Grigory melekhov's dependence on his father. An essay on the topic: The path of searches of Grigory Melikhov in the novel Quiet Don, Sholokhov. Additional material to the lesson - workshop

At the very beginning of the novel, it becomes clear that Grigory loves Aksinya Astakhova, the married neighbor of the Melekhovs. The hero revolts against his family, which condemns him, a married man, for his relationship with Aksinya. He does not obey the will of his father and leaves his native farm with Aksinya, not wanting to live a double life with his dislike wife Natalya, who then attempts suicide - cuts his neck with a scythe. Gregory and Aksinya become hired workers for the landowner Listnitsky.

In 1914 - the first battle of Gregory and the first person killed by him. Grigory is very upset. In the war, he receives not only the St. George Cross, but also experience. The events of this period make him think about the life structure of the world.

It would seem that revolutions are being made for people like Grigory Melekhov. He joined the Red Army, but he had no greater disappointment in his life than the reality of the Red camp, where violence, cruelty and lawlessness reign.

Gregory leaves the Red Army and becomes a member of the Cossack mutiny as a Cossack officer. But here too - cruelty and injustice.

He again finds himself with the Reds - in Budyonny's cavalry - and again experiences disappointment. In his vacillations from one political camp to another, Gregory seeks to find the truth that is closer to his soul and his people.

Ironically, he ends up in Fomin's gang. Gregory thinks that the bandits are free people. But even here he feels like a stranger. Melekhov leaves the gang to take Aksinya and run with her to the Kuban. But the death of Aksinya from an accidental bullet in the steppe deprives Grigory of his last hope for a peaceful life. It is at this moment that he sees in front of him a black sky and "a blindingly shining black disk of the sun." The writer depicts the sun - a symbol of life - in black, emphasizing the trouble of the world. Having nailed to the deserters, Melekhov lived with them for almost a year, but melancholy again drove him to his home.

In the finale of the novel, Natalya and her parents die, Aksinya dies. Only the son and the younger sister remained, who married the red one. Gregory stands at the gate of his home and holds his son in his arms. The ending is left open: will his simple dream to live as his ancestors lived: “to plow the land, take care of it” ever come true?

Female images in the novel.

Women, whose lives the war bursts into, takes away their husbands, sons, destroys the house and hopes for personal happiness, take on their shoulders the unbearable burden of work in the field and at home, but do not bend, but courageously bear this burden. In the novel, two main types of Russian women are given: the mother, the keeper of the hearth (Ilyinichna and Natalya) and the beautiful sinner, frantically seeking her happiness (Aksinya and Daria). Two women - Aksinya and Natalya - accompany the main character, they selflessly love him, but in everything they are opposite.

Love is a necessary need for the existence of Aksinya. Aksinya's fury in love is highlighted by the description of her "shamelessly greedy, plump lips" and "vicious eyes." The heroine's background is terrible: at the age of 16 she was raped by a drunken father and married to Stepan Astakhov, a neighbor of the Melekhovs. Aksinya endured humiliation and beatings of her husband. She had no children or relatives. Understandably her desire “to fall out of bitter love for her whole life,” so she fiercely defends her love for Grishka, which has become the raison d'être of her existence. For her sake, Aksinya is ready for any test. Gradually, an almost maternal tenderness appears in her love for Gregory: with the birth of her daughter, her image becomes clearer. In separation from Grigory, she becomes attached to his son, and after the death of Ilyinichna, she takes care of all of Grigory's children as if they were her own. Her life was cut short by an accidental bullet from the steppe when she was happy. She died in the arms of Gregory.

Natalia is the embodiment of the idea of ​​a home, family, natural morality of a Russian woman. She is a selfless and affectionate mother, a pure, loyal and devoted woman. She takes a lot of suffering from her love for her husband. She does not want to put up with her husband's betrayal, does not want to be unloved - this makes her lay hands on herself. The hardest thing will be for Gregory to experience the fact that before his death she “forgave him everything”, that she “loved him and remembered him until the last minute”. Upon learning of Natalia's death, Grigory first felt a stabbing pain in his heart and ringing in his ears. He is tormented by remorse.

M.A.Bulgakov. "Master and Margarita".

