After reading the story E. Zamyatin A " The Dragon", we cannot immediately grasp the meaning of the work. There are too many metaphors. Let's analyze it in parts.

In general, after reading the title first, we imagine the image of a fairy-tale dragon in our heads, and we think that the story is most likely written for children. But first impressions are deceiving.

The story was written in 1918, when the Bolsheviks came to power and the Civil War broke out. This harsh period is shown by Zamyatin in “Dragon”.

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1-|Fiercely frozen, Petersburg was burning and delirious. | - we immediately see in the first sentence of the story such a device as an oxymoron. It’s winter outside, but the city is “on fire,” which suggests some terrible events took place there.

2-|It was clear: invisible behind the foggy curtain, creaking, shuffling, tiptoeing yellow and red columns, spiers and gray gratings. |- Zamyatin uses yellow and red colors to describe. The first is associated with illness, and the second with shed blood. Spiers and gratings add to the atmosphere of what is happening.

3-|Hot, unprecedented, icy sun in the fog - left, right, above, below - a dove over a house on fire. | - “icy sun” is also an oxymoron, as if it gives meaning to the fading of everything bright in life. It is compared to a dove, a symbol of at least some hope.

4-|From the delusional, foggy world, dragon-people emerged into the earthly world, spewing out fog, heard in the foggy world as words, but here - white, round smoke; surfaced and sank in the fog. | - people in St. Petersburg are compared to dragons. They lost their human appearance, came out of the “fog” that hid their real face, but could not stay outside for long. They had to plunge headlong into the revolution so that the authorities would not punish them.

5-|And with a grinding sound the trams rushed into the unknown out of the earthly world. | - the tram personifies human morality, which at that time began to disappear (for example, faith in God became forbidden, human life began to depreciate).

6-|A dragon with a rifle temporarily existed on the tram platform, rushing into the unknown. The cap fit over his nose and, of course, would have swallowed the dragon’s head if it weren’t for his ears: the cap sat on his protruding ears. The overcoat dangled to the floor; the sleeves were hanging down; the toes of the boots were bent upward - empty. And a hole in the fog: a mouth. | - that same “dragon” appeared in front of us. It did not live up to our expectations that came to us after reading the title of the story. This “dragon” creates the impression of something ridiculous and awkward when examining his portrait. It would seem that what’s scary about it? Well, that was not the case...

7-Next comes key point of the story:
| This was already in the leaping, rushing world, and here the fierce fog spewed out by the dragon was visible and audible:
-...I’m leading him: his face is intelligent - it’s just disgusting to look at. And he still talks, bitch, huh? Talking!
- Well, so what - did you finish it?
- Brought to you: without a transfer - to the Kingdom of Heaven. With a bayonet.
The hole in the fog was overgrown: there was only an empty cap, empty boots, an empty overcoat. The tram rattled and rushed out of the world. |-
Here we see that the “fairy-tale hero” not harmless at all. Leading a “thinking man” (these were exactly the kind the new government did not need) for interrogation, the Dragon could not restrain himself and killed him with a bayonet. The fog in the story is a symbol of evil and the callousness of the human soul due to the inhumane views dictated by the Soviet regime. And the tram with moral values ​​goes further and further...

8-|And suddenly - from the empty sleeves - from the depths - red, dragon paws grew. The empty overcoat sat down to the floor - and in its paws there was something gray, cold, materialized from the fierce fog.
- You are my mother! Little Sparrow is frozen, eh! Well, pray tell!
The dragon knocked back his cap - and in the fog there were two eyes - two slits from the delirious world into the human world. | - in this scene we are convinced that the Dragon has not completely lost his human qualities. Seeing a frozen sparrow (note that Zamyatin uses the word “little sparrow” to emphasize the defenselessness of this little creature), he immediately tries to warm it up. From this, “two slits” appear from that foggy world, that is, two eyes, but not wide open and not looking soberly at what is happening around.

9-|The dragon blew with all his might into his red paws, and these were obviously the words of the little sparrow, but they - in the delirious world - were not heard. The tram creaked.
- Such a bitch; Looks like he's fluttering, huh? Not yet? But he’ll go away, by all means... Well, tell me! |- the Dragon awakens to hope that the sparrow will still be able to wake up. He almost said “by God.” It means that the religious principle in a person is not so easy to destroy in one fell swoop, as the new government tried.

10-|He blew with all his might. The rifle was lying on the floor. And at the moment prescribed by fate, at the prescribed point in space, the gray little sparrow jerked, jerked some more - and flew off the red dragon paws into the unknown. |- the detail that “the rifle was lying on the floor” makes the reader wonder if the dragon will take it again? Or will he still follow the true path? And that “prescribed point in space” is the line between the “foggy world” and the “human world.” It was at that moment that the little sparrow came to life, feeling the warmth and kindness wafting from the human world.

