Once again we see “old old women” with typical Russian names and surnames: Daria Vasilievna Pinigina, Katerina Zotova, Natalya Karpova, Sima. Among the names of episodic characters, the name of another old woman stands out - Aksinya (perhaps a tribute to the heroine “ Quiet Don"). The most colorful character, similar to a goblin, was given the semi-symbolic name Bogodul (from the word Bogokhul?). They all have a working life behind them, lived conscientiously, in friendship and mutual assistance. “Warm and warm” - these are the words of old woman Sima in different options repeat all the writer’s favorite heroes.
The story includes a number of episodes that poeticize such common life- life in peace. One of the semantic centers of the story is the haymaking scene in the eleventh chapter. Rasputin emphasizes that the main thing for people is not the work itself, but the blissful feeling of life, the pleasure of unity with each other, with nature. Grandmother Daria’s grandson Andrei very accurately noticed the difference between the life of mothers and the hectic activities of hydroelectric power plant builders: “They live there only to work, but here you seem to be the other way around, it’s like you work for a living.” Work for the writer’s favorite characters is not an end in itself, but participation in the continuation of the family line and, more broadly, the entire human tribe. That’s why Daria’s father didn’t know how to take care, but worked tirelessly, bequeathing the same to his daughter. That is why Daria herself, feeling behind her the order of generations of ancestors, “a structure that has no end,” cannot accept that their graves will go under water - and she will find herself alone: the chain of times will break.
That is why for Daria and other old women, a house is not only a place to live and things are not only things. This is a part of their life animated by their ancestors. Rasputin will tell you twice how they say goodbye to the house and things, first Nastasya, and then Daria. The twentieth chapter of the story, which tells how Daria forcibly whitewashes her house, already doomed to be burned the next day, decorates it with fir, is an exact reflection of the Christian rites of unction (when spiritual relief and reconciliation with inevitability comes before death), washing the deceased, funeral service and burials.
“Everything that lives in the world has one meaning - the meaning of service.” It is this thought, put by the writer into the monologue of the mysterious animal symbolizing the owner of the island, that guides the behavior of the old women and Bogodul. They all recognize themselves as responsible to those who have passed on for the continuation of life. The land, in their opinion, was given to man “to maintain”: it must be protected, preserved for posterity. Hence the perception of everything that lives and grows on earth as one’s own, blood, dear. Therefore, it is impossible not to remove the potatoes, it is impossible not to mow the grass.
Rasputin finds a very precise metaphor to express Daria Vasilievna’s thoughts about the course of life: gender is a thread with knots. Some knots unravel, die, and new ones are formed at the other end. And the old women are by no means indifferent to what these new people who come to replace them will be like. That is why Daria Pinigina always thinks about the meaning of life, about the truth; gets into an argument with his grandson Andrei; asks questions to the dead.
In these disputes, reflections and even accusations there is righteous solemnity, anxiety, and - certainly - love. “Eh, how kind we are all individually, and how recklessly and a lot, as if on purpose, we all do evil together,” Daria argues. “Who knows the truth about a person: why does he live? - the heroine is tormented. - For the sake of life itself, for the sake of the children, or for the sake of something else? Will this movement be eternal?.. How should a person, for whom many generations have lived, feel? He doesn't feel anything. He doesn't understand anything. And he behaves as if life began with him first and it will end with him forever.”
Daria's thoughts about procreation and her responsibility for it are mixed with anxiety about the “complete truth,” about the need for memory, the preservation of responsibility among descendants - anxiety associated with the tragic awareness of the era.
In numerous internal monologues Daria, the writer speaks again and again about the need for each person to “get to the bottom of the truth himself,” and to live by the work of conscience. What most worries both the author and his old men and women is the desire of an ever-increasing majority of people to “live without looking back,” “in relief,” to rush with the flow of life. “You’re not breaking your navel, but you’ve wasted your soul,” Daria says to her grandson in her hearts. She is not against machines that make people's work easier. But it is unacceptable for a wise peasant woman that a person who has gained thanks to technology enormous power, uprooted life, thoughtlessly chopped off the branch on which he sits. “Man is the king of nature,” Andrei convinces his grandmother. “That's it, king. He will reign, he will reign, and he will sunbathe,” the old woman answers. Only in unity with each other, with nature, with the entire Cosmos can mortal man defeat death, if not individual, then generic.