M. Bulgakov's novel is multidimensional. This multidimensionality affects:

1.in the composition - the interweaving of various plot layers of the narrative: the fate of the master and the story of his novel, the plot about the love of the master and Margarita, the fate of Ivan Bezdomny, the actions of Woland and his team in Moscow, the biblical plot, satirical sketches of Moscow in the 20s - 30s years;

2. in many themes - the interweaving of the themes of the creator and power, love and fidelity, powerlessness of cruelty and the power of forgiveness, conscience and duty, light and peace, struggle and humility, true and false, crime and punishment, good and evil, etc .;

M. Bulgakov's heroes are paradoxical: they are rebels striving to find peace. Yeshua is obsessed with the idea of ​​moral salvation, the triumph of truth and goodness, the happiness of people and rebelles against lack of freedom, rough power; Woland, obliged to do evil as Satan, consistently does justice, mixing the concepts of good and evil, light and darkness, which emphasizes the viciousness of society and the earthly life of people; Margarita rebelled against everyday reality, destroying and overcoming shame, conventions, prejudices, fear, distances and times with her loyalty and love.

It seems that the master is farthest from the revolt, because he resigns himself and does not fight either for the novel or for Margarita. But it is precisely because he does not fight because he is a master; his business is to create, and he created his honest romance beyond any self-interest, career gain and common sense. His novel is his rebellion against the "common" idea of ​​the creator. The master has been creating for centuries, eternity, "he accepts praise and slander indifferently," just like A.S. Pushkin; the fact of creativity itself is important to him, and not someone's reaction to the novel. And yet the master deserved peace, but not light. Why? Probably not for giving up the fight for the novel. Perhaps for giving up the fight for love (?). The hero of the Yershalaim chapters parallel to him, Yeshua, fought for love for people to the end, to death. The Master is not God, but only a man, and like any man he is somewhat weak, sinful ... Only God is worthy of light. Or maybe peace is exactly what the creator needs most of all? ..

Another novel by M. Bulgakov is about escape from everyday reality or overcoming it. Ordinary reality is also the cruel in its unrighteousness regime of Caesar, trampling on Pilate's conscience, reproducing informers and executioners; this is the false world of the Berlioz family and the literary circles in Moscow in the 1930s; it is also the vulgar world of Moscow inhabitants who live by profit, self-interest and sensations.

Yeshua's flight is an appeal to the souls of people. The master is looking for answers to everyday questions in the distant past, closely connected, as it turned out, with the present. Margarita rises above everyday life and conventions with the help of Woland's love and miracles. Woland deals with reality with the help of his devilish power. And Natasha does not want to return to reality from the other world at all.

This novel is also about freedom. It is no coincidence that the heroes, freed from all conventions and dependencies, receive peace, and Pilate, not free in his actions, endures constant torture with anxiety and insomnia.

The novel is based on the idea of ​​M. Bulgakov that the world in all its versatility is one, integral and eternal, and the private fate of any person of any time is inseparable from the fate of eternity and humanity. This explains the multidimensionality of the artistic fabric of the novel, which united all layers of the narrative with one idea into a monolithic whole work.

In the finale of the novel, all the characters and themes converge on the lunar road leading to the eternal light, and the dispute about life, continuing, goes to infinity.

Analysis of the episode of the interrogation of Yeshua by Pontius Pilate in the novel "The Master and Margarita" (Chapter 2).

In the first chapter of the novel, there is practically no exposition or preface. From the very beginning, the dispute between Woland and Berlioz and Ivan Homeless about the existence of Jesus unfolded. To prove Woland's correctness, the second chapter of "Pontius Pilate" is immediately placed, which tells about the interrogation of Yeshua by the procurator of Judea. As the reader will later understand, this is one of the fragments of the master's book, which Massolit swears, but Woland knows very well, who retold this episode. Berlioz would later say that this story “does not coincide with the Gospel stories,” and he will be right. In the Gospels there is only a slight hint of the torment and hesitation of Pilate when approving the death sentence to Jesus, and in the master's book the interrogation of Yeshua is a complex psychological duel not only of moral goodness and power, but also of two people, two individuals.

Several leitmotif details, skillfully used by the author in the episode, help to reveal the meaning of the fight. At the very beginning, Pilate had a premonition of a bad day because of the smell of rose oil, which he hated. Hence - the headache tormenting the procurator, because of which he does not move his head and looks like a stone. Then - the news that the death sentence for the person under investigation must be approved by him. This is another torment for Pilate.

