“The Sun of the Dead” (Ivan Shmelev) critics called the most tragic piece in the history of world literature. What is so terrible and amazing in him? The answer to this and many other questions can be found in this article.
History of creation and genre features
The second “emigration” stage of the work of Ivan Shmelev was marked by the work “The Sun of the Dead”. The genre chosen by writers for their creation is an epic. Recall that in this kind of works outstanding national historical events are described. What is Shmelev talking about?
The writer chooses a truly memorable event, but there is nothing to be proud of. He depicts the Crimean famine of 1921-1922. The "Sun of the Dead" is a requiem for those who died in those terrible years - and not only from a lack of food, but also from the actions of revolutionaries. It is also important that the son of Shmelev himself, who remained in Russia, was shot in 1921, and the book was published in 1923.
The Sun of the Dead: Summary
The action takes place in August on the coast of the Crimean Sea. All night the hero was tormented by strange dreams, and he woke up from a skirmish of neighbors. I don’t feel like getting up, but he recalls that the feast of the Transfiguration begins.
In the abandoned house on the way, he sees a peacock who has been living there for a long time. Once he belonged to a hero, but now the bird is a draw, like himself. Sometimes the peacock returns to him and picks grape berries. But the narrator drives him - there is not enough food, the sun has burnt out everything.
From the farm, the hero still has a turkey with turkeys. He holds them as a memory of the past.
Food could be bought, but due to the Red Guards, ships no longer call at the port. And they also do not admit people to the provisions in the warehouses. The dead silence of the graveyard reigns around.
Everyone around is suffering from hunger. And those who recently came up with slogans and supported the Reds in anticipation of a good life, no longer hope for anything. And above all this, a cheerful, hot sun shines ...
Baba Yaga
It's pretty hard to read The Sun of the Dead. The summary, of course, conveys the oppressive atmosphere of the narrative, but not as much as the original.
Crimean dachas were empty, all professors were shot, and the janitors stole the good. And on the radio, an order was issued to “Place Crimea with an iron broom.” And the Baba Yaga got down to business, sweeping.
The doctor comes to the narrator to visit. Everything was taken from him, not even a clock left. He sighs and says that now underground has become better than on earth. When the revolution broke out, the doctor and his wife were in Europe, romanticized about the future. And now he compares the revolution with Sechenov’s experiments. Only instead of frogs, people's hearts were cut out, “stars” were planted on their shoulders, and the nape of the head was crushed.
The hero looks after him and thinks that now nothing is scary. After all, now Baba Yaga is in the mountains.
The neighbors killed a cow in the evening, and the owner strangled the killer. The hero came to a noise, and at that time someone killed his chicken.
A neighbor girl comes and asks for cereals - their mother dies. The narrator gives everything that he had. A neighbor appears, tells how she exchanged a gold chain for food.
Play with death
The action of the epic “The Sun of the Dead” (Ivan Shmelev) continues to develop. The narrator sets off early in the morning to cut the tree. Here he falls asleep, and Boris Shishkin, a young writer, wakes him up. He is not washed, ragged, with a swollen face, with unshaved nails.
His past was not easy: he fought in World War I, he was captured, almost shot as a spy. But in the end, they just sent me to work in the mines. Under Soviet rule, Shishkin was able to return to his homeland, but immediately got to the Cossacks, who barely let him go.
The news comes that six prisoners of Soviet power fled not far. Now everyone is threatened with raids and searches.
End of September. The narrator looks at the sea and mountains - it is quiet around. He recalls how recently he met three children on the road - a girl and two boys. Their father was arrested on charges of killing a cow. Then the children went in search of food. In the mountains, the older girl liked the Tatar guys, and they fed the children and even gave food with them.
However, the narrator no longer walks along the road and does not want to communicate with people. It is better to look into the eyes of animals, but there are few of them left.
The disappearance of the peacock
The fate of those who rejoiced and welcomed the new government is described in The Sun of the Dead. The summary, albeit not in the volume of the original, conveys the evil irony of their lives. Previously, they went to rallies, shouting, demanding, but now they have died of hunger and already on the 5th day their bodies are lying and can not even wait for the funeral pit.
At the end of October, the peacock disappears, and hunger is getting angrier. The narrator recalls how a starving bird came for food a few days ago. Then he tried to strangle her, but could not - the hand did not rise. And now the peacock has disappeared. The neighbor boy brought some bird feathers and said that the doctor had probably eaten it. The narrator takes the feathers tenderly, like a fragile flower, and puts them on the veranda.
He thinks that everything around him is the circles of hell that gradually contract. Even a family of fishermen perishes from hunger. The son died, the daughter gathered for the pass, Nikolai, the head of the family, also died. There was only one mistress left.
Denouement
Comes to the end of the epic "The Sun of the Dead" (summary). November came. The old Tatar returns the debt at night - he brought flour, pears, tobacco. The news comes that the doctor burned down in his almond gardens, and his house was already plundered.
Winter came, the rains came. The famine continues. The sea completely stops feeding the fishermen. They come to ask for bread to representatives of the new government, but in response they are only urged to hold on and come to rallies.
On the pass, two were killed who exchanged wine for wheat. The grain was brought to the city, washed and eaten. The narrator reflects on the fact that you won’t wash everything.
The hero is trying to remember what month it is ... it seems December. He goes to the seashore and looks at the cemetery. The setting sun illuminates the chapel. Like the sun smiles at the dead. In the evening, the father of the writer Shishkin comes to him and says that his son was shot "for robbery."
Spring is coming.
The Sun of the Dead: Analysis
This work is called the most powerful thing Shmelev. Against the background of the impassive and beautiful Crimean nature, a real tragedy unfolds - hunger takes away all life: people, animals, birds. The writer raises the issue of the value of life in times of great social change.
It is impossible to stay away and not to think about what is more important when reading The Sun of the Dead. The theme of the work in the global sense is the struggle between life and death, between humanity and the animal principle. The author writes about how human souls destroy need and this frightens him more than hunger. Shmelev also raises such philosophical questions as the search for truth, the meaning of life, human values, etc.
Heroes
More than once, the author describes the transformation of man into a beast, into a killer and a traitor on the pages of the epic "The Sun of the Dead." The main characters are also not immune from this. For example, a doctor, a storyteller’s friend, is gradually losing all of his moral principles. And if at the beginning of the work he talks about writing a book, then in the middle of the narrative he kills and moves a peacock, and in the end he starts to use opium and dies in a fire. There are those who became a scammer for bread. But such, according to the author, is even worse. They rotted from within, and their eyes were empty and lifeless.
Not in the work of those who would not suffer from hunger. But everyone transfers it in his own way. And in this test, it becomes clear what a person is really worth.