Space, nature - complete characters stories by V. Rasputin. In “Farewell to Matera”, a quiet morning, light and joy, stars, Angara, gentle rain represent the bright part of life, grace, and give the prospect of development. But in tune with the gloomy thoughts of old men and women caused by the tragic events of the story, they create an atmosphere of anxiety and trouble.
A dramatic contradiction, condensed into a symbolic picture, appears already on the first pages of “Farewell to Matera.” Harmony, tranquility and peace, the beautiful full-blooded life that Matera breathes (the etymology of the word is clear to the reader: mother - homeland - earth), is opposed by desolation, exposure, expiration (one of V. Rasputin’s favorite words). The huts groan, the wind blows, the gates slam. “Darkness has fallen” on Matera, the writer claims, with repeated repetitions of this phrase evoking associations with ancient Russian texts and the Apocalypse. It is here, anticipating the last story V. Rasputin, an episode of fire appears, and before this event “stars fall from the sky.”
For native speakers moral values the writer contrasts modern “obsevkov”, drawn in a very harsh manner. Only Daria Pinigina's grandson was endowed by the writer with a more or less complex character. On the one hand, Andrei no longer feels responsible for his family, for the land of his ancestors (it is no coincidence that he never visited his native Matera on his last visit, and did not say goodbye to her before leaving). He is attracted by the bustle of a large construction site, he argues with his father and grandmother until he is hoarse, denying what is eternal values for them.
And at the same time, Rasputin shows, the “minute empty look at the rain,” which ended the family discussion, “managed to bring together again” Andrei, Pavel and Daria: the unity with nature in the guy had not yet died. They are also united by work in haymaking. Andrey does not support Klavka Strigunova (it is typical for a writer to give derogatory names and surnames to characters who have changed national traditions), rejoicing at the disappearance of his native Matera: he feels sorry for the island. Moreover, not agreeing with Daria on anything, for some reason he is looking for conversations with her, “for some reason he needed her answer” about the essence and purpose of man.
Other antipodes of the “old old women” are shown in “Farewell to Matera” in a completely ironic and evil way. Katerina’s forty-year-old son, chatterbox and drunkard Nikita Zotov, for his principle “just to live today”, is deprived of his name by popular opinion - turned into Petrukha. The writer, on the one hand, apparently plays around here traditional name farcical character Petrushka, depriving him, however, of that positive side, which the hero still had folk theater, on the other hand, it creates the neologism “petrukhat” by similarity with the verbs “rumble”, “sigh”. The limit of Petrukha’s downfall is not even the burning of her home (by the way, Klavka did this too), but the mockery of her mother. It is interesting to note that Petrukha, rejected by the village and his mother, seeks to attract attention to himself with new outrages in order to at least in this way, through evil, establish his existence in the world.
“Officials” establish themselves in life exclusively through evil, unconsciousness and shamelessness. The writer supplies them not only speaking surnames, but also with capacious symbolic characteristics: Vorontsov is a tourist (carefree walking on the earth), Zhuk is a gypsy (i.e. a person without a homeland, without roots, a tumbleweed). If the speech of old men and women is expressive, figurative, and the speech of Pavel and Andrei is literary correct, but confusing, full of cliches that are unclear to them, then Vorontsov and others like him speak in chopped, non-Russian phrases, they love the imperative (“We will understand or what will we do?”; “Who allowed?”; “And you will give me no connivance again”; “We will not ask you to do what is required.”
SYMBOLICS OF THE FINAL. At the end of the story, the two sides collide. The author leaves no doubt about who holds the truth. Vorontsov, Pavel and Petrukha got lost in the fog (the symbolism of this landscape is obvious). Even Vorontsov “fell silent”, “sits with his head down, looking meaninglessly in front of him.” All that remains for them to do is, like children, to call their mother. It is characteristic that it is Petrukha who does this: “Ma-a-at! Aunt Daria-ah! Hey, Matera!” However, he does, according to the writer, “dumbly and hopelessly.” And after screaming, he falls asleep again. Nothing can wake him up anymore (symbolism again!). “It became completely quiet. There was only water and fog all around and nothing but water and fog.” And the mother's old women at this time, in last time united with each other and little Kolyunya, in whose eyes there is “unchildish, bitter and meek understanding,” they ascend to heaven, equally belonging to both the living and the dead.
