The main idea of ​​the text. How to determine the main idea of ​​a text. What is the main idea of ​​​​stories The main idea of ​​​​a work what is not

A short story is a form of literary work. As a rule, stories have a small amount of text. In this way they are not like novels or even stories, which have a much larger volume.

What is the main idea in a story

It is important to understand that any story is a story that is told in the form of a narrative. The story cannot be meaningless. Otherwise, no one will publish it, and it will remain only in the personal collection of a graphomaniac. The concept of the main idea of ​​the story can be revealed as follows:

• every story has some meaning. It is in expressing this meaning and idea that the task of the writer lies. All the literary techniques he uses are aimed at achieving this goal. It is necessary to express the main idea of ​​the story and this must be done in an interesting and vivid way. Then readers will like the story, they will remember it and perceive the main idea contained in it;
• The main idea is the idea of ​​the entire story that the author conveys to the readers. He uses various techniques. One such technique is the use of keywords. They, like beacons, “illuminate” the entire text, giving it color and uniqueness. For example, in a story about a sea voyage, the appropriate terminology and the names of the countries and peoples that the traveler encountered will certainly be used. Keywords make a story more meaningful and believable;
• the main idea must be correctly understood by readers. After all, this is the essence of the whole story. It was for her sake that the writer sat down to work.

Thus, the main idea of ​​the story is the idea that the author tried to express.

What are the main thoughts?

The idea of ​​the story may be to express the importance of life values. These are deep stories. They emphasize the importance of patriotism, a healthy lifestyle, and truthfulness. There are also many humorous stories. Then you need to make it really funny. At the same time, you need to keep the main idea. After all, every joke has a meaning, which is conveyed in the story.

When studying a text, be it a fiction novel, a scientific dissertation, a pamphlet, a poem, an anecdote, the first thing the reader asks, going through words and sentences, is what is written here, what did the author want to express with a set of these particular words? When the writer has managed to fully reveal his plan, it is not difficult to understand it; the main idea of ​​the text is clear already in the process of reading, and runs like a leitmotif through the entire narrative. But when the idea itself is ephemeral, and even expressed not literally, but through metaphors and figurative descriptions, it can be quite difficult to understand the author. Each reader will see in the main idea of ​​the text something of his own, close, depending on his worldview and level of position in society. And it is very likely that what the reader learns and understands will be far from such a thing as the main idea of ​​the text, which the author himself tried to put into the work.

The importance of defining the main idea

In most cases, the general impression is formed even before the last phrase is read, and the high ideas of the writer with which he set to work remain incomprehensible or completely unknown. In this case, it is very difficult for the average person to understand the delights of his friends or the positive reviews of respected experts on this work. Bewilderment over the fact that someone found something special in him, and someone did not, can, at best, puzzle, at worst, create a certain The latter concerns especially impressionable readers, and there are many of them. It is worth paying special attention to works that have caused polar reviews and understanding what caused these impressions.

It is necessary to determine the main idea of ​​the text. How to do it? To begin with, you should answer a few questions: “What did the author want to express and convey to the reader in his work, what made him take up the pen?” It is possible to determine the tasks that a writer, journalist or publicist set for himself based on a comparison of the time the text was written and the time where the author transferred the events described in it.

Typical examples of determining the main thing in the text

A rather characteristic example of this method of cognition is the immortal and brilliant work of Mikhail Bulgakov “The Heart of a Dog”. Each sentence and entire passage contains the writer’s allegorical attitude to the events taking place in the country after the 1917 revolution. Here the theme and main idea of ​​the text are veiled under the implausible transformation of one living individual into another under the influence of the intervention of external factors. Bulgakov's attitude to global transformations in the state and the minds of its citizens is expressed as accurately and frankly as possible. He conveyed his position to the reader through the stylistic presentation of the text, coverage of the entire range of problems that arose in the country at that time, using the example of the private life of the inhabitants of a single apartment and their relationships with others. By comparing the important and minor events described in the story and taking place in the country, you can understand how to find the main idea of ​​the text through the author’s presentation of these events.

