Annotation. This lesson will allow you to talk with children about very complex philosophical problem searching for the meaning of life. The conversation begins with animal heroes: the dog Grass and the wolf Gray landowner have their own truth. Whose life principles choose where this can lead a person in his difficult life when a person ceases to be a person? Prishvin’s fairy tale makes us think about these and many other questions.
Key words: truth, the meaning of life, goodness, fidelity, life for others, anger, selfishness, hatred, life for oneself, love, fidelity.
I would like to offer you a lesson on Prishvin’s fairy tale “The Pantry of the Sun”. Unlike my previous articles, this one is devoted to a programmatic work. There are a great many lessons on it (both in magazines and on the Internet). And yet I risk offering my own version.
IN this work starting point for serious conversation Antipych's words about the truth became. At first glance, it seems that it is impossible to talk with sixth graders about such a complex topic. But this is only at first glance. This lesson turned out to be one of the most interesting and memorable in my practice. And the concepts “truth of the Grass” and “truth of the wolf” entered the vocabulary of my students and began to be used by them in other lessons.
During the classes
1 . Creating a problematic situation.
— There were Prishvina in the fairy tale, as in any work of art, a lot of mysteries. For example, there is an episode where the narrator remembers how they asked Antipych how old he was, and he only joked in response. “Antipych, stop your jokes, tell us the truth, how old are you?” - they asked him. “In truth,” answered the old man, “I will tell you if you tell me in advance what the truth is, what it is, where it lives and how to find it.” What kind of truth do you think we are talking about here?
- Let's look at the dictionary.
The meaning of the word “truth” according to Ushakov’s dictionary:
Truth is what corresponds to reality, what actually is, the truth. Tell me the whole truth, don't be afraid of me. Pushkin. 2. Truthfulness, correctness. Nobody thinks about the truth of my words.
The ideal of behavior, which consists in compliance of actions with the requirements of morality, duty, correct understanding and implementation ethical principles. Seek the truth. Stand for the truth. Live the truth. Suffer for the truth.
— The word, as you see, has many meanings. In what meaning, in your opinion, does Antipych use the word “truth”?
- That is, the truth is a kind of guideline to which we must strive, the meaning of life, if you like. How can you rephrase Antipych’s question? (What is the meaning of life and how to find it?)
— What a serious philosophical question is asked in this work! Have you ever wondered what the meaning of life is? In any case, I suggest you think about it now.
2. Text analysis. “The truth of the grass and the truth of the wolf.”
- So, let's try to find the answer to this complex issue there were in a fairy tale
Prishvin "Pantry of the Sun". Continuing the same conversation, Antipych says to his interlocutors: “Here is Travka, a hound dog, he understands everything from one word, and you, stupid ones, ask where the truth lives.” So, Travka knows where the truth lives, knows what the meaning of life is? Maybe she will help us find the answer to the question?
— Tell the story of Travka’s life.
- What is the truth of Travka? How does she understand this? Truth, or the meaning of Travka’s life, is love for a person; in living not only for oneself, but also for others, in caring for a person; in friendship; kindness, loyalty and devotion.
- Why does Travka feel so bad now?Why does she howl when she climbs a hill? She has lost the meaning of life, she has no one to live for.
— Who is opposed to Grass in this part?Of course, Wolf.
- Why does the wolf howl? What is his truth?He is characterized by anger; the desire to live for itself, the wild beast lives for itself.
- So, in the example of Grass and the wolf, we see two different views on life, two different truths. But Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin said: “After all, my friends, I write about nature, but I myself only think about people.” Therefore, of course, we will turn to Nastya and Mitrasha and talk about how they search for their truth.
H. Text analysis. "The path to the truth of Nastya and Mitrasha."
- Let's remember how Nastya and Mitrash lived.
- What can you say about their attitude towards each other? They lived and worked very
together, helped each other, took care of each other, took care of their household.
- Whose truth is their idea of life similar to: the truth of the Grass or the truth of the wolf?
“But life is structured in such a way that it constantly puts a person in front of some obstacles, difficulties, tests a person’s strength, loyalty to his convictions, his principles. What in this work served as a test for children? Their trip for cranberries, their argument, quarrel and how they got out of a difficult situation.)
— What caused their quarrel?They began to argue about which path to take.
