Analysis of the story by A.I. Solzhenitsyn "What a pity"

The lesson is held after getting acquainted with the works of Solzhenitsyn "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", the stories of Varlam Shalamov ("Berries", "Sherry Brandy", "How It Started").

Epigraphs for the lesson:

I'm not hiding, but the night is cold.
I'm not afraid, but time is dangerous ...

O.Chukhontsev

A moment and - there is no end and no edge
Fire ... Everything around is in pieces,
then to hell...

I shout: "Help!", I shout: "I'm dying!" ...
... And someone is pushing a speech up there.

During the classes

1. Introductory speech of the teacher.

For several lessons we have been talking about the era of Stalinism and its reflection in literature. Reading the works of V. Shalamov, A. Solzhenitsyn, we are convinced that the time was tragic, because there was a systematic and purposeful struggle against the individual, against the living soul of man. Was there resistance? And if so, which one? We are talking about this today, reading A. Solzhenitsyn's story "What a pity."

2. "Immersion" in the atmosphere of time. Reading and discussion of records on cards (excerpts from familiar works, anecdotes of “that” time are given arbitrarily, here each teacher can choose his own options).

1) “Rybakov lay between the bumps unexpectedly small. The sky, the mountains, the river were huge, and God knows how many people can be laid in these mountains, on the paths between the bumps ... ”(V. Shalamov.“ Berries ”).

2) “For many months, day and night, countless execution orders were read at morning and evening verifications. In a fifty-degree frost, the imprisoned musicians from the "bytoviki" played carcasses before reading and after reading each order. Smoky torches did not break the darkness, drawing hundreds of eyes to the frosty sheets of thin paper on which such terrible words were printed. And at the same time, as if it was not about us. Everything seemed alien, too terrible to be real” (V. Shalamov, “How It Started”).

3) “Shukhov is pleased that everyone is pointing fingers at him like that: here he is finishing his term, but he himself does not painfully believe in it. Look, those whose term ended in the war were kept until further notice, until the forty-sixth year. Who and the main term was three years. So five years of peresidiya turned out. The law is reversible. Ten will end - they will say, you have one more. Or in a link. So you live with your face on the ground, and there is no time to think: how did you sit down? how are you going to get out?” (A. Solzhenitsyn. "One day of Ivan Denisovich").

4) “The poet has been dying for so long that he no longer understands that he is dying. Sometimes, painfully and almost tangibly pushing through the brain, some simple and strong thought came - that the bread that he had put under his head was stolen from him, and it was so burningly terrible that he was ready to argue, swear, fight, search, to prove... But there was no strength for all this...” (V. Shalamov. “Sherry Brandy”).

5) Anecdote.

Stalin lost his pipe. He calls Beria. He readily reports:

It's clear. The action of the enemies of the people. Let's find out who it is.

A few days later, Stalin found the pipe in his tunic pocket. Calls Beria again:

Found a tube...

Comrade Stalin, we also completed your task: thirty-seven people fully confessed.

6) Anecdote.

On the tram. A citizen stands, reads a newspaper and says in an undertone:

He will drive us to the edge!

He is taken away immediately. Interrogation.

So what did you say? Who will bring us to the handle?

Like who? Of course, Truman!

Ah, yes! Okay, go ahead then.

He jumped out. Then he came back, stuck his head in the door:

Tell me who do you mean?

Students conclude that in the works of V. Shalamov and A. Solzhenitsyn the image of a tragic, disharmonious world appears. Even the anecdotes of those terrible years testify to how cheap human life was, how easy it was to pay for years of captivity or even life for a thoughtlessly spoken word, for the right to be oneself.

3. Work on the story A.I. Solzhenitsyn "What a pity" (it is taken into account that students are familiar with the biography of the writer).

- How does the story differ from other works about totalitarianism that we have read before?

Events do not take place in places of detention. There are no terrible pictures depicting the exhausting labor, the ever-sucking feeling of hunger that the camp inmates experienced. There are no scenes of destruction, humiliation of prisoners. And yet the story makes a strong impression.

- What do you think the story is about?

About the fate of a person living in a totalitarian state, about how fear dictates a certain style of behavior, about how the unlimited power of some and the dependence of others disfigure the system of relationships between people, about the fact that the innocent suffer, the talented die.

