Andrei Platonovich Platonov ... A man adamantly following humanistic ideals. The story "Yushka" is a confirmation of this. Summary of Platonov "Yushki" is the subject of this article.
The reason for this is several factors. On the one hand, a special creative style, where inversions play a significant role. As you know, inversion is a change in the classical order of words in the presentation. To a large extent, this artistic technique characterizes the style of any author. Platonov, according to literary scholars, in it reached the heights of unprecedented.
On the other, the writerâs fundamental departure from socialist realism (the leading method of literature of the USSR). He preferred to be unpublished and disgraced, but he continued with his work the tradition of classical Russian literature of the late 19th century. Platonovâs style was not formed under the influence of party congresses, but thanks to the work of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.
Is foolishness relevant today?
It is obvious that Platonovâs short summary âYushkiâ written by us reflects in a more concise and concise form than the original of the story, the personality of the main character - a holy fool of about forty years old by street nickname Yushka. Yushka is an obsolete noun. Bring this word in Russia called blessed, holy fools. Why did Andrei Platonov choose such a character atypical for the 20th century? Obviously, because it considers the topic of foolishness for Russia not to be exhausted, not to fulfill its mission, undeservedly rejected by a pragmatic society.
On the one hand, the notorious worldly common sense portrays the holy fool as a kind of deprived of social landmarks harmless fool. However, this is only the outside. Its essence is much more important in understanding the essence of foolishness: it is voluntary martyrdom undertaken by his adherent, hiding his secret virtue. Perhaps this essence is expressed to a certain extent by the well-known phrase from the Gospel of Matthew: that good should be done secretly, so that the right hand does not know what the left is doing.
Portrait of Efim Dmitrievich - Yushka
Much of this story is said in
Aesopian language. Therefore, we, following the writer, initially abstract from the present and will argue that the events described in it occurred in ancient times. With this, in fact, begins our brief retelling.
Platonov's "Yushka" tells us about the puny lonely peasant Efim Dmitrievich (who, in fact, is not called by name), prematurely aged, with sparse gray hair where a mustache and beard usually grow in an adult man. He was always dressed in the same thing, he did not take off his clothes for months. In the summer, he was wearing a gray shirt and blackened soles, burned with sparks of the Kuznetsk horn. In the winter, on top of all of the above, he threw a leaky old sheepskin coat left by his late father.
Summary Platonov "Yushki" introduces us to a lonely forty-year-old man: untidy, looking much older than his age. The reason for this is a serious, fatal disease. He is sick with tuberculosis, his wrinkled face is that of an old man. Yushka's eyes are constantly watery and have a whitish hue. Under this, let's say bluntly, miserable appearance, a beautiful soul is hiding. According to the writer, it is precisely those such as the holy fool Yushka who know how to love the whole world and even people who mock them and bring them suffering, who can change the whole world for the better.
Blacksmith work
Yushka always got up to work before daylight, and went to the forge when other people just woke up. In the morning he brought to the forge coal, water and sand necessary for work. Like a village blacksmith's assistant, it was his responsibility to keep iron with ticks while the blacksmith forged it. At another time, he watched the fire in the crucible, brought everything necessary to the forge, and controlled the horses, which they brought to shoe.
The main character is not dependent. Despite a deadly disease, he earns his daily bread by hard labor . To reveal the image, it is important to include this circumstance in the summary of the story of "Yushka" Platonov. He works as an assistant to a blacksmith.
To hold heavy metal workpieces with ticks, at which the blacksmithâs heavy hammer beats at this time ... To be crucified under the influence of high temperature ... Perhaps such work is too much for a sick person. However, the holy fool Yushka does not grumble. He bears his burden with dignity.
The horses, even the slow-witted, whom he had forged, for some reason always obeyed him. Of course, you should read the whole Platonic story in order to feel how harmonious and integral this unusual person is. Such an impression will not remain if you read only a brief retelling ..
Platonov's "Yushka" tells of the loneliness of the hero. His parents died, he did not start his family, his home was not. Efim Dmitrievich lived in the kitchen of a blacksmith, taking advantage of the location of the latter. By mutual agreement, food was included in his salary. However, tea and sugar were a separate expense item. Efim Dmitrievich had to buy them for himself. However, a frugal little man managed to drink water, saving money.
