Andrei Platonov entered the history of literature as the creator of a new prose style, defiantly original and sharply different from others. His writing style is so unusual that it confuses the reader and does not allow him to adapt to himself, so some readers cannot even master the school “Pit”. Having become accustomed to Turgenev’s impeccably smooth prose or Tolstoy’s classically long sentences, it is difficult to perceive an absolutely innovative method, detached from everything historical experience available in Russian literature. Like an alien, Platonov’s style has no analogues and connections with our world, as if it were not invented, but brought from unknown countries where they really communicate like that.
Platonov’s main author’s style is often called “tongue-tied” because the author violates language norms, habitual connections between words, stringing morphological, syntactic and semantic errors on top of each other. It may seem to many that what they are looking at is not the great Russian novels and stories, but the clumsy experiments of a mediocre student who has no idea about the rules of the Russian language. However, formal stylistic violations conceal many new meanings and create effects that most accurately reflect the ideological and thematic content. Each seemingly random sentence expresses the author’s thought, and a complex one at that. The “philosophy of the common cause,” which Platonov professed in his own way (like many poets and prose writers of the 20s of the 20th century), cannot be conveyed more clearly and convincingly. Art world Platnov is built on a specific newspeak, like totalitarian state Orwell. New forms have appeared for new ideas. It is these that we will analyze using the example of the story “The Pit”.
Analysis of Platonov’s story “The Pit”
Many people sincerely do not understand why Platonov uses unnecessary, ridiculous additions. But in order to realize their expediency, you need to clear your blinkered consciousness and think about what the author wanted to say. Talking about the main character Voshchev, the writer notes that “on the day of the thirtieth anniversary of his personal life” he was fired from the factory. Where does the word “personal” come from? Apparently, personal life is opposed to non-personal, social, collective. This indicates Voshchev’s alienation, his restlessness and eccentricity: while everyone works and lives together, in a pack, in the unity of the tribe, the hero strayed from society, flying in the clouds. He was kicked out for “flying” on weekdays. That's the whole story and the main problem the characters were told in one sentence, which suits its hero so well: just as ridiculous and eccentric.
The main idea and main themes of the story “Pit”
In the format of utopias, Platonov often reflected on whether a person could become only an element of society, renouncing individuality and the right to it, if the common good is at stake? He does not fight against the tenets of socialism and communism. He is afraid of their ugly implementation, because you will never understand the true meaning of the theory without it practical application(fear of people completely merging into an impersonal, insensitive mass - main topic in the story "The Pit"). Therefore, Voshchev, on the occasion of his personal life, is erased from his public life. He is initially given an ultimatum: to fully integrate into the collective consciousness or survive on his own, without counting on the support of society and its attention. However, the individual does not simply quit, but is “removed from production.” They “eliminate” a defect, breakdown, pollution, but not a person. It turns out that a “brooding” employee is a problem in production, interfering with the “general pace of work” and hostile towards it. A person is valuable as a mechanism in unified system, but if it fails, it is eliminated like an old worthless piece of iron - Platonov doubts the fairness of this. As a result, he doubts the new system. That is why many of his works were published only during the period of perestroika.
The image of Voshchev in the story “The pit”
An accurate indication of Voshchev’s age also makes sense. Firstly, the author was 30 when he wrote “The Pit,” and secondly, this is the so-called “age of Christ,” which goes by the secular name “midlife crisis.” A person is neither young nor old, he has achieved something, but it is not enough, and the best time of life is irretrievably lost. He doubts and rushes about, before it’s too late to change everything for the better and find answers to the most global and difficult questions. It is “in the middle of life in twilight forest"Dante got lost and went in search of himself. Symbolic age endows the hero Voshchev with a restless nature, focused on philosophical issues, which is already enough to eliminate a person from the production of the new world.