11-|The dragon grinned its foggy, flaming mouth from ear to ear. Slowly the cracks into the human world slammed shut like a cap. The cap sagged on his protruding ears. The guide to the Kingdom of Heaven raised his rifle.
He gnashed his teeth and rushed into the unknown, out of the human world, the tram. | - in the final episode we see that the dragon nevertheless chose the path of cruelty and evil. And the good (the tram) moves further and further away from him...

TECHNOLOGY FOR DEVELOPING CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH READING AND WRITING

teacher of the highest qualification category

Political fairy tale “Dragon” by Yevgeny Zamyatin

LITERATURE LESSON PLAN

Lesson type: research lesson.

Goals and objectives of the lesson:

· carrying out an analysis of the ideological and artistic features of Yevgeny Zamyatin’s political fairy tale “Dragon” in the form of a research lesson (with the formulation and solution of problematic literary problems);

· formation of a holistic understanding of the features of the artistic world of Yevgeny Zamyatin, about the deep connections between the fairy tale “Dragon” and the novel “We”;

· development of cognitive and creative abilities.

Equipment:

on the board there is a portrait of the writer, his name and the title of the fairy tale, below is the date of writing (1918); on the back of the wing of the board - the name of the writer, the title of the novel “We”, the date of writing (1921) (the entries are arranged in such a way that when the wing is turned they are symmetrical and form a single whole);

cards with tasks for working in pairs.

DURING THE CLASSES

1. Epigraph of the lesson: “Oh, how many wonderful discoveries we have

The spirit is preparing for enlightenment..."

Teacher's word.

– Today we will really make a number of “miraculous discoveries”, because we are conducting a research lesson, a lesson in practical analysis of an unusual literary text - the political fairy tale “Dragon” by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

2. Introduction to the main milestones of the biography of Yevgeny Zamyatin (pay attention to his nickname “Englishman”, to the organization of persecution after the publication of the novel “We” in the Czech Republic in 1929) – student report (individual homework).

3. Reading an excerpt from Zamyatin’s letter to Stalin, in which he sets out a request to be allowed to go abroad and talks about the possibility of becoming an “English writer.”

The author of this letter, sentenced to capital punishment, turns to you with a request to replace this measure with another. (...) For me, as a writer, it is a death sentence to be deprived of the opportunity to write, and the circumstances have developed in such a way that I cannot continue my work, because no creativity is unthinkable if I have to work in an atmosphere of systematic, growing year by year, persecution. (...) If circumstances lead me to the impossibility of being a Russian writer, perhaps I will be able to become English for a while, especially since I have already written about England in Russian, and writing in English is a little more difficult for me than in Russian<…>».

CHALLENGE (problem statement).

2. – What artistic method can this work be classified as?

COMPREHENSION (study of Zamyatin’s political fairy tale “Dragon”).

Reading aloud Zamyatin's fairy tales episode by episode and identifying associative connections with works of Russian and foreign literature at the level of theme, motives, heroes, problems and stylistic features (homework).

THE DRAGON

Fiercely frozen, Petersburg was burning and delirious. It was clear: invisible behind the foggy curtain, creaking, shuffling, tiptoeing yellow and red columns, spiers and gray gratings. Hot, unprecedented, icy sun in the fog - left, right, above, below - a dove over a house on fire. From the delusional, foggy world, dragon-people emerged into the earthly world, spewing out fog, heard in the foggy world as words, but here - white, round smoke; surfaced and sank in the fog. And with a grinding sound the trams rushed into the unknown out of the earthly world.

A dragon with a rifle temporarily existed on the tram platform, rushing into the unknown. The cap fit over his nose and, of course, would have swallowed the dragon’s head if it weren’t for his ears: the cap sat on his protruding ears. The overcoat dangled to the floor; the sleeves were hanging down; the toes of the boots were bent upward - empty. And a hole in the fog: a mouth.

This was already in the leaping, rushing world, and here the fierce fog spewed out by the dragon was visible and audible:

- ...I’m leading him: his face is intelligent - it’s just disgusting to look at. And he still talks, bitch, huh? Talking!

- Well, what did you do?

- Brought to you: without a transfer - to the Kingdom of Heaven. With a bayonet.

The hole in the fog was overgrown: there was only an empty cap, empty boots, an empty overcoat. The tram rattled and rushed out of the world.

And suddenly - from the empty sleeves - from the depths - red, dragon paws grew. The empty overcoat sat down to the floor - and in its paws there was something gray, cold, materialized from the fierce fog.