- What do we see here instead of friendship, caring for each other? How do children behave in
this episode? What feelings do you have towards each other? They got angry, angry with each other; did not want to listen to each other, did not want to obey the other; everyone in this moment thought only of himself; Nastya even spat after her brother.
Tasks for the first group:
1. Read the episode “Mitrash in the Swamp” (with the words: “Little by little, as
Mitrash moved forward according to the direction of the arrow and the path...” to the words: “Tears flowed down his tanned face and down his cheeks in shiny rivulets.”)
2. Follow how Mitrash got into the Blind Elan. To do this, highlight the sentences that describe the path along which Mitrash walks.
1) What definition does the author give to this trail? Why? By what signs can we determine that in front of us is a path along which people walked?
2) With what feelings does Mitrash walk along this path? Why?
3) Does he remember about his sister? What feelings does he have towards his sister now? Try to guess what he thinks about what happened.
4) Why does Mitrasha leave this path?
6) What is the result of his imprudent act?
“The layer under Mitrash’s feet became thinner and thinner... but he kept walking and walking forward. Mitrash could only believe the man who walked ahead of him and even left the path behind him.” “Migrash... was not a coward at all - why should he be a coward if there was a human path under his feet: a man like him was walking, which means that he himself, Mitrasha, could boldly follow it
go".
“Here I saw Mitrash: his path turns sharply to the left and goes there far and there
completely disappears. He checked the compass, the arrow was pointing north, the path went to
west... Recognizing in the direction of the white man a path that does not go directly north, Mitrasha
I thought: “Why would I turn left, onto the bumps, if the path is just a stone’s throw away,
visible there, behind the clearing?
Mitrasha chooses the weak path that the compass pointed to. The author defines this path as “human.” You can recognize it by the white grass that grows along the path. This is the path along which a person walked. Mitrash walks along it boldly, because people walked along it, which means he can walk along it too. He doesn't think about his sister. At least the author doesn't write anything about it. But perhaps he thinks that he is right, he is proud that he did not follow the lead of his elder
sisters.
Mitrash leaves the path because the compass needle points to the north, and the path goes to the left, and because right in front of him there is a clean, level place, not at all like something terrible and deadly. As a result, he falls into the Blind Elan and almost drowns.
— What is the meaning of the epithet “human path”? After all, having left this human path, Mitrasha ends up in the Blind Elan. Forgetting about his sister, feeling angry and irritated, Mitrasha leaves the human path.
— In the last lesson, we talked about how Mitrash takes a compass with him because his father taught him so. He said: “This arrow is more faithful to you than a friend: sometimes your friend will cheat on you, but the arrow invariably always, no matter how you turn it, always looks north.” Why did the compass fail the boy in this situation?
— Kozma Prutkov said: “The magnet points north and south; It is up to a person to choose a good or bad path of life.” How do you understand these lines? You can’t mindlessly follow the compass needle. It only indicates where north is. But where you go is up to you to decide. The compass needle will help you get out of the forest, but it will not be able to show you the path in life. It depends only on the person, on his choice.
Tasks for the second group
1. Read the episode “Nastya collects cranberries” (from the words: “At first, Nastya picked each berry from the vine, and bent down to the ground separately for each berry”).
2. Analyze Nastya’s behavior.
To do this, answer the questions:
1) How does Nastya collect berries first and then? Why?
2) Does she remember her brother? What feelings does she have?
3) Remember why they separated.
Is Nastya following the path she has chosen or, like her brother, has she lost her way? Why?
4) How does the moose look at Nastya? Why?
5) What is the author’s attitude towards Nastya at this moment? Why does he talk about her “the old golden hen on high legs”?
6) When was Nastya able to tear herself away from the berries? Why does she, looking at the viper, imagine “as if she herself remained there, on the stump, and now has come out of the snake’s skin and is standing, not understanding where she is”?
“Nastya, as we see, does not fall into a quagmire; nothing threatens her life. But the author’s attitude towards her is clearly changing. Why? She, greedily collecting cranberries and forgetting about her brother, loses her human appearance.
- What do we see? What can a path lead to where resentment reigns, unwillingness to listen to others, and giving in?
“Thus, we see that the path chosen by the children does not lead them to anything good: Mitrasha almost dies, Nastya loses her human appearance.