Looking up to the author

In addition to the given example of determining the main idea in a work, there are several methods of a general nature, without reference to a specific author and his work. The most common one is a careful reading of the text and highlighting several main associations that arose during the reading process. If the first time you managed to understand the author and what he writes about, there is no need to rush to assert that the main idea of ​​the text has been found. It’s better to convey your understanding of the topic in one or two sentences, and then re-read the work again. If the conviction that everything was understood correctly the first time is established, it means that the main idea of ​​the text is presented clearly and with perfect presentation. But if with each subsequent reading more and more new associations arise, you should try to penetrate more deeply into what has been presented and, at the same time, familiarize yourself with reviews of this work by the author. It is likely that no one else understood anything except himself. And in this case, it may be impossible to choose a method for finding the main idea of ​​the text.

Fortunately, there are very few works for the general public that are not amenable to analysis and reasonable perception, and similar difficulties may arise when becoming familiar with topics of a narrow specific nature, but they, as a rule, arouse interest among a certain circle of readers whose way of thinking and life are similar the main theme of these works.

If the topic is set by the author himself

So, let's return to the general rule for determining the main idea of ​​a text. After rereading the work two or three times, if opportunity, desire and necessity require it, it is important to understand exactly what it is about and retell its essence. Sometimes the main thing in the text is hidden by layers of overly lush and flowery phrases, it all depends on the style of presentation of the topic by the author. But if you managed to formulate the main thing in one short and laconic phrase, it means that the author managed to convey to the reader his attitude towards the events or characters described.

From title to text

Sometimes the main idea of ​​a work is contained in its table of contents. This happens quite often. Sometimes the title is the key to the entire work, and in this case the method for determining the main idea of ​​the text is to express it in a detailed manner. For example, the theme of Nikolai Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?” is determined by a direct answer to the question posed in its table of contents or in characteristic chapters describing Vera Pavlovna’s dreams. The title of the novel at the end of the phrase contains the key to finding the main idea. If the title of the text contains proper names, the attitude towards them that has developed after reading is also the key to determining the main thing in what is presented.

Read and think

And finally, another characteristic way to determine the main idea of ​​the text. To do this, you need to understand what conclusions the author himself draws from what the story was about. This can be framed as a certain conclusion to which the author led the reader, and at the end of the work, with a few phrases, he drew a line under his idea. Using the example of morality in fables, it is clear that in such cases the main idea is determined by the author himself, and the reader can either agree with it or not.

Analyze it in WRITING according to the following plan: 1. Author and title of the poem 2. History of creation (if known) 3. Theme, idea, main idea

(what is the poem about, what is the author trying to convey to the reader, is there a plot, what images does the author create). 4. Composition of a lyrical work. - determine the leading experience, feeling, mood reflected in the poetic work; - how the author expresses these feelings, using the means of composition - what images he creates, which image follows which and what it gives; - is the poem permeated with one feeling or can we talk about the emotional picture of the poem (how one feeling flows into another) - does each stanza represent a complete thought or does the stanza reveal part of the main thought? The meaning of the stanzas is compared or contrasted. Is the last stanza significant for revealing the idea of ​​the poem, does it contain a conclusion? 5. Poetic vocabulary, what means of artistic expression does the author use? (examples) Why does the author use this or that technique? 6. The image of the lyrical hero: who is he? (the author himself, the character), Don’t frighten me with a thunderstorm: The roar of spring storms is cheerful! After the storm, the azure shines more joyfully over the earth, After the storm, looking younger, In the brilliance of new beauty, The flowers bloom more fragrant and more magnificent! But bad weather frightens me: It’s bitter to think that Life will pass without grief and without happiness, In the bustle of daytime worries, That life’s strength will fade Without struggle and without labor, That the damp, dull fog will hide the Sun forever!