And yet, at the beginning of the episode, Pilate is calm, I am sure, speaks in a low voice, although the author calls his voice "dull, sick."

The next leitmotif is the secretary recording the interrogation. Pilate is burned by Yeshua's words that the writing of words distorts their meaning. Later, when Yeshua relieves Pilate's headache and he feels disposed towards the deliverer from pain against his will, the procurator will either speak in a language unknown to the secretary, then he will generally expel the secretary and the escort in order to remain with Yeshua alone, without witnesses.

Another symbolic image is the sun, which the Rat Slayer obscured with its rough and gloomy figure. The sun is an annoying symbol of warmth and light, and tormented Pilate is always trying to hide from this warmth and light.

At first, Pilate's eyes are cloudy, and after Yeshua's revelations shine more and more with the same sparks. At some point, it seems that, on the contrary, Yeshua is judging Pilate. He relieves the procurator of a headache, advises him to distract himself from business and take a walk (like a doctor), scolds for the loss of faith in people and the paucity of his life, then claims that only God gives and takes life, not rulers, convinces Pilate that “ there are no evil people in the world. "

The role of a swallow flying into and out of the colonnade is interesting. The swallow is a symbol of life, independent of the power of Caesar, not asking the procurator where to nest and where not to nest. The swallow, like the sun, is Yeshua's ally. It has a softening effect on Pilate. From that moment on, Yeshua is calm and confident, while Pilate is anxious, annoyed by a painful split. He is constantly looking for an excuse to leave Yeshua, whom he likes, alive: he thinks to imprison him in a fortress, then to put him in an insane asylum, although he himself says that he is not crazy, then with glances, gestures, hints, and reticence he prompts the prisoner with the words necessary for salvation; "For some reason he looked with hatred at the secretary and the convoy." Finally, after a fit of rage, when Pilate realized that Yeshua was absolutely uncompromising, he in powerlessness asks the prisoner: "No wife?" - as if hoping that she would be able to help fix the brains of this naive and pure person.

The purpose of the lesson: to show the inevitability of the tragedy of the fate of Grigory Melekhov, the connection of this tragedy with the fate of society.

Methodological techniques: checking homework, correcting the plan drawn up by the students, talking according to the plan.

Download:

Preview:

Methodical development of a lesson on the topic "The fate of Grigory Melekhov as a path to finding the truth." Grade 11

The purpose of the lesson: to show the inevitability of the tragedy of the fate of Grigory Melekhov, the connection of this tragedy with the fate of society.

Methodological techniques: checking homework, correcting the plan drawn up by the students, talking according to the plan.

During the classes

Teacher's word.

Sholokhov's heroes are simple people, but outstanding, and Grigory is not only brave to despair, honest and conscientious, but also truly talented, and not only the hero's “career” proves this (a cornet from simple Cossacks at the head of a division is evidence of considerable abilities, although such cases were not uncommon among the Reds during the years of the civil war). This is also confirmed by his life collapse, since Gregory is too deep and difficult for the unambiguous choice required by the time!

This image attracts the attention of readers with features of nationality, originality, sensitivity to the new. But there is in him and spontaneous, which is inherited from the environment.

Homework check

An approximate plot plan "The Fate of Grigory Melekhov":

