One of the most famous Russian writers of the 19th century is Garshin. Attalea princeps can be called his most significant work. This tale is largely similar to Andersen’s works, however, it has a number of features that are characteristic of the work of this author. Published in 1880, it has retained its significance today and is included in the school course in literature.
Briefly about the writer
Garshin, whose Attalea princeps has deep philosophical meaning, despite the apparent simplicity of the narrative, wrote briefly and concisely. This tale, like other works by the author, is recognizable thanks to its unique style: with the apparent simplification of the design and composition, it attracts readers with its symbolic and metaphorical nature. In addition to fairy tales, the writer also composed serious dramatic stories in which he brought his personal impressions of the war. He was a very nervous person by nature, sensitive, and such are his heroes, who also feel particularly injustice and try to fight it, despite the fact that their attempts were initially doomed to failure. Nevertheless, in these works the writer’s faith in the triumph of good and truth is heard.
Personality of the author
Many tales were composed by the writer Garshin. Attalea princeps is a work that is not intended for entertainment, but for reflection, as its name suggests, which is clearly not intended for idle reading. In general, the author created very serious and dramatic works, which was largely due to the circumstances of his personal life and character traits. Being by nature an unusually sensitive and deeply vulnerable man, he especially acutely felt the social injustice and suffering of the common people. He succumbed to the mood of the era and, together with other representatives of the student youth of that time, shared the idea of the responsibility of the intelligentsia to the peasants. The latter circumstance led to the fact that his works are distinguished by the subtlety of perception of the world.
Composition
An important contribution to the formation of the Russian fairy-tale genre was made by Garshin. Attalea princeps can be called an exemplary composition in this regard, because it is brief, concise, dynamic and, at the same time, full of deep philosophical meaning. The composition of the work is quite simple, as in all its other works. In the introduction, the author describes a greenhouse - the habitat of the characters: plants and trees, and also writes about their lifestyle, briefly briefly reporting on the past of each of them. In the eyeballs, the writer points out a peculiarity in the character of the main character, who does not want to put up with imprisonment, and also contrasts her with the rest of the greenhouse inhabitants, who more or less got used to captivity. Especially exciting was the climax in his works by V. M. Garshin. Attalea princeps is, in this respect, a model of a dynamic, exciting narrative. The main semantic moment of the work is the decision of the main character (palm tree) to radically change her fate and break free, which ended in failure. In the final, the palm tree dies, however, despite such a sad ending, the theme of freedom and love of the motherland sounds in the work, which makes this composition so popular.
Director profile
The famous writer V. M. Garshin possessed special skill in portraying characters. Attalea princeps is a fairy tale in which the heroes are both people and plants. At the beginning of the analysis of this composition, a brief overview of two people who play an important role in the composition should be given. We are talking about the director of the greenhouse, a botanist, scientist, and a Brazilian traveler. Both are as if opposed to each other both in their inner world, and in relation to the main character. The first of them is initially presented as a hardworking person who cares about the most optimal conditions for the existence of his plants. However, it soon becomes clear that he is by nature cold and soulless. He is interested in plants, first of all, as objects of scientific research, he does not feel their suffering, he needs them only as valuable exhibits.
Traveler Description
The analysis of Garshin’s tale Attalea princeps should be continued by analyzing the image of the Brazilian who once visited the greenhouse and the only one named the palm tree by her real name. This character carries a great semantic load in the work, since it was the meeting with him that triggered the culmination of the tale. When the heroine saw this traveler and heard her own real name from him, her old desire to break free again woke up in her. Unlike the director, who is completely unable to feel or understand his plants, the Brazilian traveler has a sensitive soul and a sympathetic heart: of the people he was the only one to regret a palm tree.
About the greenhouse
Garshin's story of Attalea princeps begins with a description of the botanical greenhouse in which the scientist contains his plants. And here the author again resorts to a system of contrasts: at first he described the greenhouse as a very beautiful, convenient and warm garden, in which, it would seem, the inhabitants should have been well and comfortable. However, very soon the reader will find out that this is not so at all. All plants and trees feel very hard in captivity: each of them dreams of freedom, of his native land. It is not for nothing that the writer pays so much attention to the description of the places where they lived before. He again uses the technique of contrast, describing the sky in captivity and at large. The author emphasizes that in captivity none of the inhabitants of the greenhouse felt happy, despite the fact that they were regularly fed, looked after, it was warm and dry.