—Who helps the children? How does Grass help Nastya? Mitrash? Grass. She helps Nastya remember her brother:
“- Muravka, Muravka, I’ll give you some bread!
And she reached into the basket for bread. The basket was filled to the top, and there was bread under the cranberries.
How much time passed, how many cranberries lay there from morning to evening, until the huge basket was filled? Where was the hungry brother during this time, and how did she forget about him, how did she forget herself and everything around her?”
Grass pulls Mitrasha out of the swamp.
- Why did Travka end up near Nastya? Why did Grass rush to Mitrasha’s call?
She felt human misfortune.
— Why does Travka help the guys? What does the Grass remind them of? Grass
reminds children about eternal values: love, devotion, partnership, fidelity;
returns them to humanity, to the human path, to their truth.
— Was everything that happened important for Travka herself? The grass has found its owner.
- What is it like? further fate wolf?Mitrasha kills him.
— What meaning does the author put into this episode? Why exactly does Mitrasha kill the wolf? Killing a wolf is a victory. Victory over evil, indifference, selfishness. To some extent, Mitrash kills the wolf in himself.
— What, according to Prishvin, does each of these paths lead to? Prishvin shows that the path of Grass leads to happiness, the path of the wolf leads to death.
— What was the future fate of the children? Where did they put the cranberries collected in the swamp? Is it important? They give cranberries to children evacuated from Leningrad, showing their care and concern for other people.
Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin's story “The Pantry of the Sun” tells about orphans, how they coped with difficulties, how they learned to live without parents.
The author describes the main characters very carefully. The girl, Nastya, the eldest in the family, seems to the reader to be responsible and very hardworking. She has freckles on her face, blond hair, is fragile and very smart. She always gave in to her brother, tried to do the best and helped him in everything. The author calls her a golden chicken with high legs. In my opinion, it was not for nothing that Mikhail Mikhailovich gave such a nickname to Nastya. Throughout the story, he writes about her with respect. Nastya got up before sunrise, drove the herd of cows out to pasture and, without going to bed, did all the housework until nightfall.
Mitrash, brother main character, the author describes as “a little man in a bag.” He learned some craft from his father and took care of men's household chores. Mitrash sold or exchanged the results of his craft. This is how the orphans lived, arranging their lives.
The author of the story very accurately divides household responsibilities between the children. Left alone, without parents, Nastya and Mitrasha do household chores together. “The golden hen on high legs and the little man in the bag” do women’s and men’s chores, respectively. This division of labor between children gives them, in my opinion, the cohesion and friendship that should exist between family members.
One day the children decide to go get cranberries. In the forest they diverge along different paths. Mitrash falls into a swamp and cannot get out for a long time, and Nastya, carried away by picking cranberries, forgets about her brother. A forester's dog named Travka helps the children find each other.
Mikhail Prishvin called his story “Pantry of the Sun” because there is a lot of peat in the forest swamps. During times Patriotic War this fuel was very valuable, and remains valuable to this day.
In my opinion, the author of the story very accurately conveyed the entire atmosphere that should exist between children who were left without parents. Prishvin showed brotherly and sisterly love. Nastya and Mitrasha were always together and lived in peace. After all, they were left alone in the whole world, and dearer friend they have no friend. The author clearly shows in his work what can happen if a brother and sister do not get along with each other.
After reading the story “Pantry of the Sun,” every reader will ask the question: how do I feel about my sister or my brother? After all dearer than sister or the person has no brother. They should always be together and help each other. And in order to better understand how to treat to a loved one, it is worth reading this story.
Analysis Pantry of the Sun - where is the truth and where is the fairy tale
The work was written in 1945, so its plot and characters in the story correspond to that difficult time for the country.
The plot is simple. In some Russian village there live a boy and a girl. They live alone because they are orphans - their father died in the war, and their mother died of illness. The girl is 12 years old, the boy is 10 years old. They have a house, they have pets: a cow, sheep, chickens.
When you start reading the story, you immediately realize that it is fiction. It can’t be that the kids don’t have relatives in the village. It cannot be that the children of the deceased Red Army soldier were not placed in Orphanage. And how, at that age, did they manage a household that even an adult couldn’t handle?
