The last quarter of the 20th century confronted humanity with global problem- the problem of ecology, maintaining natural balance. The relationship between nature and man has become so strained that it has become clear: either man will learn to live as part of nature, according to its laws, or he will destroy the planet and die himself. The theme of the relationship between nature and man was new in Russian literature, and Viktor Astafiev was one of the first to address it. A native of the Russian North, Astafiev loves and feels nature. Man, according to Astafiev, has ceased to behave like a wise and benevolent owner, has turned into a guest on his own land, or into an indifferent and aggressive invader, who does not care about the future, who is after profit. today unable to see the problems awaiting him in the future.
The title in the story "" has symbolic meaning. The king fish is called sturgeon, but it is also a symbol of unconquered nature. The struggle between man and the king fish ends tragically: the fish does not give up, but, mortally wounded, it leaves to die. The conquest and conquest of nature leads to its destruction, because nature needs to be known, felt, and its laws used wisely, but not fought with it. Astafiev sums up the long-term attitude towards nature as a “workshop”, “storeroom”, debunks the thesis that man is the king of nature. The truth has been forgotten that in nature everything is connected to everything else, that if you disturb the balance of a part, you destroy the whole.
Man destroys nature, but he himself perishes. For Viktor Astafiev, the laws of nature and the laws of morality are closely and inextricably linked. A stranger and a dashing conqueror, Gosha came to the forests and died and almost ruined another life. But the worst thing is that people who have lived for decades in protected areas, gradually succumb to the corrupting influence of the philosophy of consumerism, begin to barbarically exploit nature, not realizing that they are destroying the house in which they live.
Just a decade after The King Fish was written, the Chernobyl disaster occurred. And time was divided into what happened before and after Chernobyl. Human impact on wildlife in destructive power equal to planetary natural disasters. Local disasters are no longer local. Thousands and thousands of kilometers from Chernobyl, radioactive strontium is found in the bones of animals, birds and fish. Contaminated waters have long poured into the World Ocean. Penguins eating contaminated fish are dying in Antarctica. What Astafiev wrote about has become a terrible reality: the planet is small, it is too fragile for brave experiments. You can't go back to the past, but you can try to save what's left.
The end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries gave birth to another concept - human ecology. Humanity, crippled spiritually, having no goal other than the pursuit of material wealth at any cost, is crippling nature. Astafiev did not use the term “human ecology,” but his books are precisely about this, about the need to preserve moral values.
The beauty of man. What is she like? there is external and internal. After reading V. Astafiev’s story “The Photograph in which I am not”, I became interested in inner beauty, the beauty of a village person.
Astafiev's story describes the people of a simple village. They live poorly, their life is very simple. But the main thing is that, living in difficult conditions, they retained warmth within themselves and give it to others. The villagers, as depicted by the author, are illiterate, their speech is simple, they always speak with their souls. Isn't this the beauty of a person? Truly kind people, always ready to help. Astafiev especially highlights the life and simplicity of the village. Houses and courtyards without any frills or amenities. People living in the village are not always beautiful in appearance. V. Astafiev cites uncle Levontius as an example. A man who drinks breaks dishes. But he is a simple man, open to others, good-natured. This story is very modern in our time, we lack the beauty of the soul. Here it is, beauty: in a village where neighbors help each other, mentor the young and inexperienced, do not spare treats for guests, provide support, and do not betray friends. Astafiev’s friend did not go to be photographed because his friend was sick. Sanka feels that he is also to blame for his friend’s illness. He overcomes great temptation, because the photographer is a great and rare case in the village. This is an example of friendship, devotion, conscience. The village women help the teacher and his wife, bring food, take care of the child, and mentor the young teacher. An example of respect, help and mutual assistance. It's very rare these days to see neighbors helping each other. They hem felt boots for a school teacher without any payment. He is respected and loved simply because he greets everyone and never refuses anything.
The village lives as one big family, friendly and strong. Let there be quarrels sometimes, but with the power of goodness, helping and forgiving, you can overcome all adversity. He is a kind, open person, everyone always likes him, he brings light to the society he finds himself in. There are a lot of outwardly beautiful people, but some of them may turn out to be cold-hearted, which very often repels and offends others. But for real beautiful person- one who is beautiful in soul, beautiful in his actions, in the words with which he expresses his thoughts, in his smile. Beauty lies in the heart!
Every writer touches on the theme of nature in any of his works. This may be a simple description of the location of the unfolding events of a given work or an expression of the hero’s feelings, but the author always shows his position, his attitude towards nature. Usually there are two points of view here: some believe that man is the creator and he must conquer all living things that live on earth; others, on the contrary, prove that nature is a temple, every person is obliged to obey its laws. Each writer insists on his own and often refuses to understand and comprehend the position opposite to his own. Astafiev, in his work “The Fish King,” tries to understand this problem and find an answer to this important question for everyone: what is nature: a temple or a human slave?
Main character of this narrative in the stories - a fisherman. He has been fishing all his life and knows how to do it very well. Not a single fish in any place of the river, even the most remote and uninhabited, will be able to escape from his nets. He conquered the river. Here he is the king, the king of nature. And he behaves like a king: he is careful, he completes all his affairs. But how does he manage the wealth entrusted to him? Ignatyich is fishing. But why does he need it in such large quantities? His family is wealthy enough to live and feed themselves without this “profit.” He does not sell the fish he catches. And in order to engage in fishing, he has to hide from fisheries supervision, because this activity is considered poaching. What motivates him? And here we see our king of nature from the other side. All his actions are driven by greed. Besides him, there are many good fishermen in the village, and there is an unannounced competition between them. If your networks bring more fish, then you are the best. And because of this selfish desire, people destroy fish, which means they are gradually destroying nature, wasting the only valuable thing that is on earth. But why does nature need such a king who does not value the wealth he owns? Will she really submit and not overthrow him? Then the king fish appears, the queen of the rivers, sent to fight the king of nature.
Every fisherman dreams of catching the king fish, because it is a sign from above. The belief says: if you catch a king fish, release it and don’t tell anyone about it. This fish symbolizes the peculiarity of the person who caught it, his superiority over others. What happens to Ignatyich when he meets this messenger of nature? There are two conflicting feelings in him: on the one hand, the desire to pull out the king - the fish, so that later the whole village will know about his skill, on the other hand, superstitious fear and the desire to release the fish in order to get rid of this burden that is too heavy for him. But still, the first feeling wins: greed takes precedence over conscience. Ignatyich decides to pull out this fish at all costs and become known as the best fisherman in the entire area. He vaguely understands that he cannot cope alone, but he suppresses the thoughts that he could call his brother for help, because then he would have to share both the booty and the glory with him. And greed destroys him. Ignatyich finds himself alone in the water with the “fish”. Wounded, the king of nature and the queen of rivers meet in equal combat with the elements. Now the king of nature no longer controls the situation, nature conquers him, and gradually he humbles himself. Together with the fish, huddled close to each other and calmed by this touch, they await their death. And Ignatyich asks: “Lord, let this fish go!” He himself is no longer able to do this. Their fate is now in the hands of nature. So, it means that it is not man who creates nature, but nature rules over man. But nature is not so merciless, it gives a person a chance to improve, she waits for repentance. Ignatyich - clever man, he understands his guilt and sincerely repents of what he has done, but not only that: he remembers all his past actions, analyzes his life. This incident makes him remember all his old sins and misdeeds and think about how he will live further if he survives here.
