Vladislav Krapivin is the author of children's philosophical and allegorical works that educate many generations of children and urge older people to remember what they were like in childhood.
The work considered in this article is written by the hand of an adult with a big heart of a child. In it, a pensive boy decides to turn an ordinary umbrella into a starry sky. What for? You will learn about this by reading the analysis and a summary of Krapivin’s short story “Stars in the Rain,” which are listed below.
The boy who was weighed down by resentment
The city is getting wet in the rain. A tram train drives up to the park and hospitably opens the door. A wet-wet boy enters the carriage. Fumbling in his pockets, discovers that he has absolutely no money, and is about to leave. The conductor stops him: “Wait, what a proud one! Take a ticket. " The boy does not even thank. He does not know where the tram goes. The hero is not afraid of rain, but gets into the car only to get away from home.
So begins Krapivin’s story “Stars in the Rain.” A summary cannot be imagined without paying attention to the mood of the protagonist.
The boy’s resentment, which made him travel around the city in such bad weather, and even without an umbrella, lies with a heavy load, pulls his shoulders down - the hero wearily drops into the seat next to the fair-haired girl.
Long-awaited acquaintance
The girl turns out to be familiar: the boy often meets her on the way to school. Although they never spoke, he always looks through her eyes for her fur hat, and when she’s not seen for a long time, he is worried.
Sometimes the hero tries not to think about her and repeats to himself that this is the most ordinary girl. But once, without the slightest hesitation, he rushed to the rescue when the boy was aiming a snowball at her back. The girl does not know this. “Yes, and to her nothing,” the boy decides.
Sitting in a tram car, they first talk to each other. But because the girl is a little familiar, the hero shares her story with her.
How it all started
The story of Vladislav Krapivin “Stars in the rain” begins with the main character being in the rain on the street. What prompted the boy to leave home without an umbrella? This will be discussed below.
A few days ago, when the sun was shining brightly on the street, the boy was standing on the roof of the barn, holding an umbrella above him. He had to jump from three meters down, where the young adventurers who were waiting for him were the same as him. However, this was not immediately possible.
The fact is that by nature the hero is thoughtful and even poetic, inclined to give names to everything that he sees. Several islands of dusty grass were green right next to the barn, and in the boy’s imagination they immediately turned into uncharted archipelagos. The water in the barrel resembled a deep lake.
He stood on the roof, causing a wave of discontent from those who were waiting below. The boy had already decisively bent his knees and prepared to jump, when suddenly his umbrella became surprisingly similar to the small dome of the circus. The lonely hole through which the sky shone turned into a distant star. For the boy, this was a revelation. He often looks at the sky and knows by heart all the big constellations. But to see a star in the afternoon, when the sun shines brightly, it means for him anyway that a supernova flash. Let it be just a hole in the umbrella.
The boy felt like an inventor. This umbrella could become a small planetarium. To do this, it was only necessary to pierce matter in certain places, so that constellations were obtained. And then on the most cloudy day you can go outside, point an umbrella at the Polar Star, which, as you know, is always in the same place, and know where the stars are located at that moment. It still remained to make calculations, because the Earth rotates, which means that the constellations do not stand still. In this regard, the boy came up with a simple scheme: divide the umbrella into twenty-four parts, like a clock in a day, and turn it depending on what time it will be.
In fact, the scientist N.E. Nabokov invented the astronomical umbrella. About this find is discussed in the work of Krapivin "Stars in the Rain." The summary should also mention the following events that happened a little later in the main character's house.
Pulling out an old umbrella from behind the closet, the hero began to rattle his black cloth with a needle. But just at that time, Veronika Pavlovna, who was visiting them, needed to go out into the street, and outside the window rain was pouring. Finding a damaged umbrella in the boy’s hands, she was terribly indignant. The offended hero went outside to seek solace in the rain. So he ended up on the tram.
For a listening girl, the idea of a planetarium seems very curious. She finds in her pocket chalk, which he usually draws on the pavement of classics, and invites the boy to draw a map of the starry sky invented by him directly on her umbrella. But the boy does not have time to do this: the tram pulls up to the stop where the girl and her mother leave.
What is the use of an astronomical umbrella?
Inspired by a new idea, armed with the chalk left to him, the boy begins to look for someone who will allow him to draw a starry sky on his umbrella. The author of the story draws attention to the hope that has become lukewarm in the main character by the author Vladislav Krapivin. “Stars in the Rain” (a brief summary of the work is considered in this article) is sure to tell about another hero.
In a half-empty carriage, the boy sees a man in a uniform that remains clean, even despite the rain. This is a captain in shiny boots, a cap and with stars on uniform.
However, instead of sharing the joy of discovery with the boy, the captain is trying to find the benefit of his invention. And not finding, he gets out of the car, taking away an umbrella.
