V. P. Astafiev
King fish
Ignatyich - main character short stories. This man is respected by his fellow villagers because he is always happy to help with advice and deeds, for his skill in fishing, for his intelligence and ingenuity. This is the most prosperous person in the village, he does everything “okay” and wisely. He often helps people, but there is no sincerity in his actions. The hero of the story does not have a good relationship with his brother.
In the village Ignatyich is known as the luckiest and most skillful fisherman. One feels that he has an abundance of fishing instincts, the experience of his ancestors and his own, acquired over the years. for many years. Ignatyich often uses his skills to the detriment of nature and people, as he is engaged in poaching. Exterminating countless fish, causing irreparable damage to the natural resources of the river, he is aware of the illegality and unseemlyness of his actions, and is afraid of the “shame” that could befall him if a poacher is waylaid in the dark by a fisheries inspection boat. What made Ignatyich catch more fish than he needed was greed, the thirst for profit at any cost. This is what worked for him fatal role when meeting the king fish.
The fish looked like a “prehistoric lizard”, “eyes without eyelids, without eyelashes, naked, looking with serpentine coldness, concealed something within themselves.” Ignatyich is amazed by the size of the sturgeon, which grew up on only “boogers” and “tangles”; he is surprised to call it “a mystery of nature.” From the very beginning, from the moment Ignatyich saw the king fish, something “sinister” seemed to him in her, and later realized that “one cannot cope with such a monster.”
The desire to call my brother and a mechanic for help was supplanted by all-consuming greed: “Share the sturgeon?.. There are two buckets of caviar in the sturgeon, if not more. Caviar for three too?!” At that moment Ignatyich even himself was ashamed of his feelings. But after some time, “he considered greed as excitement,” and the desire to catch sturgeon turned out to be stronger voices mind. In addition to the thirst for profit, there was another reason that forced Ignatyich to measure his strength with a mysterious creature. This is fishing prowess. “Ah, it was not! - thought the main character of the story. - The King Fish comes across once in a lifetime, and even then not “every Jacob.”
Casting aside doubts, “successfully, with all his might, Ignatyich slammed the butt of his ax into the forehead of the king fish...”. Soon the unlucky fisherman found himself in the water, entangled in his own fishing rods with hooks embedded in the bodies of Ignatyich and the fish. “The king of the river and the king of all nature are in one trap,” writes the author. That’s when the fisherman realized that the huge sturgeon was “not for him.” Yes, he knew this from the very beginning of their struggle, but “because of this kind of bastard, man was forgotten in man.” Ignatyich and the king fish “tied together with one share.” Death awaits them both. A passionate desire to live makes a person break his hooks; in desperation he even starts talking to the sturgeon. “What do you want!.. I’m waiting for my brother, and who are you?” - Ignatyich prays. The thirst for life pushes the hero, and yes, to overcome his own pride. He shouts: “Bra-ate-elni-i-i-ik!..”
Ignatyich feels that he is dying. The fish “pressed tightly and carefully against him with its thick and tender belly.” The hero of the story experienced superstitious horror from this almost feminine tenderness of the cold fish. He understood: the sturgeon was clinging to him because death awaited them both. At this moment, a person begins to remember his childhood, youth, and maturity. In addition to pleasant memories, thoughts come that his failures in life were associated with poaching. Ignatyich begins to understand that brutal fishing will always weigh heavily on his conscience. I remembered the hero of the story and old grandfather, who instructed the young fishermen: “And if you, timid ones, have something in your soul, a grave sin, some kind of disgrace, barnacles - don’t get involved with the king fish, you come across codes - send them away immediately.”
The grandfather’s words make Astafiev’s hero think about his past. What sin did Ignatyich commit? It turned out that the grave guilt lies on the conscience of the fisherman. Having violated the feelings of the bride, he committed an unjustifiable offense. Ignatyich realized that this incident with the king fish was a punishment for his bad deeds.
