The meaning of this tale is extremely simple. That’s why this gudgeon is so old that it didn’t get involved in various troubles and stories. Life is certainly boring, but it is long. Everyone has their own lifestyle. This is what some people say these days: Live your life quickly and burn brightly, like a match, or smolder slowly, like a cigarette. The gudgeon lived his entire life invisible, while his relatives lived to the fullest and died before him. As for me, the golden mean is better. That is, not so much to be quiet, but also not to get involved in extreme risky projects, which can significantly spoil your life or shorten its life altogether.

A familiar fairy tale from childhood was written by Saltykov-Shchedrin, and it clearly ridiculed completely inactive people who did not want to know anything except their own shell, and they were never interested in any social life processes.

And the wise one is so allegorical, of course, because the gudgeon sat in his house, not communicating with anyone, not taking part anywhere, and just sat in his personal space.

And at first it seemed to him that this was normal, until he grew old and realized that he had lived meaningless years, and here the moral is that in any case you need to bring benefit to society and have some kind of initiative.

The gudgeon, nicknamed the wise by Saltykov-Shchedrin, is a long-lived gudgeon. This subject did not get involved in any business. Not pike, not even minnow. His parents at one time bequeathed to him the wisest thought: Let your hut always be only on the edge. And he, smoothly and imperceptibly leaving for the muddy and muddy bottom, did not even show the eye of the river public.

The gudgeon, having sat motionless in its dugout for about a hundred years, really was not subjected to any pike desires, or dangerous walks, or anything else.

But then, in the twilight of old age, I realized how poorly I had lived.

The fairy tale teaches that sitting in deep mud all your life is not at all joyful or beneficial.



The wise minnow not so much a fairy tale as an edifying parable. Her main character The gudgeon, although reputed to be wise, was in fact a fool. All his life he did nothing but hide from those larger and stronger than him. He didn’t even get married so that no one would notice him again. And the gudgeon lived a long, but absolutely unremarkable life. The time had come to die, and he only had memories of how he trembled and hid. And the gudgeon realized that he had not life, but existence. This is precisely the moral that should be taken from this story. It is better to live a short but eventful life, to burn like a meteor, but to illuminate the path of many thousands with your flame, than to lie on the couch all your life, without leaving even a small trace behind. Human life is too unique a phenomenon to be wasted.

The meaning of the fairy tale The Wise Minnow is that if you want to live long life, then save yourself from all worries and dangers. You will live a long life, but not a joyful one, without love, without meaning. And in your old age you will remain lonely, because in your entire life you have not done anything for others.

If you want, you can live a bright and happy life, but short, since you will expose yourself to dangers, you may get sick or die.

To each his own.

The hero of the fairy tale, the Wise Minnow, lived a completely bland life. he was afraid of everything, hiding from everything. And when the time came to die, he realized that he had nothing to remember except his fear. It turns out that you lived in vain? It is unbearably difficult to realize this.

The fairy tale teaches - you shouldn’t shake all your life! It's better to live a shorter life, but bright life igniting others with his lust for life.

This tale made sense during the revolutionary movement in Russia, which began long before Lenin, and it ridiculed the ordinary people who lived ordinary life and refused to fight against state oppression. M. Gorky said approximately the same thing in the Song of the Petrel: The stupid penguin timidly hides its fat body in the rocks. Times are different now, and there is even something to learn from the wise minnow. As they say about him: he doesn’t smoke tobacco, doesn’t drink wine, doesn’t play cards. Is it bad?:)

Composition

The great satirist wrote his works using “Aesopian language.” It is known that folk tales provide examples of accessible and most convincing allegories. It can be argued that the fairy tale is a school of Aesopian language created by the people themselves. Saltykov-Shchedrin, who knew Russian folklore well, took advantage of the techniques that were revealed to him in folk tales. On their basis, he himself created masterpieces in this genre of literature.

In his “Tales,” the writer pursued not moralizing, but political and social goals. It is no coincidence that Saltykov-Shchedrin especially eagerly resorted to the form of fairy tales in the most difficult years of the reaction, which created especially unfavorable conditions for his literary activity. "Fairy Tales" gave the writer the opportunity to scourge reaction, despite the fear of liberal editors and despite the fury of censorship.

