What genre of work is childhood bitter. “Childhood” by Maxim Gorky as an autobiographical story

Maxim Gorky's story "Childhood" is autobiographical. It is difficult to say whether this work is a memoir, or whether the author simply creatively comprehends and describes the events of his childhood. In any case, it is known for sure that the events described in “Childhood” actually happened to Maxim Gorky (more precisely, with Alyosha Peshkov, this is the writer’s autonym).

The story of a child’s soul in the story “Childhood”

After the death of his father, the boy and his mother move to Nizhny Novgorod (later named Gorky in honor of the writer) to live with his mother’s family. The new way of life came as a real shock to the little child (Alyosha was not even ten years old at the time).

His grandfather on his mother’s side was a truly patriarchal and domineering man; he held his entire family, his wife, his now adult children, and grandchildren in his fist.

Alyosha, accustomed to being raised by a gentle father and a calm, gentle mother, is frightened by his grandfather: he forces the boy to memorize Orthodox prayers, promising to flog him with rods in case of disobedience. But Alyosha’s parents never beat him...

But it’s not only the stern grandfather who shocks Alyosha. It was a strong shock for him to know that his late father was disliked by his grandfather, that his mother had married against the will of his parents.

Naturally, for the impressionable soul of a child, listening to his grandfather speak disparagingly about his father, who had just died and was therefore even more loved, was unbearably painful. Moreover, the boy could not understand the reasons for such an attitude.

Another shock that was imprinted in Alyosha’s memory was the sudden death from childbirth of Aunt Natalya, the wife of one of his mother’s brothers. In the first weeks of his life in his grandfather’s house, Aunt Natalya taught the boy the alphabet and the law of God, affectionately correcting his mistakes and trying to hide Alyosha’s failures from his stern grandfather.

Despite the fact that Alyosha had already seen death up close (after all, his father died, and just a few days later the newborn Bart Maxim), he is shocked by the death of his aunt. More precisely, not so much the death itself, but the calm and even slightly indifferent attitude of the family towards it.

According to his grandfather’s worldview, a woman is still not a completely full-fledged person, and death in childbirth is commonplace. Moreover, everything is God’s will. However, Alyosha is still too young and impressionable to understand such things.

In the end, Alyosha will face another shock and blow of fate. After some time, when he had already settled into his grandfather’s house, his mother died of illness. After this, the boy’s life becomes much more difficult, because the mother was almost the only person in the house who tried to protect the child from the stern grandfather.

Now, having become an orphan, Alyosha is no longer needed by anyone. The grandfather decides that the boy is already old enough to earn his own piece of bread, and sends him “to the people.” Thus, with the death of his mother, “Childhood” ends in Alyosha’s life.

The work “Childhood” reveals episodes from the difficult childhood of Alexei Peshkov. He published under the pseudonym M. Gorky.

His father died early, and not by natural causes. His grandmother gave him a lot. She always tried to cheer up her grandson. He was afraid of his mother. She was a closed, strict woman who did not give warmth to her son.

From an early age he learned cruelty and hatred. All this was practiced by my grandfather. His views on education contradicted his father's views. And the little boy had to learn all the methods of punishment from his mother’s family.

He had to memorize prayers that he did not understand. Their meaning was not explained to him. His life has completely changed. Numerous relatives influenced the child’s character.

By school age he knew poverty. He had no textbooks, so he was suspended from classes. And in the house itself there were constant beatings of the brothers’ grandmother. There was a feeling of cruelty on their part, since he could not answer them. And he is sent “to the people” so that he can provide for himself.

In the work, the author wants to show as a red thread that the best years are childhood. They leave an imprint on the developing personality for life. And it is very important how the child’s body grows. What fills his soul day after day. What does he learn and what does he know?

And so, children need to be around individuals who impart a feeling of tenderness, spiritual joy, empathy and compassion to their neighbors.

A child is an individual and requires respectful treatment.

All good, pure particles must be placed into children's pure souls. Teach good deeds and the ability to help. Do not refuse to help your neighbors.

The most important are the traditions laid down in the family. The ability to forgive each other, take care of each other. Live with everyone in peace and harmony.

It is very important that the child has everything necessary for learning. And he saw more good deeds, pure thoughts and heard beautiful words in the world. He developed his talent, and did not despair and sink to the bottom. I tried to resist evil and fought against bad deeds. He respected his mother and appreciated her. After all, she gave him life, fed and raised him.