Turning to God, Ignatyich asks: “Lord! Let us go! Release this creature to freedom! She’s not for me!” He asks for forgiveness from the girl whom he once offended: “I’m sorry... her-eeee... Gla-a-asha-a-a, forgive-ee-ee.” After this, the king fish frees himself from the hooks and swims away to his native element, carrying “dozens of deadly ouds” in his body. Ignatyich immediately feels better: his body - because the fish did not hang on him like a dead weight, his soul - because nature has forgiven him, given him another chance to atone for all his sins and start a new life.
Victor Astafiev
KING FISH
I was silent, lost in thought,
Contemplating with a habitual gaze
An ominous holiday of existence,
Confused look native land.
Nikolay Rubtsov
If we behave ourselves,
then we, plants and animals, will
exist for billions of years
because there are large reserves in the sun
fuel and its consumption are perfectly regulated.
Haldor Shelley
Part one
Of my own free will and desire, I rarely have to travel to my homeland. More and more people are invited there for funerals and wakes - there are a lot of relatives, a lot of friends and acquaintances - this is good: you will receive and give a lot of love in life, but it’s good until the time comes for the people close to you to fall, like over-stayed pines fall in an old forest, with heavy crunch and long exhale...
However, I have had occasion to visit the Yenisei without the call of brief mournful telegrams, and to listen to more than just lamentations. Happened happy hours and nights by the fire on the bank of the river, trembling with the lights of the buoys, pierced to the bottom with golden drops of stars; listen not only to the splash of waves, the sound of the wind, the roar of the taiga, but also the leisurely stories of people around a fire in nature, especially open, stories, revelations, memories until dark, and even until the morning, occupied by the calm light behind distant passes, until nothing will arise, sticky fogs will not creep in, and words will become viscous, heavy, the tongue will become clumsy, and the fire will dim, and everything in nature will acquire that long-awaited peace when only its infantile, pure soul can be heard. In such moments, you are left, as it were, alone with nature and with a slightly fearful secret joy you feel: you can and should finally trust everything that is around you, and unnoticeably you will soften, like a leaf or a blade of grass under the dew, you will fall asleep easily, soundly and, falling asleep before the first ray of light, before the tentative birdsong by the summer water, which has kept steamy warmth since the evening, you will smile at a long-forgotten feeling - so you were free when you had not yet loaded your memory with any memories, and you could hardly remember yourself, I just felt the world around me with my skin, got used to it with my eyes, attached myself to the tree of life with a short stem of the same leaf that I felt myself to be now, in a rare moment of mental peace...
But this is how a person works: while he is alive, his heart and head work in an agitated manner, having absorbed not only the burden of his own memories, but also the memory of those who met on the outskirts of life and forever sank into the seething human whirlpool or became attached to the soul so, that you can’t tear it away, you can’t separate either his pain or joy from your pain, from your joy.
...At that time, order travel tickets were still in effect, and, having received the reward money accumulated during the war, I went to Igarka to take my grandmother from Sisima from the Arctic.
My uncles Vanya and Vasya died in the war, Kostka served in the navy in the North, my grandmother from Sisima lived as a housekeeper for the manager of a port store, a kind but fertile woman, she was mortally tired of children, so she asked me in a letter to rescue her from the North, from strangers , even if good people.
I expected a lot from that trip, but the most significant thing about it turned out to be that I disembarked from the ship at the moment when something was burning in Igarka again, and it seemed to me: I had never left anywhere, many years had not flashed by, everything was still the same , it remains in place, even such a familiar fire blazes, without causing discord in the life of the city, without causing a disruption in the rhythm of work. Only closer to the fire, some people were crowding and running, red cars were gunning, according to the established custom here, pumping water from the pits and lakes located between the houses and streets, a building was loudly cracking, black smoke was billowing, which, to my complete surprise, turned out to be next to that house , where the grandmother from Sisima lived as housekeepers.
The owners were not at home. The grandmother from Sisima was in tears and in a panic: the neighbors began to take property out of the apartments just in case, but she didn’t dare - it wasn’t her property, what if something got lost?..