This tragic ending enlightened by the story that preceded him about the royal foliage, a symbol of the unfading of life. The arsonists were never able to burn or cut down the resilient tree, which, according to legend, supported the entire island, the entire Matera. Somewhat earlier, V. Rasputin will say twice (in the 9th and 13th chapters) that no matter how difficult things have become future life migrants, no matter how they mock them common sense irresponsible “responsible for the resettlement”, who built a new settlement on inconvenient lands, without taking into account the peasant routine - “life... it will endure everything and will take place everywhere, even on bare rock and in a shaky quagmire, and if necessary, then under water " A person, through his work, becomes close to any place. This is another of his purposes in the universe.
“Farewell…” was written by Valentin Rasputin in 1976, this time can rightfully be called the time of decline and ruin of the Soviet village. At that time, there was an active campaign to destroy “unpromising villages,” which caused deep concern among rural writers for traditions and a unique national way of life. village life, which was about to disappear under the influence of the city.
Thus, V.G. Rasputin based the plot of “Farewell to Matera” real story about the construction of a hydroelectric power station on the Angara River, as a result of which several surrounding villages were flooded. The residents of these places, willy-nilly, had to move to neighboring cities; the move for most rural residents turned out to be very painful and morally difficult.
But besides the problem of the extinction of the village, V. Rasputin in “Farewell...” raises a number of other problems. These are “eternal” problems of a moral nature: the relationship between generations, memory and oblivion, conscience, the search for the meaning of life.
V. Rasputin in his story shows the relationship between the morality of the people with its past and surrounding places, small homeland. In the writer’s understanding, a person cannot truly live without a small homeland, because his native land gives a person much more than he is able to realize. And therefore, the separation of a person from his native land, roots, traditions for V. Rasputin is tantamount to the loss of conscience. The elderly heroes of the story realize this, first of all, main character- old woman Daria.
This bearer of centuries-old traditions is unable to part forever with her habitual place, because in the hut in which she lived all her life long life, her grandfather and grandmother still lived. Her childhood, joyful years of motherhood and marriage, and difficult times of war passed within these old walls. It is no coincidence that the image of the house in the story is depicted as if spiritualized and alive. Other old people also remain faithful to their native Matera. V. Rasputin gives a colorful comparison of old people with old trees that they began to replant. The death of the seemingly completely healthy old man Yegor, which occurs in the first weeks after his departure from Matera, is very symbolic. The younger generation, living in the future, completely calmly leaves their native places.
Thus, Daria's son Pavel understands the suffering of his old mother, but he does not find time to help alleviate them (by fulfilling Daria's request to transport the graves of her relatives). And Daria’s grandson Andrei turns out to be completely indifferent to the grief of the older generation in his native place; he leaves for the construction of a platinum, as a result of which Matera will be destroyed. This is how the family disintegrates, which, according to the author of “Farewell…”, will logically be followed by the collapse of the people and the entire country. And therefore Matera can be considered not only the name of one village, but also the symbolic name of the country and the image of mother earth as a whole.
V. Rasputin wants to show that it is fundamentally wrong to achieve new goals (even such significant ones as the development of industry) at the cost of betraying one’s past, motivating this with the words of Daria: “Whoever has no memory, has no life.”
Thus, the story can be called a cry from the heart about the deepening of villages and people who were forcibly evicted from their homes. “Farewell to Matera” very clearly shows the great importance of traditions in the life of every person.
Characteristic literary hero Matera is an island and a village. The name means “mother”, “mother land”. For its inhabitants, M. symbolizes the whole world and ensures the normal natural course of life. In the land of M. lie the ancestors of its inhabitants, who gave this land to their children for use, and these children must pass it on to their own, etc. The story shows those times when the village “withered,... became rooted, went off its usual course.” A power plant was being built down the Angara. This caused the water in the river to rise and gradually flood M. The inhabitants of the island were moved to “ mainland", in town. M. is shown as an ark, the keeper of moral laws, human soul: “...from edge to edge, from coast to coast, it had enough expanse, and wealth, and beauty, and wildness, and every creature in pairs - having separated from the mainland, it held everything in abundance.” At the end of the story, M. disappears into the depths of the waters along with its faithful inhabitants - the old women, Bogodul and Kolka. These people could not “fit” into the new life, which is fruitlessly vain and does not give a person the opportunity to look back and be alone with himself.