- You are my mother! Little Sparrow is cold, huh? Well, pray tell!

The dragon knocked back his cap - and in the fog there were two eyes - two slits from the delirious world into the human world.

The dragon blew with all his might into his red paws, and these were clearly the words of the little sparrow, but they - in the delirious world - could not be heard. The tram creaked.

- Such a bitch: he seemed to flutter, huh? Not yet? But he’ll go away, by all means... Well, tell me!

He blew with all his might. The rifle was lying on the floor. And at the moment prescribed by fate, at the prescribed point in space, the gray little sparrow jerked, jerked some more - and fled from the red dragon paws into the unknown.

The dragon grinned his foggy, puffing mouth to his ears. Slowly the cracks into the human world slammed shut like a cap. The cap sagged on his protruding ears. The guide to the Kingdom of Heaven raised his rifle.

He gnashed his teeth and rushed into the unknown, out of the human world, the tram.

Suggested answers:

title – Evgeny Schwartz “Dragon”; sentences 1,2 – image of cold Petersburg – Gogol “The Overcoat”, Block “12”; the image of “living” Petersburg – Dostoevsky’s “White Nights”;

sentence 3 – “icy sun” - “black disk of the sun” in the finale of Sholokhov’s novel “Quiet Don”; sentence 4 – words like “white, round smoke” – Pisakhov “Ice cream songs”; sentence 5 – image of a rushing tram – Gogol “Dead Souls”, Gumilev “Lost Tram”, Blok “On the Kulikovo Field” - images of a troika, a tram, a mare rushing forward; sentence 6 – “On the tram platform there temporarily existed a dragon with a rifle, rushing into the unknown” - Platonov’s style, “Pit”; sentence 7,8 – portrait of a Red Guard - Ivan the Fool in Russian fairy tales and the main character of V. Voinovich’s novel “The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of the Soldier Ivan Chonkin”; sentence 9 – “And a Hole in the Fog: The Mouth” – H.G. Wells “The Invisible Man”; sentence 11-16 – conversation about murder – Sholokhov “Quiet Don”, Chubaty and his “Cormorant” blow, murder of a prisoner; sentence 21-25 – the idea of ​​“humanization” – Sholokhov “The Foal”, “Alien Blood”; sentence 31-33 – the scene of the sparrow returning to life – the idea of ​​fatalism (“at the moment prescribed by fate”) in Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time”; sentence 34-37 – the disappearance of signs of the “human world” in the dragon - Mishka Kosheva from Sholokhov’s novel “Quiet Don”, “a guide to the Kingdom of Heaven” - Charon from the myths of Ancient Greece; sentence 38 – the motif of a grinding tram rushing into the unknown as a refrain – a refrain in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, in “Song ... about the merchant Kalashnikov” by Lermontov; a special, “cinematic” way of editing episodes - Bunin “Easy Breathing”.

2. Generalization.

· appealing to the image of St. Petersburg, endowing it with human qualities;

· using landscape as a means of conveying a person’s psychological state;

· the image of the main character – a small, unprepossessing person;

· appeal to the image of revolution; the clash between the people and the intelligentsia;

· psychologism of the situation;

· use of the road motif, movement as a symbol of the author’s intention;

· special role of details;

· likening a person to an animal and an animal to a person;

· genre – fairy tale, albeit of a special type (political).

Brings him closer to European literature

· the image of a dragon, not typical for Russian culture;

· motif of an overcoat without a man (“The Invisible Man” by H.G. Wells);

Conclusion: the work of Evgeny Zamyatin reveals an undoubted connection, first of all, with the traditions of Russian classics. This is, of course, a Russian work, but with a special style and a special form of presentation. Evgeny Zamyatin is undoubtedly a Russian writer.

3. Independent work in pairs on a task from cards (5 minutes).

A. Highlight the episodes in Zamyatin’s fairy tale; observe the changes in the artistic space in it; find the features of the flow of artistic time.

(Episodes: landscape of winter St. Petersburg; conversation on the tram about the murder of an “intellectual” - the loss of humanity by the “dragon”; saving a freezing sparrow - temporary acquisition of a human image; continuation of the route - return to the appearance of the “dragon”. Artistic space: first paragraph - general view winter Petersburg, from the second - the back platform of a rushing tram. In parallel, there is a representation of two worlds: the earthly, “delirious” and the “human”, that is, the world of the soul. Artistic time flows unevenly: at first it is given as something frozen - in the landscape of the city; then with in the image of a rushing tram it accelerates; in the scene with the sparrow it slows down to move later into some symbolic time. Rushing into the unknown.)