It may seem that Astafiev with his thoughts only further confused the reader, and did not build his thoughts, but still he gives an answer to a difficult question: nature is a temple where a person cannot manage at his own discretion, but still he must help this the temple to enrich itself, because man is a part of nature, and he is called upon to protect this only home for all living things.
Astafiev also raises another, no less important, problem: the problem of family relationships. The husband has always been the head of the family. But what place does a woman occupy? Family is a single whole. If the husband is the head of the family, then the wife is the keeper hearth and home, must be her heart. But somehow the head treats its heart strangely: without love and understanding, only with a threat. Women in families live in constant fear. They try to please their husbands in everything and are afraid that they might have done something wrong. Only the wife's submission, blind worship and submission to her husband are welcomed. Fear is instilled in women from childhood, so it is not easy to overcome it; only some emergency can help them in this. Thus, only the death of her daughter forced the Commander’s wife to overcome her feeling of fear of her husband and openly oppose him. What is the relationship between the brothers? And greed reigns here. Ignatyich and are at enmity: the Commander knows that Ignatich is the best fisherman, and envies him, and Ignatyich does not like his brother, because the Commander is not like him. This means that the main feeling that prevails in all relationships between people in the village is greed.
The work “The Fish King” is written as a narrative within stories. The book consists of many short stories, essays, stories. Some are written in artistic style, others in journalism. This diversity allows you to much more accurately assess the situation and unfolding events, look at problems from different angles and find the only correct solution. It also allows you to cover a large number of problems. Different styles make the events that happen in the story more realistic. This book gave me a lot good lessons and advice. Now, before I do something, I think about whether it will harm someone, whether it will harm nature. I began to analyze my actions. And if I find that I have ever made a mistake or some kind of misconduct, then I try to correct it. In this work, Astafiev seems to ask you: are you using what is given to you correctly, are you not wasting the wealth given to us - nature? The truth written here brightens memory and thoughts and makes you look at the world with different eyes.
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How to do so that, by transforming the earth, preserve and increase earthly wealth? By renewing, save and enrich the beauty of nature? How to avoid, prevent the sad consequences of unreasonable encroachments on natural laws nature - the cradle of man? This is not only an environmental problem, but also a moral one.
Having finished reading the story “The King Fish”, you understand that the natural world is fraught with the spirit of just retribution. The suffering of the King Fish, wounded by man, calls for him.
Awareness of its seriousness, according to Astafiev, is necessary for everyone so as not to trample, damage or burn nature and oneself with the fire of soullessness and deafness.
In the story “The Fish King” the life plot meets the artist halfway.
The writer states: whoever is merciless and cruel to nature is merciless and cruel to man. The writer's soulless consumerist treatment of nature evokes a passionate protest. The image of poaching - the predatory behavior of a person in the taiga, on the river - grows into a strong living image in the story.
The writer has created many books about war, peace, and childhood. All of them are marked by the mystery of talent, the sounds of the Motherland - the bright and pure, bitter and joyful music of human destiny.
“Tsar Fish” by V. Astafiev
Man and nature, their unity and confrontation are the core theme of “Narration in Stories” by Viktor Astafiev.
The main character of the story “The King Fish” is Zinovy Ignatyich, a respected man in the village of Chush. He treats the Chushans condescendingly, with a certain degree of superiority, which he did not express, did not turn away from people, was attentive to everyone, and came to the aid of anyone.
“The King Fish” was written in an open, free, relaxed manner, inspired by the artist’s thoughts about what is most personal and vital. Direct, honest, fearless conversation about current and significant issues. Scientists argue about them. Designers think about them. Problems of a national scale: on the establishment and improvement of reasonable connections modern man and nature, about the extent and goals of our activity in the “conquest” of nature. Life itself poses these problems.
Perhaps never before has the problem of the relationship between man and nature been as acute as in our time. And this is no coincidence.
“We are no strangers to losses,” wrote S. Zalygin, “but only until the moment comes to lose nature, after which there will be nothing to lose.”
He got by everywhere and everywhere on his own, but he was from here, a Siberian, and by nature he was accustomed to respect society, to take it into account, not to irritate it, but not to break his cap too much. Ignatyich is very different from his fellow villagers in his neatness and efficiency. His “dural” (motor boat) rushes along the river, nose up, clean, sparkling with blue and white paint, the engine does not crackle, does not squeal, sings its song in a satisfied, ringing voice. And the owner matches his boat: tidy, not smeared with fish mucus, not smelling of fuel oil. Ignatyich caught fish better than anyone and more than anyone, and no one envied him, except for his younger brother Commander, who all his life felt at the heels of his older brother, and was with a brain - rotten pride, did not know how and did not want to hide his hostility towards his brother, and They have long since become strangers to each other. Commander Ignatyich hated him so much that he raised his hand to sibling, and not just a hand - a gun!
A real event in life and in literature was the work “Tsar Fish”, awarded the USSR State Prize.
The author speaks from a position of goodness and humanity. In every line he remains a poet of humanity. There lives in him an extraordinary sense of integrity, the interconnectedness of all life on earth, present and future, today and tomorrow.
Goodness and justice are directly addressed to the fate of future generations.
The incident described in the story “The Tsar Fish” happened to Ignatyich on a freezing cold day. autumn time, when he went out to the Yenisei and hung on the planes. The fisherman swam in five times and pulled the “cat” along the bottom of the river, lost a lot of time, was frozen to the very bones, but as soon as he picked up and lifted the plane, he immediately felt: there was a large fish on it. By all the habits of the fish, by the heavy pressure in the darkness of the depths, a sturgeon was guessed on the plane, large, but already killed. Ignatyich saw him and was taken aback: there was something rare, primitive not only in the enormous size of the fish, but also in the shape of its body, from the soft, lifeless, worm-like whiskers hanging under the evenly planed head at the bottom to the webbed, winged tail - on a fish resembled a prehistoric lizard. From the water, from under the bony shell, small eyes with a yellow rim around the dark pupils were drilled into the man. These eyes, without eyelids, without eyelashes, naked, looking with serpentine coldness, concealed something within themselves. The fisherman realized that he alone could not cope with such a monster. You could wait until you show up for self-catching younger brother, he will help, but then he will have to divide the sturgeon, and Ignatyich really didn’t want that. “Here it is, your rubbish has come to light,” Ignatyich thought of himself with contempt.
State educational institution higher vocational education
Nizhny Novgorod State University named after Lobachevsky
Faculty of Philology
Test
Discipline: “Russian Literature”
Topic: “The theme of man and nature in Viktor Astafiev’s cycle “Tsar Fish””
Nizhny Novgorod, 2014
Introduction
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
“...The bird snorted in the warehouse. The stench floated throughout the village. The “goods” were written off, the losses were attributed to the elements, a tidy sum was hung around the neck of the state, and wood grouse were loaded with dung forks into the backs of cars and taken to a local pond, to a landfill…” - this is how one of the stories in Viktor Astafiev’s cycle “Tsar- fish". Already from these lines it is clear that the author is talking about man’s irresponsible and cynical approach to the riches of the natural world. Hunters in huge quantities They kill birds in order to sell the prey, but there are so many wood grouse that they simply rot in the warehouse. This story is called "A Black Feather Flies" because the feathers that the wind raises are all that is left of the dead birds. Similar problems and reflections associated with man's wasteful approach to the natural world are raised in each of the twelve stories included in the “King Fish” cycle.