We didn’t have time to fall over, kiss, or cry, following the custom. I immediately began to tie up other people's property. But soon the door opened, an obese woman collapsed through the threshold, crawled on all fours to the cabinet, took a sip of valerian straight from the bottle, caught her breath a little and with a weak wave of her hand indicated to stop preparing for the evacuation: on the street the fire bell was ringing reassuringly - what needs to burn, then burned, the fire, thank God, did not spread to the neighboring premises, the cars drove away, leaving only one on duty, from which the smoking firebrands were slowly watered. Around the fire stood silent townspeople, accustomed to everything, and only a flat-backed old woman, soiled with soot, holding a rescued cross-saw by the handle, was shouting at someone or something.
The owner came home from work, a Belarusian, a healthy guy, with an airy face and character that was unexpected for his height and nationality. He and the hostess and I drank heavily. I plunged into memories of the war, the owner, looking at my medal and order, said with melancholy, but without any anger, however, that he, too, had awards and ranks, but they floated away.
The next day was a day off. The owner and I were sawing wood in Bear's Log. The grandmother from Sisima was getting ready to go on the road, grumbling under her breath: “My name is not enough, so it’s ishsho and the palnya will pay!” But I was sawing wood in a hurry, we were joking with the owner, we were about to go to dinner, when a grandmother from Sisima appeared above the log, searched the lowland with her not yet completely crying eyes and, having found us, dragged herself down, clutching at the branches. Trailing behind her was a thin boy, alarmingly familiar to me, in an eight-piece cap and frilly pants hanging on him. He smiled shyly and welcomingly at me. The grandmother from Sisima said biblically:
This is your brother.
Yes, this was the same guy who, before he even learned to walk, could already swear, and with whom we once almost burned to death in the ruins of the old Igara drama theater.
My relationship after returning from the orphanage to the bosom of my family again did not work out. God knows, I tried to put them together, for some time I was humble, obliging, worked, fed myself, and often my stepmother and children - dad, as before, drank his weight to the penny and, following the free laws of vagabonds, played tricks around the world, not taking care of children and home.
Besides Kolka, Tolka was already in the family, and the third, as is clear from a popular modern song, whether he wants it or not, “must leave,” although at any age, especially at the seventeenth year, it is scary to leave in all four directions - the boy hasn't gotten over himself yet, the guy hasn't gotten over him
To the question Tell me where I can find brief retelling works by Astafiev "Tsar Fish" in chapters given by the author Tanya the best answer is There are novellas!
Ignatyich is the main character of the novel. This man is respected by his fellow villagers because
he is always happy to help with advice and deeds, for his skill in fishing,
for intelligence and ingenuity. This is the most prosperous person in the village, he does everything “okay”
and reasonable. He often helps people, but there is no sincerity in his actions.
The hero of the story does not have a good relationship with his brother.
In the village of Ignatyich
known as the luckiest and most skillful fisherman. It feels like he has an abundance of
fishing instinct, the experience of our ancestors and our own, acquired over many years. Your skills
Ignatyich often uses it to the detriment of nature and people, as he is engaged in poaching.
Destroying countless fish and causing irreparable damage to the natural resources of the river, he realizes
illegality and unseemlyness of his actions, is afraid of the “shame” that can
to comprehend if a poacher is waylaid in the dark by a fisheries inspection boat. She forced Ignatyich
catching more fish than he needed, greed, thirst for profit at any cost. This is what played for
his fatal role when meeting with the king fish.
The fish looked like a "prehistoric"
lizard”, “eyes without eyelids, without eyelashes, naked, looking with serpentine coldness, something
concealed within themselves." Ignatyich is amazed by the size of the sturgeon, which grew up on only “boogers”
and “vines”, he is surprised to call it “a mystery of nature.” From the very beginning
from the moment Ignatyich saw the king fish, something “sinister” seemed to him
in it, and later realized that “one cannot cope with such a monster.”
Wish
calling for help from his brother and the mechanic was driven out by all-consuming greed: “To share
sturgeon?.. There are two buckets of caviar in sturgeon, if not more. Caviar for three too?! » Ignatyich in this
For a moment he was even ashamed of his feelings. But after a while “he considered greed
passion,” and the desire to catch a sturgeon turned out to be stronger than the voice of reason. In addition to the thirst for profit, there was
another reason that forced Ignatyich to measure his strength with a mysterious creature. This is daring
fishing “Ah, it was not! - thought the main character of the story. - King Fish
comes across once in a lifetime, and even then not to “every Jacob.”