B. Describe the form of the narrative. What is the author's position? By what means is it transmitted?

(The form of the narration is in the third person, on behalf of the narrator. The author does not show himself directly, but the author’s assessment is manifested in a negative portrait of a Red Army soldier, in the author’s description - “a guide to the Kingdom of Heaven”, in the landscape: revolutionary Petersburg was “burning and delirious.”)

Q. Describe the hero. By what means does the author create his image? Why are there no original words in the dialogues?

(The hero is a soldier with a rifle, clearly a Red Army soldier. According to Zamyatin, he has lost his human appearance and has become simply a “dragon.” He has just killed an intellectual with his own hands. At the same time, the soldier experiences tender feelings at the sight of a freezing sparrow. The author is sure: the revolution kills in the soldier there is a human soul. The writer creates the image of the Red Army soldier, the hero of revolutionary St. Petersburg, with the help of a portrait, comparison, paraphrase, speech characteristics, actions, artistic details. The author distances himself from what is happening, leaving everything without comment.)

D. Observe the “artistic detail” technique (portrait, landscape, material), find examples. Which ones are clearly symbolic?

(Portrait images: large. Oversized overcoat, empty sleeves, cap, protruding ears, slits of eyes. Landscape images: “gray bars”, “foggy curtain”. Real images: rifle, tram. The last two are clearly symbolic: a man with a gun as a symbol of the era revolutions and the tram as a symbol of rushing time.)

D. Observe variations in the refrain. What is the difference?

(1. " And with a grinding sound the trams rushed into the unknown out of the earthly world.” The first appeal to the tram image is still quite neutral. Only the words “get out of the earthly world” attract attention.

2.“The tram was grinding and rushing out of the world.” This phrase stands immediately after the portrait of the “dragon”; it reinforces the motif of the emptiness of his soul, separation from the human world.

3.“The tram was grinding.” The rattle of the tram drowns out the human words spoken by the “dragon” to the sparrow. The image can be understood both literally and figuratively.

4.“I gnashed my teeth and rushed into the unknown, out of the human world, the tram.” The phrase lengthened, and the image of the rushing tram acquired a more ominous and clearly symbolic character.)

4. Listening to responses and discussing the results of the research in order to establish the compliance of a given work with the laws of a particular artistic method.

Conclusion: Zamyatin’s method in this work is far from realism, it is modernism, symbolism in prose.

5. Creative workshop.

Discussion of the possibility of introducing the final part of the landscape. Determining the location of the landscape sketch to be entered - before or after the last sentence.

Conclusion: the landscape sketch should be placed precisely before the last sentence, since it contains a very important idea that helps to see the evolution of the writer’s views: the “tram of 1918” in the writer’s political fairy tale rushes into the “unknown,” into “nowhere.” And in 3 years (the wing of the board turns over - two entries are put together) a book will be written where this “tram” will rush into the terrible, absurd world of the United State from the novel “We”.

REFLECTION.

– What “wonderful discoveries” have we made today?

HOMEWORK.

– Compose your own landscape sketch for the ending of a fairy tale story in the style of Zamyatin. (For example: “The hot, cold sun blazed for a moment and again sank into the fog.”)

RESULTS OF THE LESSON. EVALUATION OF STUDENTS' WORK.

Sections: Literature

The purpose of the lesson:

By analyzing E. Zamyatin’s story “Dragon”, determine the writer’s view of the new historical reality and the image of the “new man”.

Work goals:

Strengthening the skills of analyzing a work of small form.
- Development of the ability to establish common general features and properties of the whole by comparing knowledge, the ability to identify common and essential features, and draw generalizing conclusions.
- Formation of moral and aesthetic views of students.

Work organization:

1. Design:

Portrait of E. Zamyatin.

Texts of E. Zamyatin's story "Dragon".

Illustrations of paintings by expressionist artists:

T. Vladova "Game of Goose"
A. Brodsky "Sheikh"
V. Kozlov "Sinegoria"

2. Musical arrangement:

A. Scriabin. Symphony No. 1 in E major, Op. 26.

Board design:

Topic: "E. Zamyatin's story "Dragon" as a reflection of the new reality and the "new" person."

Epigraph for the lesson:

Here is Love
That vampiric age
Which turned me into cripples
Worthy of the title of man!
A. Blok
("Retribution")

During the classes.