Further events develop like this. A common village thing: the children went into the forest to pick berries (cranberries). The girl, of course, carries a basket, and the boy, in today’s terminology – “cool,” takes with him a gun and a compass. Well, the compass is clear - a toy, but the gun is taller than a ten-year-old boy. How will he carry it? But the author comes up with an excuse: a lonely and hungry wolf lives in the forest. So, for protection from the wolf, he took a gun with him.
I should note that the fabulousness is also in the title of the story: “The Pantry of the Sun.” This, according to the author's idea, is the name of the swamp. But Russians never fired their stoves with peat. We had enough firewood. And such a name would never have been given to the swamp. They were far from scientific idea that peat, coal and oil are a concentrate of solar energy.
So the boy and the girl went into the forest and, of course, quarreled (as in the fairy tale - don’t drink water - you’ll become a little goat). The brother did not listen to his sister: he did not follow the path, but followed the compass. He reached the swamp and fell into the swamp there. Thank God he had a gun with him! He grabbed the gun and did not drown.
And then a stray dog (man’s friend) came to the rescue and pulled him out of the swamp. And then he shot the evil wolf. Then his sister, having collected cranberries, found him, and they returned home. And in the village everyone was already alarmed: where did the children go? This is a semi-fairy-tale story.
The story is written beautifully, but what does it teach us? Maybe live together, love dogs and kill wolves. Or - don’t go, the children are alone in the forest: wolves live there.
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My grandmother's name is Anna. She is very good and kind. I always call her grandma because she deserves that word. Grandma always played with me, bought me a lot of goodies, taught me how to bake pies. She always read me different fairy tales at night
The very subtitle of the story “The Pantry of the Sun (Fairy Tale)” forces the reader to pay attention to the genre of the work. “The Fairy Tale” was created in such a way that the real and the fabulous are intertwined in it, and this happens at all levels and at the linguistic level, because the work clearly traces folklore motives in the construction of the narrative, in descriptions, in vocabulary, and at the plot level, when the motive of saving the hero from inevitable death (fairy tale motive) is played out by the writer in such a way that this salvation does not cause the reader the slightest doubt about its authenticity; and in the images of the heroes - Nastya, Mitrasha, old man Antipych, the dog Travka there is a lot of fairy tale characters- It is no coincidence that the narrator compares Nastya with the Golden Hen, and Mitrash has the nickname “Little Man in a Bag”.
However, there is a clear connection with fairy world does not turn the story “The Pantry of the Sun” into a stylization, Prishvin creates a completely original work in both genre and visual terms, which describes the amazing and at the same time quite real, sometimes even “mundane” adventures of orphaned children who, however, live just as not every adult will be able to live in such difficult circumstances in which they found themselves after “their mother died of illness and their father died in the Patriotic War.”
Prishvin in his work “Pantry of the Sun” shows children who live adult life, he lovingly describes Nastya’s thriftiness, Mitrasha’s skill, he openly admires his heroes: “And what smart kids they were! ... there was not a single house where they lived and worked as friendly as our favorites lived.” The writer with great knowledge of the matter describes how Mitrasha makes wooden dishes; he admires Nastya, who, despite her age, behaves like an adult housewife. But, at the same time, children remain children, and the constant squabbles between brother and sister, during which most often Mitrash tries to prove that he is “the boss in the house,” are also dear to the author, he sees in them a genuine relationship between brother and sister, which They love each other very much, between whom there is “such a beautiful equality.”
The characters' personalities are also revealed in the way they gather for cranberries. The thoroughness, the seriousness of the preparations, the brother’s story about the “Palestine” that his father once spoke about, the hope that they will be able to find this “unknown to anyone, where the sweet cranberries grow” - and the ridiculous dispute, as a result of which the brother and sister Let's go each our own way in the forest...
Prishvin is wonderful at describing nature. In the "Pantry of the Sun" nature becomes independent actor, she lives her own life, but she is also “tuned” in a special way to the lives of the heroes. When Mitrasha and Nastya parted, went in different directions, “Then the gray darkness moved in tightly and covered the entire sun with its life-giving rays. An evil wind blew very sharply. The trees intertwined with roots, piercing each other with branches, growled, howled, groaned throughout the Bludovo swamp ". This is how nature expresses its attitude to what is happening and, as it were, predicts that the heroes will face further trials.
