When I read G. Troepolsky’s story “White Bim Black Ear,” I felt very, very sad. It's sad how evil and callous people can be.
You, of course, remember that at the center of the story is the story of the tragic fate of the Scottish setter Bim, who was left alone with troubles in this complex world. Having grown up in the apartment of Ivan Ivanovich, who surrounded the puppy with care and affection, Bim found himself powerless in the face of cruelty and hypocrisy.
Pensioner Ivan Ivanovich is an example of a wonderful person who not only saved an unfortunate puppy from death (he let down his entire breed by being born with the wrong color), but also became a true friend for Bim, support and protection. Kind and humane, the main character raised a puppy. And Bim turned into a good hunting dog. The naive, cheerful dog learned to understand people. But in the first part of the story, he was not very upset by the clashes with the neighbor who hated him, because the reliable Ivan Ivanovich was nearby. And Bim perceived the world around him through the prism of his owner’s intelligence, his love for nature, and his caring attitude towards the puppy. And Bim really appreciated all this, loved his owner, was devoted and faithful to him. Then it seemed that the bright and wonderful world around would always be like this.
How terrible was Bim’s disappointment when he was left alone. I read the pages of the story, which describe the dog’s encounters with heartless people, and cried. I felt sorry for the main character. I felt a sense of shame for the actions of adults. The shrill aunt becomes Bim's worst enemy for no reason. Her hatred leads the dog to a tragic death. The greed of Gray, a collector of dog collars, makes me seriously doubt his integrity. The cowardly Klim, who beat the dog for disobedience, leaves him to die in the forest. A tram driver makes money by selling a Bim that does not belong to him.
G. Troepolsky shows many such heroes, cruel, cynical, angry towards the dog. You become very disappointed in people when you read such works.
The little heroes of the story: Alyosha and Tolik, fell in love with the setter, but for various reasons they could not keep him. Bim experiences pain and resentment thanks to the attention and care of the boys, neighbor Stepanovna, and girl Lucy. Fortunately, Bima met good people along the way. But they could not save him from death. A grumpy neighbor who wants to clear the dog from her yard gets her way.
The sad ending of the story teaches us mercy towards animals. After all, they are always devoted and faithful to people. It hurts to look at abandoned kittens and puppies, at homeless dogs and cats. Behind each of them there are people who doom them to suffering.
The fate of the main character of the story, the Scottish setter White Bim Black Ear, reminds us that people are becoming cruel. No matter how the world changes, there is always a place for kindness and good deeds. And, to my great regret, our contemporaries are cruel both towards people and towards animals. But people can stand up for themselves! What about animals? Their fate is in our hands! We need to be more merciful and humane! And don’t forget that we are all “responsible for those we have tamed”!
There are works of not only Russian, but also Soviet literature, which not to read means to seriously deprive yourself. Such books need to be read, more than once and at different ages. They make you think about eternal truths and enduring human values.
“White Bim Black Ear”: summary
In terms of plot, this is a very simple story. About a smart dog, who was taken in by a writer and hunter, about his life with his beloved owner. The story is told as if from the perspective of three narrators: the owner, Bim himself and the author. Moreover, the author also conveys Bim’s impressions, but the style of narration changes radically. Childhood, hunting, communication with a wise and selflessly loved person - this was Bim’s happy life before his owner’s illness. This dog is White Bim Black Ear. The summary cannot give an idea of Bim’s perception of the human world, of all the dog’s experiences, of all the misadventures that befell him.
Bim is looking for his dear owner and dies literally a few hours before he is discharged from the hospital. If you don’t read the book “White Bim Black Ear”, the summary will not help you sympathize with Bim; he will remain one of the dogs who were simply unlucky.
A film was made based on the story, which is now known even better than the work itself. It must be admitted that the director repeatedly used common melodramatic techniques. The film is a heart-warming story, while the book, if you read it carefully, is also a story about Soviet society. There are many like this: they got lost, found themselves homeless, abandoned due to the death of their owners or due to their irresponsibility. Not all of the “lost ones,” of course, are as smart as Bim, they understand words, they are as intelligent, but they all look at the world with the same confidence as he does. In the book, Bim, of course, is strongly humanized; he thinks and acts not according to instincts, but like a person. This is what causes such a strong emotional reaction.
The film “White Bim Black Ear”, a brief summary of which can be summarized in two lines, is a two-part series. And all of this is Bim’s misadventures, which are watched in one breath.