1. Introductory speech by the teacher.

Works about revolution and civil war amaze with their drama. There are so many descriptions of grief, suffering, torment, death. The authors of these works were not afraid to face the truth and were able to show what everyday “black” labor made up the construction of the “new world” and the image of the “new” man created by the elements of revolution and civil war. This image is based on the duality of human nature, where, as E. Zamyatin notes, “the proud homoerectus gets on all fours, grows fangs and fur, and the beast in man conquers. The wild Middle Ages are returning, the price of human life is rapidly falling." The revolution took place along with violence, which unleashed the basest instincts in man, so many authors (A. Blok, M. Sholokhov, B. Pilnyak, E. Zamyatin...) ask the question: " What will win in a person: the spiritual, humanistic - or the animal, the uterine?” We will try to find the answer to this question in E. Zamyatin’s story “Dragon”, with the help of the analysis of which we will try to determine the writer’s view of the new historical reality and the image of the “new man” Let's get acquainted with the text of the story.

2. Artistic reading of the story.

(The text is read by a student prepared in advance; the reading is accompanied by music by A. Scriabin. Symphony No. 1 in E major, op. 26, part 2. Allegro dramatico).

Question: (to the student)
What did you want to highlight, emphasize, convey intonation in the story while reading?

(First of all, I wanted to highlight the drama of the situation, emphasize the features of the image of the hero of the story, and convey the intensely emotional nature of the entire work).

3. Discussion in the form of a heuristic conversation.

- What is your impression of the story? (question to the class).
An unusual, incomprehensible, very emotional story.

- What role do you think played the fragment of A. Scriabin’s symphony??
Music helped enhance the perception of the story, reflect its expression, convey the features of the reality in which the events take place, and create a certain mood for understanding the work).

- How do you think the words of A. Blok, included in the epigraph to the lesson, are connected with the story??
We can say that Blok’s words from the poem “Retribution” reflect the main idea of ​​the story about how reality influences the formation of the human personality, when “high” and “low” change places, when a person undergoes ideological and moral tests. The epithet in the definition of the century “vampiric” very well emphasizes the whole drama of the situation in which, first of all, the moral foundations were “sucked out” of a person, exposing his primitive essence. Hence the comparison with cripples - moral cripples who have lost their spiritual, moral beginning. By the way, A. Blok himself showed this well in his poem “The Twelve” in the image of a detachment of Red Guards.

- Does this mean that the theme of Zamyatin’s story is characteristic of Russian literature of this period?
Yes, this topic, trying to comprehend the new reality and the person born of it, is addressed by M. Bulgakov in the novel “The White Guard”, the stories “Heart of a Dog”, “Fatal Eggs”, M. Zoshchenko in his stories, I. Babel in “ Cavalry", B. Pilnyak in the novel "The Naked Year".

4 . Analysis of the story (working with the text on the proposed questions).

- How does the story “Dragon” by E. Zamyatin stand out from these works?
The story “Dragon” may seem like a quick sketch, but the author managed to raise it to the height of an almost symbolic picture, comprehending which Zamyatin gives his view of a new reality and a “new” person.

- Let's take a closer look at its features. The first thing that attracts the reader's attention is the name "Dragon"? Why dragon?

(Read out a reference from an explanatory dictionary: dragon - a fairy-tale monster in the form of a winged fire-breathing serpent that devours people and animals).

Most likely, the name has a dual meaning: to convey the external resemblance of people to the image of a dragon (“dragon-people spewed out fog,” reminiscent of a fire-breathing serpent), and also to reflect the inner (animal) essence of the character, calmly “devouring” a person only because he has “ the face is intelligent - it’s just disgusting to look at.” The unusual thing is that the same dragon saves a sparrow from freezing - warms it up. This human, moral awakens in the character. Probably, it is in the manifestation of these two principles that the conflict of the story is formed. And this is already implied in the name itself.

- What makes you identify a conflict?

The surrounding reality, the world in which the dragon-man is formed. He is also dual. Zamyatin shows a world divided into two: one is “delusional, foggy, unknown,” the other is “earthly, human, human.” The dual world of the new reality reflects the dual essence of the “new” person born into this world. These worlds are connected by trams rushing “out of the earthly world into the unknown.”
The “unknown” world is the future that people strive for, but they don’t know what it will be like. Depicting it, the author uses extensive metaphors (“invisible behind the foggy curtain, creaking, shuffling, tiptoeing yellow and red columns, spiers and gray gratings. Dragon-people emerged from the delirious, foggy world into the earthly world”) and comparisons (“ spewed out fog, heard in a foggy world as words, but here - white, round smoke", "the sun in the fog - left, right, above, below - a dove over a house on fire"). Using an oxymoron (" feverish, unprecedented, icy Sun", " Fiercely frozen, St. Petersburg was burning and was delirious") Zamyatin enhances the “delirium” of this world, showing that everything in this world is crazy and, first of all, the person who finds himself there is crazy.