Main characters - simple people who have experienced many hardships and hardships of wartime in their lifetime. People who, like their ancestors, do only one thing in life - hunting and fishing. Hunting and fishing in themselves do not cause censure in the author. He talks about how for centuries the Khanty, Mansi and Evenks lived in these places, living only by hunting and fishing y. Thus, they obtained food for themselves, and only in the era of industrial growth did people begin to kill animals in huge quantities, not in order to satisfy hunger, but for their own enrichment. In this collection, Viktor Astafiev recreates a terrible picture of people's life, which was subjected to the barbaric influence of civilization. He talks about how people's thinking changes in a changing society.
Drunkenness, courage, theft and poaching reigned among the people; holy places were desecrated and moral standards were lost. Conscientious people, front-line soldiers, who for some time still held moral bonds in their hands, found themselves on the sidelines of life. They had no influence on the course of things, life slipped out of their hands, degenerated into something crazy and chaotic. The picture of this fall was softened by the image of a wondrous Siberian nature, not yet completely ruined by man, by the images of the main characters who still bring goodness and compassion to the world, and, most importantly, by the image of the author, who did not so much judge as he was perplexed, not so much scourge as he grieved.
The plot of this work is connected with the author-storyteller’s journey to his native places in Siberia. Perhaps it is precisely because of his rural roots that Astafiev’s work is inextricably linked with nature. Whatever face nature turns to man - and it can be giving, calming, enlightening, but also dangerous and alien in its power of being - it embodies the mystery of organic life, which the writer understands as a painful process of labor, survival and growth.
Expressing his dissatisfaction with the processes taking place in human society, people’s attitude towards the natural world around them, expressing anxiety and concern about the moral motives of the characters’ behavior, the writer asks questions, demands to think about how we live, what we do and how our actions will respond. In the efforts expended to maintain “living life” (when it is often easier and simpler to die than to survive), he sees not a naked struggle for existence, but the action of the highest, united for human and natural life law. This law is especially evident in the episodes of honest combat between man and nature in the story of the same name “The King Fish”.
The unity of man and nature in Viktor Astafiev’s cycle “The Tsar Fish”
The action of all the stories in the cycle takes place on one of the many tributaries of the Yenisei. It is called the “river of life” in the cycle. “River of Life” is a capacious image rooted in mythological consciousness. For some ancient peoples, the image of the river of life is the “tree of life”; for other peoples, it is the embodiment of the entire structure of existence, all beginnings and ends, everything earthly, heavenly and underground. Throughout the entire “Tsar Fish” cycle, the modern reader returns to the mythical beginnings. The idea of the unity of all things arises in a cycle thanks to the constant associations between man and nature. The writer sees man through nature, and nature through man. Thus, Viktor Astafiev associates a child with a green leaf, which is “attached to the tree of life with a short rod,” and the death of an old person is compared to how over-aged pines fall in an old forest, with a heavy crunch and a long exhalation.” The image of a mother and child turns into the image of a tree feeding its sprout.
On the other hand, the writer says about the Oparikha River: “A little blue vein trembling at the temple of the earth.” And he directly compares another noisy river with a person: “A troublesome, zealous, like a recruit with a torn shirt on his chest, rumbling, the stream rolled downhill towards Nizhny Tunguska, falling into her soft motherly embrace." There are a lot of these metaphors and comparisons: bright, unexpected, poignant and funny, but always leading to the philosophical core of the book. Ideal moral life Boganida, a tiny fishing village, appears in the cycle. Between its inhabitants - the war-damaged fish catcher Kiryaga the Woodman, the women-cutters, the children - there is some kind of special good friendship, covered by rough humor. The apotheosis of this friendship is the ritual - from the first team catch, “feed all the guys indiscriminately with fish soup.”
Throughout the entire cycle, the author searches for moral foundations and finds them in a return to nature. The connection between man and nature interests the author in a moral and philosophical aspect. The writer is looking for the key to explaining the virtues and vices of man; the attitude towards nature becomes a criterion for the hero’s spiritual viability. It is no coincidence that the most positive hero of the cycle, Akimka, is spiritually united with Mother Nature. It is constantly compared to a northern flower: “Instead of leaves, the flower had wings, also shaggy, as if covered in a sash, the stem supported the calyx of the flower, and in the calyx a thin, transparent piece of ice shimmered.”
Another important character in the story is Ignatyich. Obsessed with a passion for fishing since childhood, he becomes the first fisherman in the village. The author, expressing his sharpest condemnation of Ignatyich’s behavior, deliberately makes him a symbolic figure. He is the very king of nature who, in a clash with the king fish, inevitably suffers a severe defeat. Although the hero remembered his grandfather’s order: “It’s better to let her go, damn her, quietly, as if by accident, cross herself and move on with her life, think about her again, look for her,” but he could not resist such a temptation.
By his nature as a poacher, he couldn’t. The fisherman’s excitement took over: “You can’t miss such a sturgeon. The King Fish comes across once in a lifetime, and even then not every Jacob.” But for this excitement, and even for many sins past life the reckoning has come.
The title of the story in which Ignatyich appears has a symbolic meaning. The king fish is called sturgeon, but it is also a symbol of unconquered nature. The struggle between man and the king fish ends tragically: the fish does not give up, but, mortally wounded, it leaves to die. The conquest and conquest of nature leads to its destruction, because nature needs to be known, felt, and its laws used wisely, but not fought with it. Astafiev sums up the long-term attitude towards nature as a “workshop”, “storeroom”, debunks the thesis that man is the king of nature.
He once again reminds us that in nature everything is connected to everything, that if you disturb the balance of a part, you destroy the whole. Even a fish is perceived by Astafiev as a creature almost akin to man, clinging to him in pain, causing all the more repentance for the evil that man brings to nature.
In “The Fish Tsar,” the fisherman suddenly finds himself in a position where punishment comes for killing a fish, and not just a fish, but the person embodied in it feminine nature and life itself. And despite the importance of the problems of ecology and nature conservation raised by Astafiev’s pen, the story, first of all, makes you think not about where the arctic fox or sterlet disappeared, but about what is happening to humans. By abusing and destroying nature, man thereby destroys the foundations of his own existence and his own future, destroying first spiritually and then physically. Gradually, the story about our land, forests, rivers, animals turns out to be a story about a part of ourselves.
Astafiev’s book raises a fundamental philosophical idea - “finitude human life and the infinite and eternal existence of nature,” connecting it with the problems of exploring the universe.
Environmental and moral problems in the works of Viktor Astafiev
Starting with thoughts about the role of nature and environmental problems that are pressing in our time, the author gradually turns his attention to people’s careless attitude towards these “nobody’s” wealth. And now the story about the land, forests, rivers, fields develops into a story about ourselves, about our soul, about morality, about humanity.
Nature created all living things and man himself, and he, man, is obliged to protect and love her as his own mother. Unfortunately, in life everything does not happen according to these fair and humane laws. V. Astafiev, endowed with a sensitive heart and a rich soul, could not remain indifferent to manifestations of human cruelty, greed and malice. Therefore, in his work, he openly criticizes and contempts criminals against nature, one of whom are slayers. Even in cases where the author does not speak directly and does not accuse his heroes, their images, their lifestyle, their destinies are revealed to us true face these people. All of them are equally unpleasant for us, they all cause protest and condemnation.