Book one

1. The predetermination of a tragic fate (origin).

2. Living in the father's house. Dependence on him ("like dad").

3. The beginning of love for Aksinya (thunderstorm on the river)

4. Skirmish with Stepan.

5 Matchmaking and marriage. ...

6. Leaving home with Aksinya as farm laborers for the Listnitskys.

7. Drafting into the army.

8. Murder of an Austrian. Loss of a fulcrum.

9. Injury. The news of the death received by the family.

10. Hospital in Moscow. Conversations with Garanzha.

11. Break with Aksinya and return home.

Book two, hours 3-4

12. Etching the truth of Garanji. Going to the front as a "kind Cossack".

13.1915 The rescue of Stepan Astakhov.

14. Coarsening of the heart. The influence of Chubaty.

15. Premonition of trouble, injury.

16. Gregory and his children, the desire for the end of the war.

17. On the side of the Bolsheviks. Influence of Izvarin and Podtelkov.

18. Reminder of Aksinya.

19. Wounded. Massacre of prisoners.

20. Infirmary. "Who can I lean against?"

21. Family. "I am for Soviet power."

22. Unsuccessful elections to the detachment chieftains.

23. Last meeting with Podtyolkov.

Book three, part 6

24. Conversation with Peter.

25. Malice towards the Bolsheviks.

26. Quarrel with the father because of the loot.

27. Unauthorized departure home.

28. Reds at the Melekhovs.

29. Dispute with Ivan Alekseevich about "man's power".

30. Drunkenness, thoughts of death.

31. Gregory kills the sailors

32. Conversation with grandfather Grishaka and with Natalia.

33. Meeting with Aksinya.

Book four, Part 7:

34. Gregory in the family. Children, Natalia.

35. Dream of Gregory.

36. Kudinov about Grigory's ignorance.

37. Quarrel with Fitzkhalaur.

38. Family breakdown.

39. The division is disbanded, Gregory is promoted to centurion.

40. Death of his wife.

41. Typhus and convalescence.

42. An attempt to board a steamer in Novorossiysk.

Part 8:

43. Gregory at Budyonny's.

44. Demobilization, conversation with. Michael.

45. Leaving the farm.

46. ​​In the owl's gang, on the island.

47. Leaving the gang.

48. Death of Aksinya.

49. In the forest.

50. Returning home.

Conversation.

The image of Grigory Melekhov is central in M. Sholokhov's epic novel "Quiet Don". It is immediately impossible to say about him whether this is a positive or negative hero. For too long he has wandered in search of the truth, his path. Grigory Melekhov appears in the novel primarily as a truth-seeker.

At the beginning of the novel, Grigory Melekhov is an ordinary farm boy with the usual range of household chores, activities, and entertainment. He lives thoughtlessly, like grass in the steppe, following traditional foundations. Even love for Aksinya, capturing his passionate nature, can change nothing. He allows his father to marry him, as usual, prepares for military service. Everything in his life happens involuntarily, as if without his participation, as he involuntarily dissects a tiny defenseless duckling while mowing - and shuddered at what he had done.

Grigory Melekhov did not come to this world for bloodshed. But the harsh life put a saber in his hardworking hands. As a tragedy, Gregory experienced the first human blood shed. The appearance of the Austrian killed by him appears later in his dream, causing mental pain. The experience of war in general turns his life upside down, makes him think, look into himself, listen, take a closer look at people. Conscious life begins.

The Bolshevik Garanzha, who met Grigory in the hospital, seems to reveal to him the truth and the prospect of changes for the better. "Autonomist" Efim Izvarin, Bolshevik Fyodor Podtyolkov played a significant role in shaping the convictions of Grigory Melekhov. The tragically dead Fedor Podtyolkov pushed Melekhov away, shedding the blood of unarmed prisoners who believed the promises of the Bolshevik who had captured them. The senselessness of this murder and the callousness of the "dictator" stunned the hero. He is also a warrior, he killed a lot, but here not only the laws of humanity are violated, but also the laws of war.

“Honest to the bottom,” Grigory Melekhov cannot but see the deception. The Bolsheviks promised that there would be no rich and poor. However, a year has passed since the "Reds" are in power, and the promised equality is not there: "the platoonman in chrome boots, and" Vanyok "in the windings." Gregory is very observant, he tends to think over his observations, and the conclusions from his reflections are disappointing: "If the pan is bad, then from the ham, the pan is a hundred times worse."

The civil war throws Grigory first into the Budennovsky detachment, then into the white units, but this is no longer a thoughtless submission to a way of life or a coincidence of circumstances, but a conscious search for truth, a path. His home and peaceful work are seen by him as the main values ​​of life. In the war, shedding blood, he dreams of how he will prepare for sowing, and these thoughts make his soul warm.

The Soviet government does not allow the former centennial chieftain to live peacefully, threatens with prison or execution. The food requisitioning instills in the minds of many Cossacks the desire to "re-conquer", instead of the workers' power to put their own, the Cossack. Gangs are formed on the Don. Grigory Melekhov, who is hiding from the persecution of the Soviet regime, falls into one of them, the Fomin's gang. But the bandits have no future. For most of the Cossacks it is clear: it is necessary to sow, not fight.

