Astafiev, “Shepherd and Shepherdess”: analysis of the work, summary

A special writer is the author of this book, his works are also unusual. No, he probably does not write poetry in prose. However, through his lines, in the words of Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky, the soul “oozes” invariably.

Victor Petrovich Astafiev learned the Patriotic War firsthand. He passed her as an ordinary, having come to the front as a volunteer. Why wasn’t he even promoted to sergeant at the front? This can be understood without even reading the biography of the writer, it is enough to read his story "Shepherd and Cowgirl." An analysis of this work reveals a deep understanding by the author of the terrible, inhuman essence of war. To command, that is, to send subordinates to death, and to be a humanist of high standard are incompatible things.

This article is about his story “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess”. The summary of Astakhov’s work convinces us of the complete harmony of the unique author’s form and the author’s reinterpreted military history.

Private, past war

All this was experienced by him fully. Viktor Petrovich fought as a driver, signalman, artilleryman ... He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, medals "For Courage". Rank - Private. He saw everything that he presented to his readers in the story. Therefore, the style of his presentation is epic, Tolstoy's thoroughness and attentiveness to all details are felt in it. To see everything, to survive everything, to present to its readers the true face of the war ... This most important task is solved by the artist Astafiev in the story “Shepherd and Shepherdess”. An analysis of its first part presents us with the writer's desire to create the impossible - to write a pastoral of war. This deadly, fiery, burning element.

Astafyevskaya pastoral war

Why did the author choose the pastoral genre, by its definition, idealizing a peaceful, simple village life? Astafyevskaya pastoral ... She presents a special, rethought description of the war, where a fiery tornado is not able to overcome the pathetism of human feelings, the beauty of human souls. Viktor Petrovich convinces the reader that love is stronger than war, with his work “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess”

The analysis of the first part of the story begins with a touching picture. A gray-haired woman in an overcoated coat walks, not hiding tears, along the railway along the wild steppe with cracked lifeless soil, where only tough grass-wire and wormwood-Chernobyl grow. On the way, she counts striped kilometer columns ..

Having reached the right place, she turns to the mound and approaches the goal of her journey - the pyramid of the monument, the star from which "warmed up and fell away." It becomes clear to us that someone who is very dear to her is resting here. This woman is Lucy, and she found the grave of Lieutenant Boris Kostyaev. She utters piercing words, clinging to the grave: "Why are you lying alone in the middle of Russia?" In terms of artistic power, this plot is similar to the rising dazzling “black sun” of Sholokhov, which Gregory saw after the death of his beloved.

Analogies of Astafyev's work with Sholokhov's “Quiet Don”

Is it not true that the epigraph given by Mikhail Aleksandrovich to his creation echoes the beginning of the Astafyev story “Shepherd and Shepherdess”? It says poetically about the long-suffering Russian land, about young widows ...

Further, as if using a time machine, Astakhov unwinds time back and immerses the reader in an atmosphere of fierce battle. The platoon of Lieutenant Kostyaev held the defense, standing in the way of the distraught surrounded Germans who were going to break through. They were supported by fire from an Eresov battery (Katyusha). Ahead on the enemy direct fire hit regimental guns. Behind - front-line artillery (howitzers). However, the German infantry still broke through to the trenches of the platoon.

Real hand-to-hand combat is described by Astafyev. “Shepherd and shepherdess” give the reader the opportunity to almost tangibly touch this hell - with dying screams, mats, smashing blows with a sapper blade, shots at point blank range. Next to Lieutenant Boris Kostyaev, who was not accustomed to the war, the chief of the platoon, foreman Nikolai Vasilievich Mokhnakov, fought. He fought, starting from the retreat from the border and was terrible for the enemy: either hiding in a snowdrift, then jumping out of it, with a spatula and pistol shots. The foreman was everywhere in the thick of the battle: he gave commands, defended the confused lieutenant. In some ways, his internal state was similar to that of Sholokhov's Grigory Melekhov, who was heroic, crazy, without hesitation, killing enemies. However, the inner essence of the Astafyev foreman, his soul, was scorched by the war. Recall that he wrote about a similar condition Sholokhov: his hero could not stand the clear look of an innocent child - he averted his eyes.

Connection with the pastoral genre. Tragedy scene

An important plot function of the first part will be shown to us by the analysis of the story “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess”. Starting with a high tragic note, the author builds up emotional intensity up to the ugly transformed by the war classic pastoral scene - the embraced shepherd and shepherdess.

However, these characters, so popular in European art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, young, looking at each other with love eyes, represented in the idyllic bosom of nature, are transformed by the author in relation to the terrible realities of war.

Astafyev’s shepherd and shepherdess are an old man and an old woman, busy grazing herds, killed by a crazy enemy shell. Two dead bodies of people, holding hands tightly, covering each other's body from shelling. They lie behind the bathhouse, near the "potato pit."

Catharsis fighters

This scene, seen by fighters who barely emerged from a terrible battle, does not leave them indifferent. It should be noted that it is the central tragedy scene of the whole story, its leitmotif, which intentionally introduces Astafyev's “Shepherd and Shepherdess” at the beginning of the work, suddenly interrupting the dynamics of the story.