One has only to take a closer look at such “prominent” poachers as Damka, Grokhotalo, Komandor and Ignatyich, and a picturesque picture of the life of an entire village like the village of Chush clearly appears before one’s eyes. Here, all the residents are only concerned with how to “snatch, grab, take away more to their hut, to the basement, to the secret pit with ice, which is in almost every Chushan yard.”
In this unique poaching base, fertile soil has been created that nurtures all kinds of “gentlemen of fortune” - grabber captains, poachers, girls with life position consumer.
Of course, nature for such people cannot be anything other than a source of profit. They kill and destroy animals - no longer for the sake of maintaining their own lives (in their basements there would be enough reserves for several such lives), but for the sake of sport, for the sake of some kind of animal pleasure. A striking example This is a description of the struggle between Ignatich and the king fish. The fisherman's net caught not only a huge sturgeon, but a large number of sterlet, to which the hero does not pay any attention. It is important for him to catch the king fish, because this happens once in a lifetime, and everything else does not exist for him, so the sterlet dies just like the bird in the story “The Black Feather is Flying,” meaningless and in vain.
Nature does not forgive insults, and the Commander, and the Lady, and Rumble, and other poachers will have to pay in full for the evil done to her. Because, the writer confidently and openly declares, “no crime passes without a trace.” Physical, and especially moral suffering, is fair retribution for daring attempts to conquer, subjugate or even destroy at least a part of nature.
Encroaching on Living being, whether it is a mother fish carrying millions of eggs, or a bird, or a bear in the forest, a person breaks the chain that connects him with nature, with the harmony of a single, integral life on earth. He falls out of this chain and is left alone. And it is no longer possible to go back and correct your mistakes.
But Viktor Astafiev condemns not only the thieves of forests and rivers, he raises more global questions about the barbaric activities of man on Earth. One of the main goals of “Tsar Fish” is to expose poaching in the broadest interpretation of the word. After all, a poacher is not only a person who steals fish or animals from the state. A poacher is the one who builds a power plant over a clean lake, and the one who gives permission to cut down virgin forests, and even the one who does not interfere with these actions. The author condemns society from the point of view of modernity, and human behavior itself seems immoral to him. At the very end of the work, he shows the difference between himself and other people: “There is one special rock on Biryusa. About ten versts from the mouth of the Biryusa, like a half-opened book, touched by rust and the decay of time, it stands heavily in the water. On one side of the rock, on the one that opens like a page into the depths of the continent, whether by an ancient artist or by the forces of nature, a human face is drawn - big-nosed, two-eyed, with a compressed crooked mouth: when you pass close, it is tearful, but when you move away, it grins , winks, we live, they say, we create, guys!... - Here she is! I shuddered and woke up. The passengers on the plane were glued to the windows, staring at the receding hydroelectric station. They admired the creation of their hands..." - this moment clearly shows that modern man has no time for the beauties of the natural world, his eyes can only rejoice in the urban landscape...
Astafiev man nature
Conclusion
In the narrative “Tsar Fish” Astafiev speaks of the need and urgency of a “return to nature.” Ecological issues become the subject of philosophical discussion about the biological and spiritual survival of people. The attitude towards nature acts as a test of the spiritual viability of an individual.
Why are environmental problems becoming so acute? The answer is simple: today humanity has the same influence on nature as, for example, the most strong storms or powerful volcanic eruptions. And often humanity surpasses the elements destructive forces nature.
“The King Fish” is not a collection of thematically related stories, but rather a narrative. The author's all-consuming idea about the inseparability of man and nature flows smoothly from chapter to chapter, revealing itself from new and new sides, absorbing new meanings, expanding the scope of the philosophical, economic, social task facing all people. The location of the “Tsar Fish” - Siberia - is also of great ideological and artistic significance. These vast undeveloped spaces are both a treasure and a pain for Russia. The wealth of Siberia is based extensively, without thinking about tomorrow.
“So what am I looking for? Why am I suffering? Why? For what? There is no answer for me." Viktor Astafiev does not provide ready-made answers to the answers given in the narrative. It takes courage, kindness, and wisdom from the reader to understand: only man can save the king fish. This is the task of the present and the future.
Bibliography
1.V.P. Astafiev: King Fish: Narration in stories. - M.: Sov. writer, 1980. - 400 p.
.Russian literature of the 20th century. Prose writers, poets, playwrights. Biobibliographical dictionary. Volume 1. p. 121-126.
.V.A. Petisheva: Russian literature. - 2007. - N 5. - P. 15-22. - Bibliography in note
.G.I. Romanova: Rus. literature. - 2002. - No. 5. - P. 25-32
.Yu.V. Seleznev: On the eve of the hero: Moscow.-1977.-No. 8
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Viktor Petrovich Astafiev “Tsar Fish”
Viktor Petrovich Astafiev was born in 1924 in the village of Ovsyanka Krasnoyarsk Territory in a peasant family. He grew up surrounded by the majestic beauty of nature, and therefore ecological problems were initially close to him.
“Tsar Fish” (1976, “Our Contemporary” magazine) is a narrative within stories. The work is dedicated to the interaction of Man with Nature. The chapter “The King Fish,” which gives the work its title, sounds symbolic. The duel between man and the king fish has a sad outcome.
Story idea Astafiev is that a person should live in peace with nature, not destroy the harmony of nature, not rob it. The narrative is united by the image of the author. The author's sympathies are given to many characters: Akim, Nikolai Petrovich, Kiryaga the Wooden Man, Paramon Paramonych, Semyon and Cheremisin, the fishermen's artel and others. Akim accomplishes a feat by saving a woman in the taiga. Fish inspector Semyon and his son Cheremisin put their lives in danger every day: “I wasn’t as exhausted at the front as I was with you!” Nikolai Petrovich, the writer’s brother, became the breadwinner big family from an early age. He is an excellent fisherman, hunter, hospitable, strives to help everyone. kind soul at Paramon Paramonovich. He took a fatherly part in the fate of Akim.
Environmental and moral issues
The last quarter of the 20th century presented humanity with a global problem - the problem of ecology, the preservation of natural balance. The relationship between nature and man has become so strained that it has become clear: either man will learn to live as part of nature, according to its laws, or he will destroy the planet and die himself. The theme of the relationship between nature and man was new in Russian literature, and Viktor Astafiev was one of the first to address it.
A native of the Russian North, Astafiev loves and feels nature. A person, according to Astafiev, has ceased to behave like a wise and benevolent owner, turned into a guest on his own land, or into an indifferent and aggressive invader who is indifferent to the future, who, despite the benefits of today, is not able to see the problems awaiting him in the future.
The title in the story “The Fish King” has a symbolic meaning. The king fish is called sturgeon, but it is also a symbol of unconquered nature. The struggle between man and the king fish ends tragically: the fish does not give up, but, mortally wounded, it leaves to die. The conquest and conquest of nature leads to its destruction, because nature needs to be known, felt, and its laws used wisely, but not fought with it. Astafiev sums up the long-term attitude towards nature as a “workshop”, “storeroom”, debunks the thesis that man is the king of nature. The truth has been forgotten that in nature everything is connected to everything else, that if you disturb the balance of a part, you destroy the whole.