The protagonist of the novel is also drawn to peaceful labor. The last test, the last tragic loss for him is the death of his beloved woman - Aksinya, who received a bullet on the way, as it seems to them, to a free and happy life. Everything was lost. Gregory's soul is burned out. There remains only the last, but very important thread connecting the hero with life - this is his home. The house, the land waiting for the owner, and the little son - his future, his trace on the earth.

The depth of the contradictions through which the hero passed is revealed with amazing psychological reliability and historical validity. The versatility and complexity of a person's inner world are always in the focus of M. Sholokhov's attention. Individual destinies and a broad generalization of the ways and crossroads of the Don Cossacks make it possible to see how complex and contradictory life is, how difficult it is to choose the true path.

What is the meaning of Sholokhov when he speaks of Grigory as a "good Cossack"? Why is Grigory Melekhov chosen as the main character?

(Grigory Melekhov is an extraordinary nature, a bright individuality. He is sincere and honest in thoughts and actions (especially in relation to Natalia and Aksinya (see episodes: the last meeting with Natalia - part 7, chapter 7; Natalia's death - part 7, chapter 16 -eighteen;death of Aksinya). He has a responsive heart, a developed sense of pity, compassion (a duck in the haymaking, Franya, the execution of Ivan Alekseevich).

Grigory is a person capable of an act (leaving with Aksinya to Yagodnoye, breaking with Podtyolkov, clashing with Fitzkhalaurov - part 7, chapter 10; decision to return to the farm).

In what episodes is Gregory's bright, outstanding personality most fully revealed? The role of internal monologues. Does a person depend on circumstances or makes his own destiny?

(He did not lie to himself anywhere, despite doubts and throwing (see internal monologues - part 6, chapter 21). This is the only character whose thoughts the author reveals. War corrupts people to provoke them to do things that a person normally would never Gregory had a core that didn’t allow him once to do meanness. Deep attachment to home, to the earth - the strongest emotional movement: "My hands need to work, not fight."

The hero is constantly in a situation of choice ("I myself am looking for a way out"). Turning point: dispute and quarrel with Ivan Alekseevich Kotlyarov, Shtokman. The uncompromising attitude of a man who never knew the middle. Tragedyas if transported into the depths of consciousness: "He painfully tried to understand the confusion of thoughts." This is not political vacillation, but a search for the truth. Gregory yearns for the truth, "under whose wing everyone could warm up." And this truth, from his point of view, is not among the Whites, nor among the Reds: “There is no truth in life. It is evident that whoever overcomes whom will devour that. And I was looking for the bad truth. He was sick with his soul, he swayed back and forth. " These searches were, as he believes, "wasted and empty." And this is also his tragedy. A person is placed in inevitable, spontaneous circumstances and already in these circumstances makes a choice, his fate.) “Most of all, for a writer, - said Sholokhov, - he himself needs to - to convey the movement of a person's soul. I wanted to tell about this charm of a man in Grigory Melekhov ... "

Do you think the author of The Quiet Don is able to “convey the movement of the human soul” by the example of the fate of Grigory Melekhov? If so, what do you think is the main direction of this movement? What is its general character? Does the novel's protagonist have what you might call charm? If so, what is its charm? The main problematics of "Quiet Don" is revealed not in the character of one, even the main character, which is Grigory Melekhov, but in the juxtaposition and opposition of many, many characters, in the entire figurative system, in the style and language of the work. But the image of Grigory Melekhov as a typical personality, as it were, concentrates in itself the main historical and ideological conflict of the work and thus unites all the details of the huge picture of the complex and contradictory life of many characters who are carriers of a certain attitude towards the revolution and the people in this historical era.