The image of old Antipych was created in fairy-tale traditions: the hero is very old, he does not say how old he is, his speech is full of riddles, he knows how to talk to his dog Grass, he keeps certain secrets that cannot be conveyed to just anyone, to comprehend them a person must certain prepare in a way. Dying, he trusts Travka with his main secret- relationships between living beings must be built on love, this love must be mutual, it must come to the rescue when living beings need help. It is interesting that Prishvin speaks not only about relationships between people, because it is no coincidence that he calls the death of Antipych a “terrible misfortune” in the life of Travka, who cannot forget her owner and is constantly looking for him, eventually finding him in Mitrash.” little Antipych,” whom she saved from death in the swamp.
Mitrasha found himself in trouble because he relied on himself and forgot about folk wisdom, “Not knowing the ford, I left the beaten human path and climbed straight into Blind Yelan.” The boy, “sensing danger, stopped and thought about his situation,” but was too late and “felt himself tightly engulfed on all sides to the very chest” by a quagmire that would never have let him go if Grass had not come to his aid.
If Mitrasha left the “human path” because of arrogance, then Nastya was taken away from her... by unconscious greed - the girl walked and walked “for cranberries”, and did not notice how she ended up where “people don’t go.” It is noteworthy that, having realized this, she was afraid not for herself, but for her brother, and her desperate cry was heard by Mitrash, who was dying in the swamp. Nastya reproaches herself for her greed, and this moment is one of the most touching in the story.
An understanding was not immediately established between Mitrash and Travka, but after the boy called the dog that saved him from the quagmire, he was transformed in her eyes, he “shaken off the dirt from his rags and, like a real big man, imperiously ordered..." - for Travka, he became her master: "With a squeal of joy, recognizing the owner, she threw herself on his neck..." In moments of mortal danger, Mitrasha behaved like an adult, and a living creature recognized his right to be called the owner - he became truly strong. Confirmation of this is that he manages to kill a seasoned predator, and this turns out to be surprising for people who “gave up their business for a while and gathered, and not only from their village, but even from neighboring villages... And it’s hard to say who they looked at more - the wolf or the hunter in a cap with a double visor."
The children turned out to be not just wonderful children, the trials they went through revealed new, completely adult qualities, wonderful character traits. Nastya gave away all the cranberries, which almost led her astray life path, evacuated Leningrad children, and this was already a completely adult, conscious act that raised the girl even higher in the eyes of the storytellers. Although the author reports that the story is told on behalf of the geologists who discovered peat reserves in the “Pantry of the Sun,” the reader understands that the author of the work expresses his own life position that he admires young heroes, in whom there is so much warmth, humanity, self-esteem, who feel the natural world so subtly and are such worthy representatives of the human world.
M. M. Prishvin entered literature not only as a talented writer, but also as an ethnographer, geographer, and cosmographer. However, his works were not in demand in Soviet society. Ideal for the literature of that time were works full of high civil and revolutionary pathos, saturated with the socialist slogans of those years. Prishvin's work was considered an attempt to get away from real life, from solving pressing problems to building a bright future. Prishvin's discovery as talented artist words took place only in last decades. Today he is one of the most unsolved writers.
The nature of his work had a huge influence on all his work. native land. The future writer was born on the Khrushchevo estate. It was here that he learned to listen and hear the sounds of nature, its sometimes quiet and sometimes loud speech. Prishvin was very gifted with hearing “for the whistling of birds, the breathing of grass and the murmuring of animals.” He tried his best to convey the voice of nature, to translate it into human language. We are amazed at this ability of his while reading the story “The Pantry of the Sun.”
The plot of this work is quite simple. This is a story about the life and adventures of two little children who were left orphans during difficult times. post-war years. But Prishvin wraps his characters in such a poetic shell that everything that happens becomes like a fairy tale. This is exactly the genre that Prishvin chooses for his work - a fairy tale. The concept of “fairy tale” will become central in Prishvin’s work in the 20-50s. For the writer, this concept was a form of artistic storytelling in which he could freely embody his ideals and depict the immutable laws of nature. In “Pantry of the Sun” he creates the image of an ideal village where everyone lives peacefully, amicably, okay. And the small family - brother Mitrasha and sister Nastya - are everyone’s favorites, they are two little suns.