Cruelty of people to Yushka
Our hero lived a quiet, lonely working life, as our short story testifies to. Platonov's "Yushka" also tells us about the inexplicable cruelty of people and even their children in relation to Efim Dmitrievich.
Some kind of pathological need to do unrequited evil ... The quiet, timid, not shy of violence, timid Yushka never rebuffed his offenders, never even shouted at them, did not swear. It was like a lightning rod for evil accumulated in people. Even children would beat him and beat him with stones. What for? To rise above this unrequited beggar and kind person? To, having thrown off the burden of his own baseness, to be cleansed and to communicate with other people with dignity? To feel his power over a man who despises the laws of self-interest?
When the children, throwing stones at him, angry at his irresponsibility, caught up with him and stopped him, they started pushing and shouting, he just smiled. Platonovâs short story âYushkaâ shows the holy foolâs special attitude to what is happening. There is not even a shadow of retaliatory aggression in it. On the contrary, he sympathizes with the children! He believed that they really loved him, that they needed to communicate with him, only they simply did not know what should be done for love.
Unfortunately, adults beat him even more cruelly, obviously amused by his impunity. The battered Yushka, with blood on his cheek, with a torn ear, rose from the road dust and went to the forge.
It was like martyrdom: daily beatings ... Did the tormentors of this sick and unhappy person understand how low they are!
"Yushka" Platonov as an analogue of "Mockingbird" Harper Lee
Recall, drawing a conditional parallel, the work of classical American literature, "To Kill a Mockingbird." In him, an unhappy, defenseless person is still spared. He is generously freed from the impending and inevitable violence. The people around him are sure that it is impossible to act cruelly with him. It means taking a sin on your soul, it's like killing a mockingbird - a small, gullible, defenseless bird.
A completely different plot reflects our summary of the story "Yushka" Platonov. The holy fool is brutally beaten, humiliated, bullied.
He lived the hard life of an outcast in his own homeland. Why? For what?
What in the image of Efim Dmitrievich is close personally to A. Platonov
Let's distract from the plot of the story. Let us ask ourselves why Andrey Platonov was so penetrating in creating a living image of the Russian holy fool? But because, essentially speaking, he was an outcast in his homeland himself. The Russian mass reader could get acquainted with his works only thirty years after the tragic death of the writer in 1951.
Did the author allegorically represent himself as an unhappy person? This question has been asked by many generations of literary critics after reading Platonovâs work âYushkaâ and reading the writer's biography.
Undoubtedly, this is Andrei Platonov himself crying out through the mouth of his holy fool, trying to convince a society that does not recognize his talent, through the lips of this martyr, that all sorts of people are needed, that everyone is valuable, not just âwalking in the footâ. He calls for tolerance, mercy.
How Yushka fought the disease
Yushka is seriously ill, and he knows that he will not be a long-liver ... The holy fool was forced to leave the blacksmith every month for a month. He drove from the city to a distant village, where he was from and where his relatives lived.
There, Efim Dmitrievich, bending over the ground, eagerly inhaled the smell of herbs, listened to the murmur of the rivers, looked at the snow-white clouds in the blue-blue sky. The story of A.P. Platonov "Yushka" very penetratingly talks about how a terminally ill person seeks protection from nature: breathing the caress of the earth, enjoying the gentle rays of the sun. However, every year the disease becomes more and more merciless to him ...
Returning to the city, after nature therapy, without feeling pain in the lungs, he took up blacksmithing.
Death
In that fateful summer for himself, at that time when he was just about to leave for a month and get better, one of his tormentors met him on the way from the forge in the evening, seized by an obvious desire to humiliate and beat this blessed one.
Platonov's story "Yushka" describes the terrible events that led to the death of the holy fool. At first, the tormentor deliberately provoked the unfortunate in a word, claiming the futility of his existence. The holy fool answered this dirty lie fairly and reasonably. It was the first in his life a worthy answer to the offender, in which real wisdom, kindness, understanding of the place of each person in God's world sounded. The scoundrel obviously did not expect such words from the holy fool. He, not being able to object to the simple and clear truth that came from the mouth of the holy fool, responded with all his might to push the unfortunate man tormented by a terrible ailment. Yushka hit the ground with his chest, corroded by tuberculosis, and as a result the irreparable happened: Yefim Dmitrievich was no longer destined to rise, he died in the same place where he fell ...