Linguistic features in Platonov’s story “The Pit”. Examples from the text
The first paragraph of “The Pit” consists of clerical stamps. This is how the author plays up and ridicules the bureaucratic touch in the everyday language of illiterate contemporaries who did not understand the meaning of this officialdom. Platonov doesn’t just copy the cliché, but undermines the cliché from the inside, leaving only general principle construction and replacing the essence: “Voshchev received a settlement due to the growth of weakness and thoughtfulness in him.”
In the second paragraph, along with the marginal hero comes the traditional poetic vocabulary: “the trees carefully kept the heat in their leaves”, “the dust lay boringly on the deserted road.” But Voshchev is a child of the era, the author also never tires of reminding us of this: “there was a quiet state in nature” - a clerical term, but devoid of the usual semantics.
A person’s life is equated to the existence of a thing, which is also nationalized by the state. It turns out that a person is under total control and in an unimaginable forced asceticism without faith: for example, joy was rarely “allowed” for Voshchev.
Andrey Platonov: interesting facts from life and literature
Thus, the “tongue-tied” style of Platonov is not empty expression or innovation as an end in itself. This is a semantic necessity. Language experiments allow him to retell the contents of ten volumes of descriptions in one story. Unfortunately, his fears, masterfully formulated in “The Pit,” were not in vain or at least exaggerated. His only son was detained and spent 2 years in prison without guilt, waiting for his case to be considered. He was released, but he was already terminally ill with tuberculosis, which he infected the whole family. As a result, without money and care, in a kind of isolation from society (no one allowed them to work and write), all the Platonovs soon died. Such was the price of a style that triumphantly entered the history of literature.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!People in A. Platonov’s work “The Pit”.
Andrei Platonov lived in difficult times for Russia. He believed in the possibility of rebuilding a society in which the common good would be the condition for one's own happiness. But these utopian ideas could not be realized in life. Very soon Platonov realized that it was impossible to turn the people into an impersonal mass. He protested against violence against the individual, the transformation reasonable people into spiritless beings who carry out any order from the authorities. This protest is heard in many of Platonov’s works, which are distinguished by the originality of the author’s language and symbolic images.
The theme of human destiny in a totalitarian state is most fully revealed in the story “The Pit”. Diggers are digging a pit, in the place of which they are to build a house for the “happy” inhabitants of socialism. But many of the heroes of the work die, achieving happiness turns out to be impossible without human sacrifice. However, fanatical devotion to the idea does not allow the workers to doubt the correctness of everything that is happening. Only Voshchev began to think about the essence of existence. He was fired because he thought about the meaning of life “amid the general pace of work.” Voshchev is a contradictory nature, symbolic image seeker of truth. In search of the meaning of life, Voshchev ends up with the diggers. This person wants to be an individual, with his desire he poses an involuntary challenge to the state, for which only the masses exist. But, on the other hand, Voshchev participates in collectivization, showing cruelty towards the peasants. This proves that Voshchev, in spite of everything, is a man of his era, of his time.
There are many contrasts in Platonov's work. The workers are digging a foundation pit, on the site of which they want to build a house of universal happiness, and they themselves live in a barn: “Except for breathing, there was no sound in the barracks, no one saw dreams or talked to memories - everyone existed without any excess of life.” A girl who lost her mother and found shelter with the diggers sleeps in a coffin. She is doomed just like the adults. Nastya is a symbol of the future, a person for whom workers dig a hole, sparing no effort. But the girl dies, the pit becomes a grave for the child, the dream of a bright future is buried, and the workers continue to dig.
The language of the story “The Pit” is peculiar. When describing the characters, the author uses non-standard, unusual expressions. “His old veins and insides came close to the outside, he felt his surroundings without calculation or consciousness, but with precision,” the author writes about Chiklin, one of the diggers; Platonov portrays Kozlov as follows: “... he was gloomy, insignificant with his whole body, sweat weakness dripped into the clay from his dull, monotonous face.” People in the work are like machines, their faces do not express feelings, and their actions are performed mechanically, thoughtlessly. Platonov’s depiction of nature is completely different: “A dead, fallen leaf lay next to Voshchev’s head, the wind brought it from a distant tree, and now this leaf was faced with humility in the ground.” Unlike humans, nature is alive, it is endowed with feelings. Man exists without thinking about anything. He destroys the soil - the living body of the earth: “Chiklin hastily broke the age-old soil, turning the entire life of his body into blows on dead places.”