“Fairy Tales” in a unique, economical form repeats the themes of almost all of the satirist’s past work. In this regard, in my opinion, they are like a summary of everything written by Shchedrin. Therefore, fairy tales can be called the best introduction to familiarize yourself with the collected works of the great writer. Bear, eagle, wolf and other animals that are the main actors tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, is a fairy-tale interpretation of “mayors” and “pompadours”.

The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin speak about the fate of the Russian people and their oppressors. Simmering pain, unquenchable hatred, the search for a way out guided the satirist’s pen. Pain sought a way out in creativity, creativity was a reflection on ways to heal pain, every written line called out against those who cause pain. “The liveliness of pain,” the satirist wrote, “served as a source of living images, through which pain was transmitted to the consciousness of others.”

Revolutionary political and social meaning tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin, in my opinion, is undeniable. It is expressed decisively, without omissions. The revolutionary sound of the writer's fairy tale cycle is enhanced by a caustic mockery of timid feelings and civil cowardice. Fairy tales of the latter category are the most widely known. Their characters have become household names along with the characters folk tales. Such works by Saltykov-Shchedrin include his fairy tale “ The wise minnow».

The most negative characters the world of Shchedrin's fairy tales are animals that are fully aware of their surroundings, but nevertheless have not acquired either the hunt or the courage to fight. For example, the wise minnow is a politically minded creature: “He was an enlightened minnow, moderately liberal, and very firmly understood that living life is not like licking a whorl.” Yes, both “his father and mother were smart; Little by little, Ared's eyelids lived in the river, and did not get caught in the ear or the pike. They ordered the same for my son. “Look, son,” said the old minnow, dying, “if you want to chew your life, then keep your eyes open!”

The political direction, which in advance refused not only to fight, but even to put forward any demands, gave birth to individuals who thought only about personal self-preservation. These were the Russian liberals. They were more disgusting than a dog licking the owner's hand, and a submissive hare. Their behavior was deliberately chosen and theoretically justified. The wise minnow is wise because he lives according to a carefully developed plan. He subordinated everything to “skin,” to concern for his self-preservation.

Piskar did not want to be responsible for others. The whole life of this wise hero went into trembling. His, so to speak, entertainment and joys of life boiled down to the fact that “at night he did exercise, bathed in the moonlight, and during the day he climbed into a hole and trembled. Only at noon will he run out to grab something—what can you do at noon!”

The whole life of the gudgeon, so limited by himself, consisted only in the thought: “Does it seem that I am alive?” This thought was accompanied by the same trembling: “Oh, something will happen tomorrow.” As the minnow lived, so he died: “He lived and trembled, and he died - he trembled.” That's the whole biography of this hero.

The ironic title of the tale is justified by the content. You involuntarily ask the question: “What is the wisdom of this gudgeon?” The moral of the tale is given by Saltykov-Shchedrin in the finale. The gudgeon disappeared, and no one will remember him with either a good or a bad word: “What happened here—whether a pike swallowed him, a crayfish he broke with his claws, or he himself died of his own death and floated to the surface—there were no witnesses to this matter. Most likely, he himself died, because what sweetness is it to swallow a sick, dying minnow, and a wise one at that?”

Shchedrin's genius lies in the fact that in such a small form as a fairy tale, he embodied life (and therefore folk) philosophy. Through allegory, the writer was able to depict the harsh reality, imbued with bitter laughter. A reality that people easily guessed, and which we can guess after so many years.

CONCLUSION. 11g

Analysis of the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin was born in January 1826 in the village of Spas-Ugol, Tver province. According to his father, he belonged to an old and wealthy noble family, and according to his mother, he belonged to the merchant class. After successfully graduating from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, Saltykov becomes an official in the military department, but he is of little interest in service.
In 1847 its first appear in print literary works- “Contradictions” and “Complicated Affairs.” But they started talking seriously about Saltykov as a writer only in 1856, when he began publishing “Provincial Sketches.”

He directed his extraordinary talent to open their eyes, to show those who do not yet see the lawlessness going on in the country, the flourishing ignorance and stupidity, the triumph of bureaucracy.

But today I would like to dwell on the writer’s fairy-tale cycle, begun in 1869. Fairy tales were a kind of result, a synthesis of the ideological and creative quest of the satirist. At that time, due to the existence of strict censorship, the author could not fully expose the vices of society, show all the inconsistency of the Russian administrative apparatus. And yet, with the help of fairy tales “for children of a fair age,” Shchedrin was able to convey to people a sharp criticism of the existing order.