How would you define the main problems of The Quiet Don? What, in your opinion, allows you to characterize Grigory Melekhov as a typical person? Can you agree that it is in it that "the main historical and ideological conflict of the work" is concentrated? Literary critic A.I. Khvatov asserts: “There was a huge reserve of moral forces in Gregory, which were necessary in the creative deeds of the new life that was becoming. Whatever complications and troubles fell on him and no matter how painful the deed under the influence of a wrong decision fell on his soul, Gregory never looked for motives that weakened his personal guilt and responsibility to life and people. "

What do you think gives a scientist the right to assert that “there was a huge reserve of moral forces in Gregory”? What actions do you think are in favor of such a statement? And against him? What “wrong decisions does Sholokhov's hero make? Is it permissible, in your opinion, to speak at all about the "wrong decisions" of a literary hero? Reflect on this topic. Do you agree that “Gregory never looked for motives that weakened his personal guilt and responsibility to life and people”? Give examples from the text. “In the plot, the conjugations of motives are artistically effective in revealing the image of Gregory, the inescapable love that Aksinya and Natalya give him, the immensity of Ilyinichna's maternal suffering, the devoted comradely loyalty of fellow soldiers and peers,” especially Prokhor Zykov. Even those with whom his interests intersected dramatically, but to whom his soul opened up ... could not help but feel the power of his charm and generosity "(A.I. Khvatov).

Do you agree that the love of Aksinya and Natalya, the suffering of his mother, as well as the comradely loyalty of fellow soldiers and peers play a special role in revealing the image of Grigory Melekhov? If so, how does this manifest itself in each of these cases?

With whom of the heroes did the interests of Grigory Melekhov "overlap dramatically"? Can you agree that even these heroes open up the soul of Grigory Melekhov, and they, in turn, were able to “feel the power of his charm and generosity”? Give examples from the text.

The critic V. Kirpotin (1941) reproached Sholokhov's heroes with primitivism, rudeness, “mental underdevelopment”: “Even the best of them, Grigory, is a slow-witted. Thought is an unbearable burden for him. "

Are there among the heroes of "Quiet Don" those who seemed to you to be rude and primitive, "mentally undeveloped" people? If so, what role do they play in the novel?Do you agree that Sholokhov's Grigory Melekhov is a "slow-witted", for whom thought is an "unbearable burden"? If yes, give specific examples of the hero's "slow thinking", his inability, unwillingness to think. The critic N. Zhdanov noted (1940): “Grigory could have been with the people in his struggle ... but he did not become with the people. And this is his tragedy. "

Is it true, in your opinion, that Gregory "did not become with the people", is it the people - these are only those who are for the Reds?What do you think is the tragedy of Grigory Melekhov? (This question can be left as homework for a detailed written answer.)

Homework.

How do the events that captured the country relate to the events of Grigory Melekhov's personal life?

Roman M.A. Sholokhov's "Quiet Don" is a novel about the Cossacks in the era of the civil war. The main character of the work, Grigory Melekhov, continues the tradition of Russian classical literature, in which one of the main characters is the hero-seeker of truth (works by Nekrasov, Leskov, Tolstoy, Gorky).
Grigory Melekhov also seeks to find the meaning of life, to understand the whirlwind of historical events, to find happiness. This simple Cossack was born in a simple and friendly family, where centuries-old traditions are sacredly honored - they work a lot and have fun. The basis of the hero's character - love for work, for his native land, respect for the elderly, justice, decency, kindness - is laid down here, in the family.
Nice, hard-working, cheerful, Grigory immediately wins the hearts of those around him: he is not afraid of human talk (he almost openly loves the beautiful Aksinya, the wife of the Cossack Stepan), does not consider it shameful to go to farm laborers in order to maintain a relationship with his beloved woman.
And at the same time, Gregory is a man who tends to hesitate. So, despite his great love for Aksinya, Grigory does not oppose his parents, marries Natalia Korshunova at their will.
Without realizing it himself, Melekhov seeks to exist "in truth." He is trying to understand, to answer for himself the question "how should one live?" The search for the hero is complicated by the era in which it fell to be born - the time of revolutions and wars.
Gregory would experience strong moral vacillations when he got to the fronts of the First World War. The hero went to war, thinking that he knew on whose side the truth was: it was necessary to defend the fatherland and destroy the enemy. What could be easier? Melekhov does just that. He fights valiantly, he is brave and selfless, he does not disgrace the Cossack honor. But gradually doubts come to the hero. He begins to see in opponents the same people with their hopes, weaknesses, fears, joys. What is all this carnage for, what will it bring to the people?
The hero begins to realize this especially clearly when Melekhov's fellow countryman Chubaty kills a captive Austrian, a very young boy. The prisoner tries to establish contact with the Russians, openly smiles at them, tries to please. The Cossacks were pleased with the decision to take him to headquarters for questioning, but Chubaty simply kills the boy out of love for violence, out of hatred.
For Melekhov, this event becomes a real moral blow. And although he firmly protects the Cossack honor, deserves an award, he understands that he was not created for war. He painfully wants to know the truth in order to find the meaning of his actions. Having fallen under the influence of the Bolshevik Garanji, the hero, like a sponge, absorbs new thoughts, new ideas. He begins to fight for the Reds. But the killing of unarmed prisoners by the Reds repels him from them too.
Gregory's childishly pure soul alienates him from both reds and whites. The truth is revealed to Melekhov: truth cannot be on either side. Reds and whites are politics, class struggle. And where there is a class struggle, blood always sheds, people die, children remain orphans. Truth is peaceful labor in the native land, family, love.
Gregory is a hesitant, doubting nature. This allows him to seek the truth, not to be satisfied with what has already been achieved, not to be limited to other people's explanations. Gregory's position in life is a position "between": between the traditions of the fathers and his own will, between two loving women - Aksinya and Natalia, between white and red. Finally, between the need to fight and the awareness of the senselessness and uselessness of slaughter ("my hands need to plow, not fight").
The author himself sympathizes with his hero. In the novel, Sholokhov objectively describes the events, talks about the "truth" of both white and red. But his sympathies, experiences are on Melekhov's side. It fell to this person to live at a time when all moral guidelines were shifted. It is this, as well as the desire to search for the truth, that led the hero to such a tragic ending - the loss of everything that he loved: “Why did you, life, cripple me so?”
The writer emphasizes that the civil war is the tragedy of the entire Russian people. There are neither right nor guilty in it, because people are dying, a brother goes against a brother, a father goes against a son.
Thus, Sholokhov in the novel "And Quiet Flows the Don" made a person from the people and from the people a truth-seeker. The image of Grigory Melekhov becomes the concentration of the historical and ideological conflict of the work, the expression of the tragic searches of the entire Russian people.