Casting aside doubts,
“Successfully, with all his might, Ignatyich hit the king fish in the forehead with the butt of his axe...” Soon
the unlucky fisherman found himself in the water, entangled in his own fishing rods with hooks stuck in
into the bodies of Ignatyich and the fish. “The king of the river and the king of all nature - on one
trap,” writes the author. Then the fisherman realized that the huge sturgeon was “not for his hand.”
to him". Yes, he knew this from the very beginning of their struggle, but “because of such a bastard
the person in man has been forgotten.” Ignatyich and the king fish “tied together with one share.”
Death awaits them both. A passionate desire to live makes a person break free from hooks,
in desperation he even starts talking to the sturgeon. “What do you want!.. I’m waiting for my brother,
and who are you? “- Ignatyich prays. The thirst for life pushes the hero and yes, so that
overcome your own pride. He shouts: “Bra-ate-elni-i-i-ik!..”
Ignatyich
feels like he's dying. The fish “huddled tightly and carefully against him, thick and tender
belly." The hero of the story experienced superstitious horror from this almost feminine tenderness of cold
fish. He understood: the sturgeon was clinging to him because death awaited them both. At this moment
a person begins to remember his childhood, youth, maturity. In addition to pleasant memories, they come
thoughts that his failures in life were associated with poaching. Ignatyich begins
understand that brutal fishing will always weigh heavily on his conscience. I remembered
the hero of the story and the old grandfather, who instructed the young fishermen: “And if you, timid,
what is behind the soul, a grave sin, what a disgrace, varnishment - don’t get involved with the king fish,
If you come across codes, send them away immediately.”
The grandfather’s words make Astafiev’s hero
reflect on your past. What sin did Ignatyich commit? It turned out that heavy guilt lies
on the conscience of the fisherman. Having violated the feelings of the bride, he committed an offense that has no
excuses. Ignatyich realized that this incident with the king fish was a punishment for his bad
actions.
The narration in the stories “The King Fish” and the story of the same name were written by V. P. Astafiev in 1973. “The Fish Tsar” was first published in the book “The Boy in the White Shirt,” published by the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house in 1977. In 1978, for narration in the stories “The King Fish”
V. P. Astafiev was awarded the USSR State Prize.
In the story “The Fish King”, at first glance, nothing supernatural happens. But behind the whole story there are mysterious and elemental forces of nature that have never been reproached to man. There is a confrontation between man, “the whole nature of the king,” and the “king of the river.” v
The story “The Tsar Fish” is included in the book of stories of the same name, telling about the destinies of ordinary Russian people. In many ways, the book and the story are autobiographical: Astafiev was born and raised in a Siberian village, and lost his mother early. Since childhood, the writer became close to nature and was an avid fisherman.
The story takes place in the Siberian village of Chush, on the Oparikha River, which flows into the Yenisei. The main character, Zinovy Ignatyich Utro-bin, worked at a sawmill as an adjuster of saws and machines. Ignatyich (as they called him “politely and slightly ingratiatingly” in the village of Chush) loved to fish, like all the village men. He was very neat, wore a boxing haircut, “his hands were without cracks or scratches.” Ignatyich “drank wisely,” which is why his face was “blooming, with a constant blush on the sharply protruding under-eyes and slightly sunken cheeks.” The main character is shown to be prosperous, polite, courteous, generous person. He did not accept financial gratitude from his fellow villagers for repairing boats, but only asked them to take care of their boats and handle the motor carefully.