- What is the basis of the story?

Surprise, chance. A chain of accidents, unpredictable events reveals the relationship of the characters.

- What, in your opinion, is the originality of the composition?

Along with the classic version - exposition, plot, climax, denouement - students offer to see the two-part organization of the story - the “wave structure” (a term proposed by the high school students themselves). Both parts (a meeting with a man with a briefcase, a meeting with a policeman) have the same, albeit different “strength”, structure: starting calmly (the effect of still water is created), they are replaced by an explosion of feeling (fright - in the first; shock, fright - in the second ), ends in different ways (in the first, the heroine closes in on herself; in the second, she feels joy both from the fact that the policeman understood her and from the fact that she became the owner of the treasure - an article about a repressed father).

In these parts, the name of the heroine is interestingly played up. She is called now Anya, then Anna Modestovna. On behalf of Anya, something homely, warm, soft, even childish, and at the same time, it emphasizes the vulnerability, insecurity of a young woman. This is what it becomes Anna Modestovna, when she is alone with nature (plays with water drops) or in those moments when she is sure that she is not in danger. But, having heard the “firm steps” of a young man with a briefcase (a symbol of belonging to power!) Or a “policeman’s Turk”, the heroine seems to put on a mask of an ordinary layman, becomes like all the people around her - just Anna Modestovna.

Such reincarnations of the heroine in the story occur twice: in the first part and in the second. But in the first part, she remains Anna Modestovna, and in the second part she again turns into Anya at the very end. A policeman who saw the heroine tearing down a newspaper with an article about her prisoner father could punish her (and not only with a fine). However, he listens to the woman, understands her, that is, he behaves not as a representative of the authorities, but as a person: he allows him to take the newspaper and lets go without punishing. And we see how the soul of a young woman is freed from fear and she becomes Anya again: she takes a bloodied finger in her mouth like a child and thinks about the policeman: “He’s not scary at all.”

- "History is embodied in small things," - A. Solzhenitsyn said. Name the details that help to represent the historical time.

High school students highlight such “talking” details as a drop of water in which Anya is reflected. Associative lines are drawn: a circle - a globe - a drop of water in L. Tolstoy's novel from Pierre Bezukhov's dream - the circles of hell in Dante's Divine Comedy. The drop reflects not only Anya, but also the sky, a tree against the sky, branches, branches, twigs, buds - is this not a symbol of the fact that all life on earth is endowed with an equal right to the sun, air, water, freedom? So the author brings us to the understanding of the truth: no one has the right to deprive another of this right. And if it has, it means that the society is “sick”.

Students note that the name of the Chu River is significant.

• chu! (interjection - a call for silence, for attention);
• Chu-zhoi (in the context it is rejected - “the river was not alien”);
• sensitivity (lack of sensitivity is a tragedy!);
• miracle-do (miracle of mutual understanding: “the policeman understood”!).

The talent of the writer, students conclude, is reflected in expressive details that help to understand the main idea of ​​the story: in a totalitarian state, the personality of a person who turns into a part of a huge mechanism is not put in anything; resistance to this process is courage. Silence plays an important role in the story: we ourselves can guess what fate befell the young talented scientist, the father of Anna Modestovna (he, who breathed life into the valley of the Chu River, spent many years in prison himself, turned into an “unnecessary old man”; he is crossed out from the list of the dead and the living), we also guess what suffering his family had to go through (Anna Modestovna lives with a constant sense of danger, and this says a lot).

High school students also talk about the author's attitude to the depicted, they note that the writer skillfully "hid" behind his characters. But it is easy to see his sympathetic attitude towards the innocent victims of an unjust society: Anna, her mother, father; ironic - to a journalist who wrote an article about the father of the heroine; condemnation of the fact that an indifferently cruel attitude towards a person has become the norm in the native country of the writer; pride for ordinary people who have not lost hope and faith in such inhuman conditions, who have kept their “soul alive”. Fragile, defenseless women, mother and daughter, who have preserved the memory of their father and husband, loyalty to him, are eager to restore the unfortunate prisoner's belief that his life was not in vain: at the first opportunity, Anya's mother will go to him and carry a newspaper, which talks about how the Chu River Valley was transformed by the scientist's discoveries.