Analysis of the work Gorky's Childhood

Writer Maxim Gorky dedicated a huge part of his work to children. He didn’t just write children’s stories about pleasant and sweet moments in life, but wrote about the difficulties that not only adults, but also children sometimes face. And in the work “Childhood” we see how the author’s real life situations are described. The entire internal monologue of this work allows us to understand the inner world of the hero. This story is autobiographical, making it clear that the author went through all the experiences and life situations through himself and perhaps once encountered them in real life.

In our understanding, childhood is a joyful and carefree time, but in this work the author gives the hero adult problems, which are very often reflected in his future life. The path to the formation and development of personality is very competently revealed.

It all starts with memories of a happy childhood with parents, then the death of a loved one and the first steps on the adult stage of the journey. The story is told in the first person, from the little boy Alyosha. The entire storyline and all the minor characters reveal the feelings of the little hero and his positive qualities. They also complement the boy's image. After moving to live with his grandparents in this strange life, he has to learn prayers and read the Bible. No matter how much he likes it in this house, he finds like-minded people: master Gregory and apprentice Tsyganok. This gives us a deeper understanding of the boy’s life experiences and feelings, just as it is difficult for him after moving into unfamiliar walls.

The feelings and love for the grandmother are especially clearly expressed. All these experiences make the boy look at the world with children's eyes, and with more meaningful eyes as adults. Sometimes the words of little Alyosha suggest that he has already experienced many life situations. But in such situations, adult support is very important. In this work, the grandmother played this role. Her voice, quiet stories, eyes - all this helped the boy wake up from all his problems. Reading this image creates the feeling that the grandmother’s eyes are glowing with warmth and love. She becomes his best friend. We see grandmother as the complete opposite of grandfather, who is always ready to help. She worries about the severity of her grandfather, knows how to appreciate the beauty around her, and all the people around her take advantage of this. It is this image that was created for the boy, in order to protect him from problems in life, and helps him stay afloat even in the most difficult times.

The situation is described very contrastingly when the grandfather beats our hero for ruining the tablecloth. This incident opened the boy's eyes to the character of people and the pain and indifference surrounding him. And here the grandmother acts as an angel, she grabs the beaten Alyosha in her arms. The author very accurately endows the hero with experiences from his world, making it clear that the author’s thoughts and impressions are very important to him. Even when they become poor, Alyosha, begging, brings all the change to his grandmother.

Throughout the story, the author teaches us compassion for other people's human problems, to be kinder to the world around us and to give kindness and love. It also teaches, despite all the difficulties, to grow responsive and kind. It especially says that you need to be kinder to your neighbor and never refuse to help unknown people.

Several interesting essays

Cinema and theater are two independent forms of art. Each of them depicts life using their own means. Theater appeared long before the advent of cinema. Even in Ancient Greece, the tragedies of Sophocles and Aeschylus were staged.

Life without a dream... is this possible? I think no. We all live in dreams, and more. Agree, in childhood every person dreamed of something, right? The downside to a childhood dream is that it's probably more like a funny joke

Childhood is the first time in the life of every person. “We all come from childhood,” said A. Saint-Exupery, and he was right: indeed, a person’s character, his destiny largely depends on how he lived his childhood.

Russian writer Maxim Gorky (real name - Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov) also believed that it is from childhood that a person grows up “sensitive to the suffering of others,” and this happens because he remembers his own suffering, and also because “with a child’s clear and bright gaze “He sees the world around him, learns to sympathize with the grief of others and to appreciate and respond kindly to affection and love.

That is why in 1913 Maxim Gorky began work on his famous trilogy, the first part of which, like Leo Tolstoy, was called “Childhood”. This is an autobiographical story in which the writer recreated the atmosphere of the house where he himself had to grow up. Having lost his father and mother early, at the age of 11 he found himself “in the community,” that is, he began working for strangers to earn his living. This is a difficult test, it is no coincidence that he dedicated his work to his son so that he would remember the harsh years of the late 19th century.

When, after the death of his father, Alyosha Peshkov (the author named all the characters with real names from life), together with his mother and grandmother, ended up in Nizhny Novgorod, in the parental home of his mother, the “strange life” that he began here began to remind him of a “harsh fairy tale,” “well told by a kind but painfully truthful genius.”