By destroying the earth, people kill their soul. The soil is depleted and man loses the meaning of existence. And in the village there is a terrible process of dispossession. The peasants prepare coffins for themselves in advance, since they do not expect anything good from the power of the proletarians. The wind is blowing through the houses, the village is desolate: some are stocking up on coffins, others are being floated on rafts. Thousands of peasants were sacrificed. New life in the country is being built on their dead bodies. Fear and cruelty came to define the era. Anyone could turn into a traitor, an enemy of the people.
Cruelty is inherent in many of the heroes of the work. Such are Safronov and Chiklin, fanatically devoted to the idea of building socialism. Such is the village activist, who day and night awaits a directive from above: “He read each new directive with the curiosity of future pleasure, as if he was peeking into the passionate secrets of adults, central people" The activist unquestioningly follows orders without thinking about their meaning. His job is to execute, and the authorities know better what is good for the people. Power is a symbol of violence in the work. Violence spreads to wildlife and per person. People do not create anything, but only destroy. The foundation pit has not been dug, as directives for its expansion are constantly coming. Diggers have no home, no family, their lives have no meaning. There is no meaning in the life of the engineer Prushevsky: “Prushevsky did not see anyone who needed him so much as to certainly support himself until his still distant death.” He devotes all his time to work, his only goal is to build a house.
At the end of the story, Nastya, the last joy of the diggers, dies. Hope dies with it, but the diggers do not give up their work. It becomes unclear why build a house in which no one will live. The work is built on the opposition of man and nature. Their connection must not be destroyed, otherwise the consequences will be dire. In his story, Platonov showed in a unique way what collectivization and industrialization would lead to. A person in such a state is not able to think, feel, or remain an individual. In such a society there is no individual, there is only a mass - unspiritual and submissive.
The story “The Pit” by Andrei Platonovich Platonov combines a social parable, philosophical grotesque, satire, and lyricism.
The writer does not give any hope that in the distant future a “garden city” will grow on the site of the pit, that at least something will rise from this hole that the heroes are constantly digging. The pit is expanding and, according to the Directive, spreading across the ground - first four times, and then, thanks to Pashkin’s administrative decision, six times. The builders of the “common proletarian house” are literally building their future on children’s bones. The writer created a merciless grotesque, testifying to the mass psychosis of universal obedience, insane sacrifice and blindness that has taken over the country.
Main character Voshchev is an exponent author's position. Among the fantastic communist leaders and the dead masses, he thought and bitterly doubted the human correctness of what was happening around him. Thoughtful “amid the general pace of work,”
Voshchev does not move in accordance with the “general line”, but seeks his own path to the truth. Voshchev never found the truth. Looking at the dying Nastya, Voshchev thinks: “Why does he now need the meaning of life and the truth of universal origin, if there is no little faithful person in whom the truth would be joy and movement?” Platonov wants to find out what exactly could motivate people who continued to dig a hole with such diligence. This new slavery is based on the rituals of a new faith: the religion of the pit as described by Stalin.
“The Pit” is a dramatic picture of the breakdown of time. Already on the first pages of the story, two words are heard that defined the pathos of the time: pace and plan. But next to them others appear in the story keywords, entering into a very difficult relationship with the former: the meaning of what is happening and thinking about universal happiness.
“Happiness comes from materialism, Comrade Voshchev, and not from meaning,” they tell Voshchev at the factory committee. “We can’t defend you, you’re an irresponsible person, and we don’t want to find ourselves in the tail of the masses...” “You’re afraid of being in the tail: it’s a limb, but you yourself are sitting on the neck!”