The inhabitants of the greenhouse
One of the masters of psychological analysis was Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin. Attalea princeps, in this regard, is an example of the writer’s talent for portraying characters. In the work under consideration, he endowed plants and trees, the inhabitants of the greenhouse, with human features. The sago palm is arrogant, arrogant, she likes to talk and be in the spotlight. Tree fern is easy to communicate, unpretentious, not proud. Cinnamon takes care of itself and is preoccupied with its own comfort. The cactus is full of optimism and is not discouraged, in his own words, he is very unpretentious and content with what he has. Despite the differences in characters, all these plants have one thing in common, which contrasts them with the main character: they resigned to captivity and, although they dream of freedom, none of them wants to risk comfort and convenience in order to try to break free.
About grass
The tale of M. Garshin Attalea princeps should be considered in the context of the entire work of the writer, who often resorted to metaphors and symbols to express his thoughts. Such is the image of the main character's neighbor, a simple grass, which alone was imbued with sympathy for the palm tree and supported her. The author again used the technique of contrast: he emphasized that this most ordinary-looking plant in the whole greenhouse provided her with support and moral help. The writer showed the background of the grass: she lived in a simple area where the most ordinary trees grew, there wasn’t such a bright sky as in the south, however, despite this, the grass has a rich inner world: she dreams of distant beautiful countries and understands the desire of the palm tree to escape out. The grass wraps around its trunk, seeking support and help from her, and together with it she dies.
The image of the main character
In domestic literature, a special place is occupied by Garshin. Attalea princeps, the analysis of which is the subject of this review, can be called his most successful work in the fairy tale genre. Especially successful was the image of the main character, a Brazilian palm. She is proud, freedom-loving, and most importantly, she has a strong will and character that give her the strength to overcome all obstacles and get out (albeit briefly) of imprisonment. Palm attracts readers with its perseverance and confidence in its rightness. She is firm in her decision to go all the way and does not retreat, despite the fact that her roots have weakened because she threw all her strength into growth.
About nature
Garshin did a lot for the development of domestic literature. Attalea princeps, the brief content of which we examined, is also interesting because the writer showed himself in this work as a wonderful painter of nature: with the help of his language he reproduces the colorful picture of the southern tropics, in which a proud palm tree grew. This partly explains her character and such a hot burning desire to break free. The fact is that the situation in captivity contrasted too much with what she saw and watched in the wild. At home there was a hot sun, a bright blue sky, beautiful dense forests. In addition, the tale gives a small description of those places where grass used to grow. There, on the contrary, very simple trees grew, and nature was not as beautiful as in the tropics. Most likely, that is why the grass turned out to be so susceptible to beauty and best understood the palm tree that so wanted to return home.
Climax
Many readers admire the work of a writer by the name of Garshin. The tale of Attalea princeps is especially remembered by the act of a palm tree, which tried to break free, although the failure of such an attempt was obvious from the very beginning. Nevertheless, the description of how it was filled with juices and grew up from the last forces is striking in its expressiveness and depth, as well as in stylistic accuracy. The writer here again returned to the image of a botanist who attributed such rapid growth to good care and comfortable living conditions.
The final
The end of the tale is striking in its dramatic nature: the palm tree, despite all its efforts, was never able to return to its homeland. Instead, she found herself in the cold, in the midst of snow and rain, and the director, not wanting to spend money on an additional extension to the greenhouse, ordered to cut down a proud tree. At the same time he gave the order to tear out the grass and throw it into the back yard. Such an ending is sustained in the tradition of Andersen's fairy tales, whose heroes also lose at the end in the fight against injustice and die. In this context, it is significant that the writer always calls the palm tree a Latin name. This language is considered dead, and, having given the tree such a name, the author, as it were, shows the reader in advance that the tree, in fact, no longer lives a real life, but only survives in captivity. Even in the episode with the Brazilian traveler, the writer, as it were, deliberately does not name the palm tree by its real name, thereby emphasizing once again that it has become a regular exhibit.
Idea
The work of Garshin Attalea princeps is imbued with the pathos of freedom and humanism. Despite the gloomy ending, it teaches children good and justice. It is not for nothing that the writer chose plants and trees as the main characters. Thus, he sought to show the fragility and defenselessness of nature and the world. The writer contrasted the living world of nature with the soulless world of the greenhouse, in which plants serve only as exhibits for the exhibition, thereby losing their true purpose. Garshin draws attention to the fact that there is nothing worse than accepting such a fate. The plot of his tale, he showed that it is better to die in the struggle for freedom than to continue to eke out a miserable existence in captivity. This is the humanistic pathos and the main idea of the whole work. The study of this tale in the school literature course speaks of its lasting value, since it teaches love for nature through symbolic images. This work has philosophical meaning, because it shows the value of life of any living creature, even plants and trees.