The boy first encountered the concept of enmity between relatives: he felt that “his grandfather’s house was filled with the hot fog of mutual enmity of everyone with everyone.” And the grandfather also whipped Alyosha until he lost consciousness for trying to paint a tablecloth, after which the boy “was ill” for a long time, but it was then that he developed a restless attention to people, as if his heart had been “torn off the skin,” and it became “unbearably sensitive to any offense.” and pain, our own and others’.”

Despite the fact that Alexey often faces injustice, he grew up kind and sensitive, because his first nine years of life were spent in an atmosphere of love, when he lived in Astrakhan with his parents. Now he has a hard time in his grandfather’s house: he is forced to go to school, learn prayers, the meaning of which he does not understand, and sort the Psalter into storage. But there are people in the house to whom Alexey is drawn. This is the blind master Grigory, whom the boy sincerely pities, and the apprentice Tsyganok, for whom his grandfather prophesies a great future.

However, the prophecies were not destined to come true: the Gypsy died, crushed by the weight of the oak cross, which Uncle Yakov vowed to carry on his shoulders and place on the grave of his wife, who was always beaten by him and sent to the next world ahead of time. The entire weight of the cross fell on Gypsy’s shoulders, and when he stumbled, the uncles “threw down the cross in time,” and so the foundling died, who, according to the grandfather, “stood in the crosshairs of his brothers,” so they killed him.

The series of misfortunes in the Kashirins' house continues: the workshop burns down in a fire, Aunt Natalya goes into premature labor from fright, and she dies, and with her the baby. The grandfather sells the house, allocating the corresponding part of the inheritance to his sons - Mikhail and Yakov.

Having a lot of guests in a new house is also a way to make money. The Kashirins themselves are forced to huddle in the basement and attic. There was a lot of interesting and funny things in the house for the boy, but sometimes he was choked by an irresistible melancholy, he seemed to be filled with something heavy and lived for a long time, “having lost his sight, hearing and all feelings, blind and half-dead.” Such sensations can hardly be called childish.

In such an environment, adult support is important for any child. Alexei’s mother, Varvara, at one time got married “with a hand-rolled cigarette”, without the blessing of her father, so she was glad to escape from the suffocating atmosphere of the family, about which the grandfather himself told his grandmother: “She gave birth to animals.” The grandmother, speaking about her difficult fate, said that she “gave birth to eighteen children,” but God fell in love: he took everything and took her children as angels. The survivors were not particularly happy: Mikhail and Yakov constantly squabbled over the inheritance, Varvara, remaining a widow, tried to rebuild her personal life, leaving her son in the care of her grandparents. But the second marriage did not work out either: the husband, much younger than her, began to have affairs, and the boy’s mother, having given birth to two more sons, turned from a tall, stately woman into a withered old woman, mute, looking somewhere past, and soon died of consumption.

Therefore, a special role in the formation of the worldview of young Alyosha Peshkov was assigned to his grandmother. Already at the first acquaintance, she seemed to him like a storyteller, because “she spoke, somehow singing the words in a special way.” It seemed to the boy that she was glowing from within, through her eyes, with an “unquenchable, cheerful and warm light,” as if he had been sleeping before her, “hidden in the dark,” and she woke her up, brought her into the light, tied everything around into a continuous thread and immediately stood on a lifelong friend, the closest, most understandable and dear person.

The relationship with his grandfather was different: Alyosha thought that he did not like him and was watching him with his keen and intelligent eyes. After Alyosha was severely punished by his grandfather and became seriously ill, his grandfather came to him, sat on his bed and talked about his difficult youth - he had to be a barge hauler. Difficult trials embittered grandfather Kashirin, made him suspicious and hot-tempered. He, small and dry, even at almost 80 years old, still beat his grandmother, who was larger and stronger than him.

There were many losses in Alyosha’s life, but communication with good people helped him survive the struggle for existence. So one man with the strange nickname Good Deed suggested that the boy learn to write, so that he could later write down everything that his grandmother said. Perhaps this episode was taken from the life of the author himself, which served as an impetus for the future craft of the writer. In any case, it was the genre of the autobiographical story and the story from the perspective of the main character that allowed Maxim Gorky to convey all the tragedy of the life of a little man who was entering life and was already, to some extent, rejected by it.

In 1913, Maxim Gorky wrote the first part of the famous trilogy. “Childhood” (contents and analysis are given in the article) is a work about the formation of the personality of the main character Alyosha Peshkov, the prototype of which was the author himself. It is narrated in the first person, which allows you to fully experience the feelings and experiences of a boy who finds himself in an environment that is unusual for him, which nevertheless contributed to his formation and maturation.

