placed on his chest, are also crooked; his cheerful eyes are tightly covered with black circles of copper coins, his kind face is dark and scares me with his badly bared teeth.

Mother, half naked, in a red skirt, is on her knees, combing her father’s long soft hair from his forehead to the back of his head with a black comb, which I used to saw through the rinds of watermelons; the mother continuously says something in a thick, hoarse voice, her gray eyes are swollen and seem to melt, flowing down with large drops of tears.

My grandmother is holding my hand - round, big-headed, with huge eyes and a funny, doughy nose; she is all black, soft and surprisingly interesting; she also cries, singing along with her mother in a special and good way, she trembles all over and tugs at me, pushing me towards my father; I resist, hide behind her; I'm scared and embarrassed.

I had never seen big people cry before, and I did not understand the words repeatedly spoken by my grandmother:

- Say goodbye to your aunt, you will never see him again, he died, my dear, at the wrong time, at the wrong time...

I was seriously ill - I had just gotten back to my feet; During my illness - I remember this well - my father merrily fussed with me, then he suddenly disappeared and was replaced by my grandmother, a strange person.

-Where did you come from? – I asked her. She answered:

- From above, from Nizhny, but she didn’t come, but she arrived! They don't walk on water, shush!

It was funny and incomprehensible: upstairs in the house lived bearded, painted Persians, and in the basement an old yellow Kalmyk was selling sheepskins. You can slide down the stairs astride the railing or, when you fall, roll somersault - I knew that well. And what does water have to do with it? Everything is wrong and funny confused.

- Why am I pissed?

“Because you make noise,” she said, also laughing. She spoke kindly, cheerfully, smoothly. From the very first day I became friends with her, and now I want her to quickly leave this room with me.

My mother suppresses me; her tears and howls sparked a new, anxious feeling in me. This is the first time I see her like this - she was always strict, spoke little; she is clean, smooth and big, like a horse; she has a tough body and terribly strong arms. And now she is all somehow unpleasantly swollen and disheveled, everything on her is torn; the hair, lying neatly on the head, in a large light cap, scattered over the bare shoulder, fell on the face, and half of it, braided in a braid, dangled, touching his father’s sleeping face. I’ve been standing in the room for a long time, but she’s never looked at me, she combs her father’s hair and keeps growling, choking on tears.

Black men and a sentry soldier look in the door. He shouts angrily:

- Clean it up quickly!

The window is curtained with a dark shawl; it swells like a sail. One day my father took me on a boat with a sail. Suddenly thunder struck. My father laughed, squeezed me tightly with his knees and shouted:

- It’s okay, don’t be afraid, Luk!

Suddenly the mother threw herself up heavily from the floor, immediately sank down again, toppled over onto her back, scattering her hair across the floor; her blind, white face turned blue, and, baring her teeth like her father, she said in a terrible voice:

- Shut the door... Alexei - get out! Pushing me away, my grandmother rushed to the door and shouted:

- Dear ones, don’t be afraid, don’t touch me, leave for Christ’s sake! This is not cholera, the birth has come, for mercy, priests!

I hid in a dark corner behind a chest and from there I watched my mother squirm across the floor, groaning and gritting her teeth, and my grandmother, crawling around, said affectionately and joyfully:

– In the name of the Father and the Son! Be patient, Varyusha! Most Holy Mother of God, Intercessor...

I'm scared; They are fidgeting on the floor near their father, touching him, moaning and screaming, but he is motionless and seems to be laughing. This lasted a long time - fussing on the floor; More than once the mother rose to her feet and fell again; grandmother rolled out of the room like a big black soft ball; then suddenly a child screamed in the darkness.

- Glory to You, Lord! - said the grandmother. - Boy!

And lit a candle.

I must have fallen asleep in the corner - I don’t remember anything else.

The second imprint in my memory is a rainy day, a deserted corner of the cemetery; I stand on a slippery mound of sticky earth and look into the hole where my father’s coffin was lowered; at the bottom of the pit there is a lot of water and there are frogs - two have already climbed onto the yellow lid of the coffin.

At the grave - me, my grandmother, a wet guard and two angry men with shovels. Warm rain, fine as beads, showers everyone.

“Bury,” said the watchman, walking away.

Grandmother began to cry, hiding her face in the end of her headscarf. The men, bent over, hastily began to throw earth into the grave, water began to gush; Jumping from the coffin, the frogs began to rush onto the walls of the pit, clods of earth knocking them to the bottom.

“Move away, Lenya,” my grandmother said, taking me by the shoulder; I slipped out from under her hand; I didn’t want to leave.

“What are you, Lord,” the grandmother complained, either to me or to God, and stood silently for a long time, with her head down; The grave has already been leveled to the ground, but it still stands.

The men loudly splashed their shovels on the ground; the wind came and drove away, carried away the rain. Grandmother took me by the hand and led me to a distant church, among many dark crosses.

-Aren't you going to cry? – she asked when she went outside the fence. - I would cry!

“I don’t want to,” I said.

“Well, I don’t want to, so I don’t have to,” she said quietly.

All this was surprising: I cried rarely and only from resentment, not from pain; my father always laughed at my tears, and my mother shouted:

- Don't you dare cry!

Then we rode along a wide, very dirty street in a droshky, among dark red houses; I asked my grandmother:

-Won’t the frogs come out?

“No, they won’t get out,” she answered. - God be with them!

Neither father nor mother pronounced the name of God so often and so closely.

A few days later, I, my grandmother and my mother were traveling on a ship, in a small cabin; my newborn brother Maxim died and lay on the table in the corner, wrapped in white, swaddled with red braid.

Perched on bundles and chests, I look out the window, convex and round, like the eye of a horse; Behind the wet glass, muddy, foamy water flows endlessly. Sometimes she jumps up and licks the glass. I involuntarily jump to the floor.

“Don’t be afraid,” says grandma and, easily lifting me with soft hands, she puts me back on the knots.

There is a gray, wet fog over the water; Far away somewhere a dark land appears and disappears again into fog and water. Everything around is shaking. Only the mother, with her hands behind her head, stands leaning against the wall, firmly and motionless. Her face is dark, iron and blind, her eyes are tightly closed, she is silent all the time, and everything is somehow different, new, even the dress she is wearing is unfamiliar to me.

Grandmother more than once told her quietly:

- Varya, would you like to eat something, a little, eh? She is silent and motionless.

Grandma speaks to me in a whisper, and to my mother - louder, but somehow carefully, timidly and very little. It seems to me that she is afraid of her mother. This is clear to me and brings me very close to my grandmother.

“Saratov,” the mother said unexpectedly loudly and angrily. -Where is the sailor?

So her words are strange, alien: Saratov, sailor. A wide, gray-haired man dressed in blue came in and brought a small box. The grandmother took him and began to lay out his brother’s body, laid him down and carried him to the door on outstretched arms, but, being fat, she could only walk through the narrow door of the cabin sideways and hesitated funny in front of it.

- Eh, mom! - my mother shouted, took the coffin from her, and both of them disappeared, and I remained in the cabin, looking at the blue man.

- What, little brother left? - he said, leaning towards me.

- Who are you?

- Sailor.

– And who is Saratov?

- City. Look out the window, there he is!

