This story was written around the end of the 30s - beginning of the 40s, but was published only in 1962. At first the title of the work was "The Good Cow". A. Platonov in the forties attempted to publish his creation in the collections "All Life", "Toward the Sunset" and others. The book “All Life” includes this work along with other stories: “Ivanov’s Family”, “Grandma’s Hut”, “July Thunderstorm”, “A Flower on the Ground”, “Yushka”, “Nikita”.
Summary
"Cow" Platonov tells us about the following events. The calf was taken from the cow. She still had to take care of him according to the law of nature, but he fell ill, and he was taken to a veterinarian. There the owner was offered a lot of money, and he sold the calf. After that, the cow could not find a place for herself - she could not imagine life without her child. Vasya Rubtsov supported the animal in every possible way, fed the cow various delicacies. Once she ran away, but soon returned. The boy took care of the cow, he felt very sorry for her. The animal felt very bad. The boy’s father, who sold the calf, already began to regret his act. Once the cow left and remained standing on the rails when the train was traveling. The driver did not stop on time and thus killed the animal. Feeling guilty, he gives his father Vasya money so that he buys a new cow. Animal meat is salted and sold. The boy buys new clothes with the proceeds. A child at school writes an essay in which he talks about a cow, about his love for her and about how she gave the boy's family everything: son, milk, skin, meat, bones and viscera, "she was kind." This is a summary.
Platonov’s “cow” requires a detailed analysis, since the events unfolding in the work serve only as a background in order to pose and resolve a number of questions and convey the author’s thoughts about life.
Primary conflict
The situation of confrontation between human death is one of the most stable in the prose of this author. She and in the story "The Cow" is the main conflict. The plot-forming function of the work is performed by the motive of overcoming death, it determines the focus and selection of vital material, the nature of thoughts and actions of the young hero. Vasya confronts death. Platonov’s children, in general, deny her not only the very fact of their birth. By labor and love they increase the vital "substance".
Vasya Rubtsov (Platonov, "The Cow")
The heroes of this work are not numerous, among the main ones only a small boy and a cow can be distinguished. However, their relationship is a very interesting material. In the story of Andrei Platonovich Platonov, we meet Vasya Rubtsov, the son of a traveling watchman, as already mentioned in the "summary" section. Platonov's “Cow” is a work in which a rather detailed image of this boy is given. The author depicts the protagonist. He was very kind, studied in the fourth grade and attended a school located five kilometers from the house. Despite the fact that it was far to go, the boy loved classes, because, reading books and listening to the teacher, he imagined the whole world that he did not yet know. It seemed to the boy that all people and countries had long been waiting for him to grow up and come to them. Rubtsov always wanted to learn as much as possible about the subject he was interested in.
Once, his mother asked him to meet a train arriving at night. The hero immediately realized that something was wrong with him: the train skidded. Vasya offered his help - he began to rake a handful of sand and pour it on the rails. The driver really liked this hardworking boy.
Vasya loved a cow, he often stroked and caressed it, he gave food, watered and cleaned it in the barn. The animal was a real hard worker. The boy's father often plowed the earth on it.
Vasya was also hardworking. He did not work because he was forced to, but because he enjoyed it. No wonder they say that labor ennobles people. In his essay on the future life, this boy wrote that he wants the people of our country to benefit from him.
Image of a steam locomotive
For Platonic heroes, world outlook is always tragic, but at its core is a huge love for the world. This feeling is represented in the work in two guises, which form two stages of development of the child. The first can be called, using the definition of the author himself, "love of the distant." Her symbol is the image of a steam locomotive in the work, to which the boy's dreams and hopes are correlated. This love, by its nature, is abstract-book. She often turns out to be passing, fleeting, like the trains swiftly rushing past Vasya. Such love is not always beneficial. It is not enough for spiritual growth, but it is needed, because this attitude towards the world awakens warmth and sensitivity in Vasya.
Image of a cow
The image of this animal has already been mentioned in the "summary" section. Platonov’s cow is not in vain even externally portrayed as human. It seems that the author wants to emphasize that she is no different from us. The image of this animal is recreated in association with a portrait of a person: kind eyes, a large thin body. She is the personification of the miracle of life, strength, hidden in weakness, external exhaustion. The motive of kinship is connected with the cow, which unites all living beings. In caring for her, the boy finds completely different, deeper relationships.
This selfless animal and the boy Vasya are the main characters of the work created by Andrei Platonov. The “Cow,” a summary of which was presented in our article, is a story about their relationship. He teaches us kindness and love for our neighbor.
Literary criticism
Platonov's work “The Cow” was met very negatively in the literary world of that time. Soviet critics were outraged by the writer’s steady interest in the themes of orphanhood, death, the tragedy of being, and Andrei Platonovich’s desire to restore moral values (compassion, love, universal kinship and others) was regarded as "foolishness", "revision of Christianity". Significant in this regard is the sharp rejection that caused the final “Cows” among opponents Platonov. For example, Subotsky believed that Vasya’s work in the end of the story is essentially meaningless, false-significant, and sounds parody. Y. Libedinsky did not understand why the author needed to combine "idiotic reasonings" about the kindness of a cow with such a serious feeling as patriotism. The consequence of these claims is the disappearance of this theme of the essay from most publications in which the posthumous story of Platonov's “Cow” came out. The boy in them writes on the topic "from his life."
Conclusion
However, Platonov’s story “The Cow” ( see the summary of the work above) is not at all about the fact that Vasya understood that all living things are subject to death. He is about how a child’s soul resists her. The boy knows about the existence of death before the death of the calf and cow. He calls out "don't die!" to a young man whom he noticed in a window past a passing train. Platonov focuses on the boy’s attitude to death as something that should not be on earth, his desire to act contrary to her (“do not forget”, “remember”).
Vasya is attracted and worried by the world around him. He is fascinated by the distance. The call of space and gave S.G. Semenova interprets as a revival of children's, naive, unbridled grief over the dead.