Features of the genre

“Childhood” by Maxim Gorky is an autobiographical story. It is based on facts from the life of the writer himself; he even leaves the characters their real names. At the same time, this is a work of art, since the author’s task is not just to tell about himself as a child, but to rethink what happened to him from the position of an adult, to evaluate the events. According to the author, his fate is not unique: there are many people existing in that “close, stuffy circle of impressions” in which Alyosha was in the Kashirins’ house. And this truth must be “known to the root” in order to be wrested from the memory and soul of man, from the very Russian way of life, “heavy and shameful.” Thus, speaking about himself and at the same time describing the “leaden abominations of life,” Gorky expresses the author’s position regarding the present and future of Russia.

The hero's beginning to grow up

Alyosha Peshkov was brought up in a family based on mutual respect and love. Father Maxim was engaged in the construction of the triumphal gates, which were erected for the arrival of the Tsar. Varvara's mother was expecting the birth of her second child. Everything changed when my father died of cholera. He was buried on a rainy day, and Alyosha forever remembered the frogs sitting in the hole - they were buried along with the coffin. The boy looked at them and held back his tears. Never cry - his parents taught him to do this. And the mother went into premature labor out of grief. This is how the first chapter of Gorky’s work begins sadly.

Then there was a long journey along the Volga from Astrakhan to Nizhny Novgorod. The newborn died on the way, and the mother still could not calm down from the grief that had fallen. Alyosha was taken care of by her grandmother, Akulina Ivanovna, who arrived at a difficult moment for the family. It was she who took her daughter and grandson to Novgorod, from which Varvara had once left against her father’s will. It was to Grandma that Gorky dedicated the best pages of the story. She was a kind, sympathetic person, always ready to help. This was immediately noticed by the sailors on the ship, who found the hero when he got lost on one of the piers. Despite her plumpness and age, Akulina Ivanovna moved quickly and deftly, reminiscent of a cat. She often told amazing stories that attracted the attention of others. And it seemed to Alyosha that she was all glowing from within. It is the grandmother who in the future will become a source of goodness for the boy and the main support, will help him endure the upcoming adversities. And with his arrival in Nizhny, there will be many of them in the hero’s life, as Maxim Gorky will write about in his story.

The work “Childhood” continues with the introduction of new characters. On the shore, the arrivals were met by a large family of Kashirins, the main one of which was Vasily Vasilyevich. Small and dry, Alyosha did not immediately like his grandfather, and time would pass before he looked at him in a new way and tried to understand him as a person.

First spanking

In the Kashirins’ large house, in addition to their grandfather and grandmother, their two sons and their families lived. Alyosha, who had previously grown up in a completely different environment, found it difficult to get used to the constant hostility and anger that reigned between relatives. Their main reason was the desire of Mikhail and Yakov to quickly divide their property, which their grandfather did not want to do. With Varvara’s arrival, the situation became even more tense, since she was also entitled to a share in her father’s inheritance. In their desire to annoy each other, adults knew no bounds, and their confrontation extended to children.

Another boy witnessed a procedure that was terrible for him - every Saturday children were flogged. The hero did not escape this fate. On the advice of one of his brothers, he decided to paint the holiday tablecloth to bring joy to his grandmother. As a result, I ended up on a bench under my grandfather’s rods. Neither Akulina Ivanovna nor her mother could save her from punishment. This is one of the first bitter events in the hero’s new life, which Maxim Gorky introduces to the reader of the story. Alyosha will also remember his childhood thanks to Gypsy, who during the spanking put his hands up, trying to take the main force of the blows.

The grandfather beat his grandson half to death, and the boy lay in bed for several days. During this time, Vasily Vasilyevich visited him and told him about his youth. It turned out that my grandfather was once a barge hauler, and suffering, mental and physical, hardened his heart. This was, in fact, a new acquaintance with his grandfather, which made it clear that he was not as scary and cruel as Alyosha had thought before. Be that as it may, according to the author, the first spanking seemed to expose Alyosha’s heart and force him to take a different look at everything that was happening around him.

Gypsy

Ivan was a foundling in the Kashirin family. The grandmother told her grandson that she gave birth to eighteen children, of whom only three survived. In her opinion, God took the best ones to himself, and sent Gypsy in return. Gorky continues his story “Childhood” with a story about his bitter fate.