Outside the window the ground was moving; dark, steep, it smoked with fog, resembling a large piece of bread that had just been cut from a loaf.

-Where did grandma go?

- To bury my grandson.

- Will they bury him in the ground?

- What about it? They will bury it.

I told the sailor how they buried live frogs when burying my father. He picked me up, hugged me tightly and kissed me.

- Eh, brother, you still don’t understand anything! - he said. – There is no need to feel sorry for the frogs, the Lord is with them! Have pity on the mother - look how her grief hurt her!

There was a hum and a howl above us. I already knew that it was a steamer and was not afraid, but the sailor hastily lowered me to the floor and rushed out, saying:

- We must run!

And I also wanted to run away. I walked out the door. The dark, narrow crevice was empty. Not far from the door, copper glittered on the steps of the stairs. Looking up, I saw people with knapsacks and bundles in their hands. It was clear that everyone was leaving the ship, which meant I had to leave too.

But when, together with a crowd of men, I found myself at the side of the ship, in front of the bridge to the shore, everyone began to shout at me:

- Whose is this? Whose are you?

- Don't know.

They pushed me, shook me, groped me for a long time. Finally a gray-haired sailor appeared and grabbed me, explaining:

- This is from Astrakhan, from the cabin...

He carried me into the cabin at a run, put me in some bundles and left, wagging his finger:

- I'll ask you!

The noise overhead became quieter, the steamer no longer trembled or thumped through the water. The window of the cabin was blocked by some kind of wet wall; it became dark, stuffy, the knots seemed to be swollen, oppressing me, and everything was not good. Maybe they will leave me alone forever on an empty ship?

I went to the door. It does not open, its copper handle cannot be turned. Taking the milk bottle, I hit the handle with all my might. The bottle broke, the milk splashed on my feet and flowed into my boots.

Distressed by the failure, I lay down on the bundles, cried quietly and, in tears, fell asleep.

And when I woke up, the ship was thumping and shaking again, the cabin window was burning like the sun. Grandmother, sitting next to me, scratched her hair and winced, whispering something. She had a strange amount of hair, it thickly covered her shoulders, chest, knees and lay on the floor, black, tinged with blue. Lifting them from the floor with one hand and holding them in the air, she hardly inserted a rare-toothed wooden comb into the thick strands; her lips curled, her dark eyes sparkled angrily, and her face in this mass of hair became small and funny.

Today she seemed angry, but when I asked why her hair was so long, she said in yesterday’s warm and soft voice:

- Apparently, the Lord gave it as punishment - comb them, you damned ones! When I was young I boasted about this mane, I swear in my old age! And you sleep! It’s still early, the sun has just risen from the night...

- I don’t want to sleep!

“Well, don’t sleep otherwise,” she immediately agreed, braiding her hair and looking at the sofa, where her mother lay face up, stretched out like a string. - How did you crack the bottle yesterday? Speak quietly!

She spoke, singing the words in a special way, and they easily became stronger in my memory, like flowers, just as affectionate, bright, juicy. When she smiled, her pupils, dark as cherries, dilated, flashing with an inexpressibly pleasant light, her smile cheerfully revealed her strong white teeth, and, despite the many wrinkles in the dark skin of her cheeks, her whole face seemed young and bright. This loose nose with swollen nostrils and red at the end spoiled him very much. She sniffed tobacco from a black snuff box decorated with silver. She was all dark, but she shone from within - through her eyes - with an unquenchable, cheerful and warm light. She was stooped, almost hunchbacked, very plump, and she moved easily and deftly, like a big cat - she was as soft as this affectionate animal.

It was as if I was sleeping before her, hidden in the darkness, but she appeared, woke me up, brought me into the light, tied everything around me into a continuous thread, wove everything into multi-colored lace and immediately became a friend for life, the closest to my heart, the most understandable and dear person - it was her selfless love for the world that enriched me, saturating me with strong strength for a difficult life.

Forty years ago steamships moved slowly; We drove to Nizhny for a very long time, and I remember well those first days of being saturated with beauty.

The weather was fine; from morning to evening I am with my grandmother on the deck, under a clear sky, between the autumn-gilded, silk-embroidered banks of the Volga. Slowly, lazily and loudly thumping across the greyish-blue water, a light-red steamship with a barge in a long tow is stretching upstream. The barge is gray and looks like a woodlice. The sun floats unnoticed over the Volga; Every hour everything around is new, everything changes; green mountains are like lush folds on the rich clothing of the earth; along the banks there are cities and villages, like gingerbread ones from afar; golden autumn leaf floats on the water.

- Look how good it is! - Grandma says every minute, moving from side to side, and she’s all beaming, and her eyes are joyfully widened.

Often, looking at the shore, she forgot about me: she stands at the side, folding her arms on her chest, smiling and silent, and there are tears in her eyes. I tug at her dark skirt, printed with flowers.

- Ass? - she perks up. “It’s like I dozed off and was dreaming.”

-What are you crying about?

“This, dear, is from joy and from old age,” she says, smiling. - I’m already old, in my sixth decade of summer and spring, my thoughts have spread and gone.

And, after sniffing tobacco, he begins to tell me some strange stories about good thieves, about holy people, about all kinds of animals and evil spirits.

She tells fairy tales quietly, mysteriously, leaning towards my face, looking into my eyes with dilated pupils, as if pouring strength into my heart, lifting me up. He speaks as if he were singing, and the further he goes, the more complex the words sound. It is indescribably pleasant to listen to her. I listen and ask:

- And here’s how it happened: an old brownie is sitting in the shelter, he’s stabbed his paw with a noodle, he’s rocking, whining: “Oh, little mice, it hurts, oh, little mice, I can’t stand it!”

Raising her leg, she grabs it with her hands, swings it in the air and wrinkles her face funny, as if she herself is in pain.

There are sailors standing around - bearded gentle men - listening, laughing, praising her and also asking:

- Come on, grandma, tell me something else! Then they say:

- Come have dinner with us!

At dinner they treat her with vodka, me with watermelons and melon; this is done secretly: a man travels on the ship who forbids eating fruit, takes it away and throws it into the river. He is dressed like a guard - with brass buttons - and is always drunk; people are hiding from him.

Mother rarely comes on deck and stays away from us. She is still silent, mother. Her large slender body, dark, iron face, heavy crown of blond hair braided in braids - all of her powerful and solid - are remembered to me as if through fog or a transparent cloud; Straight gray eyes, as large as grandma’s, look out of it distantly and unfriendly.

One day she said sternly:

– People are laughing at you, mother!

- And the Lord is with them! - Grandma answered carefree. - Let them laugh, for good health!

I remember my grandmother’s childhood joy at the sight of Nizhny. Pulling my hand, she pushed me towards the board and shouted:

- Look, look how good it is! Here it is, father, Nizhny! That's what he is, Gods! Those churches, look, they seem to be flying!

And the mother asked, almost crying:

- Varyusha, look, tea, huh? Look, I forgot! Rejoice!

The mother smiled gloomily.

When the steamer stopped opposite a beautiful city, in the middle of a river closely cluttered with ships, bristling with hundreds of sharp masts, a large boat with many people floated up to its side, hooked itself with a hook to the lowered ladder, and one after another the people from the boat began to climb onto the deck. A small, dry old man, in a long black robe, with a red beard like gold, a bird's nose and green eyes, walked quickly ahead of everyone.