In 1883, the famous “The Wise Minnow” appeared, which over the past hundred years has become Shchedrin’s textbook tale. The plot of this fairy tale is known to everyone: once upon a time there lived a minnow, who at first was no different from his own kind. But, a coward by nature, he decided to live his whole life without sticking out in his hole, flinching from every rustle, from every shadow that flashed next to his hole. And so life passed by - no family, no children. And so he disappeared - either himself, or the pike swallowed him. Only before death does the minnow think about his life: “Who did he help? Who did you regret, what good did he do in life? “He lived - he trembled and he died - he trembled.” Only before death does the average person realize that no one needs him, no one knows him and no one will remember him.

But this is the plot, the external side of the fairy tale, what is on the surface. And the subtext of Shchedrin’s caricature depiction in this fairy tale of the morals of modern bourgeois Russia was well explained by the artist A. Kanevsky, who made illustrations for the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow”: “...everyone understands that Shchedrin is not talking about fish. The gudgeon is a cowardly man in the street, trembling for his own skin. He is a man, but also a minnow, the writer put him in this form, and I, the artist, must preserve it. My task is to combine the image of a frightened commoner gudgeon, to combine fish and human properties. It is very difficult to “understand” a fish, to give it a pose, a movement, a gesture. How to display forever frozen fear on a fish’s “face”? The figurine of the gudgeon official gave me a lot of trouble....”

The writer shows the terrible philistine alienation and self-isolation in “The Wise Minnow.” M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin is bitter and sick of the Russian people. Reading Saltykov-Shchedrin is quite difficult. That is why, perhaps, many did not understand the meaning of his fairy tales. But the majority of “children of a fair age” appreciated the work of the great satirist as it deserved.

In conclusion, I would like to add that the thoughts expressed by the writer in fairy tales are still contemporary today. Shchedrin's satire is time-tested and it sounds especially poignant in times of social turmoil, such as those that Russia is experiencing today.

Consideration of the fairy tale by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “The Wise Minnow”

The great satirist wrote his works using “Aesopian language.” It is known that folk tales provide examples of accessible and most convincing allegories. It can be argued that the fairy tale is a school of Aesopian language created by the people themselves. Saltykov-Shchedrin, who knew Russian folklore well, took advantage of the techniques that were revealed to him in folk tales. On their basis, he himself created masterpieces in this genre of literature.

In his “Tales,” the writer pursued not moralizing, but political and social goals. It is no coincidence that Saltykov-Shchedrin resorted to the form of fairy tales with particular eagerness during the most difficult years of the reaction, which created especially unfavorable conditions for his literary activity. "Fairy Tales" gave the writer the opportunity to scourge reaction, despite the fear of liberal editors and despite the fury of censorship.

“Fairy Tales” in a unique, economical form repeats the themes of almost all of the satirist’s past work. In this regard, in my opinion, they are like a summary of everything written by Shchedrin. Therefore, fairy tales can be called the best introduction to familiarize yourself with the collected works of the great writer. The bear, eagle, wolf and other animals, which are the main characters in Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tales, are a fairy-tale interpretation of “mayors” and “pompadours”.

The tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin speak about the fate of the Russian people and their oppressors. Simmering pain, unquenchable hatred, the search for a way out guided the satirist’s pen. Pain sought a way out in creativity, creativity was a reflection on ways to heal pain, every written line called out against those who cause pain. “The liveliness of pain,” the satirist wrote, “served as a source of living images, through which pain was transmitted to the consciousness of others.”

The revolutionary nature of the political and social meaning of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tales, in my opinion, is undeniable. It is expressed decisively, without omissions. The revolutionary sound of the writer's fairy-tale cycle is enhanced by a caustic mockery of timid feelings and civil cowardice. Fairy tales of the latter category are the most widely known. Their characters have become household names along with characters from folk tales. Such works by Saltykov-Shchedrin include his fairy tale “The Wise Minnow.”

The most negative characters in the world of Shchedrin's fairy tales are animals who are fully aware of their surroundings, but nevertheless have not acquired either the hunt or the courage to fight. For example, the wise minnow is a politically minded creature: “He was an enlightened minnow, moderately liberal, and very firmly understood that living life is not like licking a whorl.” Yes, both “his father and mother were smart; Little by little, Ared's eyelids lived in the river, and did not hit either the ear or the pike. They ordered the same for my son. “Look, son,” said the old minnow, dying, “if you want to chew your life, then keep your eyes open!”