Ignatyich caught fish “better than anyone and more than anyone, and this was not disputed by anyone, it was considered legal.” No one envied him except his younger brother, the Commander. The elder Utrobin’s house was “the best in the village”: small, beautiful, with a veranda, carved frames, cheerfully painted shutters, and a front garden under the windows. In the owner’s front garden there were raspberries, bird cherry trees, hairy poppies and “globular flowers unknown to the local people.” These flowers were brought from Kyrgyzstan, planted and “trained to grow in the harsh Chushan climate” by Zinovia’s wife. She worked as an accountant at the same company as her husband. Ignatyich himself was known as a rich man: a savings bank employee let slip that he had “seventy thousand in old money” in his savings book.
According to the author, Ignatyich’s fishing catch was excellent: the “most selected” sterlet, weighing at least a kilogram. The villagers were amazed at Zinovy’s luck and dexterity, and even suspected that he knew some kind of witchcraft word.
The younger brother Commander was in a quarrel with Ignatyich, envied him in everything, and was stubborn. The Commander’s wife reproached her husband and asked him to come to his senses: “...He’s completely lost his mind! Your daughter is not enough for you, blood! I’m ready to take my brother away from the world!” (Utrobin’s younger brother lost his beloved daughter Taika - she was hit by a car driven by a drunk driver. Since then, the unkind Commander has become even angrier and tougher).
Ignatyich often poached: he was afraid of fisheries supervision, but continued to fish illegally. The poacher had an unenviable lot, taking risks: “take the fish, but at the same time fear the fisheries inspection more than death...”. But he couldn’t help but fish, because he loved fishing and the river. more life. And for someone who has lived on the river all his life, over time an irresistible trait appears, an excitement that demands “to take the fish, and that’s all.” These descriptions reflected the author’s own love for fishing. Astafiev speaks of a fish as if of a person: “confident, did not push in vain, did not poke back and forth in a panic...”.
The climax of the story is Ignatyich’s fight with the “king fish”. Having caught selected sterlets, he was already planning to return home, when an invisible fish “made itself known.” The first time the fisherman failed to pull the fish out: “... it pressed, pressed down with dull, unshakable stubbornness.” Based on all the “habits” of the fish, Ignatyich guessed that it was a sturgeon. The fisherman saw his prey and was delighted by the greatness and beauty of the fish.
The fish and the fisherman continue to struggle: the fish pulls into the water, the fisherman pulls towards himself, into the boat. Although Ignatyich feels the fear that gripped him during this duel on the water in the dark, he tries to joke, talks to himself, dreams of what he can get if he fights the sturgeon, which probably has “two buckets” of caviar. What if you have to share caviar with someone? The elder Utrobin catches himself thinking that greed breaks, twists a person, tears him apart.
The fisherman's struggle with the sturgeon continued: neither man nor fish were going to give up. Ignatyich tried to speak out loud, thus fighting fear and despair. He did not want to miss such a sturgeon, because the king fish, as fishermen call large, sparkling fish, “comes across once in a lifetime, and even then not for everyone.” Ignatyich felt some kind of sign in this catch, some kind of peculiarity that befell him.
The sturgeon pulls Zinovy into the water, and he unexpectedly gets hooked. He was caught and began to drown. “So this is how it is, in war...” the fisherman thinks. Many thoughts flashed through his mind: about death, about war, the fisherman had almost come to terms with death. He thought that his path was to hell, “it’s useless to knock at the gates of heaven...”.
But Ignatyich was assertive, courageous, and life-loving, just like his prey - the king fish. He managed to swim out of the water and into the boat, although he was wounded. “...Both the fish and the man were weakening and bleeding.” He thought about why their paths crossed, the paths of “the river of the king and the whole nature of the king - in one trap. The same painful death awaits them.” During the fight with the king fish, Ignatyich was flooded with memories of his past. He remembered how he once saw a drowned man with eyes “shrouded in a lead film, the film of death,” with eyelashes plucked out by small fish, eyelids sucked by the same fish...”
The fisherman imagined himself in the place of this drowned man, “squealed... and began to hit the fish on the head... began to persuade the fish to die quickly” in order to stay alive himself. But the fish did not obey; it turned out to be no less stubborn than the fisherman. Ignatyich tried not to look at the water, looked at the sky, continuing to remember. I remembered the mowing on the Fetisovaya River and felt a sturgeon nearby, “the fish pressed tightly and carefully against it with its thick and tender belly. There was something feminine in this care, in the desire to warm, to preserve the emerging life within oneself.” And the fisherman suddenly had a guess: “Couldn’t this be a werewolf?”