But while sympathizing with Bim in the book, is everyone ready to behave the same way in life? The work “White Bim Black Ear” touches and makes you cry, but does it teach anything? Or do emotions remain on their own and do not influence actions? Is anyone ready to adopt a stray dog? There are a lot of these in our cities, but for almost all people they only cause irritation. The book “White Bim Black Ear,” the contents of which many knew from childhood, taught kindness to absolutely not everyone. Why is this happening? Why don’t the most wonderful literature, the most exquisite ones, automatically change a person, simply because of the strong impression they made? In order to become kinder, more humane, it is necessary to carry out enormous internal work. Every new generation should definitely read books like this in order to learn to be more attentive to those around them.
The main character of the story “White Bim Black Ear” is a dog named Bim from the breed of hunting setters. Unlike his relatives, Bim was born not with black, but with white color. And only one ear and one leg were black. From birth, Bim began to live with an old journalist, who, after the death of his wife, led a bachelor’s life. The dog's owner, Ivan Ivanovich, was very worried that because of Bim's unusual color, he would not be recognized as a purebred dog, and he collected various historical information about setters with a similar color.
And despite the fact that Bim was never recognized as a purebred dog, over time he mastered all the wisdom that a real hunting dog should know. Ivan Ivanovich, being an avid hunter, patiently trained Bim, taught him to track and scare away birds. The dog perfectly mastered the science of hunting and helped his owner hunt. He was generally very smart and quick-witted. When Ivan Ivanovich was sick, Bim went for a walk on his own and then, returning, scratched at the door so that he would be let home.
With such a wonderful character, Bim still made one enemy. One day, while walking, he licked the hand of a woman sitting on a bench in the yard. The woman began screaming that the dog wanted to bite her. Later she wrote a complaint against Bim, but the house manager turned out to be a fair man and managed to understand that Bim would never offend anyone. But the woman harbored hostility towards the dog.
The owner of Bim, like many men of his age, was in the war and since then he has had a fragment in his chest. One day, Ivan Ivanovich became so ill that he was taken to the hospital. An old woman living next door was looking after the dog. Not knowing the peculiarities of handling dogs, she, letting Bim out for a walk, told him: “Look.” The smart dog decided that he was being offered to look for his owner, and he went in search of Ivan Ivanovich.
For many days, Bim searched for his owner on the streets of the city, periodically returning home. He did not know that the owner was taken to Moscow for an operation. He came across a lot of people: kind and not so kind. He was often called Black Ear. One day the dog met a kind girl, Dasha, who made a sign for his collar with the name of the dog and a message that Bim was looking for an owner. But one man caught the dog and took down the sign. He collected unusual signs and deprived Bim of his distinctive sign. The dog managed to escape from this man.
One day, while searching, he injured his paw. Luckily for Bim, the boy Tolya began to look after him. He took him to the veterinarian and he prescribed the dog an ointment for his sore paw. But Tolik lived far away and the day came when he did not come to Bim. The neighbor again began to let the dog out, whose paw had almost healed, to go for independent walks. During one of his walks, Bim saw a familiar bus driver and he called the dog to him. But the driver decided to profit from Bima and sold it to one passenger who lived in the countryside.
So Bim, who began to be called Chernoukh, ended up in the village. He lived here well and satisfyingly. He quickly learned to herd sheep and helped the new owner and his son Alyosha until the snow. But Bim was a hunting dog, and he definitely had to take part in the hunt. The new owner allowed the neighbor to hunt with Bim. However, the neighbor did not know how to handle hunting dogs and, annoyed by the failure during the hunt, severely beat the dog. Bim decided to return to the city and look for Ivan Ivanovich again.
The beaten dog managed to find his way to the city. Moreover, on one of the streets he sensed that the boy Tolik, who was caring for him, had recently passed here. Bim found the house where Tolik lived by smell and the friends met. It turned out that Tolik’s parents forbade him to go to Bim. This time the parents acted cunningly. They allowed the boy to keep the dog, but at night they took Bim by car to the forest and left him there, tying him to a tree. But Bim managed to gnaw through the rope and returned to the city.
Tolik did not believe his parents’ words that Bim had run away and started looking for him. And Bim, already at the house, came across that scandalous woman who declared that he had bitten her. The woman pointed out the sick, exhausted dog to dog catchers who were driving by. So Bim found himself locked in an iron box where captured dogs were kept.
The next day, a village boy Alyosha arrived in the city with his father. Alyosha was also looking for Bim-Chernoukha. On the streets of the city he met Tolik, and the boys realized that they were looking for the same dog. At the station they met Ivan Ivanovich, who had returned to the city after an operation. Ivan Ivanovich managed to find Bim at the quarantine site where captured dogs were taken. But he was late. All night the dog persistently tried to get free, gnawing on the door, and died, having spent his last strength.
Ivan Ivanovich did not tell Alyosha and Tolik about Bim’s death. The next day he took Bim to the forest where they were hunting and buried him there. This is the summary of the story.
