In this article, we will summarize the “Knight Vasya” - an excellent work for children, written by the Soviet writer Yuri Yakovlev. This story is part of the school curriculum, and children get to know it already in the 5th grade.
Briefly about the author and work
Yuri Yakovlev (Khovkin - his real name) was born in Leningrad back in 1922. He devoted his whole life to literature, journalism, and theater. Most often, the writer chose schoolchildren and pioneers as his heroes, describing their life and study. The situations and emotional experiences of the heroes are close to modern children, which makes the author’s works relevant in our time.
A vivid example of such books is the story “Knight Vasya”, a summary of which will be presented below. The work raises the problems of courage, fidelity to their principles, valor, etc. Yakovlev participated in the Great Patriotic War, therefore these topics were close to him and understood.
The work was written almost half a century ago - in 1967. Despite this, it continues to be of interest to children, although some words may seem incomprehensible to them.
Yuri Yakovlev, "Knight Vasya": a summary. The main character
The main character, a boy named Vasya, is known among his classmates as a mattress. He received this nickname for his awkwardness, slowness and slowness. It concerned everything. If he wrote the control, then he never had enough time. If he drank tea, he would definitely leave a puddle around his cup.
Vasya waddled, hitting everything around. He looked always sleepy. Everything fell out of the hands of the "mattress", nothing went wrong. He wore tight-fitting clothes, which made him seem even thicker. The people around were sure that gluttony was to blame. But Vasya ate very little and did not get any pleasure from this process. Everything betrayed in him that he was a mattress, even his voice was expressionless and deaf.
Knight heart
But the hero of Y. Yakovlev in “Knight Vasya” is not so simple. The summary will serve as an excellent proof of this. Under his thick ugly shell "the noble heart of a knight beat." In dreams, Vasya saw himself dressed in shining armor and on a white horse. He saved the weak and the oppressed. The hero imagined himself to be a nameless knight, since book characters usually have sonorous names - Rodrigo, Aivengo, and there was nothing remarkable in him.
In fantasy, he was flexible, slender, dexterous and dexterous. All his flaws disappeared. But as soon as he approached the mirror, it returned Vasya to reality. In these moments, the boy began to hate himself because of his appearance.
Real happiness
The summary of “Vasya's Knight” draws a character whose inner world is completely inconsistent with appearance. And not only the mirror, but also mom reminds of this. Hearing her son stomp along the corridor, she called him "an elephant in a china shop." Friends also did not understand and did not support his dreams. Once, one of them said that such thick armor would not fit. All these people did not even suspect how much they offended Vasya. In his free time, the boy went to the museum. Here he was interested in only one hall, where weapons hung on the walls, and knightly armor was placed in the corners. Secretly from the servants, he touched steel armor and checked how well the weapon was sharpened. Vasya imagined that in the armor are real knights with whom he was friends or feuding. At this point, the boy was truly happy.
Routine
The summary of “Vasya Knight” makes it clear how serious the children's problems the work raises. The main character asks with insult, why nature laughed so cruelly at him, endowing a noble heart with such a miserable body. Vasya dreamed of feats, and his life was casual and monotonous. All his days were alike: he woke up, washed, had breakfast. Mom rushed him all the time. Then he weighed down the stairs, and all the neighbors knew who was going. He came to school for the second call, threw a heavy briefcase next to his desk and sank heavily onto a bench.
He did all this with a calm calm of someone who is used to monotony and does not expect changes. In the lessons, he never chatted and sat quietly, but teachers often made comments and called to the board. Solving the problem with chalk in his hand, he thought so strainedly and listlessly that the teachers could not stand it and sent it back to its place. At his desk, he again returned to dreams and drew armor and weapons in notebooks.
The fate of the loser
The problems of the little hero-dreamer will not only be understood by the same schoolchildren, but will also help others understand their strange friends, look at such peers differently. To explain that a brave heart can live in a fat, clumsy boy, Yakovlev wanted. “Knight Vasya” (a brief summary is presented in this article) is an excellent work that teaches children to evaluate others by their actions, and not by their appearance.
Let's get back to our story. In physical education classes, Vasya was a real laughing stock; he could not perform any exercises. He was not lucky in everything. He could not even read the poem that he had been learning for a week.
Gradually, Vasya accepted the fact that he was a loser. Although the realization of this angered him. But the boy blamed only himself and not others, as is usually the case.
Real feat
The summary of the story “Knight Vasya” describes not only the dull everyday life of the hero, but also the moment when he was able to complete his feat and feel like a real hero.
Somehow in the late autumn night it froze, and in the morning the river was covered with ice. He was still thin and unreliable, but he was very attracted to children. Of course, several daredevils immediately went to the river. The ice cracked and caved in under their feet, but can this really stop the boys ?! Vasya was on the beach at that time and heard someone scream. The hero immediately quickened his pace and ran to the place where the voices came from. Nearby stood Dimka Kovalev, who was running along the shore and shouting "Sinking." Vasya asked about what was going on, to which Dima snapped back and answered why he was standing and doing nothing. The protagonist did not enter into a skirmish, but looked at the river. There, an unfamiliar first-grader had already gone under the water to the waist. Then the "mattress" stepped onto the ice, which caved in, but did not crack. Dima from the shore began to give advice. When Vasya grabbed the boy by the hand, the ice began to break off. But the hero managed to get the baby out of the water.
Denouement
Dimka sent Vasya home, because he wet his feet, and he brought the rescued first-grader home. When the "mattress" returned, my mother asked about what had happened. Vasya replied that he wet his feet. At first the boy wanted to tell everything to his mother, but he wanted to sleep, so he went to his room. He lay down and at that moment thought that if there were armor on him, the ice would not have stood it. With this thought, Vasya fell asleep.
The next day he came to class as usual, but there was nobody there - everyone was on the line. Vasya went up to the assembly hall, where the children were already lined up. Then the director spoke and said that Dima Kovalev did a heroic act yesterday and saved a first grader who fell through the ice. Then the senior counselor spoke and read letters from the mother of the rescued boy.
Dima began to congratulate everyone. First, Vasya wanted to intervene and say that it was he who saved the child. But then he imagined how much he would attract attention and decided not to intervene.
After the line Vasya returned to class, squeezed into his place and, taking a pen, began to draw knights, swords and armor. So ends the story of Yakovlev "Knight Vasya." Our hero went unnoticed, but he made a real feat and saved someone else's life, and this is much more important than awards and honors.