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- Petrukha Characteristics of the literary hero Petrukha (Nikita Alekseevich Zotov) is Katerina’s dissolute son, an “unhappy drunkard.” No one called him by name, but everyone called him by the nickname P., given to him for his simplicity and worthlessness. P. really wants to leave Matera and start a new Read More......
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- Bogodul Characteristics of the literary hero Bogodul is an old man who wandered to Matera. He was very fond of Russian swearing, for which he was nicknamed “blasphemy” (“God-blooded”). In the summer, the hero sometimes left Matera, but in the winter he lived here constantly, mostly with old women, sometimes spending the night in the bathhouse. Read More......
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- Pavel Pinigin Characteristics of a literary hero Pavel Pinigin is the son of Daria Pinigina, 50 years old. P. is a representative of the middle generation in the story. He cannot, as recklessly as Andrey, tear himself away from Matera, from her life principles, absorbed with mother's milk. P. suffers Read More ......
In the story “Farewell to Matera,” analysis helps to grasp objective reflection subjective reality, assess the place and role of man in the modern world, the influence scientific and technological progress at nature and take a fresh look at the problem of mutual understanding in society and family.
Valentin Rasputin "Farewell to Matera"
Valentin Rasputin was born in 1937 on the Angara River, like the main characters of the story “Farewell to Matera”. The writer’s small homeland is a village located near Irkutsk. Rasputin's works are autobiographical and imbued with love for his native land.
Work on “Farewell to Matera” was completed in 1976. The history of creation was preceded by an essay about the fate of the village in the flood zone up and downstream.
IN brief retelling a picture of the end of the existence of the village of Matera is conveyed. In the story, the author describes the fate of residents seeking answers to eternal questions about the meaning of life, the relationship between generations, morality and memory.
Chapter 1
The last spring of a village and an island bearing the same name, Matera, is described. There is an air of uncertainty in the air: some homes are empty, while others retain a semblance of normal life.
Over its three-hundred-year history, the village has seen bearded Cossacks, prisoners, Kolchak battles, and partisans. Both the church and the mill have been preserved on the island, providing last years even a plane arrives. And with the construction of the power plant came Lately for Matera.
Chapter 2
The old women of the village spend a typical day talking over the samovar at Daria's. The old women remember the past, but everyone’s thoughts are occupied with the future. Everyone is afraid of the prospect of city life in cramped apartments, devoid of soul. Nastasya and Yegor, who buried all four children, were supposed to be the first to move to the city, but they kept putting it off.
Old woman Sima does not know how her life will turn out with her five-year-old grandson. Not long ago, her mute daughter Valka went on a spree and disappeared. Sima herself ended up in Matera by chance, trying to arrange her life with the local grandfather Maxim. But the matchmaking failed and now the old woman lives in a hut on the lower edge with her grandson Kolka.
An old man nicknamed Bogodul comes to the house and shouts about strangers running the cemetery.
Chapter 3
At a cemetery outside the village, two workers, by order of the sanitary and epidemiological station, are preparing sawn-down gravestones and crosses for burning.
The old women and Bogodul came running, and then all the residents prevented the destruction. The persuasion of Chairman Vorontsov and Comrade Zhuk from the flooding department does not help.
Residents are driving outsiders away and restoring destroyed monuments.
Chapter 4
The story of Bogodula's appearance in the village and his relationship with the local old women is told.
The morning after the commotion with the cemetery, Daria drinks tea with Bogodul, remembers the past, her parents, and again returns to the resettlement. Thoughts drive the old woman out of the house. She finds herself on the mountain and looks around her native surroundings. She is overcome by a premonition of the end and her own uselessness. Life has been lived, but not understood.
Chapter 5
In the evening, Daria’s eldest son, Pavel, now fifty, comes to see her. The first son died in the war and was buried in unknown lands, younger son during the war years he died in a logging camp and was buried in Matera in closed coffin. Eldest daughter died in Podvolochnaya during the second birth, and the other daughter lives in Irkutsk. Another son lives in a timber industry enterprise not far from his native village.