Man destroys nature, but he himself perishes. For Viktor Astafiev, the laws of nature and the laws of morality are closely and inextricably linked. A stranger and a dashing conqueror, Gertsev came into the forest of Goga and died, and almost ruined another life. But the worst thing is that they gradually succumb to the corrupting influence of the philosophy of consumerism and begin to barbarically exploit nature, not realizing that they are destroying the house in which they live.
Just a decade after The King Fish was written, the Chernobyl disaster occurred. And time was divided into what happened before and after Chernobyl. The human impact on living nature is equal in destructive force to planetary natural disasters. Local disasters are no longer local. Thousands and thousands of kilometers from Chernobyl, radioactive strontium is found in the bones of animals, birds and fish. Contaminated waters have long poured into the World Ocean. Penguins eating contaminated fish are dying in Antarctica. What Astafiev wrote about has become a terrible reality: the planet is small, it is too fragile for brave experiments. You can't go back to the past, but you can try to save what's left.
The end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century gave rise to another concept - human ecology. Humanity, crippled spiritually, having no goal other than the pursuit of material wealth at any cost, is crippling nature. Astafiev did not use the term “human ecology,” but his books are precisely about this, about the need to preserve moral values.
1 Essay
Viktor Petrovich Astafiev in the article “Live forever, river Vivi” he wrote: “There is only Siberia left. And if we finish it off, the country will not rise. After all, we are no longer robbing ourselves, but our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.” “Man and nature” is the main theme running through Astafiev’s book “The Tsar Fish”. The author himself called it a narrative in stories (1972-1975). It consists of twelve beautifully written short stories, held together by a single narrator.
Astafiev prefaced the book with two epigraphs: one from the poems of the Russian poet Nikolai Rubtsov, the other taken from the statements of the American scientist Haldor Shepley, which emphasizes the importance of the problem of protection natural resources for the entire planet, since nature represents a single global organism and its destruction in any part can cause general catastrophe. “If we behave properly,” writes Halldor Shapley, “we, plants and animals, will exist for billions of years, because the sun has large reserves of fuel and its consumption is perfectly regulated.” The stories in the collection seem to continue and complement each other, offering the reader different types of characters. The book opens with a story about true friend man - to a dog ("Boye"), shot by a guard when the dog, devoted to the man, threw himself on the chest of the owner (prisoner), sailing to the place of impending exile.
The following story, “The Drop,” devoid of dramatic conflict, represents the author’s philosophical reflections on the meaning of human life after the end of fishing: “The taiga on earth and the star in the sky existed thousands of years before us. The stars went out or broke into fragments, and in their place others blossomed in the sky. The taiga is still majestic, solemn, imperturbable. We inspire ourselves that we control nature and that we will do whatever we want.” "We'll do it with her. But this deception succeeds until you remain with the taiga eye to eye, until you stay in it and turn around, only then will you understand its power, feel its cosmic spaciousness and greatness." A person endowed with reason should, according to Astafiev, be responsible for the continuation of life on earth. But the poachers, the heroes of the subsequent stories “The Lady,” “At the Golden Hag,” and “The Fisherman Rumbled,” forget about this responsibility.
The reader is presented with a whole string of types of poachers, talented predators of Siberian rivers and taiga - Goga, Komandor, Damki, Zinovia, Grokhotalo (“Fisherman Grokhotalo”, “Ukha from Boganida”, “Dream of the White Mountains”). The writer does not exaggerate when describing these images. These are not complete hero-villains, drawn from start to finish in black paint. They are not devoid of business ingenuity and even honor and conscience in some cases. Excessive greed only betrays them headlong. Indicative in this regard is Zinovy Ignatievich Utrobin ("The Tsar Fish").
Let us remember the central episode of the story: catching the king of fish - a huge sturgeon. Two brothers, two poachers, Zinovy and Commander, have not gotten along with each other for a long time and go “hunting” separately. On one of his campaigns, Zinovy met the “king” of fish (every avid fisherman dreamed of such a meeting) - he was caught using his own self-made fishing rods. Seeing the “black, varnish-gleaming bag with branches broken off at random,” Zinovy, stunned by the vision, even became frightened. The fisherman tried to throw it over the side into the boat, but it didn’t work, he didn’t have enough strength. If only he had released the catch back into the depths of the Angara waters, in good health, and there would have been no trouble, especially since he remembered his grandfather’s order: “It’s better to let her go, cursed unnoticeably, as if by accident, let her go, cross herself and move on with her life, think about her again, look for her". Good, wise instructions were left from the ancestors, but Utrobin did not heed the voice of reason, he became greedy. With redoubled passion he again took up the sturgeon, but, accidentally slipping in the boat, hit by a fish, he found himself in cold water and caught on the hook of the samolov.
Night, darkness. The poacher experiences a strong moral shock and, clinging to the side of the boat, feels his strength leaving him. Between wallowing in the cold water, while resting, remembering his life, he decided that this punishment had befallen him for Glasha Kuklina, whom he had once abused. After some time, he asked her for forgiveness, but Glafira did not forgive him. And now we have to pay for past sins. “Gla-a-sha-a, forgive-and-and,” he prays with all his strength. Mental repentance before Glafira and repentance for what was done to the “fish king” had an effect and was eventually taken into account by nature. Having gained strength, the fish fell off the hooks, and the unlucky fisherman was unexpectedly rescued by his brother, the Commander.
However, this is not the end of Ignatyich’s ordeal. Cold water made itself felt - his leg was amputated. Utrobin sells his house in the village and leaves his forever home, having visited Glafira Kuklina before leaving. This is how the fisherman-poacher was taught a lesson for his sins before woman and nature.
Astafiev’s wise author’s word is addressed not only to the fisherman Zinovy Utrobin, but to all people: “Nature, brother, is also feminine! So, to each his own, and to God - God's! Free the woman from yourself and from eternal guilt, before this accept all the torments in full, for yourself and for those who at this moment under this sky, on this earth, are torturing a woman, perpetrating dirty tricks on her.”
Essay 2. On the river of life.
In “The Fish Tsar” there is a single and integral artistic space - the action of each of the stories takes place on one of the many tributaries of the Yenisei. And the Yenisei is “the river of life,” as it is said in the book. The “River of Life” is a capacious image rooted in mythological consciousness: for some ancient people, the image of the “River of Life”, like the “Tree of Life”, was a visually visible embodiment of the entire structure of existence, all beginnings and ends, everything earthly, heavenly and underground, that is, a whole “cosmography”.
Astafiev builds a whole chain of stories about poachers, and poachers of different orders: in the foreground here are poachers from the village of Chush, the “Chushans”, who literally rob their native river, mercilessly poisoning it; but there is also Goga Gertsev, a poacher who tramples the souls of lonely women he meets on the way; Finally, the author considers those government officials who designed and built a dam on the Yenisei to be poachers in such a way that they rotted the great Siberian river.