Lesson topic— research: “Lead abominations of Russian life” in M. Gorky’s story “Childhood”.

The purpose of the lesson: explore the significance of childhood in the formation of a person’s moral character; contribute to the education of the qualities of a spiritual and moral personality, the formation of a humanistic worldview.

Training tasks: collect and systematize the necessary material in the image of Alyosha Peshkov and his entourage, determine the ideological orientation and problems of the story, teach to understand the author’s position, express one’s own opinion, and make decisions in non-standard situations.

Developmental tasks: develop skills in working with literary text, the ability to generalize, compare, and formulate conclusions; contribute to the improvement of students’ oral speech, the development of imaginative and analytical thinking, creative abilities, and the reading culture of schoolchildren.

Educational tasks: nurturing empathy, compassion, determination, courage, and perseverance in overcoming life’s difficulties.

Lesson equipment:

text of the autobiographical story by A.M. Gorky “Childhood”

portrait of A.M. Gorky; illustrations, multimedia presentation.

During the classes.

1. Teacher's word.

Many well-known writers have devoted their works to the theme of childhood.

Name the works you read on the theme of childhood.

L.N. Tolstoy “Childhood”

I.A. Bunin “Numbers”

V.P. Astafiev “Horse with a pink mane”

V. G. Rasputin “French Lessons” and others.

In 1868, in Nizhny Novgorod, a boy was born into the family of a cabinetmaker who was destined to become the great writer Alexei Maximovich Gorky. You read a story about the difficult fate of this man, about his difficult childhood, which is called “Childhood”. In 1913, in the middle of his creative journey, Alexey Maksimovich decided to comprehend the individual stages of his life, and then chapters from the autobiographical story “Childhood” appeared in print. The author of the story invites you to reflect on the actions of the heroes of the work. Perhaps, after our reflections, you will learn useful lessons for yourself.

2 .Formulation of the lesson topic and purpose.(formulated together with the children)

“Lead abominations of Russian life” in M. Gorky’s story “Childhood”

Explore the significance of childhood in the formation of a person’s moral character.

3 .Vocabulary work.

Lead abominations — about the ugly sides of life.

An epithet is a word or expression in a literary text that carries particularly expressive properties. Epithet construction: adjective + noun.

Comparison is a technique based on comparing a phenomenon or concept with another phenomenon or concept in order to highlight any particularly important feature.

A conflict is a fight between characters in a work of fiction or between characters and the environment, a hero and circumstances.

Vices - 1) immoral character traits 2) actions contrary to generally accepted morality.

Cluster - elements with similar characteristics, collected in one group.

4.Check for knowledge of the text. You can include the following questions and tasks in the quiz: Who and for what reason shouted: “I’ll let you go around the world!..”? How do you understand this expression? Who did grandfather look askance at and say: “What a sycophant!”? Who uttered the following words: “Give them everything, father, you will be calmer, give it back!”? Who are we talking about “Grabping his ear with burnt fingers, jumping funny, he shouted – whose business is it, you infidels”? Who are we talking about “A quiet boy, with sad eyes and a good smile, very similar to his meek mother”? Who, screeching terribly, subtly and disgustingly shouted: “I won’t... After all, I said about the tablecloth...”? List the members of the Kashirin family.

5 . Analysis of the story by A.M. Gorky “Childhood”.

And now let's turn to the story“Childhood” and find out what life trials befell Alyosha Peshkov and how they influenced the formation of his character.

TOWhat events happen in Alyosha’s life after his father’s death?

First meeting with the “stupid tribe”.What is she like?

Describe Alyosha’s first impression of meeting his grandfather. How does grandfather talk to people? How did he feel in Alyosha? How is this stated in the text?

Read the description of the Kashirins' house. Find epithets and comparisons in this description and determine their role.

RTell us about Alyosha’s first impressions of staying in Kashirina’s houseX(Quarrel between uncles and grandfather). Prove it with text.Describe the essence of the conflict. What does the author draw the reader's attention to?

The author conveys the bestial appearance of the fighting brothers, shows how the grandfather behaves during a quarrel and how this characterizes each of the participants in the quarrel. Although the grandfather is also possessed by the spirit of acquisitiveness, he is at the same time pitiful, since he is unable to stop his sons.

The story of the thimble.

Spanking children.

Sasha's denunciation of Alyosha.

What human vices does Gorky show in these episodes?

Students answer the questions posed using the text of the work and come to the conclusion that Alyosha found himself in a family where relatives were at odds over inheritance, mocked blind Gregory, and used physical punishment. It is difficult for a boy to live in such conditions where he observes horrific pictures of drunken cruelty, mischief, mockery of the weak, family fights over property, perverting human souls.

Attitude towards women and children?

The scene of punishment is analyzed, which is important not only for the depiction of cruelty, on the one hand, and submission, on the other. It is also interesting because it shows how cruelty, in turn, gives rise to such equally terrible and base qualities as hypocrisy and betrayal. Having adapted to the world of violence and lies, Sasha became an informer and sycophant of Uncle Yakov, the slavishly obedient and weak-willed son of Uncle Mikhail.

What did Gorky say about the children of Yakov and Mikhail? What epithets and comparisons most clearly convey their character? What feeling does Sasha Yakov make in students? In which episodes does he show himself most fully?

What were your grandfather’s childhood and youth like? What pictures are drawn to Alyosha in his grandfather’s story about his youth?(Painting by I. Repin “Barge Haulers on the Volga”)

What made my grandfather bitter?

The analysis of the reasons should be discussed in a little more detail. Having drank the bitter cup of the barge hauler to the bottom, having experienced humiliation and beatings, the grandfather finally made his way into the people and became the owner. But the cruel morality of capitalism, the pursuit of a penny, the constant fear of losing the dye shop gave rise to the spirit of the owner, embitterment, and distrust of people in him. Kashirin gradually lost all the best that was in him from the people, opposing himself to working people. (It is advisable to read out some lines from chapter thirteen, telling about the future fate of the grandfather, when he, having gone bankrupt, loses the remnants of his human appearance.)

AttitudeToGypsy?

Why Alyosha felt like a “stranger” among the “stupid tribe”?

Alyosha came to the Kashirins' house when he was four years old, but the impressions of another life were already living in him. He remembered a friendly family, his father Maxim Savvateevich, an intelligent, cheerful and talented person, and at first he was proud of his mother, who was not like the people around her. For the rest of his life, Alyosha also remembered “the first days of being saturated with beauty” while sailing on the ship. The “dense, motley, inexpressibly strange life” in the Kashirin family is perceived by Alyosha as “a harsh fairy tale, well told by a kind, but painfully truthful genius.”

How does Alyosha feel?Am I to the street fun of the boys?

Students will tell how Alyosha gets mad the cruelty of street entertainment, how he feels shame in front of the blind master Gregory because his grandfather does not feed him.

Life of the “stupid tribe”

(Property division)

"Hot fogmutual enmity of allwith everyone"

(A fight between uncles, a quarrel between a grandfather and his sons)

"A stuffy circle of creepy impressions"

(Spanking children, the story of the thimble)

Lack of respect for people

(Story fromGypsy)

The cruelty of street fun

“Alyosha felt like a stranger in the Kashirin family”

"Lead abominations" of life

We talked about the “leaden abominations” of life, which weighed heavily on the soul of an impressionable child living “as if in a deep dark hole.”