Ignatyich continues to remember: his childhood, school - four classes. I remembered that, while sitting in class, I imagined myself on the river, thinking about it, about fishing, about fish. I thought that I couldn’t stay in place for a long time: I was the chairman of the school parent committee, and a deputy of the village council, and a people’s warrior. I introduced my niece Taika, who died under the wheels of a drunk driver. “The hour of the cross has struck, the time has come to account for our sins,” the fisherman regrets.
All his life he could not forgive himself for how he treated Glashka Kuklina. Apparently, Zinovy Utrobin liked the girl. But the Labor Army soldiers who came to the Chushan sawmill, especially the commander - “a subtle and sonorous lieutenant,” mastered the girls’ ears. Rumors spread throughout the village, “they even reached Zinovy. The men taught Utrobin how to settle accounts with the “traitor” Glashka: press, kiss, squeeze, give free rein to his hands. But when Zinovy saw a modest girl’s outfit: flannel pants, painted with homemade paint, with with assorted, pricked buttons, he stopped. “...He gave the whining, shaking girl a knee in the ass, and she flew into the water.” From then on, enmity arose between Glashka and Zinovy.
At the end of his service in Kyrgyzstan, Zinovy returned home to the village of Chush with his wife. Glasha married a quiet, visiting man - an accountant. The woman greeted politely, but the fisherman understood: Glasha had not forgotten the insult. Zinovy suffered and repented. While still in the service, he wrote Glasha a letter of apology, but never received an answer. On the first evening after his arrival, he waylaid her and decided to personally apologize, to which the woman replied: “May God forgive you...”.
And now, alone with the river, the night and the king fish, Ignatyich thought that retribution had come, because no crime passes without a trace. He began to frantically shout into the darkness: “Forgive me, Glasha! Sorry! Ignatyich felt a jerk, then a blow, the king fish sank into the water, to the bottom. The fisherman released his catch: “Go, fish, go!” Live as long as you can!..” And suddenly Ignatyich felt better - both physically and mentally...
The story “The Tsar Fish” is, firstly, a vivid and original story-evidence of the great love of the Siberian peasant Ignatich (and the author too) for his native Siberian nature. The second and main idea of the work is about how important it is for a person to maintain conscience and decency, to have the courage to admit his mistakes, sincerely repent of them and ask for forgiveness - not for show, but in front of himself and this dark river, in the face of a pure and incorruptible family nature.
A collection of short stories about the expanses of the great Siberian river, the endless taiga, the blueness and breadth of the sky, which is in a small drop and a flower that boldly went out to meet the cold winds and is waiting for the sun. A story about such wonders of nature cannot but captivate anyone who is not alien to the beauty of their native land, who feels themselves to be part of nature and this beauty, who is able to feel the joy and beat of life even in a drop and a flower. I was no exception, perhaps because the nature of the region described in Astafiev’s book is very close to me, since not only the writer’s homeland is located there, but also mine, which remains in the closest and most beautiful memory. The collection consists of twelve short stories, each of which in its own way reflects Astafiev’s main idea: the unity of man and nature. It poses many important problems: philosophical, moral, environmental and social. For example, in the short story the author touched upon an important philosophical problem, which Astafiev formulates in discussions about a drop frozen on. The story's author's point is a separate one human life. And the continuation of the existence of each drop lies in its merging with others, in the formation of a stream-river of life. The narrator’s thoughts about children, in which our brief joys and beneficial sorrows, our life. Astafiev claims that human life does not stop, does not disappear, but continues in our children and deeds. There is no death, and nothing in the world passes without a trace - this is the main idea expressed by the writer in. The book contains a short story with the same name. Apparently the author gives it special meaning , so I would like to dwell on it in more detail. Ignatyich is the main character of the novel. This man is respected by his fellow villagers because he is always happy to help with advice and deeds, for his skill in fishing, for his intelligence and ingenuity. This is the most prosperous person in the village, he does everything wisely. He often helps people, but there is no sincerity in his actions. The hero of the story