- But the dragon that exists “on the tram platform acts quite consciously.
Yes, because his dragon origin is formed by the ideological origin of the new reality. At the moment, he is a representative of the new power, and the rifle becomes a symbol of this (a detail emphasizing the significance of the dragon), because all other attributes of power only reduce the significance of the image (“The cap fit on the nose and, of course, would have swallowed the dragon’s head, if not ears: the cap was stuck on the protruding ears. The overcoat was dangling to the floor; the sleeves were hanging down; the toes of the boots were bent upward - empty.")

- We have already said that one of the features of E. Zamyatin’s creative style is its reflection of the features of the aesthetics of expressionism.From the illustrations of the paintings by T. Vladova “Game of Goose”, A. Brodsky “Sheikh”, V. Kozlov “Sinegoria” it is clear that expressionist artists preferred to embody the internal movements of the soul rather than the phenomena of the external world, thereby, as it were, expressing the idea of the imperfection of the world and the ill-being of man in it.As reflected in Zamyatin's story "Dragon""?
Like the expressionist artists, Zamyatin does not give a detailed image, but only outlines the contours, highlighting the most impressive and significant in the described object. This is reflected, first of all, in the image of the dragon-man.

- What is unusual about creating the image of a dragon-man?
There is no specification of the image; it is formed by comparing portrait details, which also reflects the duality of the character. The mouth is “a hole in the fog,” the hands are “red dragon paws,” “two eyes are two slits.” The only specific detail is the protruding ears, on which the cap is stuck, which emphasizes the physical smallness of this character. Perhaps clothes that don't fit should emphasize that a person is out of place.
This is also reflected in the speech characteristics. According to the words (“muzzle”, “bitch”, “little sparrow”, “fluttered”) and speech patterns (“Well, pray tell”, “hey…”, “my mother!”) it is clear that this is an illiterate , most likely a village peasant caught in a historical whirlpool. Moreover, in one word “bitch” he calls both the intellectual he escorts and the sparrow he warms. Only the intonation with which he says it changes: irritated (“And he’s still talking, the bitch, huh?”) and touchingly joyful (“Such a bitch; it’s like he’s fluttering, huh?”). It should be noted that the technique of syntactic parallelism in these sentences is also used to emphasize the duality of the image of the man-dragon.
Most likely, the hero does not understand everything that is happening, but, following the idea, he zealously defends it, first of all, speaking out against those who are intellectually superior to him and have different life principles. He is annoyed by an intellectual who is not afraid of a representative of the new government (“and still talks”), so the dragon, with ideological ease, sends him “without a transfer - to the Kingdom of Heaven. With a bayonet.”
But what does not relate to ideology makes the humane human principle appear, hence the pity for the little sparrow and his salvation.
Interestingly, this duality is reflected in the portrait details. So, when a murder occurs, everything human disappears in the image of a dragon - only clothes remain (“The hole in the fog was overgrown: there was only an empty cap, empty boots, an empty overcoat”). As soon as the hero notices the bird, the image changes (“from the depths - red, dragon paws grew”), “two eyes - two slits from the delirious into the human world” appeared, emotions emerged (“The dragon grinned its foggy, blazing mouth to the ears”). And what further emphasizes the humanity of the image is the rifle, a symbol of power, which at that moment was “lying on the floor.”
But the bird flew away - and the “delirium” returns (“Slowly the cap slammed the cracks into the human world. The cap settled on his protruding ears. The guide to the Kingdom of Heaven raised his rifle”).

- What motives would you highlight in the story?
The motive of madness (delirium), from a lack of understanding of what is happening - the absurdity of actions.
The motive of movement (the image of a tram, and, connecting two worlds, the tram moves purposefully, since it cannot get off the rails - it becomes a symbol of movement forward, into the future.)
It is the image of the tram as a symbol of movement that ends the story. The ending remains open, as the tram “gnashed its teeth and rushed into the unknown, out of the human world,” taking with it the dragon-man.

- 1918 Time to create a story. Does this date somehow help to understand the idea of ​​the work?
It becomes clear that E. Zamyatin, like A. Blok in his poem “The Twelve,” depicted in the story the reality surrounding him, what he witnessed and, at the moment, cannot evaluate what is happening. He records what his objective and subjective view noted in order to later comprehend and evaluate all this. As A.P. Chekhov wrote: “A real writer is the same as an ancient prophet: he sees more clearly than ordinary people.”