Fairy tale 12 months, please help with at least something) Who wrote this work? Describe him.

2. What place does the work occupy in the writer’s work?
3. Determine the genre of the work.
4. Determine the theme of the work (what it talks about).
5. Who is the main character of the work?
A) Describe it.
B) How the character of the hero is manifested in his actions.
Q) How do you feel about him?
D) The author’s attitude towards the hero.
6. How do you understand the writer’s intention, the main idea of ​​the work.
7. What do you especially like about this work?

Analysis of Tvardovsky’s poetic work July is the crown of summer. According to plan 1 By whom and when was the work written? 2 During what period of the author’s life. 3

What is the theme of the poem? 4 The main idea of ​​the work? amphibrachium) b) Rhyme (male, female, exact, not exact) c) Rhyme (ring, pair, cross)

Idea(Greek idea– prototype, ideal, idea) – the main idea of ​​a work, expressed through its entire figurative system. It is the method of expression that fundamentally distinguishes the idea of ​​a work of art from a scientific idea. The idea of ​​a work of art is inseparable from its figurative system, so it is not so easy to find an adequate abstract expression for it, to formulate it in isolation from the artistic content of the work. L. Tolstoy, emphasizing the inseparability of the idea from the form and content of the novel “Anna Karenina,” wrote: “If I wanted to say in words everything that I had in mind to express in a novel, then I would have to write a novel, the same one that I wrote first."

And one more difference between the idea of ​​a work of art and the idea of ​​a scientific one. The latter requires clear justification and strict, often laboratory, proof and confirmation. Writers, unlike scientists, do not, as a rule, strive for strict evidence, although such a tendency can be found among naturalists, in particular E. Zola. It is enough for an artist of words to pose one or another question of concern to society. This production itself may contain the main ideological content of the work. As A. Chekhov noted, in works such as “Anna Karenina” or “Eugene Onegin” not a single issue is “resolved,” but nevertheless they are permeated with deep, socially significant ideas that concern everyone.

The concept of “ideology” is also close to the concept of “idea of ​​a work.” The last term is more related to the position of the author, with his attitude towards the depicted. This attitude may be different, just as the ideas expressed by the author may be different. The author's position, his ideology are determined primarily by the era in which he lives, the social views inherent in that time, expressed by one or another social group. Enlightenment literature of the 18th century was characterized by a high ideological level, determined by the desire to reorganize society on the principles of reason, the struggle of educators against the vices of the aristocracy and faith in the virtue of the “third estate.” At the same time, aristocratic literature, devoid of high citizenship (Rococo literature), also developed. The latter cannot be called “ideologicalless”; it’s just that the ideas expressed by this trend were the ideas of a class opposite to the Enlightenment, a class that was losing historical perspective and optimism. Because of this, the ideas expressed by “precious” (exquisite, refined) aristocratic literature were deprived of much social resonance.

A writer’s ideological strength is not limited to the thoughts that he puts into his creation. The selection of the material on which the work is based and a certain range of characters are also important. The choice of heroes, as a rule, is determined by the corresponding ideological attitudes of the author. For example, the Russian “natural school” of the 1840s, which professed the ideals of social equality, sympathetically depicts the life of the inhabitants of city “corners” - petty officials, poor townspeople, janitors, cooks, etc. In Soviet literature, “real life” comes to the fore. a person" concerned primarily with the interests of the proletariat, sacrificing his personal in the name of the national good.

The problem of the relationship between “ideological” and “artistry” in a work seems extremely important. Not always, even outstanding writers manage to translate the idea of ​​a work into a perfect artistic form. Often, literary artists, in their desire to express the ideas that excite them as accurately as possible, stray into journalism, begin to “reason” rather than “depict,” which, ultimately, only worsens the work. An example of such a situation is R. Rolland’s novel “The Enchanted Soul,” in which the highly artistic initial chapters contrast with the last, which are something like journalistic articles.