Every story about man's trampling of nature ends with the moral punishment of the poacher. The cruel, evil Commander suffers a tragic blow of fate: his favorite daughter Taika was run over by a driver - a “land poacher”, “having gotten drunk on mumblings” (“At the Golden Hag”). And Rokhotalo, a “chaff belly” and an unstoppable grabber, is punished in a purely grotesque, buffoonish form: blinded by luck, he boasts of the caught sturgeon in front of a man who turns out to be... a fisheries inspector (“Fisherman Rokhotalo”). Punishment inevitably overtakes a person even for long-standing atrocities - this is the meaning of the culminating story from the first part of the cycle, which gives the title to the entire book. The plot is about how the most cautious and seemingly most decent of the poachers, Ignatyich, was pulled into the water giant fish, acquires a certain mystical-symbolic meaning: finding himself in the abyss, turning into a prisoner of his own prey, almost saying goodbye to life, Ignatyich remembers his long-ago crime - how he, while still a beardless guy, a “skin sucker,” took dirty revenge on his “traitor,” Glashka Kuklina, and devastated her soul forever. And Ignatyich himself perceives what happened to him now as God’s punishment: “The hour of the cross has struck, the time has come to account for our sins...”
Nature does not forgive insults, and the Commander, and the Lady, and Rumble, and other poachers will have to pay in full for the evil done to her. Because, the writer confidently and openly declares, “no crime passes without a trace.” Physical, and especially moral suffering, is fair retribution for daring attempts to conquer, subjugate or even destroy at least a part of nature.
The author's didactics (teaching) is also expressed in the arrangement of the stories included in the cycle. It is no coincidence that in contrast to the first part, which was entirely occupied by poachers from the village of Chush, committing atrocities on their native river, in the second part of the book Akimka, who is spiritually fused with Mother Nature, took center stage. His image is given in parallel with the “red-lipped northern flower.”
“The King Fish” is written in an open, free, relaxed manner. Direct, honest, fearless conversation about current and significant problems: about the affirmation and improvement of reasonable connections between modern man and nature, about the extent and goals of our activity in the “conquest” of nature. This is not only an environmental problem, but also a moral one. The writer states: whoever is merciless and cruel to nature is merciless and cruel to man. Awareness of the seriousness of this problem is necessary for everyone, so as not to trample or damage nature and oneself with the fire of soullessness and deafness. The attitude towards nature acts as a test of the spiritual viability of an individual.
Essay 3. Novella (story) “The King Fish”. A tragedy of man and nature.
In the first half of the seventies of the 20th century, environmental problems were acutely raised in our country for the first time. During these same years, Viktor Astafiev wrote the narrative in the stories “The Tsar Fish”. The work is dedicated to the interaction of man with nature. The story is also about the tragedy of a person who is connected with nature in the closest connection, but has forgotten about it and is destroying himself and her.
The chapter “The King Fish,” which gives the work its title, sounds symbolic. The king fish is a huge sturgeon. Man fights with the king fish: it is a symbol of the development and taming of nature. The fight ends dramatically. The seriously wounded king fish does not surrender to man; she leaves him, carrying hooks in her body. The ending of the fight looks very dramatic - the fish leaves the man to die: “Furious, seriously wounded, but not tamed, she crashed somewhere invisibility, splashed in the cold whirlwind, a riot gripped the freed, magical king-fish.”. The duel between man and the king fish has a sad outcome.
Zinovy Utrobin, Ignatyich, is the main character of the novel. This man is respected by his fellow villagers because he is always happy to help with advice and deeds, for his skill in fishing, for his intelligence and ingenuity. This is the most prosperous person in the village, he does everything “okay” and wisely. He often helps people, but there is no sincerity in his actions. The hero of the story does not have a good relationship with his brother. In the village Ignatyich is known as the luckiest and most skillful fisherman. One feels that he has an abundance of fishing instincts, the experience of his ancestors and his own, acquired over the years. long years. Ignatyich often uses his skills to the detriment of nature and people, as he is engaged in poaching. Exterminating fish without counting, causing natural resources the river suffers irreparable damage, the main character of the story is aware of the illegality and unseemlyness of his actions, and is afraid of the “shame” that could befall him if a poacher is waylaid by a fisheries inspection boat in the dark. What made Ignatyich catch more fish than he needed was greed, the thirst for profit at any cost. This played a fatal role for him when he met the king fish. Astafiev describes it very vividly: the fish looked like “ a prehistoric lizard,” “eyes without eyelids, without eyelashes, naked, looking with serpentine coldness, concealed something within themselves.”
Ignatyich is amazed by the size of the sturgeon, which grew up on nothing but “boogers” and “bingeweeds”; he is surprised to call it “a mystery of nature.” From the very beginning, from the moment Ignatyich saw the king fish, something “sinister” seemed to him in it, and later the hero of the story realized that “one cannot cope with such a monster.” The desire to call my brother and a mechanic for help was supplanted by all-consuming greed: “Share the sturgeon?.. There are two buckets of caviar in the sturgeon, if not more. Caviar for three too?!” At that moment Ignatyich even himself was ashamed of his feelings. But after a while, “he considered greed as excitement,” and the desire to catch a sturgeon turned out to be stronger than the voice of reason. Besides the thirst for profit, there was another reason that forced Ignatyich to measure his strength with mysterious creature. This is fishing prowess. “Ah, it was not! - thought the main character of the story. — The King Fish comes across once in a lifetime, and even then not “every Jacob.”
Casting aside doubts, “successfully, with all his might, Ignatyich slammed the butt of his ax into the forehead of the king fish...”. The image of an ax in this episode evokes an association with Raskolnikov. But Dostoevsky’s hero raised it to man, and Ignatyich took a swing at Mother Nature itself. The hero of the story thinks that everything is allowed to him. And punished by nature for this.
Ignatyich finds himself alone in the water with the “fish”. Wounded, the king of nature and the queen of rivers meet in equal combat with the elements. Now the king of nature no longer controls the situation, nature conquers him, and gradually he humbles himself. Together with the fish, huddled close to each other and calmed by this touch, they await their death. And Ignatyich asks: “Lord, let this fish go!” He himself is no longer able to do this. Their fate is now in the hands of nature. So, it means that man is not the king of nature, but nature rules over man. But nature is not so merciless, it gives a person a chance to improve, she waits for repentance. Ignatyich understands his guilt and sincerely repents of what he has done, but not only this: he remembers all his past actions, analyzes his life, he also remembered his grandfather, who taught the young: “If there is a grave sin in your soul, do not get involved with the king fish.” And so Ignatyich reports to his conscience for his sins, especially for the one that he considers the most difficult. His mood changes: from the joy of owning a fish - to hatred and disgust for it, then - to the desire to get rid of it. In the face of death, he reconsiders his life, confesses to himself and repents, thereby removing grave sin from his soul. The active work of the soul and complete moral rebirth save Ignatyich from death.
The story of V.P. Astafiev is an appeal to a person, a desperate appeal addressed to everyone - to come to their senses, to realize their responsibility for everything that happens in the world. The Earth must be saved: the threat of nuclear or environmental disaster places humanity today at that fatal line beyond which there is no existence. “Will we be saved? Will life continue in our descendants? What is the way of salvation? - these are the questions voiced in the works of modern writers. Answer V.P. Astafiev gives with his work: the way to save the world and human values - through conscience, repentance, sacrifice, the courage of everyone to be a warrior in the field.
The story "Boye" »
A short story about a devotee and smart dog, who faithfully served her master, a worthless man, and in the end was killed by the guard accompanying her arrested master. One can feel the rigidity and uncompromisingness of Astafiev’s position: his intransigence towards “idle bastards” and grabbers, as well as towards human greed, self-interest and malice.
