Problem moral choice man has always been especially significant in Russian literature. It is in difficult situations, making this or that moral choice, a person truly reveals his true moral qualities, showing how worthy he is of the title of Man.
The story by M. A. Sholokhov “The Fate of Man” was written in 1956 - at the beginning of the “thaw”, a complex, transitional historical period. It is dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War and the post-war years and is a narrative common man, driver Andrei Sokolov about his life. This simple story contains a typical story of thousands of people: in his youth he worked as a farm laborer, fought in the civil war, worked in a factory, started a family, built a house. The war destroyed all his peaceful happiness: his family died, his eldest son, an officer, was killed. All this was usual for that time, as usual, that like thousands of other people, for Andrei Sokolov in this situation there was the only possible moral choice: to courageously defend his Motherland. “That’s why you’re a man, that’s why you’re a soldier, to endure everything, to endure everything, if need calls for it,” he says to his interlocutor. When it is necessary to deliver shells to the artillerymen and the commander asks Sokolov if he will get through, for Andrei there cannot even be a doubt about this: “I have to get through, and that’s it!” He is not used to thinking about himself; he first of all thinks about his dying comrades. But shell shock and captivity put him in completely new, unusual conditions for him. He is ready for death, and for him it is more important not to lose his dignity, to remain a person faithful to the moral law of his own conscience. It is not easy for him to make the decision to kill a traitor who is ready to betray his commander. But he cannot live by the principle “his shirt is closer to his body,” and in order to save the skinny boy commander, Sokolov strangled the traitor with his own hands. He experiences this event: “For the first time in my life I killed, and then it was my own... But what is he like? He’s worse than a stranger, a traitor.” The situation of moral choice is resolved by the hero according to the laws socialist realism: by the death of the traitor, prevent the death of many honest people.
The main moral choice of the hero in captivity was the same: not to collude with enemies, not to betray his comrades for a piece of bread, to bravely endure torture and humiliation. Someone less resistant in spirit denounced Andrei for a carelessly spoken phrase, and Sokolov, summoned to the commandant of the camp, prepares to fearlessly accept death, “so that my enemies do not see at my last minute that it is still difficult for me to part with life...”. Refusing to drink “for the victory of German weapons,” Andrei Sokolov agrees to drink “for his death and deliverance from torment,” proudly refusing the snack. It was important for him to show “that although I am disappearing from hunger, I am not going to choke on their handouts, that I have my own, Russian dignity and pride, and that they did not turn me into a beast, no matter how hard they tried.” And even his enemy appreciated his dignity, letting Sokolov go to the barracks in peace and giving him bread and lard. Dividing the “grub” among everyone is also the moral choice of the hero, who remains true to his concepts of honor, justice, and collectivism.
Andrei Sokolov still has a lot to endure: escape from captivity, news of the death of his family, the death of his son - “exactly on the ninth of May, in the morning, on Victory Day.” Such blows of fate can break any person no less persistent than Andrei Sokolov. Having been demobilized, he works as a driver, drinking “one hundred grams a day” after a flight. But he doesn’t drink himself to death, doesn’t complain about his fate - the hero finds the strength in himself to pick up an orphan boy and adopt him. This is also the moral choice of Andrei Sokolov - to find spiritual generosity in himself and take responsibility for the little man destitute by the war. And the author believes that, a man of strong will, with a kind and courageous heart, Andrei Sokolov will be able to raise a person with the same moral criteria as his, a person “who, having matured, will be able to endure everything, overcome everything on his way, if His homeland will call him to this.”
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The story "The Fate of Man" was written in 1956. He was immediately noticed and received many critical and reader responses. It is based on real case. The writer dared to taboo topic: Russian man in captivity. Should I forgive it or accept it? Some wrote about the “rehabilitation” of prisoners, others saw lies in the story.
The story is structured in the form of a confession. The fate of Andrei Sokolov before the war was quite typical. Work, family. Sokolov is a builder, a man of a peaceful profession. The war ruins Sokolov’s life, as well as the life of the entire country. A person becomes one of the fighters, part of the army. At the first moment, Sokolov almost dissolves in the general mass, and Sokolov later remembers this temporary retreat from the human acute pain. For the hero, the whole war, the whole path of humiliation, trials, camps is a struggle between man and the inhuman machine with which he faces.
