Later, the work of L. N. Tolstoy aroused and still causes mixed opinions from both readers and literary critics. A special place in it is occupied by the so-called "folk stories", in which the great Russian writer cultivates the parable genre as the only possible genre of "allegorical affirmation of the truth due." Is it so? The story "What are people alive" will help to figure this out ...
“How are people alive”: introduction
Once upon a time there lived a Russian shoemaker on earth. He had a wife, and the house was full of children. He lived with a peasant in an apartment, for he had neither his house nor land. He earned bread only by shoe work. But bread in those days was expensive, and work was cheap. It turned out that the man earned, then eat.
They had a fur coat for two with his wife, and even that one became unusable. What to do? By autumn, little money had accumulated: three rubles were kept at home in the chest, and another five were behind the peasants in the village. Nothing to do, he went to the village. He walks along the road and thinks: “I’ll get my five rubles, add three more, and then certainly my sheepskin on a fur coat ...”
Yes, there it was. As the peasant came to the village, he left with nothing - only twenty kopecks were returned from all the money, and they did not give the sheepskin a loan. The shoemaker was preoccupied, drank vodka over the whole trifle he had gathered, and wandered back home. He goes and talks to himself. It comforts itself, sometimes it pity, it thinks how to live on. After a while, I got angry all over the world: they need, but I don’t need it, because they have their own house, their cattle, and bread, and I’m all here - I have earned it, I live ...
Old chapel
How does the plot of the work “How are people alive” unfolds further? The summary does not end there. For all these thoughts, he did not notice how he approached the chapel. He sees something whitening behind her. Looks closely, but can’t make out. Not a stone, not cattle ... It seems to be a man, but it’s very white. It comes closer, it is - a man who is completely naked, sits quietly, leaning against the wall. Come help or pass by? Come - what is he, who knows? Obviously, he didn’t find himself here in commendable affairs, and what to do with him, naked, not to take off his last “clothes” ... The shoemaker passed by, and suddenly his conscience spoke, “screamed” more than his old thoughts: What are you doing this, Semyon? The man was in trouble, he could get around, but you pass by, shaking for your wealth: “Ali got rich a lot?”
Semyon turned around, came closer and saw: a very young man, in strength, was not crippled, only one - he was very cold and scared to death, sitting quietly, leaning, leaning like, unable to raise his eyes ... Suddenly he woke up, turned and looked at Semyon . This look touched and touched Semyon. He threw off his caftan, “felt boots” and put it on: look, take a walk, warm yourself, take my stick, take care of yourself, if you are weak, and go to my house, “and these things will be dealt with without us.”
At the shoemaker’s house
They go easily, they say little. How a man got here - he can’t say, he just repeats - not here, no one offended him, he has nowhere to go, and anyway, because God punished him. Semyon marveled: he is soft at speeches, but speaks little about himself - hides something, on the other side - yes, you never know, any such things happen ...
The shoemaker and the wanderer came to the first home. As soon as they crossed the threshold, Matryona, the wife of Semyon, immediately sensed the wine spirit from her husband. Left in the canopy, it is so: a husband without a caftan, without a sheepskin on a new fur coat, and with him a peasant, some kind of prodigy without a hat and boots. What to do? Her heart snapped, she thinks, drank everything, and even got in touch with some kind of bad guy. It can be seen that he just entered, he froze and lowered his head down - that means he was afraid of something. Oh, this is not good ...
Semyon understood that his woman was very angry, but there was nothing to do: as he remembers his look at the chapel, he will “leap up in his heart”. He began to talk about the fact that the peasants didn’t have money in the village, they promised to return it later, but he saved the rest of the “little money”, didn’t drink, only twenty kopecks ... He continued to talk about the chapel, about how he met a naked man there, how he felt sorry for him, but Matryona didn’t listen, screams, swears, cannot stop ... She wanted to leave — to tear the evil, but stopped - she sees, this wanderer is sitting silently on the edge of the bench, his hands are on his knees, his head is down, everything is wrinkled, as if someone squeezes his throat. Simeon tells her: "Ali, is there no God in you?" I heard his words and took pity even more. She took out kvass, the last loaf of bread, handed a knife, spoons, and they began to have dinner. Suddenly the wanderer became amused, raised his eyes, looked at Matryona, looked intently, looked well, and smiled, for the first time in all time.
They ate, went to bed, but they can not sleep. As the woman remembers that there is no bread for tomorrow, that she has given the last “clothes”, so the heart is compressed. And he will remember his smile - it becomes more fun: well, we will be alive - we will be full ... And on the other side - we give, we will not skimp, but it will not return to us with good. So they fell asleep in these thoughts. We read further the work that L. Tolstoy created - “How are people alive.” The main events of the story are yet to come.
Shoemaking
Day after day, week after week - and so the year passed. The wanderer Mikhail lives with Semyon. Whatever work he undertakes, any one leaves him as if he had been doing it for a century: he repairs his boots and sews them himself. Fame went around the district that no one would make a boot so hard as Mikhail. More people began to come to Semen, and wealth began to increase. And Mikhail, as soon as the work is finished, sits down, does not say a word or half a word and looks up. He never goes outside, eats little, speaks little and does not laugh.
