C. Aitmatov managed to write a chaste story about true love. This task is impossible for some, but it was a success for the Soviet classic. The work “The First Teacher” by Aitmatov (brief summary) fell into our attention.
Artist and torment of creativity
The story begins with a creative search for an artist who cannot find a plot for a new painting. In a melancholy state, he recalls his childhood, the Kazakh steppes, his native ail and two poplars, on which he played as a child. The master dreams of visiting his native places and, perhaps, defeating an unexpected creative crisis. And then he (very opportunely) receives a letter from home: a new school is opening in his native village. The artist understands - here it is! Fate itself holds out his hand. This is how Aitmatov's “First Teacher” begins (the summary, of course, cannot contradict the full version).
Holiday in aile
At such a momentous event as the opening of the school, many people come together. But the main guest of the celebration is the artist and academician Altynay Sulaymanovna Sulaymanova in her years. The holiday is fun. Everyone is joking. The main object of jokes is Dyushen. Now he is a postman, and once the old man was a school teacher, although he himself read and wrote with great difficulty (this is what the audience laughed at). This was at a time when the secondary educational institution was only being designed, and the population of the village could not imagine why the children should study at all, because many generations have lived this way - without education, only with their own labor. Dyushen was actually a genuine revolutionary, and now he was laughed at by those to whom he provided not a brilliant, but still at least some future.
Only Altynay Sulaimanovna Sulaimanova did not laugh, apparently realizing the historical role of the current postman in the fate of a single ail, but the reason was not only that. It turns out that he played a huge role in her personal fate. But the reader will know about this a little later, but for now a celebration is unfolding in front of him. However, Altynay is sad at the holiday, looking out the window at the poplars, remembering something of his own. Then old Dysheng brings telegrams with congratulations from those who received education in the ail. The postman himself does not take part in the holiday - he has many letters and deeds.
For some reason, Altynay becomes terribly ashamed; she hurries to Moscow, citing cases. She is escorted by the artist and asks if everything is in order with her, if she does not hold grudges against someone. Altynay says that she should be offended only by herself.
Confession Altynay
Something is torn from the soul of a middle-aged woman who has achieved a lot in life, given how she started. Altynay Sulaymanovna Sulaymanova decides to share this with the artist and writes him a large letter, which becomes the basis of Aitmatov's “First Teacher”, the summary of which approaches the main one.
Altynay - an illiterate orphan of fourteen years old
Altynay’s personal story begins in 1924, when a strange man in black (he wore an overcoat of this particular color) came to Kazakh steppe ail Kurkureu and said that he would create a school in it and teach children in it. Local aksakals were doubtful of such an undertaking, because they generally did not understand the benefits of education for life in the steppe. Dyushen was adamant, so they waved his hand at him and allowed him to do whatever he wanted, but at his own expense.
Then the convinced Komsomolets decided that the school would be on a hill in the same room where there used to be a stable for one bai.
The future academician of the USSR was then simply called Altynay, and she did not even dream of anything like that. She lived with her aunt and uncle, her parents, unfortunately, died and doomed the girl to the role of Cinderella in a strange family.
Aunt is quarrelsome, and uncle is laconic. Sometimes Altynai received a slap in the face for misconduct. Aunt, of course, offended her. In other words - a classic of the genre. Aitmatov Chingiz Torekulovich wrote a wonderful story of the Soviet Cinderella in a realistic manner, devoid of any fabulousness.
Knowledge as a promise of a better life
It does not matter that the “temple of knowledge" was located in the former stable, which still needed to be worked on properly. Children in the village worked. Their duties included, among other things, collecting dung (it was used as fuel in the winter). The path to the "workplace" of the children ran just through the mound and the stable (future school). When the girls (it was they who collected the dung) were going home from the “shift”, they passed the school and saw a young man ennoble the building of the former horse parking so that it would be suitable for teaching children.
