When the reader, as a rule, prepared and knowledgeable, hears the name of Andrei Platonov, then he immediately recalls “Pit” and “Chevengur”. And with them comes to mind the difficult charm of the Platonic syllable, which cannot be felt right away, since its language envelops the reader like a narcotic dope, gradually, and draws it in like a marshy swamp. It is no longer clear whether a person likes his books, or simply cannot get out of the bizarre, death-saturated literary space of a Russian classic of the 20th century. All this is also true of small literary forms in which Platonov does not change his style. "The third son" (including a summary) is another proof of this.
Plot
In a small provincial town, the old man dies with his wife, and he gives telegrams to different parts of the Soviet Union to his sons (he has six in all) to come, help with the funeral and say goodbye to his mother.
First, the eldest son arrives at the scene, then behind him and everyone else in a short period of time. Only the third son comes with the child - he brings a little daughter with him. With great mastery, he described in the story all that relates to the death of his mother, Platonov. “The Third Son” (a brief summary only partially conveys this) is in this sense a slightly creepy work.
Then there was a funeral service in a house where no one particularly believed in God, so the whole procedure took on a surrealistic and slightly absurd character: the priest read prayers, the sons stood guard (none of them prayed) over the mother's tomb and wept quietly, stingily dropping tears. At that time, the priest really wanted a closed fraternal society, he wanted to feel involvement in what was happening, he wanted to talk with men about socialism and its construction.
Grandfather put all the brothers in one room, and he lay down with his granddaughter in another. After some time, laughter, childish fuss and songs were heard from the brothers' room. And grandfather cried with his granddaughter. Then the girl stopped crying about her grandmother, whom she did not know at all, and grandfather could not calm his quiet tears.
Only one was silent in the brothers' room - the third son. In it, soon the fuss and noise ceased. The door opened, a third son came out of the room, approached the mother’s tomb, wanted to lean on it in the dark or grab it, but made an awkward movement and pulled the coffin off the table, then lost consciousness. The other brothers rushed to his aid. There were no more songs or fun. The brothers scattered around the house and yard and howled quietly about the dead mother. These events are heartily described by Platonov. The Third Son (a brief summary of this) is a small but powerful composition.
Death as an everyday phenomenon and as an existential event
But the subject matter is not limited to the content of this article. When they talk and write about Platonov, then there is always the temptation to look beyond the plot outline of a work and see something behind it. We succumb to this temptation, passing from retelling to an existential analysis of the work written by Platonov. “The Third Son” (a brief summary cannot hide this) has the same research as the entire work of the author.
Until the third brother left the room, death seemed to all the assembled people, except, perhaps, the granddaughter and grandfather, as an ordinary event, and perhaps even ordinary. Well, yes, mother died, so what? After all, the life of sons is going on. Life ends and ends with death - this is completely normal. The brothers did not see each other for a long time, and it is not known when they will meet again, except at the funeral of their father. So why not fool around.
There is logic in this, because there are the basic tenets of everyday thinking. If you recall, then rarely does anyone perceive the death of the elderly as a genuine tragedy. It is not uncommon that older people die and young people live. But, as a rule, they don’t reveal this “custom”, but rather hide it behind the ritual: they rush to the coffin, howl and sob over the dead man so that no one will realize that in fact everyone doesn’t care.
Death becomes an existential event when the third son, with his "quiet word" stops the joy of the brothers, leaves the room to touch his mother for the last time in the dark and loses consciousness from an excess of feelings. And then everyone else understands that all this is for real - the mother is no more and will never be. The swoon of one of the heroes tears the fabric of everyday life, exposing the whole tragic essence of death.
Such is the existential interpretation of the event of the death of the old woman in the work “The Third Son”. Andrei Platonov is a great master of not only words, but also philosophical thought.
Contrast of life and death in The Third Son
It is an amazing thing, but at first, even if the deceased is in the house, the feeling of tragedy is conveyed only in the unique language of Platonov, while her sons do not feel it. For them, death is part of life. But when the third brother loses consciousness, the rest understand that death is irreversibility, something completely different than life. Such a discovery, of course, scares the heroes (and with them the reader). Thoroughly conveyed the feeling of a tragic gap between the life and death of Platonov. Andrei Platonov “The Third Son” built on the contrast between the routine of life and the irreversibility and abnormality of death. This work of the Russian classic is worth reading. In addition, it is perfect for the first acquaintance with the work of A.P. Platonov.