Master and Chess Player
Two people come into the car, to whom the boy immediately comes up with the names: “Chess Player” and “Master”. They lead a lively conversation, during which a person who received the nickname "Master" from the boy awkwardly turns around and inadvertently, but painfully touches the main character with an umbrella. The boy is not offended, but hastily uses this opportunity, which attracted attention to him, to propose to make a planetarium out of an umbrella that hit him.
To the surprise of the hero himself, they carefully listen to him. And this time everything would have worked out, but it turns out that the desired umbrella is not black at all, but brown, and even with a gray pattern. Of course, the starry sky will not work out of such an umbrella - another failure befell the boy.
Little sky
The baby enters the tram. In one hand he has a can intended for sour cream, in the second he holds an open umbrella, which does not want to close.
In a brief summary of Krapivin’s story “Stars in the Rain”, it must be said that the main character at this moment feels adult and strong, therefore, helps the baby cope with the resisting umbrella, and then suggests painting the starry sky. Although not immediately, but the baby agrees. However, after a few minutes, he asks the boy to draw real stars for him: large, with rays, and not just dots with which our hero wants to designate them.
This makes the boy’s task impossible, because nothing will fit. But, seeing the offense of the baby, recalling his recent disappointment, he draws large five-pointed stars, a month and even a rocket. The planetarium also fails this time, but the hero is glad that he was able to give the baby a small sky.
Captain sailing to Antarctica
Having led the baby, the boy decides that it is time for him to return home, when he suddenly sees two umbrellas above his head that come together to protect him from the flow of water. But the recent resentment still makes itself felt, and the main character moves away from the men who are covering him with his umbrellas, with a young girl - a daughter.
Perplexed, but not insisting on communication, the man says that he has already lost the habit of rain. These words contain a meaning that will affect the further development of Krapivin’s story “Stars in the Rain”. The summary is as close as possible to the original text and the fact that the boy does not pay attention to the words of the Captain (as he christened the man), but thinks that his tram is gone for a long time, and you have to go on foot. After he hears, the Captain offers to share one umbrella with him, to which the boy reacts rather sharply: “Do you think that an umbrella is needed only to hide under it from the rain?” "Of course not!" - father and daughter with a smile begin to list where else an umbrella can come in handy. This softens the heart of the young hero, and he unexpectedly offers them his little planetarium. But for this you need an umbrella.
“Will they agree?” - the boy looks uncertainly at the man, and he nods. Moreover, he takes out a folding knife, in which a corkscrew is hidden and tells the hero to immediately open an umbrella, because the chalk will be erased. “Will you take it with you?” - for some reason, the girl asks the father.
This phrase once again emphasizes the mystery of the Captain in Krapivin’s short story “Stars in the Rain.” The summary further suggests that the happy boy is finishing his work and trying to explain how his small planetarium works. The man stops him: "I know." The hero shuts up embarrassedly, the man continues: “You're done, but you had to take into account the fact that the Earth revolves around the sun.” Our little hero is discouraged, thinking that his invention failed. “No, that you,” the captain assures him, “you are well done!” But where I’m going, you still can’t see the North Star. ” The boy raises his surprised eyes, because if the North Star is not visible, then this is the southern hemisphere! “True,” the captain confirms. “I'm going to Antarctica.”
The boy recognizes in the captain the man whom he once read about in books. It is he whose adventures our hero dreams of. "What's your name?" - the captain asks the boy. “Slava,” the boy replies. “Do you want me to bring you an Antarctic stone?” the captain asks seriously. “Remember the address.”
“I will find you,” the hero assures. Slavka knows that he will certainly find such a person, even in the largest city.
Analysis of the work
In the story “Stars in the Rain” by V. Krapivin, you can clearly draw the dividing line between the adult and children's world: reality opposes dreams.
It is worth mentioning the children of this story: the girl whom Slavka met on the way from school, a kid with a can, the main character. These are small dreamers, capable of endowing with unprecedented meaning the most everyday object. They do not require practical benefits from their discoveries, but enjoy what is happening. Veronika Pavlovna, the captain in shiny boots and perfectly clean clothes, think in a completely different way: they have a rationalistic outlook on things. This confrontation persists throughout the story, although once it almost disappears, smoothed out by the appearance of adult characters, endowed with a childish ability to see what is difficult to see with the naked eye. These are the characters of the Master and Chess Player. At the end of the story, the Captain appears, sailing to Antarctica, who understands the children, because he himself managed to preserve the "childhood memory". And it is this character who resolves the conflict between rationalism and the dream.
The author of the story “Stars in the Rain”, Krapivin Vladislav, always comments on the reviews of this work: “Slava is the person that each of us wanted to be in childhood, but never became.” Therefore, if you want to plunge into a fairy-tale world full of stars, the lights of lanterns and drops of water on the tram glasses, read the whole story in the original.