The philosophical meaning of the death of Yushka
Hero A. Platonov Yushka accepts martyrdom, defending his place under the sun, his views on God's world. And itâs touching. Let us recall the analogy from the Doctor Zhivago novel, which sounds like the idea that the trainer with a smashing scourge in his hand cannot become the ideal of this world, but he becomes a martyr who sacrifices himself ... Only he can change this world. Exactly so, with faith in a just Godâs order of everything around, Efim Dmitrievich perishes. How, after all, can the death of only one beautiful person affect the world around him? .. Platonov speaks about this, further developing the plot.
Noble lesson
Sacrifice everything ... An analysis of the story of Yushka by Platonov shows that it is this last part of the story that most vividly shows the justice of the last words of the deceased, that âthe world needs it, that it is impossible without him ...â
Autumn has arrived. Once, a young lady with a clean face and large gray eyes, in which tears seemed to stand, came to the forge. She asked if it was possible to see Yefim Dmitrievich? In the beginning, the hosts were seized by a rash. Like, what is Efim Dmitrievich? Heard not heard! But then they guessed: Is it not Yushka? The girl confirmed: yes, indeed, Efim Dmitrievich spoke of himself like that. The truth, which the guest then told, shocked the blacksmith. Efim Dmitrievich once placed her, a village orphan, in a Moscow family, and then - in a school with a boarding school, every year he visited her, bringing her money for a year of study. Then, through the efforts of the holy fool, the girl received a doctorâs diploma from Moscow University. This summer her benefactor did not come to see her. Concerned, she herself decided to track down Yefim Dmitrievich.
The blacksmith led her to the cemetery. The girl cried, crouching to the ground, and for a long time was at the grave of her benefactor. Then she came to this city forever. She settled here and worked as a doctor in a tuberculosis hospital. She gained good fame in the city, became "her". She was called the "daughter of the good Yushka", although, however, those who called did not remember who this same Yushka was.
Disgraced author of "Yushka"
What do you think, what in Soviet times could the literary review of Yushka deserve? Platonov, in essence, was a sincere, whole man. Initially perceiving the advent of Soviet power with enthusiasm (he always sympathized with the poor and ordinary people), the eighteen-year-old young man soon realized that the Bolsheviks who had come to power, often hiding behind a revolutionary phrase, did something that was not at all good for the people.
Not being able to grovel in power, this writer very honestly sets forth in his writings what he thinks, what he feels.
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin at that time personally monitored the "ideological endurance" of Soviet writers. After reading the Platonic short story âThe Poor Chronicleâ, the âFather of the Nationsâ made his review directly on it - âThe Kulak Chronicle!â and further added a personal brief description of the writer himself - "Bastard" ...
One does not have to guess for a long time to understand what kind of feedback Yushka would receive in the Soviet press. Platonov, of course, felt a suspicious attitude of the authorities towards himself. He could confess a thousand times, âwork outâ, âimproveâ by writing in the spirit of socialist realism an ode to his ideological opponents, while increasing his daily bread.
No, he did not bow his head, did not change the high literature created by the Russian classics. It was published until the 80s of the last century mainly abroad. In 1836, his âThird Sonâ was published in the American almanac under the heading âBest Compositions.â By the way, Hemingwayâs early work was published in the same section. There, he was truly recognized as the essence of his talent, a successor to the search for the soul, a student of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
Conclusion
Literary scholars, speaking of the continuation in Soviet literature of the traditions laid down by the classics (L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky), invariably mention Andrei Platonovich Platonov.
What characterizes this writer? Refusal of all sorts of dogmas. The desire to know and show your reader the world in all its beauty. At the same time, the writer feels the harmony of everything. With special respect, he reveals the images of people, sometimes modest and inconspicuous, but really making this world a better, cleaner.
To feel the artistic style of this author and enjoy it, we recommend that you read the story, written by Andrei Platonov - "Yushka".
Summary Platonov's "Yushki", unfortunately, does not have the opportunity to let us enjoy the writer's syllable. To do this, read the original story. And it is not surprising, because its author, a native of Voronezh, is rightly considered one of the most original writers of the 20th century.