“Nastya was like the Golden Hen on high legs. Her hair, neither dark nor light, shimmered with gold, and the freckles all over her face were large, like gold coins. Only one nose was clean and looked up. Mitrasha was two years younger than his sister. He was a stubborn and strong boy. “A little man in a bag,” the teachers at school called him smiling among themselves. “The little man in the bag,” like Nastya, was covered in golden freckles, and his nose, clean, like his sister’s, looked up.” The author lovingly describes his characters and gives them cute names. And this also somewhat resembles a fairy tale.
And so our little heroes set off on a long journey to a Palestinian woman, whom they know about from their father’s stories. This is reminiscent of the saying: “go there, I don’t know where.” Children find themselves in a huge fairyland, where every bush, every bird has the ability to speak and think. The author places us in wonderful world nature, while he tries with all his might to show the kinship of man with this natural world: “poor birds and little animals, how they all suffered, trying to pronounce some common, one beautiful word! And even children, as simple as Nastya and Mitrasha, understood their effort. They all wanted to say just one beautiful word. You can see how the bird sings on the branch, and every feather trembles with effort. But still, they cannot say words like we do, and they have to sing, shout, and tap.
- Tek-tek! – a huge bird, the capercaillie, taps barely audibly dark forest.
- Shvark-shwark! – a wild drake flew in the air over the river.
- Quack-quack! – wild duck mallard on the lake.
- Gu-gu-gu. - a beautiful bullfinch bird on a birch tree.”
The author appears here as a person with a keen ear, capable of hearing and understanding the wonderful language of birds, plants and animals. Prishvin uses a wide variety of means of artistic expression. But the most main reception, with the help of which the heroes of the natural world come to life on the pages of the work, is personification. In the fairy tale, not only animals, but also birds and even trees had the ability to think. These are raven and crow talking, and cranes announcing the coming of the sun and its sunset, and the groan of fused pine and spruce.
Nature is not inactive, it actively comes to the aid of man. The old women-fir-trees also warn Mitrash about the trouble; they try in vain to block his path to the destructive fir-tree. And the black raven scares him with its cry. What can we say about smart, quick-witted and devoted to a person dog Travka!
Thus, main topic in were - the theme of the unity of man and nature. In his works, Prishvin “condenses goodness,” he embodies his ideals and thereby calls on readers to goodness.
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"Pantry of the Sun"
The study of “The Pantry of the Sun” should be considered as a continuation and development of the theme “ Native nature" The teacher’s task in this case is complicated by the fact that the fairy tale “The Pantry of the Sun” is not just a work about nature. IN diary entry M. Prishvin says: “In „Pantry“I wrote that truth is a harsh struggle for love...” Prishvin creates a fairy tale “for everyone.” The meaning contained in it is deep. Just as the sun deposited its energy in peat deposits, the writer placed in the “Pantry of the Sun” everything that he had accumulated over the years. long years: good relations for people, love for nature... Truth is not just love for a person. It is concluded in a harsh struggle for love and is revealed in the clash of two principles: evil and love. “On one side of the semicircle a dog howls, on the other a wolf howls... What a pitiful howl it is. But you, a passer-by, if you hear and a response arises in you, do not believe in pity: it is not a dog howling, truest friend a person is a wolf, his worst enemy, doomed to death by his very malice. You, passer-by, save your pity not for the one who howls about himself like a wolf, but for the one who, like a dog that has lost its owner, howls, not knowing who now, after him, to serve.” .
Evil, seeking to satisfy predatory instincts, encounters the power of love, the passionate desire to survive. Therefore, Prishvin’s fairy tale shines not only with love - there is a struggle in it, a clash of good and evil.
The author used some techniques of a traditional fairy tale. There are confluences of almost fabulous accidents and coincidences here. Animals take an active part in the fate of children. Raven, poisonous snake, magpie, wolf nicknamed Gray Landowner are hostile to children. Dog Travka is a representative of " good nature"-serves man faithfully. It is interesting to note that the tale was originally called "Man's Friend." All the author’s philosophical discussions about the “true truth” are placed in the chapters telling about Travka.
And at the same time, the events in the work have a real basis. “Pantry of the Sun” was written in 1945, after the end of the Great Patriotic War. And “back in 1940, the author spoke about his intention to work on a story about how two children quarreled and how they went along two separate roads, not knowing that in the forest, very often such bypass roads are again connected into one common one. The children met, and the road itself reconciled them.” (according to the memoirs of V.D. Prishvina).