Boye from Evenki means “friend”. This was the name of Kolka’s dog, one of the heroes of the work, the brother of the narrator. Boye saved Kolka’s life more than once: both as a child in the taiga, and ten years later, on Dudypta.
Boye is a breed of northern husky, but the author talks about the dog as a person: “...Boye was a hard worker, and a disinterested worker”, “... Boyet couldn’t live without work”, “...Boye knew everything and even more than a dog should be able to do”, beauty and intelligence were in the eyes, wisely calm, about what- then constantly questioning.”
Boye is an indispensable assistant to people. He feeds his family, loves his unlucky owner, trusts all people without exception. Even when they tried to steal him, he felt guilty about what happened.
He saved Kolka from the bear, and brought people to him when Kolka got lost in the taiga and almost froze in the snow. Kolka owes his life to the dog Boye on Dudypta, when, distraught from a long stay in the winter hut, Kolka, taking off his skis, chased the shaman who came to him in his dreams and almost died. " The snow kept rolling in, rolling in from above, frozen, loose. …. The man floundered and struggled, having lost the desire to think and fight, when he finally saw above him, on the edge of the Dudypta, the same dog, white, with gray spots on his paws and head, his dear, faithful dog.” Kolka crawled towards Boya, the dog “whining and steering her tail, she crawled to meet him, and with her the snow crawled and moved, from which a ski suddenly flew out and poked its tip in his face.”. Unable to even remove the gun, Kolka still fired. And the winterers came to his aid. Both in delirium and in his sleep, Kolka will continue to pronounce the name of his most faithful friend Boye for a long time.
The guard killed Boye only because the dog recognized its owner, Kolka’s father, among the prisoners. Dog “I didn’t understand what was happening and why the owner was being taken away, he howled all over the pier and how it exploded! He dropped Kolka, does not allow the owner onto the barge, and impedes progress. The young dark-haired guard paused, kicked the dog aside and, without removing the machine gun from his neck, casually shot it point-blank with a short burst.”
In the story, Astafyev cites a belief about the origin of the dog: “I’ll just repeat the northern belief: a dog, before becoming a dog, was a good person, of course.” Link to this folk wisdom before the story of a faithful friend, unpretentious and indispensable assistant heroes to the dog Boye, allows the narrator to declare with greater conviction the unity of all life on earth and the inadmissibility of cruel treatment of our smaller brothers. " Born for joint work and life with a man, still not understanding why he was killed, the dog whined hoarsely and, sighing mournfully like a human, died, as if pitying or condemning someone.”
This is a story not only about a dog. This work is also about people, among whom, according to the author’s correct remark, there are “parasites, biting villains, empty nesters, grabbers.”
The story “Dream of the White Mountains.” Affirmation of universal moral values
The action in the story takes place in the taiga, the secrets and riddles of which many people are trying to unravel. But the interest in taiga riches varies. In the story we meet two characters who are sharply opposed in their attitude towards the world and people. These are the taiga man Akim and the selfish geologist Goga Gertsev, who imagines himself to be the master of nature.
Akim is not very educated, has little knowledge of civilization and city life, but he knows his native Siberian taiga perfectly, lives in close unity and harmony with nature. In the remote taiga wilds he feels at home. Akim, according to the writer, is the bearer of genuine moral values and in this capacity opposes many city-dwelling characters who view nature only as a means of satisfying immediate material needs and do not disdain any means in achieving their goals. The antipode to Akim in the chapter “Dream in the White Mountains” is Goga Hertsev. He did not harm the taiga, respected the laws, but neglected what is called the soul. Goga - educated person, knows how to do a lot, but he ruined his good inclinations. He is an individualist, wants to take a lot from life, but does not want to give anything away. He is internally empty and cynical. The author's irony and sarcasm accompany Gertsev everywhere - both in the clash with Akim over the Kiryaga-wooden medal, riveted by Hertsev onto a spinner, and in the scenes with the librarian Lyudochka, whose soul he trampled out of boredom, and in the story with Elya, and even there, where it is told how Hertsev died and what he became after his death. Astafiev shows the pattern of such a terrible end of Goga, exposes individualism and soullessness.
Goga dragged the girl Elya, who was in love with him, into the taiga with him. As the author emphasizes, Goga is an experienced and skillful taiga resident, in no way inferior to Akim. Nevertheless, he frivolously took him along on a dangerous journey through taiga river a girl who is absolutely not adapted to life in the harsh conditions of the taiga. The result is a tragic situation. Elya, who is seriously ill, remains in the hunting hut; Goga, who went in search of food, dies in an accident. Akim, who finds her, saves the girl from certain death. He takes care of the patient as if he were a small child. In the chapter “Dream in the White Mountains,” the image of Goga Gertsev, the antipode of Akim, is noteworthy. Hertsev did not harm the taiga, respected the laws, but neglected what is called the soul. Goga is an educated person, he knows how to do a lot, but he has ruined his good inclinations. He is an individualist, wants to take a lot from life, but does not want to give anything away. He is internally empty and cynical. The author's irony and sarcasm accompany Gertsev everywhere - both in the clash with Akim over the Kiryaga-wooden medal, riveted by Hertsev onto a spinner, and in the scenes with the librarian Lyudochka, whose soul he trampled out of boredom, and in the story with Elya, and even there, where it is told how Hertsev died and what he became after his death. Astafiev shows the pattern of such a terrible end for Goga, denounces egocentrism, individualism, and soullessness.
Gertsev's death is deeply symbolic. Goga dreamed of catching the legendary Tsar Fish, and for the spinner he used the medal of the disabled war drunkard Kiryagin and boasted: “Better than the factory one!” Akim then said to Gertsev in his heart: “Well, you are carrion!.. The old woman calls Kirka a man of God. Yes, he is God’s!.. God will punish you...”
In response, Gertsev utters a phrase that is striking in its selfishness and blasphemy: “I don’t give a damn about old women, about the cripple of this dirty one! I am my own God! And I will punish you for insulting.”
But Gertsev is going to punish Akim in the taiga, and not now, he is not used to a fair and open fight. Akim is capable of hitting a person only in a fair, open fight. He is organically incapable of offending another person. The main character of “The Fish Tsar” follows the peculiar moral law of the taiga, where a person who is open with others, honest and does not try to crush nature can survive. Goga, “a god unto himself,” turns out to be the devil, Kashchei (it is no coincidence that the writer emphasizes that Hertsev, like a fairy-tale villain, “rattled his bones on the floor”). He doesn’t care about other people and is proud of it, he is ready to destroy anyone who stands in his way, to destroy not even figuratively, but literally. After all, in fact, Goga is plotting the murder of Akim, offering a duel on conditions that are obviously unfavorable for him and advantageous for himself. And his death seems natural, although it occurred as a result of an absurd accident. This is, as it were, God's punishment for arrogantly equating oneself with God.
When Akim finds the corpse of his enemy, he does not feel joy. He feels sorry for Gertsev, who, in his haste to get fish for his sick companion, committed fatal mistake and choked in icy water, and buries Goga in a Christian manner.
The moral dispute between Goga Gertsev and Akim is not just a dispute between two too different people“, it reflects the collision of a soulless consumerism and a humane, merciful attitude towards nature, towards everything living on earth.” Sensitivity and kindness make a person weak, says Goga Gertsev. He distorts the spiritual and social connections of people and destroys his soul. The author's sympathies are undoubtedly on the side of people like Akim. It is Akim who remains victorious in the dispute with Hertsev; it is he, and not Goga, who manages to get the Tsar Fish. Luck becomes a reward for the fact that he remains faithful to universal, Christian moral values, is ready, without hesitation, to help his neighbor and feel sorry even for his enemy.