His eyes lit up, and Altynai’s soul was kindled only at the sight of the school, while the rest of her “colleagues” were indifferent to Duishen’s undertaking. Apparently, the girl already understood that school was an opportunity to escape from captivity of aunt’s beatings and the general dullness of life in the ail, so she invited her friends to pour all the dung collected during the day at school so that they would not freeze in winter. However, the girls just twisted their fingers at the temple and went home, and Altynay despised the possible dangers and left the entire daily “harvest” in the “temple”. Of course, the girl was scared, because for such an act they could severely punish her at home, but she did not care - this was the first act of a free spirit in her life.
After Altynay committed a courageous act, she returned to the place of gathering dung and worked until dark so that the aunt's reprisal was not so cruel. Of course, she collected very little and paid for her courage. Aitmatov Chingiz Torekulovich in “The First Teacher” created in some way a monument to the courage of children.
The thorny path to knowledge
A lot of effort was required from the children and the teacher to learn, and this is not about moral strength, but about physical ones. Dyshen literally conveyed to himself to school those children who could not walk in bad weather themselves. That was the mentor among the guys! The work “The First Teacher” by Aitmatov (a brief summary convinces us of this) can be regarded as a symbol of the persistence and inflexibility of the human will.
Unexpected marriage of Altynay and beating of a teacher
And so some time has passed. But Aunt Altynay was still stuck with the fact that the girl was going to school, but was not helping her with the housework. And she came up with an insidious plan: to marry a girl to rich highlanders. There is benefit everywhere: firstly, money, and secondly, in the mountains, when Altynay is in the rank of “second wife,” she will not need a letter very much. Thus, the evil aunt will still break the spirit of a proud child!
Therefore, one day when Altynay returned from school, she found her aunt in an unusually good mood, and her uncle was drunk. He "under the fly" played board games with fat men of disgusting appearance. In other words, a holiday reigned in the house.
Altynay realized that she was being married. She ran and told everything to her teacher, and he told her not to worry about anything, continued to go to school and lived with her distant relatives who lived in the same ail. The image of Duyshen is saturated with great human courage. We hope that this is what Ch.Aitmatov intended it to be. “The First Teacher” is an inspiring story.
But the aunt was not a miss either. Somehow, she took strong guys with her and broke the calm and benevolent atmosphere of an ordinary school lesson. She decided to take Altynay by force. The teacher, of course, tried to stop them, but could not. His ribs and arms were broken, he was severely beaten, and the girl was thrown over the saddle and taken to the mountains.
Salvation Altynay. Final story
Altynay woke up in the yurt of the chief kidnapper and realized that she had been "dishonored." The girl tried to get out herself, but she alone did not succeed. Then the Soviet police came along with a bandaged teacher, arrested the rapist villain and freed Altynay. Then there was a reverent and touching meeting at the station, when Duishen escorted Altynay to a large city - Tashkent, where she went to study in a boarding school.
They corresponded for a while. Altynay begged her teacher to come to her, told him that she loved him and was waiting. But instead, he simply cut off all contacts with her so as not to interfere with her studies.
Despite all the successes of the girl from the ail, for Altynay, breaking up with Duyshen was a deep psychological trauma, she never recovered from her. Already in adulthood, Altynay seemed to see her lover in various unexpected places. But these were only mirages of unhappy consciousness.
From everything we can conclude that this is a work of love (we are, of course, talking about the composition “The First Teacher”). The main characters are Dyushen and Altynay.
The venerable academician ends his letter to the artist with the assurance that he will surely ensure that the new school is named after his first teacher.
In turn, the artist not only touched a wonderful and touching story, but also found a storehouse of plots for new paintings. The narrative ends with a picture: the master stands at the window wide open and thinks about what he read, inspired by the hope of new creative achievements.
This turned out to be a brief retelling of The First Teacher, an essay written by Chingiz Aitmatov. His works are invariably amazing both in performance and in content. We hope that this article will encourage the reader to become acquainted with other works of the author.