The technique of merging the fabulous and the real made it possible for the writer to express his ideal, the dream of the high purpose of man, of his responsibility to all life on earth. The fairy tale is permeated with the writer’s optimistic faith in the closeness and possibility of realizing this dream, if one looks for its embodiment in real life, among seemingly ordinary people. The writer expressed this idea primarily in the main characters of the work - Nastya and Mitrash.
The originality of the work is the revelation of man through nature, through man’s relationship to nature. Prishvin wrote: “After all, my friends, I write about nature, but I myself only think about people.”
Possible distribution of material among lessons
Part of the first lesson is devoted to getting acquainted with individual facts of the biography of M. M. Prishvin, as well as his works. This will awaken interest in the work of the writer, with whom most sixth-graders will become acquainted for the first time. In this case, it would be possible to invite students to read in advance some of his works - stories in the collections “Forest Drops”, “Floors of the Forest”, “Golden Meadow”, “Forest Doctor”, etc., and then in a small conversation at the beginning of the lesson to express their opinion or read a review of a book you’ve read.
M. M. Prishvin was born in 1873 near Yelets, on the noble estate of Khrushchevo, owned by his father, who came from Yelets merchants. He grew up among peasant children, studied at the Yelets gymnasium and was expelled from there with a “wolf ticket” for a major quarrel with the teacher. Then Prishvin studied at a real school in Tyumen, passed exams as an external student for a classical gymnasium course, and entered the Riga Polytechnic Institute. For participation in a Social Democratic student organization, he was arrested and, after a year in prison, deported to his homeland under open police surveillance. In 1899, Prishvin traveled to Germany, to Leipzig, from where he returned four years later with a diploma in agronomist. He works at an experimental agricultural station, preparing himself for scientific and pedagogical activities in the laboratory of Academician D. N. Pryanishnikov. But his awakened interest in literature forces him to dramatically change his destiny.
Since 1905, Prishvin became a travel writer, ethnographer, and essayist. Publishes books. Actively collaborates in newspapers. He travels and walks around the country. He maintained this way of life until old age. Prishvin admitted more than once that he embodied in him the dreams and fairy tales of his own childhood...
In children's literature, Prishvin remained as the author of several collections of stories (“Fox Bread”, “The Chipmunk Beast”, “Grandfather’s Felt Boots”, “Stories of the Gamekeeper Mikhail Mikhalych”, etc.), the fairy tale “The Pantry of the Sun” and a wonderful adaptation of the autobiographical story of the Canadian Indian Vash Quonnasin "Grey Owl" .
Instead of a story about a biography, you can read excerpts from “The Golden Rose” by K. G. Paustovsky (chapter “Mikhail Prishvin”).
The second part of the lesson is devoted to reading aloud (by the teacher or a previously prepared student) the beginning of the fairy tale “The Pantry of the Sun.”
At home, sixth-graders read M. Prishvin’s work to the end.
The second lesson can be devoted to an initial acquaintance with the ideological and artistic features of the fairy tale “The Pantry of the Sun”, the characters of its main characters - Nastya and Mitrasha.
The purpose of this lesson is to understand why “The Pantry of the Sun” is called a “fairy tale”. This question is very complex, so you should not try to achieve comprehensive answers in class. On at this stage students will only indicate what can be classified as a fairy tale and what was. To this end, the following questions are proposed:
1. Where and when does the action take place in M. Prishvin’s work “The Pantry of the Sun”?
2. How does the beginning of the work resemble a fairy tale?
3. Remember artistic images, individual episodes that can be called fabulous. Think about what role they play in the work.
4. What is true in “The Pantry of the Sun”?
By highlighting fairy-tale and realistic elements, let us draw students' attention to the fact that the fairy-tale elements in Prishvin's work are no more, but no less, fabulous than all other images of the work. Consequently, everything here can be called a fairy tale and at the same time a reality. Here it is important to note the features of the writer’s style: when talking about something magical, Prishvin will carefully note “seems”, “as if”, “seems”, and if we're talking about about the real, the writer will definitely emphasize the magical properties of kindness and hard work.
Thus, when analyzing, it is important to focus students’ attention on the fact that in the work “The Pantry of the Sun” “fairy tales and fairy tales never become in different ways, different components of the narrative - the essence of Prishvin’s manner is precisely that they are clearly perceptible and absolutely inseparable in every detail of the text" .