Is it necessary to talk about this, about these ugly people, cruel scenes, rudeness?

The author answers this question like this:“Remembering these leaden abominations of wild Russian life, I ask myself for minutes: is it worth talking about this? And, with renewed confidence, I answer myself – it’s worth it; for this is a tenacious, vile truth, it has not died out to this day. This is the truth that needs to be known to the roots, in order to root it out from memory, from a person’s soul, from our entire life, difficult and shameful.”

What do you think about this?

How is the problem of education solved in the story by A.M. Gorky's "Childhood"?

It is impossible to protect a teenager from the negative aspects of life, from difficulties, from mistakes. A child raised in greenhouse conditions will not be ready for life. Difficulties strengthen a teenager and contribute to the formation of important personal qualities.

Ppredict Alyosha's future: will he be able to adapt to society?

What is in his character for this?

Alyosha’s character contains all the important personal qualities necessary for life. The author believes that his hero, having gone through difficult trials, gained life experience and learned moral lessons for himself. He will not only be able to successfully adapt to society, but will also bring people “a new, bright, life-affirming beginning.”

6. Preparing for the State Examination in Literature

Quarrel between uncles and grandfather.

Describe the essence of the conflict that arose in this episode. What personality traits did each of the characters exhibit?

Typical scenes of Kashirin life.

Family fight over property.

The bestial appearance of fighting brothers.

Possessed by the spirit of acquisitiveness (passion for acquisition, greed for money).

Characteristics of each of the participants in the quarrel.

Homework:

The answer to the question posed.

Comment on the cluster.

The works are written “in the first person” (for example, the trilogy “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth”; Turgenev’s story “First Love”; chronicle novels “Family Chronicle” and “Childhood of Bagrov the Grandson”; novel “The Life of Arsenyev "; stories by M. Gorky from the collection “Across Rus'” and his trilogy “Childhood”, “In People”, “My Universities”; - Mikhailovsky’s “Childhood of the Lord”; “Childhood of Nikita”; “First Love”, “Spring Waters”).

In autobiographical works, the main thing is always the author himself, and all the events described are conveyed directly through his perception. And yet, these books are, first of all, works of fiction, and the information contained in them cannot be perceived as the real story of the author’s life.

Let us turn to the works of Mikhailovsky. What unites them?

All the heroes of the stories told are children.

The authors took the image of pictures of the spiritual growth of a little man as the basis for the plot. By telling about the past of their hero not in chronological order, but by drawing pictures of the most powerful impressions left in the child’s mind, the artists show how a real person of that time perceived these events, what he thought about, how he felt the world. The author makes readers feel the “living breath” of history.

The main thing for writers is not the events of the era, but their refraction in the soul of a growing person; the psychology of the characters, their attitude to life, the difficulty of finding oneself.

All writers argue in their works that the basis of a child’s life is the love that he needs from others and which he is ready to generously give to people, including loved ones.

The lessons of childhood are comprehended by the heroes throughout their lives. They remain with him as guidelines that live in their conscience.

The plot and composition of the works are based on the life-affirming worldview of the authors, which they convey to their characters.

All works have enormous moral strength, which is necessary for a growing person today as an antidote to the lack of spirituality, violence, and cruelty that have overwhelmed our society.

What is depicted in the works is seen simultaneously through the eyes of a child, the main character, who is in the thick of things, and through the eyes of a wise person, assessing everything from the perspective of great life experience.

What distinguishes these autobiographical works?

In the works of Mikhailovsky, the authors talk not only about the childhood of the heroes, but also about how their independent life develops.

And they reveal to the reader the childhood impressions of their heroes.

The life of little heroes develops and is covered by writers in different ways.

Gorky's work differs from other stories of an autobiographical nature in that the child is in a different social environment. Childhood, depicted by Gorky, is far from a wonderful period of life. Gorky’s artistic task was to show the “leaden abominations of life” of the entire social stratum to which he belonged. On the one hand, it was important for the writer to show the “close, stuffy circle of terrible impressions” in which Alyosha lived in the Kashirin family. On the other hand, to talk about the enormous influence on Alyosha of those “beautiful souls” whom he met in his grandfather’s house and in the world around him and who instilled “hope for rebirth... to a bright, human life.”

The hero of “Childhood” peers into this life, at the people around him, tries to understand the origins of evil and hostility, reaches for the bright, defends his beliefs and moral principles.

The story “My Universities” has a strong journalistic beginning, which helps the reader to better understand Gorky’s personality, his thoughts and feelings. The main lesson of this story is the writer’s idea that a person is created by his resistance to the environment.

The childhood of the characters of other writers is warmed by the affection and love of their relatives. The light and warmth of family life, the poetry of a happy childhood are carefully recreated by the authors of the works.

But sharp social motives immediately arise: the unsightly sides of landowner and aristocratic-secular life are depicted clearly and without embellishment.

“Childhood” and “Adolescence” is a story about Nikolenka Irteniev, whose thoughts, feelings and mistakes are depicted by the writer with complete and sincere sympathy.

Nikolenka Irtenyev, the hero of the work, is a boy with a sensitive soul. He longs for harmony between all people and strives to help them. He perceives life events more acutely, sees what others do not notice. The child does not think about himself and suffers when he sees human injustice. The boy poses the most difficult life questions to himself. What is love in a person's life? What is good? What is evil? What is suffering, and is it possible to live a life without suffering? What is happiness (and unhappiness)? What is death? What is God? And in the end: what is life, why live?

A distinctive feature of Nikolenka’s character is the desire for introspection, strict judgment of her thoughts, motives and actions. He blames and punishes himself not only for unworthy actions, but even words and thoughts. But this is the torment of a sensitive child’s conscience.

The story about the hero’s youth is a different picture. He retained his old aspirations and noble spiritual qualities. But he was brought up in the false prejudices of an aristocratic society, from which he frees himself only towards the end of the story, and then only after going through doubts and serious reflection and meeting other people - not aristocrats.

"Youth" is a tale of mistakes and rebirth.

Books about childhood and youth were created before Tolstoy. But Tolstoy was the first to introduce into the history of the formation of the human personality the theme of acute internal struggle, moral self-control, revealing the “dialectics of the soul” of the hero.

Tyoma Kartashev (“Tyoma’s Childhood”) lives in a family where the father is a retired general and gives a very definite direction to the upbringing of children. Tyoma’s actions and pranks become the subject of the closest attention of the father, who resists the “sentimental” upbringing of his son, “making” him a “nasty slobber.” However, Tyoma's mother, an intelligent and well-educated woman, has a different view on raising her own son. In her opinion, any educational measures should not destroy a child’s human dignity and turn him into a “feared little animal” intimidated by the threat of corporal punishment.

The bad memory of executions for misdeeds will remain with Tyoma for many years. So, almost twenty years later, accidentally finding himself in his home, he remembers the place where he was flogged, and his own feeling towards his father, “hostile, never reconciled.”