The conversation turns to a vague future and the establishment of a farm in a new place. Young people are in a hurry to get rid of village housing and get money. New life attracts Klavka Strigunova and Nikita Zotov, nicknamed Petrukha.
Chapter 6
At night, Matera is visited by a mysterious owner, a small animal, the island's brownie. The owner runs around the sleeping village, knowing that soon the end of everything will come and the island will cease to exist.
Chapter 7
Two weeks pass, and on Wednesday Nastasya and grandfather Yegor leave the village. The old woman plans to come dig potatoes in the fall and is worried about her cat. A difficult farewell is said to fellow villagers, and the old people set sail on a boat down the river.
Chapter 8
At night, Petrukhin’s hut burned down in two hours. Before this, he sent his mother Katerina to live with Daria. Depressed people watched the fire, assuming that Zotov himself had set the hut on fire.
The Master saw everything, and saw future fires, and further...
Chapter 9
Pavel rarely visits his mother, who remains with Katerina. He is overcome by work and sadness over the disappearance of his rich native land.
The move was difficult for him, unlike his wife Sonya, who quickly settled into the city.
He worries about his mother, who cannot imagine life outside of Matera.
Chapter 10
After the fire, Petrukha disappeared, leaving his mother without everything in Daryino’s care. Katerina gave birth to a son from a married fellow villager, Alyosha Zvonnikov. The son took after his father in his ease and talkativeness, but everything was out of place for him. By the age of forty, Petrukha had not settled down, for which her mother blamed herself.
Chapter 11
The last haymaking begins on Matera, bringing together half the village. Everyone wants to extend these happy days.
Petrukha unexpectedly returned and handed his mother 15 rubles, and after reproaches from her, he added another 10. He continues to carouse, either in the village or at home.
It's starting to rain.
Chapter 12
On the first rainy day, Daria’s grandson Andrei, one of Pavel’s three sons, comes to see her. He is in a hurry to do everything in life, to visit everywhere and wants to take part in the large construction of a hydroelectric power station on the Angara. But for now he agrees to stay and help with haymaking and moving graves.
Chapter 13
Rainy days have arrived, increasing people's anxiety. On a day that cleared in the morning, everyone came to Pavel, as a foreman, to inquire about work. But it started pouring again, and people started talking. Afanasy Koshkin, Klavka Strigunova, Vera Nosareva, Daria, Andrey again talk about the fate of Matera.
One day Vorontsov arrives with a representative from the Pesenny district. The chairman informs the meeting that the island should be cleared by mid-September, and a commission will arrive on the twentieth.
Chapter 14
Andrey tells his grandmother what was discussed at the meeting. Daria cannot come to terms with the fate of the island and talks about it with her grandson. She remembers death, but looking up she sees the sun peeking out from behind the clouds. Her face brightens, because life continues to bubble up around her.
Chapter 15
The rains stop and people get to work. Daria is worried about her son who has left and sends Andrey to find out what’s going on.
It was August, everything around was ripe, and a lot of mushrooms appeared in the forests.
Chapter 16
We came from the city to harvest grain, and later another brigade transported cattle from neighboring Podmoga. Then Pomoga Island was set on fire to clean it up. Strangers burned down the mill, then, at Klavka’s request, her hut.
Daria and Katerina, returning from saying goodbye to the burning mill, found a frightened Sima and Kolka on the porch. We all spent the night together.
Chapter 17
In the evenings, Daria has long conversations about everything. Katerina is upset because of her son, who receives money for setting fire to other people's huts. Sima still dreams of some old man; she believes that living together would be easier.
Chapter 18
The bread was removed, and the visitors, to the joy of the locals, left. Schoolchildren were brought to the state farm to harvest potatoes. The timber industry men came to burn the forest.
There were a lot of potatoes, Pavel and Sonya arrived with their laughing friend Mila. The harvest was harvested, Nastasya never arrived, and her garden was also removed. Everything was slowly transported. Pavel was the last to arrive for the cow, but the line never reached the graves.
Daria goes to the cemetery to say goodbye to her family and observes smoke from the fires around her.