A turning point gives rise to new relationships between people; all of Russia has moved forward. Voshchev sees “a formation of pioneer children with tired music in front; the disabled person Zhachev rides his cart.” “For the second day now, the trade union representative has been walking around the outskirts of the city and empty places to meet uneconomical peasants and form them into permanent workers; “kulak elements” float away on a raft to the “music of the great march” sounding from a megaphone.
The symbolism of building a pit is expressive - gradual despiritualization: first, living grass is mowed, then shovels cut into the also living top layer of soil, then they chisel away dead clay and stone.
“Comrade Pashkin vigilantly equipped the diggers’ home with a radio speaker so that during rest everyone could acquire the meaning of class life from the pipe.”
Three parables in the story are very important, which reflect the main ideas of the work.
The love story of the craftsman Nikita Chiklin, “feeling everything without calculation or consciousness, but with precision” and existing with a “continuous sense of life,” is sad and short: “Then he didn’t like her, as if she was a hateful creature, - and so he went to that time without stopping past her, and she, perhaps, cried later, a noble creature.” The story of engineer Prushevsky is equally sad. And here are two dissimilar people, various reasons those who renounced their happiness (one neglected it as low, that is, made a mistake; the other was embarrassed and did not dare), are now equally unhappy. They doomed themselves to this by stopping the natural course of life.
The story of a bear blacksmith with only two qualities - “class sense” and “hard work”. “- Hurry up, Mish, otherwise we are a shock brigade! - said the blacksmith. But the bear was already trying so hard that there was a smell of burnt fur burning from metal sparks, and the bear did not feel it.” This is how the metaphor “work like a beast” appears. Next, another metaphor unfolds - “a disservice.” The bear, being overzealous, destroys the forgings.
According to Platonov, if a person is freed from thought, if his entire rich nature is reduced either to functioning on some narrow plane or to subordination, he ceases to be a person.
History of the Organizing Yard of the General Line collective farm. The man Elisha suffers from the “lack of his mind”: “Elisha held the longest flag in his hand and, having obediently listened to the activist, set off with his usual step forward, not knowing where he should stop.”
The girl Nastya dies, although Elisha warms her up and is guarded by Chiklin, who understands “how the world must be insignificant and quiet for her to live!”
But first the activist dies, and the collective farm calmly accepts this, “not having pity for him, but not rejoicing either, because the activist always spoke accurately and correctly, completely in accordance with the covenant, only he himself was so vile that when the whole society once thought of him marry in order to reduce his activity, then even the most insignificant women and girls began to cry with sadness.”
A destructive attitude towards people and all natural life - that was the harmful essence of the activist.
A person in a totalitarian state loses the most important thing - the ability to think, feel, and remain an individual. This is a great tragedy. Such a person will never build a House; he is only capable of digging a foundation pit.
Biographical information of A. Platonov
Platonov Andrey Platonovich (1899-1951), writer.
Born on September 1, 1899 in Voronezh in the family of a mechanic at railway workshops, Klimentov (in the 20s of the 20th century, the writer changed his surname to the surname Platonov).
He studied at a parochial school, then at a city school; At the age of 15 he began working to support his family. He was an auxiliary worker, foundry worker, mechanic, etc.
In 1918, Platonov entered the Voronezh Railway Polytechnic. In 1919 he took part in Civil War in the ranks of the Red Army.
After the end of the war, he returned to Voronezh and became a student at the Polytechnic Institute (graduated in 1926).
Platonov’s first brochure, “Electrification,” was published in 1921. In 1922, his second book, a collection of poems “Blue Depth,” was published. In 1923-1926. Platonov works as a provincial ameliorator and is responsible for electrification Agriculture. In 1926 Platonov moved to Moscow. In 1927, the book “Epiphanian Gateways” made the writer famous. In 1928, the collections “Meadow Masters” and “The Hidden Man” were published.