does not have a good relationship with his brother. In the village Ignatyich is known as the luckiest and most skillful fisherman. One feels that he has an abundance of fishing instincts, the experience of his ancestors and his own, acquired over many years. Ignatyich often uses his skills to the detriment of nature and people, as he is engaged in poaching. Exterminating countless fish, causing irreparable damage to the natural resources of the river, the main character of the novel is aware of the illegality and unseemlyness of his actions, and is afraid of what might befall him if a poacher is waylaid by a fisheries inspection boat in the dark. What made Ignatyich catch more fish than he needed was greed, the thirst for profit at any cost. This played a fatal role for him when he met the king fish. Astafiev describes it very vividly: the fish looked like, . Ignatyich is amazed by the size of the sturgeon, which grew up on some people, and he names it with surprise. From the very beginning, from the moment Ignatyich saw the king fish, something seemed to him in it, and later the hero of the story realized that. The desire to call his brother and a mechanic for help was supplanted by all-consuming greed: and the desire to catch a sturgeon turned out to be stronger than the voice of reason. In addition to the thirst for profit, there was another reason that forced Ignatyich to measure his strength with a mysterious creature. This is fishing prowess. .Having cast aside doubts, .The image of an ax in this episode evokes an association with Raskolnikov. But Dostoevsky’s hero raised it to man, and Ignatyich took a swing at Mother Nature itself. The hero of the story thinks that everything is allowed to him. But Astafiev believes that this permissiveness cannot be anyone’s right. With bated breath you watch Ignatyich’s fight with the mysterious fish. Soon the unlucky fisherman found himself in the water, entangled in his own fishing rods with hooks embedded in the bodies of Ignatyich and the fish. , writes the author. Then the fisherman realized that it was a huge sturgeon. Yes, he knew this from the very beginning of their struggle, but... Ignatyich and the Tsar Fish. Death awaits them both. A passionate desire to live makes a person break his hooks; in desperation he even starts talking to the sturgeon. - Ignatyich prays. The thirst for life pushes the hero, and yes, to overcome his own pride. He shouts: . The hero of the story experienced superstitious horror from this almost feminine tenderness of the cold fish. He understood: the sturgeon was clinging to him because death awaited them both. At this moment, a person begins to remember his childhood, youth, and maturity. In addition to pleasant memories, thoughts come that his failures in life were associated with poaching. Ignatyich begins to understand that brutal fishing will always weigh heavily on his conscience. The hero of the story also remembered the old grandfather who instructed the young fishermen: . The grandfather’s words make Astafiev’s hero think about his past. What sin did Ignatyich commit? It turned out that the grave guilt lies on the conscience of the fisherman. Having violated the feelings of the bride, he committed an unjustifiable offense. Ignatyich realized that this incident with the king fish was a punishment for his bad deeds. This is where it manifests itself main idea the short story and the entire book: a person will face retribution not only for a barbaric attitude towards nature, but also for cruelty towards people. Destroying in his soul what nature originally laid down (kindness, decency, mercy, honesty, love), Ignatyich becomes a poacher not only in relation to nature, but also to himself. Man is an integral part of nature. He must live in harmony with her, otherwise she will take revenge for her humiliation. Astafiev claims this in his book. Turning to God, Ignatyich asks: He asks for forgiveness from the girl he once offended: . After this, the king fish frees himself from the hooks and swims away to his native element, carrying him away in his body. Ignatyich immediately feels better: his body - because the fish did not hang on him like a dead weight, his soul - because nature has forgiven him, given him another chance to atone for all his sins and start a new life. I like V.P. Astafiev’s book because the author raises in his work not only environmental, but also moral problems. fosters a sense of responsibility and makes everyone think about the author’s words that retribution will certainly await a person for bad deeds. This collection of short stories is read with great interest, it teaches you to love nature and cultivate a kind attitude towards people. The language of the work is peculiar. The writer willingly uses the words that people living in his native places use. This book makes the reader kinder and smarter.