4. The final word of the teacher.

The stories of V. Shalamov and A. Solzhenitsyn show how the totalitarian machine for the destruction of people, their living souls, operates. But even its uninterrupted movement meets resistance, imperceptible, but stubborn. Is it not about them the words of the poet Oleg Khlebnikov:

Poor, poor! my soul
everyone took care of it like the last
soldering -
meager and hardened -
in a pile
did not lose in an unequal battle.
Dim light bulb shines
in the mist.
There is no other - this one also illuminates
dark piece of white light
path on earth...

Ordinary people found the strength to survive and, moreover, to preserve all human qualities, carried in their souls the ability to take care of their neighbors, fidelity, mercy, did not forget how to love life and each other. This is the hope that Solzhenitsyn leaves to man in the painful movement of history.

The times of totalitarianism are a period when many talents were in exile instead of creating, doing research and working for the good of the country. This time was consecrated by writers, allowing us to see the life of people in those difficult times. One such writer was Solzhenitsyn, who not only wrote great works, but also small works, such as his story What a pity. We studied it thanks to the lesson summary for grade 9. Now let's do it, having previously introduced everyone to the work of the author. What a pity in a summary.

Solzhenitsyn's story What a pity it takes the reader to one of the cloudy days, when the main character Anna Modestovna needed a certificate and she came for her to one of the institutions of the city. She just got there at lunchtime, so she decided to wait while walking along the boulevard. She walked, watching the raindrops and playing with them, until she came to a newsstand. There, her attention was attracted by an article about a certain project that was created back in 1912 in Tsarist Russia and has only now been put into practice.

It was about hydrotechnical work that was carried out near the valley of the Chu River, thanks to which the desert turned into a productive place. As it turned out, it was a project that was created by the father of the heroine. Having read the article to the end, the heroine saw at the end of the line the author's regret that the project engineer had died, never having lived to see the implementation of his project. The only truth was that the heroine's father was actually alive, but he was in exile during this period, toiling in prisons.

The lines in the newspaper caused excitement in Anna Modestovna, she was afraid, but was determined to steal the newspaper in order to read it with her mother in the evening. And when her father is determined to live permanently and her mother can move in with him, they will be able to show this newspaper to their father, who should be pleased with the news.

However, the policeman saw the theft and wanted to fine Anna, however, having learned the reason for her actions, he not only did not fine, but also allowed him to take the newspaper with him. Thanking the policeman, Anna happily ran home.

What a pity analysis

Analyzing Solzhenitsyn's story, we can say that this is a small work about life with an eye, warped, broken, crossed out, turned into fear. The story shows, using the example of one talented engineer, the fate of many people who were considered enemies of the country and eked out their existence in exile. This is a story about people whose fate turned out to be of no interest to anyone except relatives and friends. All the years people live in fear and expectation with the hope that a thaw will come and new times will come. As well as the heroine of the story, in whom the article aroused hope for alleviating the fate of her exiled father.

The meaning of the story is revealed in the article read by the heroine, where the author of the article feels sorry for the engineer who did not live to see the implementation of his project. It is a pity for young enthusiasts that they did not live to see the triumph of their ideas. It is a pity the broken fates of people who lived in a totalitarian state. It is a pity for those who waited and did not wait for their relatives who disappeared in Stalin's time. It is a pity for people for their hard fate, and not only those who lived in prison, but also those who lived in freedom. Everyone, everyone is very sorry.

Solzhenitsyn: What a pity. What is this little story about?

What rating would you give?

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The story "What a pity" Solzhenitsyn Alexander Isaevich was written in 1965. In this work there is no description of gloomy prisons and evil overseers, but, nevertheless, the narrative makes one shudder and be horrified.

The story begins with a sketch of the general picture of the boulevard, setting the tone for the future mood. “Raw”, “liquid mud”, “gray boulevard”, “first smoldering” - all these definitions lead the reader to a rather depressing note. The main character of the story is Anna Modestovna, waiting for the end of the break in her necessary institution. It is quite remarkable that the author does not indicate the age of the girl and does not describe her, but focuses on her play with water drops. This shows her as a positive person who, in such a rainy time, knows how to see the best and enjoy it.