Arrival of the master
One winter, a gentleman in a fur coat came to the shoemaker, his face was red, poured, his neck was like a bull's face, as if from a different world. He arrived not just like that - he brought “shoe goods”, an expensive, German-quality one, and asks him to sew boots from him so that they can be worn, not torn or worn off for a year. If Semyon does the job well, then he will get ten rubles, and if the boots are "ordered" earlier than a year, he will be in prison. The shoemaker was frightened, and Mikhail nods to him, saying, take work and do not be shy. Semyon began to take measurements from the gentleman’s feet, he suddenly sees that the wanderer is looking into the corner empty behind the gentleman, he can’t take his eyes off, then he suddenly smiled, for the second time in all time and has brightened up the whole.
The barin got up, straightened his fur coat, once again warned the shoemaker so that he would not make trouble, and headed for the exit. Yes, I forgot to bend down, and hit my head on the jamb. After his departure, Mikhail set to work on a new one.
Time passes. A shoemaker comes up to him to take a look at what happened, looks - and from his German “product” not boots are sewn, but barefoot. He gasped, and only began to scold him, as someone knocks on the door. They opened: a boy comes in from that very gentleman, and says that the owner didn’t get to the house — he died halfway, and the lady asks urgently to sew the barefoot “dead”.
Tradeswoman with two girls
Two more years passed. They live as before, and the shoemaker does not rejoice at his employee. Once they sit at home. The boy, the son of Semyon, ran to the window and looked into the courtyard. Looking, a tradeswoman with two girls in fur coats and scarves is walking to their house. One leg is lame. Ran to the window and Michael. The shoemaker was surprised - he had never before looked out into the street.
He went into the house of the shoemaker, and asked the woman to sew boots for girls. We took measurements, got into a conversation, and found out that the babies are not relatives, but tricks. Six years ago, a disaster happened: a tree fell on his father in a grove. Just brought, he died. Buried on Tuesday. And the mother at the same time gave birth to twins, these very girls, but did not live even three days - she gave her soul to God. Yes, as she was dying, she crushed one of them. Here she turned her leg. Only orphans remained. Then they lived with her husband next door to him, and therefore they took the babies. She fed them with a breast, because, as she herself had just given birth. A year later, his own son died, and more God did not give children. And wealth began to grow, life improved. And so that it would be possible if it were not for these girls - “I only have wax in the candle”, that they are - the most dear of relatives. As they say, you can live without a father and mother, but without God ... L. Tolstoy (“How are people alive”) quietly leads the reader to the main idea of the work.
Confession of Michael
L. Tolstoy, “How are people alive” - a brief summary of the work further tells that during the whole conversation Mikhail did not take his eyes off the girls. He folded his hands in his lap, as before, looking up and smiling, the third time in all time. Suddenly he got up, took off his apron, bowed to Semyon and Matryona, and asked them to forgive him, just as God had forgiven him. And the husband and wife see that the light began to come from him. They knelt before him and asked to explain everything: who he is, why he smiled three times, and for which God forgave him ...
And he told them his story. He is an angel. One day, God sent him to a woman to take her soul. He flew in and sees that she gave birth to twins. They swarm around her, but she can’t get up, and they can’t put them on her chest. I saw an angel, and I knew right away why he had come to her. I prayed to him, they say, her husband was crushed by a tree, and no one was left with her, who would feed her children and put her on her feet? He felt sorry for the woman, put one baby to her chest, and the other - gave her in her arms. But the Lord returned the angel to earth, saying that after he takes the woman’s soul, he will know three truths: “what is in people, what is not given to people, and how people are alive.” The summary of the work does not end there.
The angel understood that when he knew them, then he would return to heaven. He took out the soul of his mother, a lifeless body fell over and crushed one of the twins. The leg was turned out. An angel rose above the village, but its wings fell off. One soul rushed to God, and Michael fell to the ground.
L. Tolstoy, “How are people alive”: three main words
The chapel was closed. He did not know until now that there is human life, that there is cold, hunger. Now, at once, he experienced all human adversities. Then he met Semyon, and realized that he would not help him, because he himself did not know how to feed and warm his wife, children and his children. He was desperate, but he sees, Semyon returns, and he did not recognize him: then death lived in his face, and now he recognized God in him. Then he met Matryona - the wife of Semyon, and she seemed worse than her husband - "she breathed a dead spirit." But the shoemaker reminded her of God, and at once she changed: she became alive, and in her he recognized God. At that moment the angel recognized the first truth - that there is love in people, and then smiled for the first time.
Then a gentleman in a fur coat arrived at the shoemaker's house. As soon as he crossed the threshold, he saw Mikhail behind him the angel of death, and realized that the master would die before sunset. So, it is not allowed for people to know what they need for their body. This was the second truth. He was delighted with the second word and smiled.
A few more years passed, and God still did not reveal the last truth to him. But here came a merchant with girls. He recognized them right away and was surprised indescribably. After all, he thought that it was impossible for children to live without native parents, but, it turns out, an immensely strange woman raised and loved them. Then he saw a living God in her face, and accepted the third truth - a person lives not by caring for himself, but by love. So he smiled a third time.
The story "How are people alive" ends with the miraculous ascension of Michael to heaven to God. An angel sang a song of praise to God, the whole house shook, the ceiling parted, wings spread behind the angel behind his back, and he ascended into heaven ...
Once again, I would like to remind you that the article was about the work of L. Tolstoy, “How are people alive.” The summary cannot convey that “gospel spirit” that is invisibly present in every line, in every letter of the story, which strikes unexpectedly and irresistibly. Therefore, reading the work in full is simply necessary.