The main idea of the story “White Beam, Black Ear” is that dogs are man’s most faithful friends. Bim really missed his owner and tried to look for him everywhere. But at the same time he tried to be useful to those people who treated him kindly. Bim did not manage to meet Ivan Ivanovich again, but he did not give up until the very last minute, without losing hope of a meeting. The story teaches you to take care of pets and treat them as your friends. Keeping a dog or other pet is not only joy, but also a great responsibility for a living being.
In the story I liked the boys Tolik and Alyosha. They sincerely fell in love with Bim-Chernoukha and tirelessly searched for him throughout the city.
What proverbs go with the story “White Bim, Black Ear”?
A dog is a man's constant friend.
There is no price for a true friend.
A true friend loves to death.
There is not only good in the world, but also evil. There are not only good people, but also evil ones. This is exactly what Troepolsky’s book “White Bim Black Ear” is about. Reviews of the story have never been indifferent. Neither in the early seventies, when the book was first published, nor today, more than twenty years after the death of the writer.
About the author
Before we talk about reviews of the work “White Bim Black Ear,” it is, of course, worth paying attention to the writer who created it. Gabriel Troepolsky composed a story that brings tears to readers regardless of age. A story the likes of which, unfortunately, take place in our cruel world.
The rest of Troepolsky's works are little known. However, even when we talk about “White Bim”, many remember the film adaptation by Stanislav Rostotsky, nominated for an Oscar. But the topic of today's article is not the film, but the literary source.
Gabriel Troepolsky was born in 1905 in the Voronezh region. I started writing during my school years. In 1924 he graduated from the agricultural school, after which he worked as a teacher. And then he worked as an agronomist for many years. He was engaged in literary creativity throughout his life, with the exception of a short period after the publication of his first story. The author was quite critical of this work. Later, Gabriel Nikolaevich recalled that after reading his debut story, he decided that he would not become a writer.
However, Troepolsky was wrong. He became a writer. Moreover, one of the best Soviet prose writers who created works for young readers. Although the book “White Bim Black Ear”, about which there are only enthusiastic reviews, is read by both children and adults.
A book about devotion and compassion
Gabriel Troepolsky wrote such works as from “From the Notes of an Agronomist”, “Candidate of Sciences”, “Land and People”, “Chernozem”. He devoted most of his books to nature and his native land. In 1971, Troepolsky wrote a touching story about devotion, love, and mercy.
Reviews and responses to the book “White Bim Black Ear” in the early seventies were not long in coming. Critics immediately responded to this work. Two years later, Rostotsky decided to make a film.
Alexander Tvardovsky did not leave a review of the book “White Bim Black Ear”. The writer, poet, journalist, chief editor of the famous literary magazine passed away in December 1971 and did not have time to read his friend’s work. But this story, as you know, is dedicated to Tvardovsky - the man thanks to whom the name of the author of the story “White Bim Black Ear” became known to Soviet readers back in the sixties.
Critics' reviews of Troepolsky's book were positive. This is evidenced by the state award that the author received in 1975. Literary figures appreciated the artistic features of the work, its instructive and even, in some way, pedagogical value. But let’s finally talk about reader reviews of the book “White Bim Black Ear.” Why did the sad story about an English setter of a strange, atypical color captivate ordinary people, far from art and literature?
Troepolsky's book shows the ordinary world of people through the eyes of a dog. The writer sacrificed his main character in order to show that evil sometimes outweighs good. The death of a sincere, kind, devoted creature at the hands of cruel, selfish people, of whom, according to the writer, there are more in this world than the kind and merciful - that is the whole plot of the story.
Loneliness
Ivan Ivanovich is an elderly, lonely man. He lost his son in the war. Then his wife passed away. Ivan Ivanovich got used to loneliness. He often talks with the portrait of his deceased wife, and these conversations seem to calm him down, soften the pain of loss.
One day he acquired a puppy - a thoroughbred, but with traces of degeneration. The puppy's parents were purebred English setters, and therefore he had to be black in color. But Bim was born white. Ivan Ivanovich chose a puppy with an atypical color - he liked the eyes, they were kind and smart. From that moment on, the friendship between man and dog began - sincere, selfless, devoted. One day, turning out of habit to the portrait of his wife hanging on the wall, Ivan Ivanovich said: “You see, now I’m not alone.”
Expectation
One day Ivan Ivanovich fell seriously ill. The wound received during the war took its toll. The dog was waiting for him, looking for him. A lot has been said about dog devotion, but none of the literary works has explored this topic so touchingly. While waiting for his owner, Bim encounters different people: both good and evil. The cruel ones, unfortunately, turn out to be stronger. Bim dies.
The dog spends the last minutes of his life in the dog catchers' car. Returning from the hospital, Ivan Ivanovich finds his pet, but it is too late. He buries Bim, but doesn’t say anything about it to the boys who managed to fall in love with the smart, kind dog during his absence.