Anna notices the issue of the newspaper "Trud" on the billboard, where there is a story about her father: "The grandiose and imperious transformation of the whole region of nature was planned a long time ago." The author of this publication did not know and could not know that Modest Alexandrovich was alive and in exile, therefore he makes a mistake: “What a pity that the young enthusiast did not live to see the triumph of his bright ideas!” Such an oversight of the writer gives the heroine a chance and hope for pardon and release of her father. Anna loves him very much, so she overcame her fear and tore off the newspaper, hoping to show it to her mother and help her dad out. An unexpected turn occurs - a policeman notices the vandalism, but Anna manages to convince him that she is right. The girl is surprised that the servant of the law is by no means evil, and this characterizes the period of that time rather harshly. When an ordinary person first of all sees an enemy in a representative of the state, and not a defender, this shows intimidated and driven people.

There is a sharp tone of narration, and joyful Anna eagerly goes to her mother: “Run to mother! The reporter didn't know! He didn’t know, otherwise he wouldn’t have written for anything!” The author reveals the cards and tells about the sad fate of Modest, a useless old man who has spent twenty years in prisons and camps.

The absence of an exclamation point in the title shows, it seems to me, the hopelessness of the situation. Solzhenitsyn perfectly conveyed the gloomy nature of that time, where a small person clings to any thread in order to help himself and his loved ones. No wonder the author does not indicate the reason for the exile, because getting such a severe punishment was not something special. However, you always need to fight against any adversity, following the example of the main character and love your family.

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The most difficult war in the history of the world that was in this world is the Great Patriotic War. She tested the strength and will of our people for a single year, but our ancestors passed this test with honor.

M, INCOM NV, 1991

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, 1918 - 2008. Alexander Isaevich was born on December 11, 1918 in Kislovodsk. Solzhenitsyn spent his childhood and youth in Rostov-on-Don. In 1941 he graduated from the mathematical faculty of Rostov University. At the same time, Solzhenitsyn studied at the correspondence department of the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature, and History (MIFLI). At the beginning of the war, Solzhenitsyn was appointed commander of a reconnaissance artillery battery. Solzhenitsyn went a long way from Orel to East Prussia, was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the second degree and the Order of the Red Star. In 1945, Captain Solzhenitsyn was arrested for disapproving of Stalin in a personal letter to a friend. As a result - eight years of labor camps, as a mathematician, Solzhenitsyn spent part of his term in the system of research institutes of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security, the impression of which Alexander Isaevich reflected in the fiction novel "In the First Circle". Being in Kazakhstan, in the camp of the city of Ekibastuz, he worked as a laborer, bricklayer, foundry worker. Solzhenitsyn reflected his impressions of this period in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, published in 1962 in the journal Novy Mir. Then there was an eternal exile in the south of Kazakhstan, interrupted by the death of Stalin. During 1954, Solzhenitsyn was cured of a serious illness, cancer, in a Tashkent clinic. The reflection of this period was found in the novel "Cancer Ward". In 1963, the magazine "New World" published the story "Matryona Dvor", which was subjected to sharp criticism. In 1964 - 1970, the main book of the writer "The Gulag Archipelago" was created, dedicated to "... to everyone who did not have enough life to tell about it ..." The book, according to its genre, was called by the writer "the experience of artistic research" In 1970 A.I. . Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize. Solzhenitsyn was arrested in 1974 on charges of treason for revealing the truth to people, calling for "living not by lies". However, the wide world fame of the Nobel laureate prevented the writer from being brought to justice. Since 1975, Solzhenitsyn lived in the United States with his family. In 1994 he returned to Russia. Until the last days of his life, he actively participated in the public life of the country. In a difficult period in Russia, Solzhenitsyn wrote the most interesting work "How We Can Equip Russia." This audiobook contains audio stories: "One day of Ivan Denisovich", "Matryona's yard", "Tiny", "Right hand", "The incident at the Kochetovka station", "For the good of the cause", "Zakhar Kalita", "What a pity" , "Easter Procession".

Audio story by AI Solzhenitsyn "What a pity". Written in the autumn of 1965, it was proposed to several Soviet magazines, rejected everywhere. A true case with the daughter of Professor Vladimir Aleksandrovich Vasiliev. Anna Modestovna accidentally read a laudatory article about the work of her father in his youth at a street stand in the newspaper Trud. Very helpful...