– Mikhailovsky takes his hero, a kind, impressionable, hot boy, through all the crucibles of life. More than once his hero ends up, like the Bug, “into a stinking well.” (The image of the Bug and the well is repeatedly repeated in the tetralogy as a symbol of the dead-end state of the heroes.) However, the hero is capable of being reborn. The plot and composition of the family chronicle are structured as a search for a way out of crises.

“My compass is my honor. You can worship two things - genius and kindness,” Kartashev says to his friend. The fulcrum in life for the hero will be work, in which the hero’s talents, spiritual and physical strengths will be revealed.

There are no incidents in “The Childhood Years of Bagrov - Grandson”. This is the story of a peaceful, eventless childhood, surprising only by the child’s extraordinary sensitivity, which is facilitated by an unusually compassionate upbringing. The special strength of the book lies in its depiction of a beautiful family: “The family allows a person of any era to remain more stable in society... limiting the animal in a person,” wrote A. Platonov. He also emphasized that the family in Aksakov’s portrayal fosters a sense of homeland and patriotism.

Seryozha Bagrov had a normal childhood, filled with parental love, tenderness and care. However, he sometimes noticed a lack of harmony between father and mother due to the fact that “on the one hand, there was exactingness, and on the other, an inability to satisfy subtle demands.” Seryozha noted with surprise that his beloved mother was indifferent to nature and arrogant towards the peasants. All this darkened the life of the boy, who understood that some of the blame lay with her.

I. Shmelev’s story “The Summer of the Lord” is based on childhood impressions and a reflection of the world of a child’s soul. Home, father, people, Russia - all this is given through children's perception.

In the plot, the boy is given a middle position, a kind of center between his father, seething with business and worries, and the calm, balanced Gorkin, whom the pilgrims take for a priest. And the novelty of each chapter is in the world of Beauty that opens to the child’s gaze.

The image of Beauty in the story has many faces. These are, of course, pictures of nature. Light, joy - this motif constantly sounds in the boy’s perception of nature. The landscape is like a kingdom of light. Nature spiritualizes the life of a child, connects it with invisible threads with the eternal and beautiful.

With the image of Heaven, the thought of God also enters the narrative. The most poetic pages of the story are those depicting Orthodox holidays and religious rituals. They show the beauty of spiritual communication: “Everyone was connected to me, and I was connected to everyone,” the boy thinks joyfully.

The whole story is like a filial bow and a monument to the father, created in the word. A very busy father, he always finds time for his son, for home, for people.

One of his contemporaries writes about him: “... Great is the power of talent, but even stronger, deeper and more irresistible is the tragedy and truth of a shocked and passionately loving soul... No one else has been given such a gift to hear and divine the suffering of others as he has.”

"Nikita's childhood" Unlike other works, in Tolstoy's story each chapter represents a complete story about some event from Nikita's life and even has its own name.

From childhood, A. Tolstoy fell in love with the magical Russian nature, learned the rich, figurative folk speech, treated the people with respect, and endowed Nikita with all these qualities.

Poetry is poured into everything that surrounds this boy - gentle, observant and very serious. In the most ordinary events of Nikita's life, the author finds inexplicable charm. He strives to poeticize the world around him and infects others with this desire.

In this work, told with a playful smile, the big world and deep feelings of adults and children are revealed.

As can be seen from the analysis of the works, the life of some heroes develops serenely and calmly in a happy family (Seryozha Bagrov, Nikita).

Other characters play pranks, suffer, fall in love, suffer, lose parents, struggle, pose difficult philosophical questions that a thinking person wrestles with from birth to death.

The work of M. Gorky is connected with his personal life experience. The eventful life of Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, the future writer Maxim Gorky, was reflected in the autobiographical trilogy “Childhood”, “In People”, “My Universities”.

The story “Childhood” is of great value for studying the life path of a future writer, for understanding the process of his spiritual formation. The liveliness and authenticity of what is depicted is achieved by the fact that the pictures, characters, and events bear the stamp of a child’s perception.

The history of the formation and growth of the human personality is shown in it against the background of Russian reality of the 70s - 80s of the 19th century. The author wrote: “...and I’m not talking about myself, but about that close, stuffy circle of terrible impressions in which... a simple Russian man lived.” At the same time, the story is imbued with the idea of the spiritual strength of the people, of the “good human” that is inherent in it. Therefore, the characteristics of those characters in the story that Alyosha encounters, as well as the analysis of pictures of the life of the bourgeoisie, should become an important link in the lesson. At each lesson, students should also draw attention to Alyosha’s psychology, show how his strength matures in constant communication with real people from the people and in the fight against the inertia and cruelty of people disfigured by the desire for property.

The autobiographical nature of “Childhood” enhances its educational significance, and the skillful use of its emotional impact on children depends on the teacher.

In the first lesson, you need to read the first chapter of the work with the students, then move on to a conversation about the main issues of the story - the struggle of the “good human” with the world of inertia and acquisitiveness. The feeling of the beauty of the world, which opens up while sailing on a steamboat along the Volga, is combined with a keen sense of hostile forces in it. Already here the beginning of Alyosha’s conflict with the old world is given.

We offer the main range of questions and tasks that should be covered in the lesson: what pictures open before us in the first chapter? What characters are they associated with? Through whose eyes do we look at everything that happens in the story? What and how did Gorky tell about the Volga, its banks and cities? Who opens up a wonderful world to the boy?

What place did grandmother occupy in Alyosha’s life? Answer with the words of the story.

Describe Alyosha’s first impression of meeting his grandfather. How does grandfather talk to people? How did he feel in Alyosha? How is this stated in the text? Read the description of the Kashirins' house. Find epithets and comparisons in this description and determine their role.

In conclusion, the teacher says that in this house, among people Alyosha did not like, the boy’s difficult childhood will pass.

At home, students read chapter two and answer the questions in the textbook.

The second lesson is devoted to revealing the “lead abominations” of Russian life in the story and clarifying the character of grandfather Kashirin.

Almost exhaustive material for covering these issues is provided by the second chapter, which paints terrifying pictures of drunken cruelty, mischief, mockery of the weak, family fights over property that pervert human souls.

We begin work on the topic by discussing the question: what struck Alyosha in the Kashirins’ house? It is necessary to dwell in more detail on the author’s description of the situation in the grandfather’s house (the first three paragraphs of the second chapter), to find words and expressions that most accurately characterize it. Then, using specific examples, show the “mutual enmity of everyone with everyone,” which poisoned both adults and children. The students will focus on the following episodes: a quarrel between uncles, a scene with a thimble, spanking children, Sasha’s denunciation of Alyosha.

The morals in the grandfather's house are most fully conveyed in the quarrel scene (it can be read). We draw the attention of schoolchildren to how the author conveys the bestial appearance of fighting brothers, how grandmother and grandfather behave during a quarrel, and how this characterizes each of them. Although the grandfather is also possessed by the spirit of acquisitiveness, he is at the same time pitiful, since he is unable to stop his sons. The grandmother stands out as a bright spot against the gloomy background of cruel life, who tries to bring peace to this house.

Conversations between grandfather and grandmother about the need to divide property will show students that the main reason for the enmity in the Kashirin family was the craving for property, which gives rise to merciless cruelty. The teacher should explain to schoolchildren that the brothers' enmity was aggravated by the precarious position of small enterprises in the era of capitalist development.