Today's people are already aware of caring for life in all its manifestations as a moral duty. And above all, writers. The talented story by G. Troepolsky “White Bim Black Ear” became an extraordinary phenomenon. An analysis of the work is offered to your attention.
The book's seventeen chapters cover the entire life of a dog and its relationship with humans. At the beginning of the story, Bim is a very tiny, one-month-old puppy, who, clumsily waddling on weak paws, whines, looking for his mother. He soon got used to the warmth of the hands of the person who took him into his home, and very quickly began to respond to the affection of his owner. Almost the entire story about the dog’s life is connected with Bim’s vision of the world, with the evolution of his perception. At first, this is fragmentary information about his surroundings: about the room where he lives; about the owner Ivan Ivanovich, a kind and affectionate person. Then - the beginning of friendship with Ivan Ivanovich, mutual friendship, devoted and happy. The first chapters are major: Bim shows great promise early on, from eight months old, as a good hunting dog. The world opens up to Bim with its good sides. But in the third chapter, an alarming, alarming note appears - Bim met a stray dog, Shaggy, and brought her to Ivan Ivanovich. Everything seems to be fine, but in the middle of the chapter a phrase appears that a bitter fate will bring Bim and Lokhmatka together.
This phrase is a harbinger of changes in the dog’s life: Ivan Ivanovich was taken to the hospital. It was necessary to operate on the fragment that he had carried near his heart for twenty years, since the war. Bim was left alone, left to wait. This word now absorbs for Bim all the smells and sounds, happiness and devotion - everything connected with the owner. Troepolsky takes Bim through several rounds of tests: finding himself alone, he gradually learns how different people are, how unfair they can be. In Bim’s life, not only friends appear, but also enemies: a snub-nosed man with fleshy, drooping lips, who saw in Bim a “living infection”, a noisy aunt who is ready to destroy this “lousy dog”. All these characters are presented satirically, the disgusting and inhumane are grotesquely emphasized in them.
Bim, who was previously ready to lick the hand of this very aunt, not out of love for her, but out of gratitude and trust in everything human, now begins to notice friends and enemies in the human world. It is easier for him with those who are not afraid of him, a stray dog, who understands what he is waiting for. He is most trusting of children.
But the time came - and Bim found out that among the children there were also all kinds, such as the red-haired, freckled boy who teased the girl Lucy for sheltering Bim.
A more difficult time came: Bim was sold for money, taken to the village, and given another name - Chernoukh. He learned to doubt people and fear people. He was savagely beaten by a hunter because Bim did not strangle the wounded hare. The parents of Tolik, who brought Bim home, turned out to be even more cruel enemies. The head of the “happy and cultured family,” Semyon Petrovich, pretended to agree to his son’s request to leave the dog, and at night he secretly took Bim by car to the forest, tied him to a tree and left him there alone. This scene seems to vary folklore motifs and the motif of Pushkin’s fairy tale: “And leave her there to be devoured by the wolves.”
But Troepolsky’s story is not a fairy-tale work. The writer shows that wolves are not senselessly and unreasonably cruel. The word in justification and defense of the wolves is one of the author’s most powerful digressions in the story.
Starting from the twelfth chapter, events develop more and more rapidly and become more intense: the weakened, wounded Bim returns from the forest to the city and again looks for Ivan Ivanovich.
“...Oh, the great courage and long-suffering of a dog! What forces created you so powerful and indestructible that even in your dying hour you move your body forward? At least little by little, but forward. Forward, to where, perhaps, there will be trust and kindness for an unfortunate, lonely, forgotten dog with a pure heart.”
And at the end of the story, like almost forgotten traces, the places where Bim was happy again pass before the reader’s eyes: the door of the house in which he lived with Ivan Ivanovich; a high brick fence behind which was the house of his friend Tolik. Not a single door opened for the wounded dog. And his old enemy appears again - Auntie. She commits the last and most terrible cruelty in Bim’s life - she hands him over to an iron van.
Bim dies. But the story is not pessimistic: Bim is not forgotten. In the spring, Ivan Ivanovich comes to the clearing where he is buried with a small puppy, a new Bim.
This scene asserts that the cycle of life is irresistible, that birth and death are constantly nearby, that renewal in nature is eternal. But the final episodes of the story are not conducive to emotion at the sight of the general spring rejoicing: a shot was heard, followed by two more. Who shot? To whom?
“Maybe an evil man wounded that handsome woodpecker and finished him off with two charges... Or maybe one of the hunters buried the dog and she was three years old...”
For Troepolsky, a humanist writer, nature is not a temple conducive to calm and tranquility. There is a constant struggle between life and death. And the first task of a person is to help life establish itself and win.