The publication in 1929 of the story “Doubting Makar” caused a wave of criticism against the author. In the same year, the novel “Chevengur” was banned from publication, and next book Platonova appeared only eight years later. Since 1928, he collaborated in the magazines “Krasnaya Nov”, “ New world", "October" and others, continued to work on prose works- the stories “The Pit”, “The Juvenile Sea”.
I tried myself in dramaturgy (“ High voltage", "Pushkin at the Lyceum"). In 1937, a book of his stories “The Potudan River” was published. The publication of Platonov's works was allowed during the Great Patriotic War Patriotic War, when he was a front-line correspondent for the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper and wrote stories and essays on military topics.
In 1946, after the publication of the story “Ivanov’s Family” (later called “Return”), Platonov was again criticized and stopped publishing. The first book after a long break, “The Magic Ring and Other Tales,” was published in 1954, after the author’s death.
How the system of images is built in the story “The Pit”.
The images of the heroes are created as parodies of social types generated by the era - this is characteristic dystopia›. The cruel inhuman reality of barracks communism distorted the characters and destinies of the characters in the work.
While the main characters of the story are given only surnames, the hero, who appears in only one scene, has a surname, first name and patronymic.
3. The main character of the story is the proletarian Voshchev, who is looking for the meaning of life and existence. He looks tired, he has no family, no property, and in his duffel bag there are trinkets he picked up along the way. In his opinion, life outside his body goes on automatically, only he tries to find its meaning, but Voshchev does not feel much pride from the consciousness of this.
Platonov's hero Voshchev is the image of a seeker of happiness and truth. Indeed, Voshchev is precisely a people's thinker, and this is evidenced even by the style in which the episodes relating to this hero are written. Platonov uses newspaper cliches, because Voshchev, apparently, did not read anything except newspapers and slogans. Voshchev is sad because no one can explain to him what the meaning of life is. However, he soon receives an answer to this question: the excavator workers explain to him that the meaning of life is to work for the benefit of future generations.
Chiklin, Safronov and other workers live in terrible conditions, work as long as they can; they “live for the future,” “preparing” their lives for future prosperity. They don’t like Voshchev’s thoughts, because, in their opinion, thinking, mental activity is leisure, not work; thinking to yourself, within yourself is the same as “loving yourself” (as Kozlov does). Voshchev joins the brigade, and the hardest work relieves him of the need and opportunity to think.
Image of Prushevsky. Engineer Prushevsky feels sad because existence seems meaningless to him; he lives in the memory of his beloved woman and does not find a place for himself in the present, in this life. The only way for Prushevsky to overcome melancholy is to come to the workers, join their team, feel the calmness that is inherent in Chiklin and Safronov, and do useful work. For Prushevsky, as for Voshchev, joining a new life is necessary in order to get rid of one’s own problems.
So, the new life in Platonov’s story “The Pit” is “life for future use,” constant hard work. It is important to note that only collectively, all together, the excavation workers have no personal life, no opportunity to show individuality, because they all live only for the sake of realizing one idea.
The meaning of the word "goat" indicates the most despicable person. Kozlov is always lagging behind and the most pathetic digger, whose reserve of mental and physical strength is critically assessed by Safronov: “He will not survive socialism.”
Why are they contradictory, although the heroes are busy with a common cause?
This is the world of people in the story “The Pit”, and this whole world is busy with one thing - building a bright future.
4. In my opinion, in the "pit" main task Platonov’s goal was to show the reader a man who with all his soul wants to build new life. Building a new life is, first of all, breaking down the old. From this point of view, the language in which the story is written is very interesting. Platonov is the Petrov-Vodkin of literature, he avoids phrases that have already become standard, his literary language extremely clear, clear and at the same time very colorful.
the story, written in the first years of the “great turning point,” revealed its entire essence (collectivization of farms and souls), showed it driving forces, problems and hopes. In my opinion, Andrei Platonov managed in a unique manner and very clearly to show the people of the state, who were striving to become world leaders.