What especially struck Alyosha about the Kashirin family? Attention is drawn to the attitude towards women and children in this house. The punishment scene is analyzed, which is important not only for the depiction of cruelty, on the one hand, and submission, on the other. It is also interesting because it shows how cruelty, in turn, gives rise to such equally terrible and base qualities as hypocrisy and betrayal. Having adapted to the world of violence and lies, Sasha became an informer and sycophant of Uncle Yakov, slavishly obedient and weak-willed - the son of Uncle Mikhail. Let's find out: what did Gorky say about the children of Yakov and Mikhail? What epithets and comparisons most clearly convey their character? What feeling does Sasha Yakov make in students? In which episodes does he show himself most fully?

Which of the characters especially evokes a feeling of compassion and why? An analysis of the episode with the thimble will show what place Grigory occupies in the Kashirins’ house, that his fate is a typical fate of a worker in Tsarist Russia. A former companion of his grandfather, who devoted his entire life to the Kashirins, he is now, half-blind and sick, enduring the bullying of even children.

A natural continuation of the conversation on this topic will be a discussion of the question: who was the main culprit of that “abundant cruelty” of life in the Kashirins’ house? So students move on to analyzing the image of Kashirin. It is necessary to bring them to an understanding of the complexity and inconsistency of the image of the grandfather, the keeper of proprietary principles, the victim of his own greed and self-interest, to show why cruelty and greed became the predominant traits of his character.

After listening to the students’ opinions about how their first acquaintance with their grandfather made them feel, we move on to analyzing the episodes in which his character is especially clearly manifested. We find out his manner of talking to people, look for imperative intonations characteristic of his grandfather’s speech in the first and second chapters.

Students think through answers to the questions: how is Kashirin’s appearance depicted? How is the grandfather different from his sons, Yakov and Mikhail? How is the portrait description of the grandfather confirmed by his actions and judgments about people? Why did Alyosha have “special attention, cautious curiosity” towards his grandfather?

Having comprehended the characteristics of the grandfather’s character, we read and further analyze his story about his past; We pay attention to what and how the grandfather talks. To perceive the content of his story, the following questions can be asked:

What were your grandfather’s childhood and youth like? What pictures are drawn to Alyosha in his grandfather’s story about his youth? Compare these pictures with the description of the Volga in the works of N.A. Nekrasov. and in Repin’s painting I.E. "Barge Haulers on the Volga". The richness of intonation, melodiousness and imagery of speech, its closeness to folklore give a complete picture of the folk basis of the grandfather’s character, the richness of his imagination, and craving for beauty.

How did Alyosha see his grandfather in this conversation? It turns out that the grandfather can be both affectionate and warm-hearted, and knows how to tell interesting stories. Alyosha also thinks his appearance is different (compare with the original portrait). The boy realized that his grandfather stood out thanks to his intelligence.

What made my grandfather bitter? The analysis of the reasons should be discussed in a little more detail. Having drank the bitter cup of the barge hauler to the bottom, having experienced humiliation and beatings, the grandfather finally made his way into the people and became the owner. But the cruel morality of capitalism, the pursuit of a penny, the constant fear of losing the dye shop gave rise to the spirit of the owner, embitterment, and distrust of people in him. Kashirin gradually lost all the best that was in him from the people, pitting himself against working people. It is advisable to read individual lines from the thirteenth chapter, telling about the future fate of the grandfather, when, having gone bankrupt, he loses the remnants of his human appearance.

At home, students prepare an expressive reading of their grandfather's story about their past, read the third and fourth chapters and answer the questions in the textbook.

In the third lesson, the teacher will begin to work on the second theme of the story - “bright, healthy and creative” in Russian life. The focus is on the history of Alyosha’s character formation and the image of the Gypsy.

At the beginning of the lesson, we find out what is said in the third chapter about the cruel morals in the Kashirins’ house (the uncles’ evil “jokes” with the grandfather’s former companion, their attitude towards the Gypsy). It is advisable for students to express their attitude towards their uncles and evaluate Gregory’s behavior: is he right to endure all insults so patiently? Summarizing the conversation on the first topic, you can ask the students: what is the author’s feeling that permeates the pages of the story telling about the life and morals in the Kashirins’ house?

Working on the main theme of the story - the formation of the character of Alyosha Peshkov, it is necessary to help students understand why Alyosha felt like a “stranger” among the “stupid tribe”. Alyosha came to the Kashirins' house when he was four years old, but the impressions of another life were already living in him. He remembered a friendly family, his father Maxim Savvateevich, an intelligent, cheerful and talented person, and at first he was proud of his mother, who was not like the people around her. For the rest of his life, Alyosha also remembered “the first days of being saturated with beauty” while sailing on the ship.

How did the first impression of the Kashirin family reflect on the boy’s sensitive soul and big heart? We highlight those lines that say that Alyosha didn’t like everything: both adults and children, and even “grandmother somehow faded,” the words of his mother, whom he “prevents from leaving home,” also evoked painful thoughts in him , where she cannot live.” The “dense, motley, inexpressibly strange life” in the Kashirin family is perceived by Alyosha as “a harsh fairy tale, well told by a kind, painfully truthful genius.” Behind the epithets and comparisons with which the author conveys the boy’s state of mind, one can discern a subtle, poetic nature, a man of good feelings who does not put up with evil.

How has Alyosha changed during the days of “ill health”? - The teacher will help the children better understand the changes that have occurred in Alyosha with the help of narrower questions: how does Gorky convey Alyosha’s state? What's new in the boy's attitude towards people?

We reveal the changes that have occurred in Alyosha based on the material of the seventh chapter. Students will tell how Alyosha is driven to madness by the cruelty of street entertainment, how he feels shame before the blind master Grigory because his grandfather does not feed him.

Another source that strengthened Alyosha on his path was communication with real people from the people. A significant role in Alyosha’s moral maturity belongs to the Gypsy, with whose image the second theme of the story is connected - the image of how “through... a layer... of bestial rubbish the bright, healthy and creative grows.” Gypsy embodies wonderful human qualities: extraordinary kindness and humanity, hard work, deep inner decency, talent, desire for the best.

The image of the Gypsy does not cause any particular difficulties for students.

The teacher will guide the work with the following questions:

What did Alyosha learn about Gypsy’s past from his grandmother’s stories? Describe his portrait. What place did Gypsy occupy in his grandfather’s house? How did others treat him? What characteristics did his grandfather and grandmother give him? How do you understand the expression “golden hands”? Which episodes show Gypsy’s giftedness and talent? Tell us about his fun and expressively read the dance scene (analysis of this episode can be carried out while simultaneously watching a film fragment). How does Alyosha see the dancing Gypsy? Find comparisons in the description and determine their role. Did the artist B. A. Dekhterev manage to convey the character of the Gypsy in his drawing? Why did Alyosha fall in love with the Gypsy “and was amazed at him until he was speechless”? What influence did Gypsy have on Alyosha?

In conclusion, we find out (or report) how Gypsy died, and whether his death was accidental.

You can invite students at the end of the lesson to independently create a plan for the image of the Gypsy.

At home, students read the fourth chapter and receive individual assignments to collect material for the image of the grandmother.