The next stage of the lesson is working on the characteristics of Nastya and Mitrasha. Sample questions for conversation:
2. Highlight comparisons and epithets that help understand author's attitude to Nastya and Mitrasha. What properties of these children’s characters do you think are especially dear to the author?
3. Remember how Nastya and Mitrasha lived after the death of their mother. What kind of relationship developed between them? What do you think was most amazing about their lives?
The main content of the next lesson is understanding the conflict between Nastya and Mitrasha, its causes and consequences; spiritualization of nature, its participation in the fate of heroes.
To understand the conflict between Nastya and Mitrasha, some methodologists propose organizing a discussion that helps to arouse interest in what is read, and also promotes a conscious understanding of the work. The main questions of the lesson: who is right - Nastya or Mitrash? Whose side is the narrator on?
Another way is also possible - “following the author.” In this case, we offer a conversation with constant reference to the text. Sample questions and tasks:
1. Retell in your own words and then read the scene of the argument between Nastya and Mitrasha. Pay attention to how nature “behaves”. Is it possible to determine whose side the author is on?
2. What made Mitrasha take an uncharted path? Why did he get into trouble? How does the author relate to Mitrasha in this story? What helped Mitrasha emerge victorious from everything that happened? Support your assumptions with details from the text.
3. How did Nastya behave when she was alone? Why did she forget about her brother? What does the author condemn in Nastya’s behavior? Find artistic image, which helps to understand the author’s attitude towards Nastya.
4. Why does the writer insert into his narrative a story about a spruce and a pine tree growing together? Why is this story placed before the children appear in the forest?
5. Read the description of nature after the episode of the children’s quarrel (from the words “Then the gray darkness moved in tightly ...” to the words “howled, groaned ...”). Think about how the author helps you understand the meaning of what is happening. What is the author's attitude towards this?
6. Why did Grass come to the aid of man?
It is appropriate not only to specifically remember what personification is, but also to carry out work that will help expand and consolidate this concept. Students give examples from the “Pantry of the Sun”, when inanimate objects are endowed with the signs of living beings, plants and animals seem to acquire human properties: a black grouse greets the sun, a guard raven calls for a close fight, a pine and a spruce, old Christmas trees growing together interfere with Mitrash etc. It is important to make it clear to students that throughout the course of the story one can feel a person’s desire to comprehend and animate nature, to make it understandable, close and dear to people.
At home, students must answer in writing one of the questions proposed for conversation in class.
In the next lesson after testing homework You can begin to summarize what you have learned. the main objective lesson - determine the main idea of the work. Using a system of questions, the teacher will lead sixth-graders to the conclusion - the “truth” of life, its most important meaning lies in the unity of man and nature, in the related wise attitude man to nature. Using the example of the main characters, the writer strives to show the strength, beauty of man, his power and enormous capabilities. The title of the work is associated not only with peat deposits. The author means the spiritual treasures of a person who lives in nature and is her friend.
Sample conversation questions
1. Why did the writer call his work a fairy tale? What meaning did he put into these words?
After answering this question, it would be appropriate to read the writer’s dedication, placed in one of the first editions for children, “The Pantry of the Sun,” which will help to better understand the meaning of the entire work:
"Content an ordinary fairy tale- this is the struggle of a human hero with some villain (Ivan Tsarevich with the Serpent-Gorynych). And at the end of the struggle there must certainly be victory, and a fairy tale in this sense is an expression of the universal faith in the victory of good over evil. With this faith I walked my long journey literary path, with this faith I hope to finish it and pass it on as an inheritance to you, my young friends and comrades.” .
2. What significance does the story of Travka have in the work?
3. What meaning does the writer give to the words “pantry of the sun”?
4. What is the significance of the dispute between Nastya and Mitrasha in the work? How is this story connected with the words: “This truth is the truth of the eternal harsh struggle of people for love”?
5. How do you imagine the narrator?
6. Read the epigraph to the chapter. How does he characterize the writer?
In conclusion, we can say that after the appearance of “Pantry of the Sun,” the Mosfilm film studio invited Prishvin to write a film script based on this work. The film was never created, but the film story entitled “The Gray Landowner” was published in the collection of works by M. M. Prishvin in 1957.