Chapter 19
While clearing the island, the workers also begin to clean up the royal foliage. But people are unable to cope with it, and the tree remains adamantly standing amid the destruction.
Chapter 20
Daria is putting the hut in order for the last time: whitewashing the ceiling, walls, greasing the Russian stove. On her last morning she whitewashes the forgotten shutters. In all of Matera, only the old women and Bogodul remain.
Daria spends her last night at home alone in a tidy hut decorated with fir branches. The next morning she gives the arsonist permission to light the fire, and she leaves the village. In the evening, Paul, who arrived, finds her near the royal foliage. Nastasya has arrived.
Chapter 21
Old man Pavel leaves the old women on the island for two days, so that he can then pick them all up together on a boat. The night is spent in the Kolchak barracks near Bogodul. Nastasya talks about living in the city and how grandfather Yegor died of melancholy.
Chapter 22
Vorontsov and Petrukha come to Pavel Mironovich, who has returned from Matera. The chairman swears because they didn’t bring people and orders them to immediately gather for the old people.
Fog fell on the Angara, forcing mechanic Galkin to run at low speeds. In the night, the boat can’t find the island; they wander in the fog, screaming and calling for those remaining on Matera.
The old people wake up and first hear the Master’s farewell howl, and then the noise of the engine.
The story ends.
What problems does the author raise in the work?
On the pages of the book, Rasputin clearly demonstrates the problems modern world. These are environmental issues and concerns about further path civilization, about the price of scientific and technological progress. The author raises moral problems, separation from his small homeland and generational conflict.
Analysis of the work
Rasputin wrote about real historical events through the prism of perception of village inhabitants. In the genre of a philosophical parable, the author describes the colorful life and fate of the inhabitants of Matera.
He argues in favor of nepotism, connections with roots, small homeland and the older generation.
Characteristics of heroes
The heroes of the story are people associated with Matera and observing recent months existence of the island:
- Daria is an old resident of the village, no longer remembering exactly her age, reasonable Strong woman, uniting the elderly. Although she lives alone, having lost her husband, who died hunting in the taiga when he was barely over fifty, she has a strong family. Children revere their mother and always call to them. Daria feels part of Matera, deeply worried about her inability to influence the course of events. Family and the connection between generations are important to her, so she has a hard time with the unrealized transportation of the graves of her relatives;
- Katerina is Daria’s friend, who meekly endures the blows of fate and the antics of her unlucky son. She was never married and loved one man, someone else’s husband and her father Petrukha. Katerina always tries to justify her son and everyone around her, hoping for correction and the manifestation of better qualities;
- Nastasya is Daria’s neighbor and friend, who cannot find a place for herself outside of Matera. Her fate is not easy, she outlived her children and focused on her husband, about whom in her old age she began to tell tales. Perhaps, by inventing Yegor’s non-existent illnesses and misfortunes, she is trying to protect the only remaining loved one. She started acting weird after the death of four children, two of whom did not return from the war, one fell through the ice with a tractor, and her daughter died of cancer;
- Sima is Daria’s younger friend, who ended up in the village by chance with her grandson Kolka. A helpful and quiet woman, the youngest of all the old women. Her life was not easy; she was early left alone in her arms with her mute daughter. Dreams on the quiet family life did not materialize, daughter Valka began to go out with men and disappeared, leaving her son in the care of her mother. Sima endures troubles without complaint, continuing to believe in the compassion and kindness of people;
- Bohodul – the only man in the company of old women, who had arrived in the village from foreign lands. He calls himself a Pole, speaks little, mostly in Russian, for which, apparently, he was called a blasphemer. And the village ones were converted into Bogodul. At Bohodul's characteristic appearance: shaggy hair and an overgrown face with a fleshy, hummocky nose. He walks all year round barefoot, on calloused, coarse legs, with a slow and heavy gait, with a bent back and a raised head with red, bloodshot eyes;
- Egor, Nastasya’s husband, becomes the first victim of separation from the island. In the city he dies of melancholy, cut off from his small homeland. Egor is a solid and thoughtful man, he deeply conceals his sadness and experiences, gradually fencing himself off from people and from life;
- Pavel is Daria’s son, standing between the younger generation fleeing the village and the old people who do not have the strength to part with their native roots. He tries to adapt to his new life, but appears confused and trying to reconcile those around him;
- Sonya, Pavel’s wife, easily and joyfully endured the move to a new urban village, happily adopted city habits and fashion;
- Andrei, the son of Paul, sees in the destruction of Matera human strength and power striving for progress. He's looking for active actions and new impressions;
- Petrukha is Katerina’s son, carefree, looking for fun and an easy life. He has no connection with his small homeland, he easily parts with his home and property, without thinking about the future and the people around him.