The camp for Sokolov is a test of human dignity. There he kills a man for the first time, not a German, but a Russian, with the words: “What kind of guy is he?” This is a test of the loss of “one’s own.” The attempt to escape is unsuccessful, since it is impossible to escape from the power of the machine in this way. The climax of the story is the scene in the commandant's room. Sokolov behaves defiantly, like a person for whom the highest good is death. And strength human spirit wins. Sokolov remains alive.
After this, fate sends another test, which Sokolov withstands: without betraying the honor of a Russian soldier in the commandant’s office, he does not lose his dignity in front of his comrades. “How are we going to share the food?” asks my bunk neighbor, and his voice is trembling. “Equal share for everyone,” I tell him. We waited for dawn. Bread and lard were cut with a harsh thread. Everyone got a piece of bread the size of a matchbox, every crumb was taken into account, and the lard, you know, was just to anoint your lips. However, they divided it without offense."
After escaping, Andrei Sokolov ends up not in a camp, but in a rifle unit. And here is another test - the news of the death of his wife Irina and daughters. And on May 9, Victory Day, Sokolov loses his son. The greatest thing that fate gives him is to see his dead son before burying him in a foreign land.
And yet, Sokolov retains his human dignity, despite any trials. This is Sholokhov’s idea.
On the first post-war year Andrei Sokolov returns to his peaceful profession and accidentally meets little boy Vanya. The hero of the story has a goal, a person appears for whom life is worth living. And Vanya is drawn to Sokolov and finds a father in him. This is how Sholokhov introduces the theme of human renewal after the war.
In the story "The Fate of Man" ideas about the great hatred of peaceful Soviet people to the war, to the fascists “for everything that they caused to the Motherland,” and, at the same time, about great love to the Motherland, to the people, which is kept in the hearts of soldiers. Sholokhov shows the beauty of the soul and the strength of character of the Russian person.
Story by M.A. Sholokhov’s “The Fate of Man” was written in the 1950s. The genre of this work is transitional. A small volume and an episode as a plot basis are characteristic of the story. But at the same time, the scale of the conflict in which the hero becomes a participant turns a short story about an incident that happened with “two orphaned people” into a story about a “Russian man ... of unbending will” who withstood a “military hurricane of unprecedented force.”
The humanistic idea is already stated in the title of the work. The author focused on the character and fate of the one who was able to remain human under inhuman conditions and preserve a soul capable of love and compassion. The war in the story is not only described through the eyes of an eyewitness and participant, but is also shown as the destruction of life itself (the image of an insulted, ruined childhood).
The events in “The Fate of Man” take place “in the first post-war spring on the Upper Don.” The narrator, trying to get to the village of Bukanovskaya, remains on the pier for two hours waiting for his companions. There he meets a “strange” couple - “a tall, stooped man” and “a little boy, judging by his height, about five or six years old, no more.” From the words of the “random interlocutor” it turns out that he is a former “truck driver”, a participant in the war. From the very beginning, the boy’s father makes him want to “ask where he is going with the child, what need is driving him into such a muddle.” When the narrator “looked at him” more closely, he begins to feel “something uneasy” from the man’s eyes, “as if sprinkled with ashes, filled with such an inescapable mortal melancholy that it is difficult to look into them.”
There is something unusual about this hero, attracting attention, causing surprise even in the narrator, who went through almost the entire war. This explains the narrator’s special interest (“...I have completely turned into a rumor”) in the confession of “a native of the Voronezh province” Andrei Sokolov.
The narration of the hero's life uses the form of a tale. Sokolov tells his biography himself. His story is a journey from one suffering to another. The hero survived civil war, the only one of the entire family who survived the famine of 1922 (“Rodney… not a single soul”). But life went on. Information from the site Bigreferat.ru / site The hero gets a wife (“Quiet, cheerful, obsequious and smart...”), children (“First a little son was born, a year later two more girls...”), a house (“In ten years we saved a little some money and before the war they built a little house for themselves...").
Life seemed to be getting better, but the war ruins everything. “On the third day” Andrei Sokolov leaves home, accompanied by his “orphaned” children and his wife, sobbing from the premonition of eternal separation. At first, her tears are perceived by Sokolov as harbingers own death(“Why are you burying me alive ahead of time?!”), and only three years later he finds out what “then a woman’s heart told her” the terrible truth about herself. She and her daughters were killed by a direct bomb hit on their home, “awkwardly” built “near an aircraft factory.”
