Eternal questions about the meaning of life, about achieving a dream permeated many works of Andrei Platonov. A summary of the "Colorful Butterfly" (one of the writer's stories), as well as its full version, includes reflections on this topic. Such "eternal" questions were very relevant during the heyday of the writer's work. They are reflected in the legend "Colorful Butterfly". Although the story is short enough, you can refer to the summary of Platonov’s “Colorful Butterfly”.
Path to the unknown
At the beginning of the story, we learn about the life of the old woman Anisya. Like the legend itself, a brief summary of Platonov’s “Colorful Butterfly” talks about her long and lonely life. But she was not always alone: her son Timosha grew up, a very restless boy. They lived in the Caucasus, by the sea. There were mountains nearby, and every day he ran there to play and catch butterflies. And when he brought them home, he was always amazed: why do they no longer take to the air? To this, his mother answered him that for the life of a butterfly she needed to fly, but now she can’t do it - the boy wiped pollen from his wings.
Every day Timosha ran away to walk in the mountains along the same path. An unknown person laid it: he had no affection for anyone, he had no children. Earthly existence weighed on him, and he went along this path through the highest mountain into the sky and did not return from there.
Unbridled desire
In the second part of the summary of Platonov’s “Colorful Butterfly,” we learn how Anisya’s son left. Once he saw an unusual butterfly the size of a bird. Her wings were strewn with flowers, completely new to the boy. It seemed quieter that someone was calling him, and the voice comes from the wings of this creature.
Of course, the boy really wanted to catch her, but the butterfly flew away from him further and further. She did not pay any attention to him, did not answer him. But still, Timosha really wanted to catch her, the biggest, the very last. His desire to catch a butterfly turned out to be stronger than the desire to return home to his mother. At the end of the path, the boy saw the largest star, the most beautiful, and beyond it - the whole sky. Stepping a little more, he found himself at the bottom of the abyss.
The road to homecoming
In the next part of the summary of Platonov’s “Colorful Butterfly” we will find out where the boy Timosha got. And he found himself at the bottom of the abyss. There were so many butterflies, similar to the one he was running for. But they ceased to interest him. He was bored to look at them. Timosha really wanted to return to his mother, but for this he needed to pave the way through the mountain from which he fell. Without ceasing, he beat a stone against stones, day and night, without even going out to those alluring butterflies. Less and less Timosha heard the voice of his mother, and from that grew his desire to return home.
At the same time, Anisya was waiting for her son every day. Looking at the stars in the evenings, she quietly called to him, saying: “No, let everything be, then you will be.”
The power of maternal love
In the last part of the summary of Plato’s “Colorful Butterfly”, the reader will find out how Timosha returned to his mother. He was blinded by the darkness in the cave, but his mother’s voice still heard deep inside him. He did not rest a day, he worked all the way until one day he heard the familiar sound of a bucket. Timosha realized that she had thrown him into Anisya’s well and cried out to her, but she did not recognize her son’s voice. Many years have passed, her once small and mischievous boy turned into a real old man. Having embraced him, her whole life passed to him with love - Timosha again became the same little boy. Feeling the last notes of happiness, Anisya died.
The end of the summary of A.P. Platonov’s “Colorful Butterfly” vividly demonstrates the power of maternal love and teaches that no matter what goal a person sets for himself, it is important to remember that maternal love is the strongest in the world.