> Compositions based on The Quiet Don

The path of searches of Grigory Melikhov

The epic novel by M. A. Sholokhov "Quiet Don" (1928-1940) is a work about the life of the Don Cossacks during the civil war. The main character of the novel, Grigory Melekhov, is a worthy son of his father, a loving and just person, a seeker of truth. The personal development of Gregory against the background of changing, often hostile events in the world is the main problem of the novel. The author masterfully depicts the stages of the formation and development of the character of the hero, his exploits and disappointments, and most importantly, the search for a life path.

The image of Grigory Melekhov is complex and contradictory. He combined family and household, socio-historical and love lines. He cannot be viewed in isolation from other characters. He is in close unity with his parents, his family and other Cossacks. The "millstones" of the war did not spare Gregory. They walked through his soul, crippling it and leaving traces of blood. On the battlefields, he matured, received many awards, supported the Cossack honor, but at what cost. The kind and humane Gregory hardened, his character hardened, and he became different. If after the first murder he could not sleep at night, tormented by his conscience, then over time he learned to mercilessly kill the enemy and even developed a technique for a fatal blow. However, until the last chapter, he remained a loving, open and fair person.

In search of the truth, Grigory rushed from one camp to another, from “red” to “white”. As a result, he became a renegade. He even envied those who firmly believed in one truth and fought for only one idea. The hero experienced moral vacillations not only at the front, but also at home. On the one hand, a devoted and loving Natalya was waiting for him, and on the other hand, he loved Aksinya, the wife of Stepan Astakhov, all his life. This ambiguous position in various social spheres indicates that Gregory is a doubting nature. He always lived "between two fires." The author himself sympathizes with his hero - a man who lived in times of trouble, when all moral guidelines were shifted.

Still not understanding what the "truth" is and why this senseless war was needed, having lost almost all his relatives and friends, at the end of the novel Grigory returned to his native land. The only person who related him to the land and this vast world was his son Mishatka. According to the author, this is exactly how the life of a Cossack could be: the son returned to his mother, that is, the Cossack land. Perhaps this was the "truth" that Gregory had been looking for for so long.

Quiet Don is a work that shows the life of the Don Cossacks in one of the most difficult historical periods in Russia. The realities of the first third of the twentieth century, which turned the whole habitual way of life, like caterpillars, drove through the destinies of ordinary people. Through the life of Grigory Melekhov in the novel "Quiet Flows the Don", Sholokhov reveals the main idea of ​​the work, which consists in depicting the collision of a personality and historical events independent of him, his wounded fate.