Ivan was found at the gate, and his grandmother took him in as a foster child. Unlike his own sons, he grew up kind and caring. He also showed himself to be a good worker, which became another reason for the enmity between Mikhail and Yakov: each of them dreamed of taking Gypsy to themselves in the future. Often, for the amusement of everyone, Ivan arranged entertainment with cockroaches or mice, and showed tricks with cards. Alyosha also remembered the evenings when his grandfather and Mikhail left home. At these hours everyone gathered in the kitchen. Yakov tuned the guitar, and after the songs the merry dance of the Gypsy began. Then he was joined by Akulina Ivanovna, who at that moment seemed to be returning to her time of youth: she became so younger and prettier while dancing.

The grandmother prophesied a bad future for the young man and was afraid for him. The fact is that Tsyganok went grocery shopping every Friday and, in order to save money and please his grandfather, he stole. Akulina Ivanovna believed that someday he would be caught and killed. Her fears came true, but partly: the Gypsy was killed not by strangers, but by Mikhail and Yakov. The latter beat his wife to death, and as a form of repentance, he vowed to place an oak cross on her grave. Three of them carried him, and they put Ivan under the butt. On the way, he stumbled and was crushed by the cross, which the brothers released at that moment, notes Maxim Gorky.

“Childhood” in abbreviation introduces only the main moments from the life of the main character, but it is impossible not to mention that Gypsy, whose painful death was also deposited in the boy’s mind, along with his grandmother, became a source of light and kindness for him and helped him survive the first trials in his new life .

Grandmother

Alyosha loved to watch how Akulina Ivanovna prayed in the evenings. In front of the icons, she told about everything that happened that day and asked for everyone. And the boy also liked stories about what God was like. At these moments, the grandmother looked younger, and her eyes emitted a special, warm light. Sometimes Akulina Ivanovna saw devils, but they did not frighten her. Grandma's only fear was cockroaches, and often at night she woke Alyosha up and asked her to kill them. But the image of the grandmother appears especially vividly in the fire scene, which continues (Maxim Gorky describes it in detail) “Childhood”.

The grandmother was praying when the grandfather ran in shouting: “We’re burning!” The workshop was burning, and Akulina Ivanovna threw herself into the flames to prevent an explosion. She brought out the bottle and began giving orders what to do next. She calmed the horse, which the grandfather himself was afraid of. And then, with burnt hands, she gave birth to Aunt Natalya. And only when it was all over (Mikhail’s wife died after all), Alyosha heard his grandmother’s groans caused by severe burns. All this leads to the idea: only a person with a broad soul can fight a fire so fearlessly, and then, while suffering from pain, find words of consolation for others. This is exactly what Akulina Ivanovna was, who played a decisive role in Alyosha’s life, which Maxim Gorky emphasizes more than once. “Childhood” (the characterization of the grandmother confirms this) is a work about how spiritual generosity and love can resist anger and hatred, preventing the germs of goodness and goodness, originally inherent in a person’s character, from dying.

New house

The Kashirins nevertheless split. Alyosha and his grandparents moved to a stone house with a garden. The rooms, except one, were rented out. My grandfather left it for himself and his guests. Akulina Ivanovna and her grandson settled in the attic. Grandma was again at the center of all events: the tenants constantly turned to her for advice, and she found a kind word for everyone. Her grandson was constantly next to her, as if rooted to her. Sometimes the mother appeared, but she quickly disappeared, not leaving even memories of herself.

Once my grandmother told Alyosha about her life. She was born from a crippled lacemaker girl who jumped out of a window when her master scared her. Together they walked around the world until they settled in Balakhna. Akulina learned to weave lace, and then her grandfather spotted her. He was a noble man at that time. And he chose a beggar girl as his wife and decided that she would be submissive all her life.

And the grandfather also decided to teach Alyosha letters. Seeing his grandson's intelligence, he began to flog him less often and looked at him more and more attentively, sometimes telling tales from his own life. This is how Maxim Gorky spent his childhood.

And again enmity

The Kashirins' misfortunes were not over. One day Yakov came running and said that Mikhail was going to kill his grandfather. Similar scenes began to be repeated often. And again the main burden fell on the grandmother. One evening she stuck her hand out the window, hoping to reason with her son, and Mikhail broke it with a stake. Watching all this, Alyosha began to think more and more often about his mother. The fact that she refused to live in such a family noticeably elevated her in the eyes of her son. And he imagined Varvara either in the camp of robbers, or in the image of the prince-lady Engalycheva, about whom his grandmother told him. And sometimes the boy’s chest seemed to fill with lead, and he felt stuffy and cramped in this room, reminiscent of a coffin. As Maxim Gorky shows, childhood evoked bitter thoughts and feelings in the hero. Their analysis leaves the same heaviness on the reader’s soul.