The fourth lesson is entirely devoted to analyzing the image of the grandmother. A person of great natural intelligence, bright artistic talent and sensitive heartfelt responsiveness, Akulina Ivanovna instilled in her grandson a love for the world and people, opened his eyes to the beauty of nature, and connected him with folk art. Due to the high structure of her soul, she remained for Gorky all her life, in his words, “a friend, the closest to her heart... the most understandable and dear person”; her selfless love for the world enriched Alyosha, “saturating her with strong strength for a difficult life.” Initially, Gorky even intended to call the story “Grandmother.”

Students will find material for observing the image in chapters one, four and seven. The forms of work can be different: a conversation on questions or a teacher’s story.

Direct independent work by students on these chapters is also possible, when the student himself understands the meaning of the text and its artistic side, and then reports his observations to the class. In the latter case, specific tasks are needed that can be individualized: the first row prepares observations on the first chapter, the second on the second, third and seventh chapters, the focus of the third row is on the fourth chapter.

Questions and assignments for the first chapter may be as follows:

Describe the portrait of your grandmother. What means of figurative language did Gorky use when creating this portrait? What epithets predominate? Name them. How does grandma's talent manifest itself? How does the grandmother’s conversation with Alyosha and an excerpt from her fairy tale confirm Gorky’s words about the peculiarities of her speech? What words did the writer express his feelings of gratitude to his grandmother? For expressive reading, we can recommend a portrait of a grandmother and her conversation with her grandson.

The grandmother’s sense of beauty makes her irreconcilable with everything ugly. The writer revealed this side of her character in the second, third and seventh chapters. Akulina Ivanovna is shown in them against the background of the gloomy life of the Kashirin family. Let's ask students the following questions:

What role did the grandmother play in the house? Which episodes convey her kindness and desire to bring a spirit of peace into relationships between people? (Pay attention to the form of grandmother’s address to different people). How does her conversation with Alyosha about Master Gregory characterize her (chapter seven)? What is grandma's prayer? How is Akulina Ivanovna shown on holiday evenings? How does she appear to Alyosha during the dance and how does the artist capture her in the drawing? (Read this episode expressively, name words that convey the beauty of the grandmother’s movements and the richness of her creative powers).

In the fourth chapter, the grandmother is shown in a moment of danger (it is advisable to read the entire chapter in class). We recommend the following questions to prepare for your message:

Why was Alyosha so struck by his grandmother during the fire? What verbs convey the speed of her movements? How does she organize firefighting? Why is the episode with the horse Sharap interesting? What lines from the story can be signed under the drawing by B. A. Dekhterev? How did grandfather assess the strength of the grandmother? What lines from N. A. Nekrasov’s poem “Frost, Red Nose” come to mind when reading these pages?

To summarize, let’s talk about the grandmother’s extraordinary humanity, her love for people, her ability to do good to people in an environment of evil, and her faith in the victory of justice. In the image of his grandmother, Gorky embodied all the best that was characteristic of ordinary Russian people. At the same time, the wisdom of the grandmother is the wisdom of the patriarchal people; it expresses their humility and forgiveness. The grandmother even comes to terms with the cruelty that she herself had to experience more than once from her grandfather, finding justification for his outbursts of anger.

The work on the image will be completed by drawing up a plan.

At home, students read the story to the end and prepare answers to the questions in the textbook.

The last lesson reveals the role of the lodger Good Deed in Alyosha’s life and talks about the writer’s faith in the creative powers of the people and their future (chapters five, eight, twelve, thirteen).

The lesson begins with a conversation about what people and events influenced Alyosha’s character. It is worth briefly repeating what impressions Peshkov took from life in the Kashirins’ house, what his grandfather taught him (additional material is given in the fifth chapter), what influence Gypsy and his grandmother had on the boy. It is important that students understand how Alyosha’s unconscious protest against violence develops into conscious resistance to the injustice and cruelty that he observed around him, and what role in the growth of this feeling belongs to those wonderful people with whom his fate collided.

Alyosha also owes his inner growth and spiritual enrichment to a guest nicknamed Good Deed, who captivated the boy with his directness and truthfulness.

We listen to students’ answers to the textbook questions and deepen them using the following questions:

Who do you think is Good Deed? (An excerpt is read that talks about his mysterious and incomprehensible activities.) Why did Alyosha become friends with Good Deed and what did he value in this friendship? Students are asked to give examples of friendly conversations between the tenant and Alyosha and read out the most striking dialogues. What does Alyosha have in common with Good Deed? What was it about adults’ attitude towards him that caused Alyosha’s particular indignation? How does Alyosha express his protest against injustice? Is it random? Explain how you understand the words: “This is how my friendship ended with the first person from an endless series of strangers in my native country - its best people.”

These were the first lessons of harsh life that Alyosha received in the Kashirins’ house. The question of undoubted interest will be: are there any traits in Alyosha that allow us to believe that this boy can grow into a man with a big heart?

Simple Russian people, smart, kind, interesting, talented, strengthened in Alyosha the noble and bright traits of his personality: truthfulness and courage, kindness and sensitivity, the desire for knowledge, will and hard work (the thirteenth chapter), which were further developed during his wanderings “ in people" (we look at the final drawing for the story).

It should be said about the educational significance of Alyosha’s life path. The teacher can give examples of the difficult childhood of many people in pre-revolutionary Russia, when only thanks to enormous will and energy they were able to defeat the surrounding evil and enter the broad road of life.

In conclusion, we read the twelfth chapter, which expresses the main idea of the story, and discuss the question: what does the story teach us?

At home, students select material for the topic “Alyosha in the Kashirin family.”

The task of the next lesson, speech development lesson , - bring students’ knowledge on this topic into a strict system, that is, draw up a plan, highlight the most important thing in each point, practice transitions from one point of the plan to another, repeat citing techniques (one of the forms is points of the plan), think through a short introduction and conclusion to the topic .

Rough plan

I. Alyosha Peshkov is the central character of A. M. Gorky’s story “Childhood”.

II. Alyosha's harsh school of life.

The house of “mutual enmity of all with all.”
A stranger among the “stupid tribe.”
Alyosha's protest against the “leaden abominations of Russian life.”
What did friendship with Gypsy give to Alyosha?
A friend for life is a grandmother.
The role of the lodger is a good thing in the spiritual maturation of Alyosha.
"Strong strength for a difficult life."

III. What I like about Alyosha.

One or two student stories should be heard in class.

At home, students write an essay.

Literature

Gorky M. “Childhood.” Moscow, Enlightenment 1982
Weinberg I. Pages of a great life. Moscow, 1980
Gorky at school. Collection of articles edited by Golubkov V.V. Moscow, 1960
Dubinskaya M.S., Novoselskaya L.S. Russian literature in grades 6 – 7. Kyiv, 1977
Korovina V.Ya. Literature in 7th grade: Methodological advice. Book for teachers. Moscow, Education, 1995
Snezhevskaya M.A., Shevchenko P.A., Kurdyumova T.F. and others. Methodological guide to the textbook - anthology “Native Literature”. 6th grade. Moscow, Education, 1986

Grandfather told her:

-Are you okay, mother?

They kissed three times.

Grandfather pulled me out of the crowd of people and asked, holding me by the head:

-Whose will you be?

- Astrakhansky, from the cabin...