How can we do this in order to preserve and increase earthly wealth while transforming the earth? By renewing, saving and enriching the beauty of nature? How to avoid and prevent the sad consequences of an unreasonable encroachment on the natural laws of nature - the cradle of man? This is not only an environmental problem, but also a moral one.
Having finished reading the story “The King Fish”, you understand that the natural world is fraught with the spirit of just retribution. The suffering of the King Fish, wounded by man, calls for him.
Awareness of its seriousness, according to Astafiev, is necessary for everyone so as not to trample, damage or burn nature and oneself with the fire of soullessness and deafness.
In the story “The Fish King” the life plot meets the artist halfway.
The writer states: whoever is merciless and cruel to nature is merciless and cruel to man. The writer's soulless consumerist treatment of nature evokes a passionate protest. The image of poaching - the predatory behavior of a person in the taiga, on the river - grows into a strong living image in the story.
The writer has created many books about war, peace, and childhood. All of them are marked by the mystery of talent, the sounds of the Motherland - the bright and pure, bitter and joyful music of human destiny.
“Tsar Fish” by V. Astafiev
Man and nature, their unity and confrontation are the core theme of “Narration in Stories” by Viktor Astafiev.
The main character of the story “The King Fish” is Zinovy Ignatyich, a respected man in the village of Chush. He treats the Chushans condescendingly, with a certain degree of superiority, which he did not express, did not turn away from people, was attentive to everyone, and came to the aid of anyone.
“The King Fish” was written in an open, free, relaxed manner, inspired by the artist’s thoughts about what is most personal and vital. Direct, honest, fearless conversation about current and significant issues. Scientists argue about them. Designers think about them. Problems of a national scale: about the establishment and improvement of rational connections between modern man and nature, about the extent and goals of our activity in the “conquest” of nature. Life itself poses these problems.
Perhaps never before has the problem of the relationship between man and nature been as acute as in our time. And this is no coincidence.
“We are no strangers to losses,” wrote S. Zalygin, “but only until the moment comes to lose nature, after which there will be nothing to lose.”
He got by everywhere and everywhere on his own, but he was from here, a Siberian, and by nature he was accustomed to respect society, to take it into account, not to irritate it, but not to break his cap too much. Ignatyich is very different from his fellow villagers in his neatness and efficiency. His “dural” (motor boat) rushes along the river, nose up, clean, sparkling with blue and white paint, the engine does not crackle, does not squeal, sings its song in a satisfied, ringing voice. And the owner matches his boat: tidy, not smeared with fish mucus, not smelling of fuel oil. Ignatyich caught fish better than anyone and more than anyone, and no one envied him, except for his younger brother Commander, who all his life felt at the heels of his older brother, and was with a brain - rotten pride, did not know how and did not want to hide his hostility towards his brother, and They have long since become strangers to each other. Commander hated Ignatyich so much that he raised his hand against his own brother, and not just his hand - a gun!
A real event in life and in literature was the work “Tsar Fish”, awarded the USSR State Prize.
The author speaks from a position of goodness and humanity. In every line he remains a poet of humanity. There lives in him an extraordinary sense of integrity, the interconnectedness of all life on earth, present and future, today and tomorrow.
Goodness and justice are directly addressed to the fate of future generations.
The incident described in the story “The Tsar Fish” happened to Ignatyich in the cold autumn season, when he went out to the Yenisei and hung on the samolov. The fisherman swam in five times and pulled the “cat” along the bottom of the river, lost a lot of time, was frozen to the very bones, but as soon as he picked up and lifted the plane, he immediately felt: there was a large fish on it. By all the habits of the fish, by the heavy pressure in the darkness of the depths, a sturgeon was guessed on the plane, large, but already killed. Ignatyich saw him and was taken aback: there was something rare, primitive not only in the enormous size of the fish, but also in the shape of its body, from the soft, lifeless, worm-like whiskers hanging under the evenly planed head at the bottom to the webbed, winged tail - on a fish resembled a prehistoric lizard. From the water, from under the bony shell, small eyes with a yellow rim around the dark pupils were drilled into the man. These eyes, without eyelids, without eyelashes, naked, looking with serpentine coldness, concealed something within themselves. The fisherman realized that he alone could not cope with such a monster. You could wait until your younger brother shows up for the samolov, he will help, but then you’ll have to divide the sturgeon, and Ignatyich really didn’t want that. “Here it is, your rubbish has come to light,” Ignatyich thought of himself with contempt.
You can’t miss such a sturgeon; the Tsar Fish comes across once in a lifetime, and even then not every Jacob. Ignatyich had heard a lot of all sorts of things about the Tsar Fish, he wanted to see it, his God-given, fabulous one, of course, and catch it, but he was also timid. Grandfather used to say: “It’s better to let her go, imperceptibly, as if by accident, let her go, cross herself and move on with her life, think about her again, look for her.” But Ignatyich decided to take the sturgeon by the gills, you never know what they were weaving before people, all sorts of healers and the same grandfather. WITH with great effort the fisherman took the fish with a hook and almost rolled it into the boat, ready to hit the convex skull of the sturgeon with his butt. But then the tetanus-ridden fish turned sharply, hit the boat, and Ignatyich was thrown into ice water. He began to sink, someone was dragging him into the depths, and the fish continued to fight, landing self-catching hooks in itself and in the catcher. Both the fish and the man weakened and bled. Why did their paths cross? The king of the river and the king of all nature are in one trap. The same painful death awaits them. The hour of the cross has struck, and it’s time to account for your sins. And Ignatyich’s main sin is that he cruelly offended a girl with whom he was friends in his youth. And he never begged her for forgiveness, no matter how much he begged or repented. His last words, which he was able to croak out without controlling his mouth, were: “Forgive me, Glasha!” . More Zinovy Ignatyich heard the noise of the Whirlwind engine. It was my brother who was approaching the self-catchers. A wave from a passing boat rocked Ignatyich’s vessel, hit the fish on the iron, and it, rested and gathered strength, suddenly reared up, sensing the wave. Hit. Jerk. The fish turned over on its stomach, whipped its tail, and several hooks burst at once. The fish beat its tail again and again until it got off the trap, tearing its body to shreds. Furious, seriously wounded, but not tamed, she crashed somewhere in invisibility, a riot engulfed the freed, magical king-fish. “Go, fish, go! Live as long as you can. I won’t tell anyone about you!” - said the catcher, and he felt better. The body - because the fish did not pull down, the soul - from some kind of liberation not yet comprehended by the mind.
In the awareness of this dialectical process there is no last role belongs to literature. And Astafiev, a sensitive artist, could not stay away from the problem.
His entire diverse biography, his path is long and clear, in full view of readers. The works created by V. Astafiev are well known. These are numerous stories and stories “The Pass”, “Starodub”, “Theft”, “Starfall”, “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess”, “The Last Bow”.
The author's main attention is focused on people, their destinies, passions and concerns. There are many heroes in the story. Different. Good and evil, just and treacherous, “fish control workers” and “poachers”. The writer does not judge them, even the most inveterate, he cares about their spiritual healing.
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