For four years, the hero had to experience all the hardships of the war. He was ᴘẚʜᴇn twice, the third time, severely shell-shocked, he was captured, where death awaited him at every step. The hero was miraculously not shot by “six machine gunners” who noticed a Russian soldier in the field: “... a corporal... older” decided that it was better to send the prisoner “to work for... the Reich.” Then he was detained for attempting to escape, beaten, poisoned with dogs (“Naked, covered in blood, and brought to the camp. I spent a month in a punishment cell for escaping, but still alive... I remained alive”).
For the “bitter words” that “four cubic meters of production is a lot, ... but one cubic meter through the eyes is enough for the grave of each of us,” Lagerführer Müller wants to shoot Sokolova. But even here the hero is saved by the will to live.
In 1944, Andrei Sokolov turns out to be a driver for a “German engineer.” Escape from captivity does not complete his series of trials. For a short time, joy “glimmered” in life when a son was found, who over the past years became an artillery officer. But Anatoly dies on the last day of the war, “and something broke” in his father’s soul. His existence lost its meaning.
However, six months pass, and life is reborn. The hero takes “as his children” the little orphan Vanyushka, whom he accidentally met “near the tea shop.” His heart, hardened by grief, “moves away,” his soul becomes joyful, “light and somehow bright.” The hero has a desire for the future.
Andrei Sokolov’s story evokes not only “heavy sadness,” but also admiration for the “unbending will” of the Russian man.
Based on the above, we come to the conclusion that the story shows the will and character of the Russian person. He overcomes mortal dangers, deep internal crises caused by the family of relatives and friends, always maintaining presence of mind (“The lieutenant colonel came up to me and quietly said: “Take courage, father! Your son... was killed today...” I swayed, but stood on my feet”), dignity and pride , open kind heart.
The finale of the work is addressed to the future, “towards the eternal affirmation of the living in life,” personified by Vanyusha’s “little hand” waving from afar. Summing up the test of Russian character in the wars and troubles of the 20th century, the author anticipates “great achievements”, a new spring in the life of Russia.
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Great Patriotic War even after many decades remains the greatest blow for the whole world. What a tragedy this is for the combatant. Soviet people, who lost the most people in this bloody fight! The lives of many (both military and civilian) were ruined. Sholokhov's story “The Fate of Man” truthfully depicts these sufferings, not of an individual person, but of the entire people who stood up to defend their Motherland.
The story “The Fate of a Man” is based on real events: M.A. Sholokhov met a man who told him his tragic biography. This story was almost a ready-made plot, but did not immediately turn into literary work. The writer nurtured his idea for 10 years, but put it on paper in just a few days. And dedicated it to E. Levitskaya, who helped him print main novel his life "Quiet Don".
The story was published in the Pravda newspaper on the eve of the new year, 1957. And soon it was read on All-Union Radio and heard throughout the country. Listeners and readers were shocked by the power and truthfulness of this work, and it gained well-deserved popularity. In literary terms, this book opened up for writers new way reveal the theme of war through the fate of a little man.
The essence of the story
The author accidentally meets the main character Andrei Sokolov and his son Vanyushka. During the forced delay at the crossing, the men started talking, and a casual acquaintance told the writer his story. This is what he told him.
Before the war, Andrei lived like everyone else: wife, children, household, work. But then thunder struck, and the hero went to the front, where he served as a driver. One fateful day, Sokolov’s car came under fire and he was shell-shocked. So he was captured.
A group of prisoners was brought to the church for the night, many incidents happened that night: the shooting of a believer who could not desecrate the church (they didn’t even let him out “until the wind”), and with him several people who accidentally fell under machine gun fire, help from a doctor to Sokolov and others wounded. Also, the main character had to strangle another prisoner, since he turned out to be a traitor and was going to hand over the commissioner. Even during the next transfer to the concentration camp, Andrei tried to escape, but was caught by dogs, who stripped him of his last clothes and bit him so much that “the skin and meat flew into shreds.”