Personality and society in the story “The Pit” by Platonov.
Describing his heroes, A.P. Platonov also avoids cliches: about Kozlov, he speaks of a man “insignificant in his whole body, a lump of weakness fell into the clay from his cloudy, monotonous face.” The main character of the story is the proletarian Voshchev, searching for the meaning of life and existence . He looks tired, he has no family, no property, and in his duffel bag there are trinkets he picked up along the way. War disabled Zhachev represents a person who fought and was wounded, which allows him to feel superior to other people who did not fight. Zhachev represents a typical image of a Red Army soldier “to the core” - his war is not over yet, he will fight all the enemies of Soviet power.
The story also presents Soviet power, but not in a pompous and triumphant way, but in an ordinary and everyday way: Prushevsky, Pashkin and Safronov lead the life of the proletariat, but they are just the lowest level of power. More high power is not shown in any way in the story, which gives “The Pit” a more believable look.
The story also shows peasants who, according to Chigelin, “sow bread and eat with us in half.” In the village, with the help of an activist who liked to read directives from above, accumulating “enthusiasm, an invincibility of action,” the workers carried out collectivization. The problems of collectivization are brilliantly shown in the works of Sholokhov, but Platonov also managed to successfully reveal this topic.
This is the world of people in the story “The Pit”, and this whole world is busy with one thing - building a bright future. The symbol of this bright future is the girl Nastya, whom the diggers took in as shelter. Zhachev, Voshchev and others connect their future with children, and Nastya, the only “child in the story, besides the faceless pioneers, dies of illness.
6. The image of a girl occupies a special place in the story. And Nastya’s fate is terrible. The girl did not know her mother’s name, but she knew that there was Lenin. The world of this child is disfigured, because in order to save her daughter, her mother inspires her to hide her non-proletarian origin. The propaganda machine has already penetrated her consciousness. At the end of the story, the girl dies, and along with her, a ray of hope for Voshchev and other workers dies. In a peculiar confrontation between the pit and Nastya, the pit wins, and into the foundation of the future Houses her dead body lies down.
Nastya for the builders of the “general proletarian Houses" - a symbol of the future that they are building, she is the "socialist element" that gives mental strength to the builders of the "monumental Houses», - At home, which is also intended for Nastya, the symbol of the “socialist generation”, And the death of the girl is the collapse, first of all, of the new “Soviet meaning of life”, a victory ancient myth over the utopia of building a universal home. And - a return to the painful “remembering of meaning.”
The death of a girl with a name followed by resurrection (Anastasia - resurrected), a stop in the action in the story, the peak of the finale and the question. The story, which captured the real, socio-political events of the “year of the great turning point,” revealed deep-seated questions about the meaning and cost of fundamental destruction in the national and world history of the 20th century.
A child who represented a bright future has died.
Thus, the story, written in the first years of the “great turning point,” revealed its entire essence (collectivization of farms and souls), showed its driving forces, problems and hopes
7.Metaphors, images-symbols: Key words and phrases:
Pit Massa
Dream House Plan
Image of Lenin Temp
Collective farm named after General Line Enthusiasm
Coffins Future
Bear Patience
Raft Truth
Child Loneliness
Image of Death Soul
The image of a truth-seeker The meaning of life
The story “The Pit” by Andrei Platonovich Platonov combines a social parable, philosophical grotesque, satire, and lyricism.
The writer does not give any hope that in the distant future a “garden city” will grow on the site of the pit, that at least something will rise from this hole that the heroes are constantly digging. The pit is expanding and, according to the Directive, spreading across the ground - first four times, and then, thanks to Pashkin’s administrative decision, six times.
The builders of the “common proletarian house” are building their future literally on children’s
Bones.
The writer created a merciless grotesque, testifying to the mass psychosis of universal obedience, insane sacrifice and blindness that has taken over the country.