Conclusion
The work contains deep moral meaning and requires thoughtful, meaningful reading. Quotes from the book are imbued with many years of folk wisdom. “...Life, that’s what life is for, to continue, it will endure everything and will be accepted everywhere...”
The inhabitants of the island of Matera are people different generations. Ancient old people, elderly people, mature people, youth, and children live here. All of them are united by one problem (one could say “trouble” if many did not treat it as something long-awaited) - the impending flooding of the island. Rasputin shows how differently different generations perceive the imminent separation from their native land.
Three bright representatives of different generations of one family - the main character of the story Daria, her son Pavel and grandson Andrei. For all of them, Matera is their homeland. They were all born and raised here. But how differently these people, dear to each other, relate to their homeland!
Here is Daria, a stern, unyielding woman for whom you feel an involuntary respect when reading, perhaps because she does not allow herself to give in to weakness. Daria not only spent her entire life on Matera, she never even left it.* Matera feeds her all her life, generously giving her the most valuable things - bread and potatoes. In return, Daria put enormous effort into the land and looked after it.
But is it only the labor invested in the land that makes it dear to us? Yes, that too, but there is something that binds us even more strongly. These are family graves. You can't escape them. Only next to our loved ones do we want to lie in the ground, although, it would seem, won’t we all care after death? Daria is the person who thinks: no, it doesn’t matter. We are connected to our land by a chain of generations that came before us. People with high moral qualities, cannot help but have love for their land. Man, like a tree, is connected to the earth. No wonder Nastasya says: “Who replants an old tree?” It is not for nothing that the story draws an analogy between Daria and the “royal foliage” (the author does not compare them openly, but the comparison of a persistent tree and a stern old woman comes to mind naturally). Are only Daria and Nastasya so attached to their land? And Katerina, whose hut he set on fire native son? And the blasphemer Bogodul, who looks like a devil? For all of them, memory is sacred, the graves of their ancestors are inviolable. That's why they stay on the island until the last moment. They can't betray native land, albeit ruined and burned to the ground.
Daria's son, Pavel, is a representative of the middle generation. He fluctuates in his beliefs between the old and the young, and is angry with himself for this. It pains him to part with Matera, but he is no longer as attached to the graves as his mother (maybe that’s why he never had time to move them). Pavel lives on two banks. Of course, he feels the pain of saying goodbye to Matera, but at the same time he feels that the truth is on the side of the young.
What about the young people? What is their relationship to the land that raised them? Here is Andrey. He lived in Matera for eighteen years. He ate bread and potatoes born from this land, he mowed, plowed and sowed, he put a lot of labor into the land, and received a lot, too, just like his grandmother. Why does Andrei not only part with Matera without pity, but is also going to take part in the construction of a hydroelectric power station, that is, become a participant in the flooding? The fact is that young people’s connection with the earth is always much weaker than that of old people. Perhaps this is due to the fact that old people already feel the approach of death and this gives them the right and opportunity to think about the eternal, about the memory that they will leave behind, about the meaning of their existence. Young people are mostly focused on the future. They have no time to sit on a piece of land that bears the abstract name Motherland and grieve about it. They strive forward to implement high ideas, like Andrey. Or, like Klavka and Petrukha, to a more comfortable life. These two are even ready to set fire to their huts in order to quickly break free. Petrukha eventually sets fire to the house in which he grew up. However, he does not feel the slightest regret. But his mother, Katerina, a representative of the older generation, suffers.
It has been the custom since time immemorial that the old are the keepers of traditions, and the youth move progress forward. But, even while pursuing the best goals, should we forget our homeland, our roots? After all, your land is your mother. It is not for nothing that the word “Matera” is consonant with the word “mother”. One can, of course, condemn old people for their unwillingness to face the future, but we all need to learn from them love and respect for the Motherland.