Injustice

There is another hero in the work, whom Alyosha met immediately upon his arrival in Novgorod. This is Grigory Ivanovich, a master who worked for his grandfather. He was old and blind, and the boys, like his uncles, often mocked him. For example, they could place a red-hot thimble under their hand. When the Kashirins split up and the grandfather moved to Polevaya Street, the masters were simply kicked out onto the street. It was painfully embarrassing: to see how Grigory was begging, so Alyosha avoided meeting him and hid every time he appeared, recalls Maxim Gorky. “Childhood,” whose heroes are people of different social strata, shows how dissatisfaction with the life he saw gradually matured in the boy. And the merit of the writer is that he made it clear: a person does not always go with the flow. Many find the strength to resist evil, thereby gradually changing the world for the better.

As for Gregory, his grandmother often called him to her and tried to somehow diminish the troubles that befell the one who gave his whole life to her family. One day she told Alyosha that God would severely punish them for this man. Years later, when Akulina Ivanovna was no longer there, the grandfather himself went to beg, repeating the fate of his master.

Good Deed

And again Vasily Vasilyevich changed his place of residence, Gorky continues the story “Childhood”. On Kanatnaya Street, where the Kashirins now settled, fate brought Alyosha together with another amazing person. Good Deed - this is how the tenant was nicknamed for the words that he invariably used in his speech - was considered a freeloader and was constantly conducting some kind of experiments in his room, which displeased his grandfather. One evening, according to tradition, everyone gathered at grandma’s, and she started a story about Ivan the Warrior. This story made an extraordinary impression on Good Deed. He suddenly jumped up and shouted that this must be written down. And later he gave advice to Alyosha: be sure to study. And also - write down everything that Akulina Ivanovna says. This may have been the beginning of the writer’s love for literature.

But soon Good Deed left home, and Gorky wrote about this in the story: this is how the friendship with the first (best) person from “an endless series of strangers in his native ... country” ended.

Meeting with mother

Varvara appeared at the Kashirins' house unexpectedly. Alyosha immediately noticed that she had changed, but still did not look like her brothers and father. And again I thought: he won’t live here long. The mother began to teach her son to read and even decided to start raising him. But during the time spent away from each other, they ceased to understand each other. The boy was also depressed by the constant quarrels between his grandfather and mother, especially since Varvara was not going to change to please anyone. And yet she broke Kashirin. After refusing to marry the old watchmaker, whom her grandfather looked after, Varvara practically became the mistress of the house, continues Maxim Gorky’s “Childhood”. The chapters dedicated to the hero’s mother introduce how she, against her father’s will, married Maxim, who was completely different from her family. How the young people came to bow to the old man Kashirin, but refused to live in his house, which caused a new anger of the old man. How the sisters Mikhail and Yakov disliked their husband, dreaming of snatching her share of the inheritance. How, finally, the Peshkovs left for Astrakhan, where they lived amicably and happily.

And although Alyosha’s mother always evoked only warm feelings, she never became for her son the person who helped him overcome the first hardships of life and withstand the blows of fate.

Changes again

Meanwhile, Varvara became increasingly prettier and visited her son less and less. Then she got married again and moved out. Now life in the house has become even more painful, Maxim Gorky makes clear. Childhood (analysis of the work leads to this idea) was gradually ending for the hero. Alyosha increasingly spent time alone and became unsociable. He dug himself a hole in the garden and made a cozy seat there. The grandfather often came here, tinkering with the plants, but his grandson’s stories were no longer interesting. And Vasily Vasilyevich himself became embittered after his daughter’s departure, often swore and kicked his grandmother out of the house. He became even greedier than before. At the same time, he lectured his grandson: “We are not a bar. We need to achieve everything ourselves.” And in the fall he sold the house completely, telling Akulina Ivanovna that she should now feed herself. The next two years, according to the author, passed in terrible shaking, which he felt from the moment he sat in the cart while moving to the basement.