In such cases, full-blooded artistic images turn into diagrams, into simple mouthpieces of the author’s ideas. Even such greatest artists of words as L. Tolstoy resorted to “direct” expression of the ideas that worried them, although in his works such a method of expression was given relatively little space.

Typically, a work of art expresses a main idea and a number of minor ones associated with side storylines. Thus, in the famous tragedy “Oedipus the King” by Sophocles, along with the main idea of ​​the work, which states that man is a toy in the hands of the gods, in a magnificent artistic embodiment, ideas are conveyed about the attractiveness and at the same time frailty of human power (the conflict between Oedipus and Creon), about wise “blindness” "(dialogue of the blind Tiresias with the physically sighted but spiritually blind Oedipus) and a number of others. It is characteristic that ancient authors sought to express even the deepest thoughts only in artistic form. As for the myth, its artistry completely “absorbed” the idea. It is in this regard that many theorists say that the older the work, the more artistic it is. And this is not because the ancient creators of “myths” were more talented, but because they simply had no other way to express their ideas due to the underdevelopment of abstract thinking.

Speaking about the idea of ​​a work, about its ideological content, one should also keep in mind that it is not only created by the author, but can also be contributed by the reader.

A. France said that in each line of Homer we bring our own meaning, different from the one that Homer himself put into it. To this, critics of the hermeneutic direction add that the perception of the same work of art can be different in different eras. Readers of each new historical period usually “absorb” the dominant ideas of their time into the work. And indeed it is. Didn’t they try in Soviet times to fill the novel “Eugene Onegin”, based on the dominant “proletarian” ideology at that time, with something that Pushkin never even thought of? In this regard, the interpretation of myths is especially revealing. In them, if desired, you can find any modern idea from political to psychoanalytic. It is no coincidence that S. Freud saw in the myth of Oedipus confirmation of his idea about the initial conflict between the son and the father.

The possibility of a broad interpretation of the ideological content of works of art is precisely caused by the specificity of the expression of this content. The figurative, artistic embodiment of an idea is not as accurate as the scientific one. This opens up the possibility of a very free interpretation of the idea of ​​the work, as well as the possibility of “reading into” those ideas that the author had not even thought about.

Speaking about ways of expressing the idea of ​​a work, one cannot fail to mention the doctrine of pathos. V. Belinsky’s words are well known that “a poetic idea is not a syllogism, not a dogma, not a rule, it is a living passion, it is pathos.” And therefore the idea of ​​a work “is not an abstract thought, not a dead form, but a living creation.” The words of V. Belinsky confirm what was said above - the idea in a work of art is expressed by specific means, it is “living”, and not abstract, not a “syllogism”. This is deeply true. It is only necessary to clarify how an idea differs from pathos, because in Belinsky’s formulation such a difference is not visible. Pathos is primarily passion, and it is associated with a form of artistic expression. In this regard, they talk about “pathetic” and dispassionate (among naturalists) works. The idea, inextricably linked with pathos, still relates more to what is called the content of the work, in particular, they talk about “ideological content.” True, this division is relative. Idea and pathos merge into one.

Subject(from Greek theme)- what is the basis, the main problem and the main range of life events depicted by the writer. The theme of the work is inextricably linked with its idea. The selection of vital material, the formulation of problems, that is, the choice of topic, are dictated by the ideas that the author would like to express in the work. V. Dahl in his “Explanatory Dictionary” defined a topic as “a position, a task that is being discussed or explained.” This definition emphasizes that the theme of a work is, first of all, a statement of a problem, a “task,” and not just one or another event. The latter can be the subject of the image and can also be defined as the plot of the work. Understanding the “theme” mainly as a “problem” suggests its closeness to the concept of the “idea of ​​the work.” This connection was noted by Gorky, who wrote that “a theme is an idea that originated in the author’s experience, is suggested to him by life, but nests in the receptacle of his impressions still unformed, and, demanding embodiment in images, arouses in him the urge to work on its design.” . The problematic orientation of the theme is often expressed in the very title of the work, as is the case in the novels “What is to be done?” or "Who is to blame?" At the same time, we can almost talk about a pattern, which is that almost all literary masterpieces have emphatically neutral titles, most often repeating the name of the hero: “Faust”, “Odyssey”, “Hamlet”, “The Brothers Karamazov”, “ Don Quixote" etc.