Then the concentration camp: inhuman work, almost starvation, beatings, humiliation - that’s what Sokolov had to endure. “They need four cubic meters of production, but for the grave of each of us, one cubic meter through the eyes is enough!” - Andrei said imprudently. And for this he appeared before Lagerführer Müller. They wanted to shoot the main character, but he overcame his fear, bravely drank three glasses of schnapps to his death, for which he earned respect, a loaf of bread and a piece of lard.
Towards the end of hostilities, Sokolov was appointed driver. And finally, an opportunity arose to escape, and even together with the engineer whom the hero was driving. Before the joy of salvation had time to subside, grief arrived: he learned about the death of his family (a shell hit the house), and all this time he lived only in the hope of a meeting. One son survived. Anatoly also defended his homeland, and Sokolov and he simultaneously approached Berlin from different directions. But right on the day of victory, the last hope was killed. Andrey was left all alone.
Subjects
The main theme of the story is a man at war. These tragic events are an indicator personal qualities: in extreme situations, those character traits that are usually hidden are revealed, it is clear who is who in reality. Before the war, Andrei Sokolov was not particularly different; he was like everyone else. But in battle, having survived captivity and constant danger to life, he proved himself. His truly heroic qualities were revealed: patriotism, courage, perseverance, will. On the other hand, a prisoner like Sokolov, probably also no different in ordinary peaceful life, was going to betray his commissioner in order to curry favor with the enemy. Thus, the theme of moral choice is also reflected in the work.
Also M.A. Sholokhov touches on the topic of willpower. The war took away from the main character not only his health and strength, but also his entire family. He has no home, how can he continue to live, what to do next, how to find meaning? This question has interested hundreds of thousands of people who have experienced similar losses. And for Sokolov, caring for the boy Vanyushka, who was also left without a home and family, became a new meaning. And for his sake, for the sake of the future of his country, you need to live on. Here is the disclosure of the theme of the search for the meaning of life - its real person finds love and hope for the future.
Issues
- The problem of choice occupies an important place in the story. Every person faces a choice every day. But not everyone has to choose on pain of death, knowing that your fate depends on this decision. So, Andrei had to decide: to betray or remain faithful to the oath, to bend under the blows of the enemy or to fight. Sokolov was able to remain a worthy person and citizen because he determined his priorities, guided by honor and morality, and not by the instinct of self-preservation, fear or meanness.
- The whole fate of the hero, in his life trials, reflects the problem of the defenselessness of the common man in the face of war. Little depends on him; circumstances are falling on him, from which he is trying to get out at least alive. And if Andrei was able to save himself, then his family was not. And he feels guilty about it, even though he isn't.
- The problem of cowardice is realized in the work through minor characters. The image of a traitor who, for the sake of immediate gain, is ready to sacrifice the life of a fellow soldier, becomes a counterbalance to the image of a brave and strong in spirit Sokolova. And there were such people in the war, says the author, but there were fewer of them, that’s the only reason we won.
- The tragedy of war. Numerous losses were suffered not only by the military units, but also civilians who could not defend themselves in any way.
- Andrey Sokolov – ordinary person, one of many who had to leave a peaceful existence in order to defend their homeland. He exchanges a simple and happy life for the dangers of war, without even imagining how he can remain on the sidelines. In extreme circumstances, he maintains spiritual nobility, shows willpower and perseverance. Under the blows of fate, he managed not to break. And find a new meaning in life, which reveals his kindness and responsiveness, because he sheltered an orphan.
- Vanyushka is a lonely boy who has to spend the night wherever he can. His mother was killed during the evacuation, his father at the front. Tattered, dusty, covered in watermelon juice - this is how he appeared before Sokolov. And Andrei could not leave the child, introduced himself as his father, giving a chance for further normal life both for myself and for him.
Characteristics of the main characters
What is the meaning of the work?
One of the main ideas of the story is the need to take into account the lessons of the war. The example of Andrei Sokolov shows not what war can do to a person, but what it can do to all of humanity. Prisoners tortured in concentration camps, orphaned children, destroyed families, scorched fields - this should never be repeated, and therefore should not be forgotten.
No less important is the idea that in any, even the most terrible situation, one must remain human, and not become like an animal that, out of fear, acts only on the basis of instincts. Survival is the main thing for anyone, but if this comes at the cost of betraying oneself, one’s comrades, one’s Motherland, then the surviving soldier is no longer a person, he is not worthy of this title. Sokolov did not betray his ideals, did not break, although he went through something that is difficult for a modern reader to even imagine.