"Lead Abominations of Life"

This definition appears in the story “Childhood” by Maxim Gorky after the story of how Alyosha almost killed his stepfather. A mother with a small son and husband appeared in the Kashirins’ basement shortly after they moved there. She said that the house burned down, but it was clear to everyone that Maksimov had lost everything. The hero's brother turned out to be a sick boy, Varvara herself noticeably looked worse and was pregnant again. Her relationship with her young husband did not work out, and one day Alyosha witnessed their quarrel: Maksimov was heading to his mistress, and his mother was screaming heart-rendingly. The hero grabbed a knife and rushed at his stepfather, but luckily he only cut his uniform and slightly caught his skin. These memories, along with all the others described above, made the author think about whether it is necessary to talk about these abominations? And he confidently answers: yes. Firstly, this is the only way to root out evil “from memory, from a person’s soul, from our entire life, heavy and shameful” (quote from Gorky’s work). Secondly, such baseness shows (this has already been noted in the article) that the Russian person is still “so healthy and young at heart that he can and will overcome them.” And this “bright, healthy and creative”, embodied in the story in the images of the grandmother, the Gypsy, the Good Deed, gives hope that the revival of humanity is possible.

In people

After the incident with his stepfather, Alyosha again ended up with his grandfather. Vasily Vasilyevich insisted that he and his grandmother cook dinners in turns, and each with his own money. At the same time, he always saved. The hero had to earn money himself: after school he went to collect rags and sold them cheap. He gave what he earned to his grandmother and one day he saw her crying over his nickels.

Things were tough at school. Here Alyosha was called a rag picker, and no one wanted to sit with him. But he still passed the third grade exams, for which he received a certificate of merit and several books as a reward. The boy took the last ones to the shop when Akulina Ivanovna fell ill and there was nothing to live on.

Another memorable event in the life of the hero of the story “Childhood” by Maxim Gorky is the death of his mother. Varvara returned to the Kashirins completely ill, withered, and soon died of consumption. A few days after her funeral, the grandfather sent Alexei “to the people” so that he could earn his own bread. From this moment childhood ends, and the second story of Gorky’s autobiographical trilogy begins.

Epilogue

The ability for spiritual self-development in conditions of tragic reality is, perhaps, the main thing that Maxim Gorky wants to draw the reader’s attention to. Childhood (the theme of the work stated in the title emphasizes this) is the main time in a person’s life. A child usually remembers forever what made a great impression on him. And it’s good that during this period Alyosha witnessed not only inhumanity and cruelty, but also met people who were infinitely kind and open to others. This helped him resist the “lead abominations” and grow into a bright man who does not put up with evil, which can become an example for everyone else.

Maksim Gorky

I dedicate it to my son

In a dim, cramped room, on the floor, under the window, lies my father, dressed in white and unusually long; the toes of his bare feet are strangely spread out, the fingers of his gentle hands, quietly placed on his chest, are also crooked; his cheerful eyes are tightly covered with black circles of copper coins, his kind face is dark and scares me with his badly bared teeth.

Mother, half naked, in a red skirt, is on her knees, combing her father’s long, soft hair from his forehead to the back of his head with a black comb, which I used to saw through the rinds of watermelons; the mother continuously says something in a thick, hoarse voice, her gray eyes are swollen and seem to melt, flowing down with large drops of tears.

My grandmother is holding my hand - round, big-headed, with huge eyes and a funny, doughy nose; she is all black, soft and surprisingly interesting; she also cries, somehow singing along with her mother especially and well, she trembles all over and tugs at me, pushing me towards my father; I resist, hide behind her; I'm scared and embarrassed.

I have never seen big people cry before, and I did not understand the words repeatedly spoken by my grandmother:

Say goodbye to your uncle, you will never see him again, he died, my dear, at the wrong time, at the wrong time...

I was seriously ill - I had just gotten back to my feet; During my illness - I remember this well - my father merrily fussed with me, then he suddenly disappeared and was replaced by my grandmother, a strange person.

Where did you come from? - I asked her.

She answered:

From above, from Nizhny, but she didn’t come, but she arrived! They don't walk on water, shush!

It was funny and incomprehensible: upstairs in the house lived bearded, painted Persians, and in the basement an old, yellow Kalmyk was selling sheepskins. You can ride down the stairs on the railing or, when you fall, you can roll head over heels, I knew that well. And what does water have to do with it? Everything is wrong and funny confused.

Why am I freaking out?

Because you make noise,” she said, also laughing.

She spoke kindly, cheerfully, smoothly. From the very first day I became friends with her, and now I want her to quickly leave this room with me.