Conclusion:

- How can we now assess the significance of this story? Could we find in it the answer to the question asked at the beginning of the lesson: “What will win in a person: the spiritual, humanistic - or the animal, the uterine?”
The author does not give us a direct answer, but with the image of a dragon-man he seems to show that every person is dual, in everyone there is both “high” and “low”. Everyone has to choose one of two principles, and the future depends on what this choice will be, which will win: the spiritual, humanistic - or animal, uterine - and the path of development of society depends on the choice of the individual. With his story “Dragon,” E. Zamyatin makes us think about the responsibility for the choice that each of us makes, since it is with this that we determine not only our own destiny, but also the fate of future generations.

D/Z: Read E. Zamyatin’s story “The Cave”, determine its ideological and artistic features, prepare a reasoned answer to the question: “What does the writer see as the reasons for the tragedy of human existence? (Based on E. Zamyatin’s stories “Dragon” and “Cave”).

Literature.

1. E. Zamyatin. Favorites. M. PUBLISHING HOUSE "PRAVDA", 1989.
2. Russian literature of the 20th century, part 1 (edited by V.V. Agenosov). M. "Bustard", 1997.
3. N. Vekshin. Encyclopedia of aphorisms. M. Century, 1997.
4. Literature. A large reference book for schoolchildren and those entering universities. M. "Bustard", 1999.
5. V. G. Vozdvizhensky. E.I. Zamyatin. Russian literature of the 20th century. Essays. Portraits. Essay. (Ed. F. F. Kuznetsov). M. "Enlightenment", 1994.

Note: analysis of this work forms in students an initial understanding of Zamyatin’s views on the new reality and the “new” man.” This will help to see the development of views in other works and more deeply understand the ideological and artistic originality of E. Zamyatin’s novel “We.”

After reading the story E. Zamyatin A " The Dragon", we cannot immediately grasp the meaning of the work. There are too many metaphors. Let's analyze it in parts.

In general, after reading the title first, we imagine the image of a fairy-tale dragon in our heads, and we think that the story is most likely written for children. But first impressions are deceiving.

The story was written in 1918, when the Bolsheviks came to power and the Civil War broke out. This harsh period is shown by Zamyatin in “Dragon”.

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1-|Fiercely frozen, Petersburg was burning and delirious. | - we immediately see in the first sentence of the story such a device as an oxymoron. It’s winter outside, but the city is “on fire,” which suggests some terrible events took place there.

2-|It was clear: invisible behind the foggy curtain, creaking, shuffling, tiptoeing yellow and red columns, spiers and gray gratings. |- Zamyatin uses yellow and red colors to describe. The first is associated with illness, and the second with shed blood. Spiers and gratings add to the atmosphere of what is happening.

3-|Hot, unprecedented, icy sun in the fog - left, right, above, below - a dove over a house on fire. | - “icy sun” is also an oxymoron, as if it gives meaning to the fading of everything bright in life. It is compared to a dove, a symbol of at least some hope.

4-|From the delusional, foggy world, dragon-people emerged into the earthly world, spewing out fog, heard in the foggy world as words, but here - white, round smoke; surfaced and sank in the fog. | - people in St. Petersburg are compared to dragons. They lost their human appearance, came out of the “fog” that hid their real face, but could not stay outside for long. They had to plunge headlong into the revolution so that the authorities would not punish them.

5-|And with a grinding sound the trams rushed into the unknown out of the earthly world. | - the tram personifies human morality, which at that time began to disappear (for example, faith in God became forbidden, human life began to depreciate).

6-|A dragon with a rifle temporarily existed on the tram platform, rushing into the unknown. The cap fit over his nose and, of course, would have swallowed the dragon’s head if it weren’t for his ears: the cap sat on his protruding ears. The overcoat dangled to the floor; the sleeves were hanging down; the toes of the boots were bent upward - empty. And a hole in the fog: a mouth. | - that same “dragon” appeared in front of us. It did not live up to our expectations that came to us after reading the title of the story. This “dragon” creates the impression of something ridiculous and awkward when examining his portrait. It would seem that what’s scary about it? Well, that was not the case...

7-Next comes key point of the story:
| This was already in the leaping, rushing world, and here the fierce fog spewed out by the dragon was visible and audible:
-...I’m leading him: his face is intelligent - it’s just disgusting to look at. And he still talks, bitch, huh? Talking!
- Well, so what - did you finish it?
- Brought to you: without a transfer - to the Kingdom of Heaven. With a bayonet.
The hole in the fog was overgrown: there was only an empty cap, empty boots, an empty overcoat. The tram rattled and rushed out of the world. |-
Here we see that the “fairy-tale hero” not harmless at all. Leading a “thinking man” (these were exactly the kind the new government did not need) for interrogation, the Dragon could not restrain himself and killed him with a bayonet. The fog in the story is a symbol of evil and the callousness of the human soul due to the inhumane views dictated by the Soviet regime. And the tram with moral values ​​goes further and further...