Genre
The story is short literary genre, revealing one storyline and several images of heroes. “The Fate of Man” refers specifically to him.
However, if you look closely at the composition of the work, you can clarify general definition, because this is a story within a story. First, the story is narrated by the author, who, by the will of fate, met and talked with his character. Andrei Sokolov himself describes his difficult life; the first-person narration allows readers to better understand the hero’s feelings and understand him. The author's remarks are introduced to characterize the hero from the outside (“eyes, as if sprinkled with ashes,” “I didn’t see a single tear in his seemingly dead, extinct eyes... only his large, limply lowered hands trembled slightly, his chin trembled, his hard lips trembled”) and show how deeply this strong man suffers.
What values does Sholokhov promote?
The main value for the author (and for readers) is peace. Peace between states, peace in society, peace in the human soul. The war destroyed the happy life of Andrei Sokolov, as well as many people. The echo of the war still does not subside, so its lessons must not be forgotten (although often in lately this event is overrated political purposes, far from the ideals of humanism).
Also, the writer does not forget about eternal values personality: nobility, courage, will, desire to help. The time of knights and noble dignity has long passed, but true nobility does not depend on origin, it is in the soul, expressed in its ability to show mercy and empathy, even if the world around it is collapsing. This story is a great lesson in courage and morality for modern readers.
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PROBLEMS OF SHOLOKHOV'S STORY. The story “The Fate of Man” was written in 1956. It is based on a real case. The story was immediately noticed and received many critical and reader responses. The writer ventured into a forbidden topic: Russian people in captivity. Should I forgive it or accept it? Some wrote about the “rehabilitation” of prisoners, others saw lies in the story.
The story is structured in the form of a confession. The fate of Andrei Sokolov before the war was quite typical. Work, family. Sokolov is a builder, a man of a peaceful profession. The war ruins Sokolov’s life, as well as the life of the entire country. A person becomes one of the fighters, one part of the army. At the first moment, Sokolov almost dissolves into the general mass, and Sokolov later remembers this temporary retreat from humanity with the most acute pain. For the hero, the whole war, the whole path of humiliation, trials, camps, is a struggle between the human in man and the inhuman machine that man faces.
The camp for Sokolov is a test of human dignity. There he kills a man for the first time, not a German, but a Russian, with the words: “What kind of guy is he?” This is a test of the loss of “one’s own.” The attempt to escape is unsuccessful, since it is impossible to escape from the power of the machine in this way. The climax of the story is the scene in the commandant's room. Sokolov behaves defiantly, like a person for whom the highest good is death. And the power of the human spirit wins. Sokolov remains alive. After this, another test that Sokolov withstands: without betraying the honor of a Russian soldier in the commandant’s office, he does not lose his dignity in front of his comrades. “How are we going to share the food?” - my bunk neighbor asks, and his voice is trembling. “Equal share for everyone,” I tell him. We waited for dawn. Bread and lard were cut with a harsh thread. Everyone got a piece of bread the size of a matchbox, every crumb was taken into account, well, and lard, you know, just to anoint your lips. However, they divided it without offense.”
After escaping, Andrei Sokolov ends up not in a camp, but in a rifle unit. And here is another test - the news of the death of his wife Irina and daughters. And on May 9, Victory Day, Sokolov loses his son, and the greatest thing fate gives him is to see his dead son before burying him in a foreign land.
And yet Sokolov (according to Sholokhov’s idea, a person must preserve the human in himself, despite any trials) behaves this way.
In the first post-war year, Andrei Sokolov returns to a peaceful profession and accidentally meets a little boy Vanya. The hero of the story has a goal, a person appears for whom life is worth living. And Vanya is drawn to Sokolov and finds a father in him. This is how Sholokhov introduces the theme of human renewal after the war.
In 1942, Sholokhov wrote the story “The Science of Hatred” - about the great hatred of peaceful Soviet people for the war, for the fascists, “for everything that they caused to their homeland,” and at the same time - about the great love for their homeland, for the people, which is kept in the hearts of soldiers. The main ideas of this story were developed in the story “The Fate of a Man,” where Sholokhov shows the beauty of the soul and the strength of character of the Russian man.