What is going on in this scene? Suddenly, the soldiers who just killed and are being killed see catharsis, spiritual insight, at the sight of these two corpses. They already (perhaps all but the foreman Mokhnakov) do not identify themselves with the war, but contrast it. The shock they experienced portrays Astafyev so deeply that the general numb silence at their funeral by fighters of the platoon of Boris Kostyaev is broken only by a prayer that spontaneously, hearty, lanky ordinary Lantsov utters. His comrades understand that other words are inappropriate here.

Further, starting from the second chapter, the story “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess” (a brief summary of the work will show this to the reader) acquires tangibility. This is the theme of frontline love between Lucy and Boris. However, it is, according to the author’s intention, the plot is not independent. This love is seen by Astafyev through the prism of pastorality he has already shown, in the tragedy scene described above. In it, like a tuning fork, a high humanistic pathos of contrasting the human soul, human love, hell of war is felt.

Halt at Lucy's house

The soldiers stop at the house where Lucy lives. The miracle here remained whole at home, tells us through the lips of the mistress of the story "Shepherd and Cowgirl." A brief summary of this work informs that the reader is introduced into the atmosphere of rest and overnight of the soldiers after the inhuman massacre. The time is left behind, when, having barely jumped out of the trench, they were all equal before death, when, burning themselves with obscenities, they became components of the terrible death machine: those who killed and killed, they finally felt themselves in a non-combat environment. The fighters came to their senses, relieving the stress on their souls, filling it with moonshine expelled from beets. The foreman always managed to get it. The truth tells us about the rest after the battle "Shepherd and Cowgirl." The analysis of the work in this episode highlights two aspects: a detailed picture of the characters' characters and the plot of relations between Boris and Lucy.

In this scene, the writer Astafyev, like a film director, presents his readers close-ups of the heroes of the book, with the skill of an experienced artist, depicts the personality of each with several touches. These soldiers are very different, brought together by the war in one platoon.

More on war and soldiers

Muscovite lieutenant Kostyaev, who began to fight when the Germans were driven from the Kuban and the Caucasus, quickly lost his youthful fervor. About the enduring wisdom of soldiers tells us "Shepherd and Cowgirl." The analysis of the chapter “Fight” brings us blood and then the military experience of the author himself: in order to fight and stay alive, you need to understand the war, not vainly not heroize, choose a relatively safe place in time and digging in corns on your hands. And jumping out of the trench, you should frantically shoot at the enemy, there is no other way. Lieutenant Boris, who understood this, fully identifies himself with the soldiers, feels their support.

Among the fighters there are three or four who are not able to drink, quickly hopping. However, you must drink. In order not to disturb the psyche from contemplating the faces of death. They drank more than others only the foreman, “Kum-fireman” (that is, a potential informer) Pafnutiev yes Kuma-Altai Karyshev and Malyshev from the village of Klyuchi. There is no doubt that such traits were seen at the front by Astafiev himself. “Shepherd and shepherdess” analyzes how this military collective is organized.

Cain and Abel

After all, there are not only people “from the plow”. An educated man, a former proofreader Korney Arkadevich Lantsov, who subtly feels the antagonism of war and the human soul, also serves in the platoon. When his reasoning after drinking moonshine dangerously touches the cult of personality, the foreman drives him out into the street - to "get out of touch".

Indeed, in the platoon there is a middle-aged man by the name of Pafnutiev, flaunting his ability to write denunciations. However, the foreman Mokhnakov, knowing this, in time psychologically affects the informer so that he does not show his dangerous "talent". True - this image was deliberately introduced into the outline of the story by Astafyev. “Shepherd and Cowgirl” analyzes the era and the characters - sexots are present in the work, as well as in life.

Kum-Altai

Altaians fight peasantly thoroughly. They are both calm and courageous, the strongest support of the platoon commander. Karyshev in a peasantly way comprehensively sets out the reason for which he is fighting. It does not even smell of ideology. He is a peasant, fighting for his native land, which the enemy is trying to take from him, a farmer (the main person on earth). Thus, the “Shepherd and shepherdess” tells us that this war has become popular. An analysis of the work leads us to the Tolstoy "club of the people's war", which is drifting and falling on the heads of the aggressors. And this deeply philosophical thought belongs to this man from the people that two things are holy on earth: motherhood, which gives birth to life, and tillage, which nourishes it. And this he uttered in hell of war!

Lieutenant pulls foreman

The most drunk Siberian Mokhnakov under the influence of vodka “wakes up courage”, when his colleagues fall asleep, he, wanting sex, pestering the mistress of the house. This attempt is thwarted by Lieutenant Boris, who summoned the foreman “to the street” and impassively promised to kill him if he tries again. Petty Officer, realizing that his own soul was hardened utterly, intuitively senses the truth of Boris. However, he also understands that his soul split by the war no longer feels high feelings. He goes to bed in the barn.