The struggle between duty and feelings

At the beginning of the work, the main character is shown as a hardworking guy with a hot temper, which he inherited from his ancestors. Cossack and even Turkish blood flowed in him. Eastern roots endowed Grishka with a bright appearance, capable of turning the head of more than one Don beauty, and Cossack stubbornness, sometimes bordering on stubbornness, ensured the firmness and steadfastness of his character.

On the one hand, he shows respect and love for his parents, on the other hand, he does not listen to their opinion. The first conflict between Gregory and his parents happens because of his love affair with his married neighbor Aksinya. To end the sinful relationship between Aksinya and Gregory, his parents decide to marry him. But their choice in the role of sweet and meek Natalia Korshunova did not solve the problem, but only exacerbated it. Despite the official marriage, love for his wife did not appear, and for Aksinya, who, tormented by jealousy, increasingly sought a meeting with him, only flared up.

The blackmail of his father with his house and property forced the hot and impulsive Gregory in his hearts to leave the farm, his wife, relatives and leave with Aksinya. Because of his deed, the proud and unyielding Cossack, whose family from time immemorial cultivated its own land and grew its own bread, had to go to the mercenaries, which made Gregory ashamed and disgusting. But now he had to answer both for Aksinya, who abandoned her husband because of him, and for the child she carried.

War and betrayal of Aksinya

A new misfortune was not long in coming: the war began, and Gregory, who had sworn allegiance to the sovereign, was forced to leave both the old and the new family and go to the front. In his absence, Aksinya remained in the master's house. The death of her daughter and news from the front about the death of Gregory crippled the woman's strength, and she was forced to succumb to the onslaught of the centurion Listnitsky.

Coming from the front and learning about Aksinya's betrayal, Gregory returns to his family again. For a period of time, his wife, relatives and twins who soon appeared please him. But the time of troubles on the Don, associated with the Revolution, did not allow enjoying family happiness.

Ideological and personal doubts

In the novel "Quiet Flows the Don", the path of Grigory Melekhov is full of quests, doubts and contradictions, both politically and in love. He constantly rushed about, not knowing where the truth was: “Everyone has their own truth, their own furrow. For a piece of bread, for a plot of land, for the right to life, people have always fought. We must fight with those who want to take away life, the right to it ... ”. He decided to lead the Cossack division and repair the supports for the advancing Reds. However, the further the Civil War continued, the more Gregory doubted the correctness of his choice, he understood more clearly that the Cossacks were waging a war with windmills. The interests of the Cossacks and their native land were of no interest to anyone.

The same model of behavior is typical in the personal life of the protagonist of the work. Over time, he forgives Aksinya, realizing that he cannot live without her love and takes with him to the front. Then he sends her home, where she is forced to return to her husband once again. Arriving on leave, he looks at Natalia with different eyes, appreciating her devotion and loyalty. He was drawn to his wife, and this closeness culminated in the conception of a third child.

But again the passion for Aksinya prevailed over him. His latest betrayal led to the death of his wife. Gregory drowns remorse and the impossibility of confronting feelings in the war, becoming cruel and merciless: “I was so smeared with someone else's blood that I already had no one left to reap. Little kids - and I almost don't regret this one, but I don't even have a thought about myself. The war took everything out of me. I myself have become terrible. Look into my soul, and there is blackness, as in an empty well ... ".

A stranger among his own

The loss of loved ones and the retreat sobered Gregory, he understands: you need to be able to preserve what he has left. He takes Aksinya with him to retreat, but because of typhoid he is forced to leave her.

He again begins to search for the truth and finds himself in the Red Army, taking command of the cavalry squadron. However, even participating in hostilities on the side of the Soviets will not wash away Gregory's past, tarnished by the white movement. He is in danger of being shot, about which his sister Dunya warned him. Taking Aksinya, he attempts to escape, during which his beloved woman is killed. Having fought for his land and on the side of the Cossacks and the Reds, he remained a stranger among his own.

The path of Grigory Melekhov's quest in the novel is the fate of a common man who loved his land, but lost everything that he had and appreciated, protecting it for the life of the next generation, which in the finale is personified by his son Mishatka.

Product test