My mother suppresses me; her tears and howls sparked a new, anxious feeling in me. This is the first time I see her like this - she was always strict, spoke little; she is clean, smooth and big, like a horse; she has a tough body and terribly strong arms. And now she is all somehow unpleasantly swollen and disheveled, everything on her is torn; the hair, lying neatly on the head, in a large light cap, scattered over the bare shoulder, fell on the face, and half of it, braided in a braid, dangled, touching his father’s sleeping face. I’ve been standing in the room for a long time, but she’s never looked at me,” she combs her father’s hair and keeps growling, choking with tears.

Black men and a sentry soldier look in the door. He shouts angrily:

Clean it up quickly!

The window is curtained with a dark shawl; it swells like a sail. One day my father took me on a boat with a sail. Suddenly thunder struck. My father laughed, squeezed me tightly with his knees and shouted:

Don't be afraid of anything, Luk!

Suddenly the mother threw herself up heavily from the floor, immediately sank down again, toppled over onto her back, scattering her hair across the floor; her blind, white face turned blue, and, baring her teeth like her father, she said in a terrible voice:

Shut the door... Alexei - out!

Pushing me away, my grandmother rushed to the door and shouted:

Dear ones, don’t be afraid, don’t touch, leave for Christ’s sake! This is not cholera, the birth has come, for mercy, priests!

I hid in a dark corner behind a chest and from there I watched my mother squirm across the floor, groaning and gritting her teeth, and my grandmother, crawling around, said affectionately and joyfully:

In the name of father and son! Be patient, Varyusha!.. Most Holy Mother of God, Intercessor:

I'm scared; They are fidgeting on the floor near their father, touching him, moaning and screaming, but he is motionless and seems to be laughing. This lasted a long time - fussing on the floor; More than once the mother rose to her feet and fell again; grandmother rolled out of the room like a big black soft ball; then suddenly a child screamed in the darkness.

Glory to you, Lord! - said the grandmother. - Boy!

And lit a candle.

I must have fallen asleep in the corner - I don’t remember anything else.

The second imprint in my memory is a rainy day, a deserted corner of the cemetery; I stand on a slippery mound of sticky earth and look into the hole where my father’s coffin was lowered; at the bottom of the pit there is a lot of water and there are frogs - two have already climbed onto the yellow lid of the coffin.

At the grave - me, my grandmother, a wet guard and two angry men with shovels. Warm rain, fine as beads, showers everyone.

“Bury,” said the watchman, walking away.

Grandmother began to cry, hiding her face in the end of her headscarf. The men, bent over, hastily began to throw earth into the grave, water squelched; Jumping from the coffin, the frogs began to rush onto the walls of the pit, clods of earth knocking them to the bottom.

Move away, Lenya,” said the grandmother, taking me by the shoulder; I slipped out from under her hand; I didn’t want to leave.

“What are you, my God,” the grandmother complained, either to me or to God, and stood silently for a long time, with her head down; The grave has already been leveled to the ground, but it still stands.

The men loudly splashed their shovels on the ground; the wind came and drove away, carried away the rain. Grandmother took me by the hand and led me to a distant church, among many dark crosses.

Aren't you going to cry? - she asked when she went outside the fence. I would cry!

“I don’t want to,” I said.

Well, I don’t want to, so I don’t have to,” she said quietly.

All this was surprising: I cried rarely and only from resentment, not from pain; my father always laughed at my tears, and my mother shouted:

Don't you dare cry!

Then we drove along a wide, very dirty street in a droshky, among dark red houses; I asked my grandmother:

Won't the frogs come out?

No, they won’t come out,” she answered. - God be with them!

Neither father nor mother spoke the name of God so often and so closely.

A few days later, I, my grandmother and my mother were traveling on a ship, in a small cabin; my newborn brother Maxim died and lay on the table in the corner, wrapped in white, swaddled with red braid.

Perched on bundles and chests, I look out the window, convex and round, like the eye of a horse; Behind the wet glass, muddy, foamy water flows endlessly. Sometimes she jumps up and licks the glass. I involuntarily jump to the floor.

“Don’t be afraid,” says grandma and, easily lifting me with soft hands, she puts me back on the knots.

Above the water there is a gray, wet fog; somewhere far away a dark land appears and disappears again into the fog and water. Everything around is shaking. Only the mother, with her hands behind her head, stands, leaning against the wall, firmly and motionless. Her face is dark, iron and blind, her eyes are tightly closed, she is silent all the time, and everything is somehow different, new, even the dress she is wearing is unfamiliar to me.