Lucy sees all this. She is the central female image in the story "Shepherd and Cowgirl." A brief analysis of this work will reveal its special role in the Astafiev pastoral. It is she who is the Astafievsky Gioconda. Her complex image is outlined by the author subtly and touchingly. A Russian woman who, by the will of fate, found herself in a Ukrainian village. Huge black eyes, a thin elongated intelligent face, a tight braid, restless hands. Her facial expressions, manner of speaking, guarded attention, insight testify to the richness of her soul. This image really adorns the Astafiev’s pastoral “Shepherd and Shepherdess”. Thanks to it, the content of the story is transformed from the plane of war into an aspect of human relations, human values, because love, unlike war, is eternal.

Love

In the third part, the writer tells us about beautiful love, about high feelings. “Well, why did we meet in the war?” - asks either beloved, or Almighty Lucy. She had to go through a lot during the occupation. Later, she will tell Boris in love with her about the perverted fascists and about the policemen who shamelessly bossed in these parts. From her lips we learn that she received a musical education. Books on jurisprudence, contrasting with the rural hut, testify to the second - legal - education. An unexpected touch - Lucy, being in a state of emotional excitement, lights up a shag like a man. Smoking women were not uncommon then, it also shows us the artistic authenticity and integrity of the story “Shepherd and Shepherdess”. An analysis of the text, however, shows that even light love that has arisen cannot immediately free Lucy’s soul from the pain caused by the war. However, the young woman feels the need to love, perceives herself wiser than her beloved, “a hundred years older than him”, feels maternal tenderness and pity for “her knight”, who is fighting for her homeland. A mutual deep and tender feeling flares up between young people, which they can no longer resist.

Again to the front

"In the gun, the military!" - the elder interrupts this idyll, passing the order of the company commander, Major Filkin. The company, having rested and received new equipment, advanced to the front line. Lucy went out on the winter road to accompany her beloved. The presentation of this moment by the author again acquires the features of epicity. A woman in love with her heart feels that something irreparable will happen. She, freezing in the cold, already after the departure of the military convoy continues to stand in prostration, whispering: "Come back alive!" And having returned home, she doesn’t even close the front door and cannot warm herself for a long time, feeling some mystical piercing cold.

The end of the tragedy

Our presentation of the content of the story “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess” ends. The analysis of the chapters, made by us, goes to its final stage - the chapter "Assumption". She logically ends the tragic pastoral of Astafyev. Iron millstones of war ruthlessly and indiscriminately grind people who oppose it with their human nature. Amazing in depth, the idea was expressed by foreman Mokhnakov that people are alive at the front by the fraternity. For some reason, death suddenly gained power over the heroes of Astafyev’s book ... How did it all begin? Perhaps with betrayal. A new special captain appeared in the regiment. Pafnutiev liked him, after whom Judas's inclinations were found. And he reported, cursed, and to the foreman “for looting”, and to the lieutenant “for communication with a suspicious woman”, and most of all - to the freethinking intellectual Korney Arkadevich Lantsov. The latter was soon taken allegedly to work in a frontline newspaper. However, Pafnutiev himself was the next to suffer. He, forgetting greed about vigilance, looked at trophies. Both legs were torn off by a mine explosion. In dying remorse, he told everything to the foreman. However, trouble never walks alone. When the soldiers from the platoon of Lieutenant Boris Kostyaev recklessly returned to the location after the wounded were taken to the medical battalion, the enemy sniper mortally wounded the Altai Karyshev. Soon Sergeant Mokhnakov fell ill, according to Astafyev, "with the disease that is not being treated in the trenches." Sparing his comrades, he began to live separately, eat separately, and stopped communicating. And in battle, the foreman began to look for death. He planned everything. Deciding to die heroically, Mokhnakov took out an anti-tank mine. He wore it like bread in his duffel bag. With her, he rushed under the advancing enemy tank. Soon the main character of the story, Lieutenant Boris Kostyaev, was wounded in the shoulder. By that time he was experiencing a severe mental crisis. Events flickered in his mind like a kaleidoscope. He never "got used to the war." Acquaintance with Lucy seemed unreal to him. The death of fighting comrades depressed.

Once in the medical battalion with a minor wound, the lieutenant was faced with the indifference of the senior nurse and the attending physician. He was treated formally. And the fact that at the same time it was necessary to heal his subtle and suffering soul, wounded by the war, was not discussed. In fact, the wound turned out to be not so harmless, and mental suffering - more substantial than one might have expected. The astute doctor, who realized that the health of the wounded in this hospital is deteriorating, ordered him to be transferred to another hospital. However, Boris did not reach. He died on the road. And in a hurry, his body was left in one of the cars at a standstill. The head of the polustanka along with the watchman buried the hero in a hastily dug pit. The drunken watchman exchanged the deceased's linen for a liter of vodka. After drinking and feeling, he cut out a pyramid-monument from the handle of a stretcher and drove it into the ground in the minds of the deceased.

Conclusion

The story ends with the scene with which it began. The gray-haired Lucy, whose bottomless eyes seemed to fade from age, lived on alone after the death of her beloved. Finding his grave, she accomplishes her plan - promises to come to him soon.

The pastoral closed, completed and the story "Shepherd and Cowgirl" analysis. Love, even tragic, conquers war.

The setting sun illuminates the steppe and the woman returning to the stop, dressed in an old-fashioned coat ...