The main character Voshchev is the exponent of the author's position. Among the fantastic communist leaders and the dead masses, he thought and bitterly doubted the human correctness of what was happening around him. Thoughtful “amid the general pace of work,” Voshchev does not move in accordance with the “general line,” but seeks his own path to the truth. Voshchev never found the truth. Looking at the dying Nastya, Voshchev thinks: “Why does he now need the meaning of life and the truth of universal origin, if there is no little faithful person in whom the truth would be joy and movement?” Platonov wants to find out what exactly could motivate people who continued to dig a hole with such diligence. This new slavery is based on the rituals of a new faith: the religion of the pit as described by Stalin.
“The Pit” is a dramatic picture of the breakdown of time. Already on the first pages of the story, two words are heard that defined the pathos of the time: pace and plan. But next to them, other key words appear in the story, entering into a very difficult relationship with the first: the meaning of what is happening and thinking about universal happiness.
“Happiness comes from materialism, Comrade Voshchev, and not from meaning,” they tell Voshchev at the factory committee. “We can’t defend you, you’re an irresponsible person, and we don’t want to find ourselves in the tail of the masses...” “You’re afraid of being in the tail: it’s a limb, but you yourself have sat on the neck!”
A turning point gives rise to new relationships between people; all of Russia has moved forward. Voshchev sees “a formation of pioneer children with tired music in front; the disabled person Zhachev rides his cart.” “For the second day now, the trade union representative has been walking around the outskirts of the city and empty places to meet unruly men and form them into permanent workers; “kulak elements” float away on a raft to the “music of the great march” sounding from a megaphone.
The symbolism of building a pit is expressive - gradual despiritualization: first, living grass is mowed, then shovels cut into the also living top layer of soil, then they chisel away dead clay and stone.
“Comrade Pashkin vigilantly equipped the diggers’ home with a radio speaker so that during rest everyone could acquire the meaning of class life from the pipe.”
Three parables in the story are very important, which reflect the main ideas of the work.
The love story of the craftsman Nikita Chiklin, “feeling everything without calculation or consciousness, but with precision” and existing with a “continuously active sense of life,” is sad and short: “Then he didn’t like her, as if she was a hateful creature, - and so he went to that time without stopping past her, and she, perhaps, cried later, a noble creature.” The story of engineer Prushevsky is equally sad. And now two dissimilar people, who for various reasons gave up their happiness (one neglected it as low, that is, he got it wrong; the other was embarrassed and did not dare), are now equally unhappy. They doomed themselves to this by stopping the natural course of life.
The story of a bear blacksmith with only two qualities - “class sense” and “hard work”!
“- Hurry up, Mish, otherwise we are a shock brigade! - said the blacksmith.
But the bear was already trying so hard that there was a smell of burnt fur burning from metal sparks, and the bear did not feel it.” This is how the metaphor “work like a beast” appears. Next, another metaphor unfolds - “a disservice.” The bear, being overzealous, destroys the forgings.
According to Platonov, if a person is freed from thought, if his entire rich nature is reduced either to functioning on some narrow plane or to subordination, he ceases to be a person.
History of the Organizing Yard of the General Line collective farm. The man Elisha suffers from the “lack of his mind”: “Elisha held the longest flag in his hand and, having obediently listened to the activist, set off with his usual step forward, not knowing where he should stop.”
The girl Nastya dies, although Elisha warms her up and is guarded by Chiklin, who understands “how insignificant and quiet the world around her must be for her to be alive!”
But first the activist dies, and the collective farm calmly accepts this, “not having pity for him, but not rejoicing either, because the activist always spoke accurately and correctly, completely in accordance with the covenant, only he himself was so filthy that when the whole society once thought of him marry in order to reduce his activity, then even the most insignificant women and girls began to cry with sadness.”
A destructive attitude towards people and all natural life - that was the harmful essence of the activist.
A person in a totalitarian state loses the most important thing - the ability to think, feel, and remain an individual. This is a great tragedy. Such a person will never build a House; he is only capable of digging a foundation pit.
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