8-|And suddenly - from the empty sleeves - from the depths - red, dragon paws grew. The empty overcoat sat down to the floor - and in its paws there was something gray, cold, materialized from the fierce fog.
- You are my mother! Little Sparrow is frozen, eh! Well, pray tell!
The dragon knocked back his cap - and in the fog there were two eyes - two slits from the delirious world into the human world. | - in this scene we are convinced that the Dragon has not completely lost his human qualities. Seeing a frozen sparrow (note that Zamyatin uses the word “little sparrow” to emphasize the defenselessness of this little creature), he immediately tries to warm it up. From this, “two slits” appear from that foggy world, that is, two eyes, but not wide open and not looking soberly at what is happening around.

9-|The dragon blew with all his might into his red paws, and these were obviously the words of the little sparrow, but they - in the delirious world - were not heard. The tram creaked.
- Such a bitch; Looks like he's fluttering, huh? Not yet? But he’ll go away, by all means... Well, tell me! |- the Dragon awakens to hope that the sparrow will still be able to wake up. He almost said “by God.” It means that the religious principle in a person is not so easy to destroy in one fell swoop, as the new government tried.

10-|He blew with all his might. The rifle was lying on the floor. And at the moment prescribed by fate, at the prescribed point in space, the gray little sparrow jerked, jerked some more - and flew off the red dragon paws into the unknown. |- the detail that “the rifle was lying on the floor” makes the reader wonder if the dragon will take it again? Or will he still follow the true path? And that “prescribed point in space” is the line between the “foggy world” and the “human world.” It was at that moment that the little sparrow came to life, feeling the warmth and kindness wafting from the human world.

11-|The dragon grinned its foggy, flaming mouth from ear to ear. Slowly the cracks into the human world slammed shut like a cap. The cap sagged on his protruding ears. The guide to the Kingdom of Heaven raised his rifle.
He gnashed his teeth and rushed into the unknown, out of the human world, the tram. | - in the final episode we see that the dragon nevertheless chose the path of cruelty and evil. And the good (the tram) moves further and further away from him...

Evgeny Zamyatin
THE DRAGON

Evgeny Zamyatin
THE DRAGON

Fiercely frozen, Petersburg was burning and delirious. It was clear: invisible behind the foggy curtain, creaking, shuffling, tiptoeing yellow and red columns, spiers and gray gratings. Hot, unprecedented, icy sun in the fog - left, right, above, below - a dove over a house on fire. From the delirious, foggy world, dragon-people emerged into the earthly world, spewing out fog, heard in the foggy world as words, but here - white, round smoke; surfaced and sank in the fog. And with a grinding sound the trams rushed into the unknown out of the earthly world.

A dragon with a rifle temporarily existed on the tram platform, rushing into the unknown. The cap fit over his nose and, of course, would have swallowed the dragon’s head if it weren’t for his ears: the cap sat on his protruding ears. The overcoat dangled to the floor; the sleeves were hanging down; the toes of the boots were bent upward - empty. And a hole in the fog: a mouth.

This was already in the leaping, rushing world, and here the fierce fog spewed out by the dragon was visible and audible:

- ...I’m leading him: his face is intelligent - it’s just disgusting to look at. And he still talks, bitch, huh? Talking!

Well, so what - did you finish it?

He brought it: without a transfer - to the kingdom of heaven. With a bayonet.

The hole in the fog was overgrown: there was only an empty cap, empty boots, an empty overcoat. The tram rattled and rushed out of the world.

And suddenly - from the empty sleeves - from the depths - red, dragon paws grew. The empty overcoat sat down to the floor - and in its paws there was a gray, cold thing, materialized from the fierce fog.

You are my mother! Little Sparrow is cold, huh? Well, pray tell!

The dragon knocked back his cap - and in the fog there were two eyes - two slits from the delirious world into the human world.

The dragon blew with all his might into his red paws, and these were clearly the words of the little sparrow, but they - in the delirious world - could not be heard. The tram creaked.

Such a bitch: he seemed to flutter, huh? Not yet? But he’ll go away, by all means... Well, tell me!

He blew with all his might. The rifle was lying on the floor. And at the moment prescribed by fate, at the prescribed point in space, the gray little sparrow jerked, jerked some more - and flew off the red dragon paws into the unknown.

The dragon grinned its foggy-puffing mouth from ear to ear. Slowly the cracks into the human world slammed shut like a cap. The cap sagged on his protruding ears. The guide to the kingdom of heaven raised his rifle.

He gnashed his teeth and rushed into the unknown, out of the human world, the tram.