Emphasizing the close connection between the idea and theme of a work, they often talk about “ideological and thematic integrity” or about its ideological and thematic features. Such a combination of two different, but closely related concepts seems completely justified.

Along with the term “theme”, something close in meaning to it is often used - "theme" which implies the presence in the work not only of the main theme, but also of various secondary thematic lines. The larger the work, the wider its coverage of vital material and the more complex its ideological basis, the more such thematic lines there will be. The main theme in I. Goncharov’s novel “The Cliff” is a narrative about the drama of finding one’s way in modern society (Vera’s line) and the “cliff” that ends such attempts. The second theme of the novel is noble amateurism and its destructive impact on creativity (Raisky’s line).

The theme of a work can be either socially significant - this was precisely the theme of "The Precipice" for the 1860s - or insignificant, in connection with which sometimes people talk about the "petty topic" of this or that author. However, it should be borne in mind that some genres, by their very nature, imply “petty topics,” that is, the absence of socially significant topics. This is, in particular, intimate lyrics, to which the concept of “petty subject matter” is inapplicable as an evaluative one. For large works, a successful choice of theme is one of the main conditions for success. This is clearly seen in the example of A. Rybakov’s novel “Children of the Arbat,” the unprecedented readership success of which was ensured primarily by the topic of exposing Stalinism, which was acute for the second half of the 1980s.

"We" was written in 1920-1921. in the original genre of dystopian fiction. Along with the socio-political theme raised by the author, it raises the drama and psychologism of personal relationships. The novel takes place in the distant future, where all people live in accordance with a single mechanism, according to the so-called regulated Clock Tablet of life. The main idea of ​​the work is to show that the technical process is not always accompanied by the spiritual growth of a person, but even vice versa.

The author clearly shows that the totalitarian system, where everything is rational and subject to the power of reason, gradually destroys everything human in a person. The main character of the novel is a talented mathematician numbered D-503. He serves for the benefit of the United State, works on the construction of the Integral spacecraft and keeps notes for posterity. His manuscript is called “We”, since he is sure that “we” is from God, and “I” is from the Devil. At the same time, he is dating his cute, rounded girlfriend O-90. All romantic meetings in the United State take place using “pink coupons”.

Reading Zamyatin’s works, we see “glass domes of auditoriums”, “divine parallelepipeds of transparent dwellings”, “fire-breathing Integral”. This is a special world that, according to the author, awaits humanity in the near future. He himself called this work “the most serious” and at the same time “the most humorous” of all his works. In his United State, even the human instinct of hunger is defeated through the invention of a single “oil” food. Dependence on nature and living needs has long been eradicated. There is no such thing as love, since all numbers from time to time undergo a procedure of clearing their memory and destroying their fantasies.

Art replaces the Music Factory, where numbers can receive aesthetic pleasure to the sounds of a march. Even the sphere of childbirth and child-rearing is completely subject to the laws existing in the territory of an ideal policy. Namely, in the Children's Educational Plant, subjects are taught exclusively by robots. In a society of submissive numbers, it would seem that everything is ideal and only the absence of love indicates the inevitability of reforms that are being prepared in the Ancient House by the so-called enemies of happiness. According to the Mephi plan, society must go through a revolution.

However, the main character D-503 manages to uncover an anti-government conspiracy, with the condition that he sacrifices his personal life. After the Great Operation, he is convinced that reason will win, so there is no place for feelings in the United State. His head becomes empty and light, and no feelings that previously arose in his soul in relation to I-330 no longer bother him. Thus, the author shows two polarly different societies, each of which considers itself ideal, but is not brought to perfection.