The political direction, which in advance refused not only to fight, but even to put forward any demands, gave birth to individuals who thought only about personal self-preservation. These were the Russian liberals. They were more disgusting than a dog licking its owner's hand, or a submissive hare. Their behavior was deliberately chosen and theoretically justified. The wise minnow is wise because he lives according to a carefully developed plan. He subordinated everything to “skin,” to concern for his self-preservation.

Piskar did not want to be responsible for others. The whole life of this wise hero went into trembling. His, so to speak, entertainment and joys of life boiled down to the fact that “at night he did exercise, bathed in the moonlight, and during the day he climbed into a hole and trembled. Only at noon will he run out to grab something—what can you do at noon!”

The whole life of the gudgeon, so limited by himself, consisted only in the thought: “Does it seem that I am alive?” This thought was accompanied by the same trembling: “Oh, something will happen tomorrow.” As the minnow lived, so he died: “He lived and trembled, and he died - he trembled.” That's the whole biography of this hero.

The ironic title of the tale is justified by the content. You involuntarily ask the question: “What is the wisdom of this gudgeon?” The moral of the tale is given by Saltykov-Shchedrin in the finale. The gudgeon disappeared, and no one will remember him with either a good or a bad word: “What happened here—whether a pike swallowed him, a crayfish he broke with his claws, or he himself died of his own death and floated to the surface—there were no witnesses to this case. Most likely, he himself died, because what sweetness is it to swallow a sick, dying minnow, and a wise one at that?”

Shchedrin's genius lies in the fact that in such a small form as a fairy tale, he embodied life (and therefore folk) philosophy. Through allegory, the writer was able to depict the harsh reality, imbued with bitter laughter. A reality that people easily guessed, and which we can guess after so many years.

The fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” says that there lived a minnow who was afraid of everything, but at the same time considered himself wise. His father told him before he died to be careful and that way he would live. “Look, son,” said the old minnow, dying, “if you want to chew your life, then keep your eyes open!” Piskar listened to him and began to think about later life. He invented a house for himself such that no one but him could get into it, and began to think about how to behave the rest of the time.

With this tale, the author tried to show the life of officials who did nothing in their lives, but only sat in their “hole” and were afraid of those who were higher in rank. They were afraid of somehow harming themselves if they went outside their “hole.” That, perhaps, there will be some kind of force there that can suddenly deprive them of such a rank. Life without luxury is the same as death for them, but at the same time you have to stay in one place and everything will be fine.

This is precisely what can be seen in the image of the minnow. He appears in the tale throughout the entire story. If before his father’s death the gudgeon’s life was ordinary, then after his death he hid. He trembled every time someone swam or stopped near his hole. He didn’t finish eating, afraid to get out again. And from the twilight that constantly reigned in his hole, the gudgeon was half-blind.

Everyone considered the gudgeon a fool, but he considered himself wise. The title of the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow” hides obvious irony. “Wise” means “very smart,” but in this fairy tale the meaning of this word means something else – proud and stupid. Proud because he considers himself the smartest, since he found a way to protect his life from external threat. And he is stupid because he never understood the meaning of life. Although at the end of his life the minnow thinks about living like everyone else, not hiding in his hole, and as soon as he gathers the strength to swim out of the shelter, he again begins to tremble and again considers this idea stupid. “Let me crawl out of the hole and swim like a goldeneye across the entire river!” But as soon as he thought about it, he became frightened again. And he began to die, trembling. He lived and trembled, and he died - he trembled.”

To more sarcastically show the life of a minnow, there is a hyperbole in the fairy tale: “He does not receive a salary and does not keep servants, does not play cards, does not drink wine, does not smoke tobacco, does not chase red girls. “. Grotesque: “And the wise minnow lived in this way for more than a hundred years. Everything was trembling, everything was trembling.” Irony: “Most likely he died, because what sweetness is it for a pike to swallow a sick, dying gudgeon, and a wise one at that? “

Talking animals dominate common folk tales. Since in the fairy tale by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin there is also a talking minnow, his fairy tale is similar to folk tale.

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