-What is he saying? - the grandfather turned to his mother and, without waiting for an answer, pushed me aside, saying:

- Those cheekbones are like fathers... Get into the boat!

We drove ashore and walked in a crowd up the mountain, along a ramp paved with large cobblestones, between two high slopes covered with withered, trampled grass.

Grandfather and mother walked ahead of everyone. He was as tall as her arm, walked shallowly and quickly, and she, looking down at him, seemed to be floating through the air. Behind them silently moved the uncles: black, smooth-haired Mikhail, dry as a grandfather; fair and curly-haired Yakov, some fat women in bright dresses and about six children, all older than me and all quiet. I walked with my grandmother and little aunt Natalya. Pale, blue-eyed, with a huge belly, she often stopped and, breathless, whispered:

- Oh, I can’t!

- Did they bother you? - Grandmother grumbled angrily. - What a stupid tribe!

I didn’t like both the adults and the children, I felt like a stranger among them, even my grandmother somehow faded and moved away.

I especially didn’t like my grandfather; I immediately sensed an enemy in him, and I developed a special attention to him, a cautious curiosity.

We reached the end of the congress. At the very top of it, leaning against the right slope and beginning the street, stood a squat one-story house, painted dirty pink, with a low roof and bulging windows. From the street it seemed large to me, but inside it, in the small, dimly lit rooms, it was cramped; Everywhere, as on a steamship in front of the pier, angry people were fussing, children were darting about in a flock of thieving sparrows, and everywhere there was a pungent, unfamiliar smell.

I found myself in the yard. The yard was also unpleasant: it was all hung with huge wet rags, filled with vats of thick, multi-colored water. The rags were also soaked in it. In the corner, in a low, dilapidated outbuilding, wood was burning hot in the stove, something was boiling, gurgling, and an invisible man was loudly saying strange words:

A dense, motley, inexpressibly strange life began and flowed with terrible speed. I remember it as a harsh tale, well told by a kind but painfully truthful genius. Now, reviving the past, I myself sometimes find it hard to believe that everything was exactly as it was, and I want to dispute and reject a lot - the dark life of the “stupid tribe” is too rich in cruelty.

But truth is higher than pity, and I’m not talking about myself, but about that close, stuffy circle of terrible impressions in which a simple Russian person lived - and still lives - to this day.

Grandfather's house was filled with a hot fog of mutual enmity of everyone with everyone; it poisoned adults, and even children took an active part in it. Subsequently, from my grandmother’s stories, I learned that my mother arrived precisely on those days when her brothers persistently demanded a division of property from their father. The unexpected return of their mother further exacerbated and intensified their desire to stand out. They were afraid that my mother would demand the dowry assigned to her, but withheld by my grandfather, because she had married “by hand,” against his will. The uncles believed that this dowry should be divided between them. They, too, had long and fiercely argued with each other about who should open a workshop in the city, and who should open a workshop beyond the Oka, in the settlement of Kunavin.

Soon after their arrival, in the kitchen during lunch, a quarrel broke out: the uncles suddenly jumped to their feet and, leaning over the table, began to howl and growl at grandfather, baring their teeth pitifully and shaking themselves like dogs, and grandfather, banging his spoon on the table, turned red full and loudly - like a rooster - he cried:

- I’ll send it around the world!

Contorting her face painfully, the grandmother said:

“Give them everything, father, it will make you feel better, give it back!”

- Tsits, potatchica! - the grandfather shouted, his eyes sparkling, and it was strange that, such a small one, he could scream so deafeningly.

The mother got up from the table and, slowly walking away to the window, turned her back to everyone.

Suddenly Uncle Mikhail hit his brother in the face with a backhand; he howled, grappled with him, and both rolled on the floor, wheezing, groaning, swearing.

The children began to cry, pregnant aunt Natalya screamed desperately; my mother dragged her somewhere, taking her in her arms; the cheerful, pockmarked nanny Evgenya was kicking the children out of the kitchen; chairs fell; the young, broad-shouldered apprentice Tsyganok sat astride Uncle Mikhail’s back, and master Grigory Ivanovich, a bald, bearded man in dark glasses, calmly tied his uncle’s hands with a towel.

Stretching his neck, the uncle rubbed his sparse black beard across the floor and wheezed terribly, and the grandfather, running around the table, cried out pitifully:

- Brothers, ah! Native blood! Oh you...

Even at the beginning of the quarrel, I was frightened, jumped up on the stove and from there watched in terrible amazement as my grandmother washed away the blood from Uncle Yakov’s broken face with water from a copper washstand; he cried and stamped his feet, and she said in a heavy voice:

- Damned, wild tribe, come to your senses!

The grandfather, pulling a torn shirt over his shoulder, shouted to her:

- What, the witch gave birth to animals?

When Uncle Yakov left, grandma poked her head into the corner, howling amazingly:

- Most Holy Mother of God, restore reason to my children!

The grandfather stood sideways to her and, looking at the table, where everything was overturned and spilled, said quietly:

- You, mother, look after them, otherwise they will harass Varvara, what good...

- That's enough, God be with you! Take off your shirt, I’ll sew it up...

And, squeezing his head with her palms, she kissed her grandfather on the forehead; He, small opposite her, poked his face into her shoulder:

- Apparently we need to share, mother...

- We must, father, we must!

They talked for a long time; At first it was friendly, and then the grandfather began to shuffle his foot along the floor, like a rooster before a fight, shook his finger at the grandmother and whispered loudly:

- I know you, you love them more! And your Mishka is a Jesuit, and Yashka is a farmer! And they will drink up my goodness and squander it...

Turning awkwardly on the stove, I knocked the iron over; thundering down the steps of the building, he plopped into a tub of slop. Grandfather jumped onto the step, pulled me down and began to look into my face as if he was seeing me for the first time.

-Who put you on the stove? Mother?

- No, myself. I was afraid.

He pushed me away, lightly hitting my forehead with his palm.

- Just like my father! Go away…

I was glad to escape from the kitchen.

I clearly saw that my grandfather was watching me with his smart and keen green eyes, and I was afraid of him. I remember I always wanted to hide from those burning eyes. It seemed to me that my grandfather was evil; he speaks to everyone mockingly, insultingly, teasing and trying to anger everyone.

- Oh, you! - he often exclaimed; The long “ee-and” sound always gave me a dull, chilly feeling.

At the hour of rest, during evening tea, when he, his uncles and workers came to the kitchen from the workshop, tired, with their hands stained with sandalwood, burnt with vitriol, with their hair tied with a ribbon, all looking like dark icons in the corner of the kitchen - in this dangerous For an hour my grandfather sat opposite me and, arousing the envy of his other grandchildren, talked to me more often than to them. It was all foldable, chiseled, sharp. His satin, silk-embroidered, blank waistcoat was old and worn out, his cotton shirt was wrinkled, there were large patches on the knees of his trousers, and yet he seemed to be dressed cleaner and more handsome than his sons, who wore jackets, shirtfronts and silk scarves around their necks.

A few days after my arrival, he forced me to learn prayers. All the other children were older and were already learning to read and write from the sexton of the Assumption Church; its golden heads were visible from the windows of the house.

I was taught by the quiet, timid Aunt Natalya, a woman with a childish face and such transparent eyes that, it seemed to me, through them I could see everything behind her head.