Scarecrow, or problems of child cruelty. Research work on the work of V. Zheleznikov “Scarecrow” Moral choice as the basis of the plot of the scarecrow

The main character of V. Zheleznyakov’s story “Scarecrow” is an ordinary 6th grade student high school Lena Bessoltseva. The girl's problem is that she has become an outcast in her own class. Perhaps because she was not distinguished by beauty, perhaps because she was a little different from everyone else, the entire team took up arms against the fragile and defenseless girl. Classmates even came up with the offensive nickname “scarecrow” for her, which she tried not to pay attention to and still tried to find a common language with her classmates.

The only person who provided her with any support was Dima Somov. Almost all the girls in the class were in love with him and Lenochka was no exception. One day, a rather unpleasant incident occurred in class, after which the girl was subjected to real bullying from her classmates.

Dima Somov betrayed the entire class by telling the vice-principal where they ran away from class and when the guys begin to find out which of them is a traitor, the boy remains silent and does not dare to admit his act. Seeing his confusion, Lena takes the blame upon herself. This is where her life turns into a real nightmare, one day her classmates chase her around the city, like a pack of mad dogs chasing a little fox, and once they even beat her. Lena is waiting for support from Dima, but due to his cowardice he takes the side of the team, not appreciating her sacrifice at all. Although he understands perfectly well that he himself is to blame for this persecution. The fear of falling in the eyes of his comrades turns out to be stronger than the intention to confess everything.

The secret is known to two more students; they witnessed Somov’s betrayal while hiding under a desk. But they are in no hurry to tell the truth; they are interested in watching how Dima will behave.

Bessoltseva bravely withstood the boycott, she even challenged all the offenders, deciding to cut her hair bald to justify her nickname.

The last string of her vulnerable soul breaks when Dima Somov, whom she trusted infinitely, finally abandoned her during the ritual of burning an improvised effigy. Helen leaves the town with her grandfather, and the guys realize their mistake, but it’s too late.

Nowadays, children can sometimes be very cruel and cynical. Many guys, having shown individuality or, on the contrary, living “in themselves”, become outcasts in society. Therefore, most teenagers try not to stand out from the crowd and become like a herd, each deprived of his own self.

Based on the film

Recently I watched the film "Scarecrow", the heroine of which is a sixth grade girl Lena. In her infancy, she faces difficult everyday situations. Betrayal, meanness, pressure from classmates, ridicule, but she copes with all this thanks to her character and strength. She goes against everyone alone, small, defenseless in such an adult and alien world for herself.

She was not a very pretty girl, so to speak, but very kind, naive and not like everyone else. And life is not very easy for such people, as we know. Children at this age are very angry and cruel to people like our heroine. Schoolchildren do not quite understand what they are doing and how painful it is for a person to feel this hostility and pain themselves.

So our Lenochka Bessoltseva became an outcast among her peers. In her class she had only one friend, Dima. She loved this boy very much. I considered him a strong, brave man. One day, out of love for a boy, she took the blame upon herself and that’s when it all started. The class took up arms against her, they considered her a traitor, they began to publish, chase her through the streets, and the heroine endured everything. After all, Dimochka promised to tell her the whole truth to the class and then they would leave her alone. She always stood up for him and this is not the first time that she presents all his dirty tricks as her own. This is a very strong-willed man, truly brave.

As it turned out, Dima was weak and a coward. He betrayed her so that his peers would communicate with him. I consider this a very pathetic and low act. He wanted to be one of the lidars in the class, so that everyone would notice him and listen to him. Everyone probably remembers and knows that in any class there are a couple of such people; other children consider them the best and want to be in their company, so to speak. It seems impossible for them to communicate with them and they will do anything, even small dirty tricks. Few people know how to make friends like that these days. As they say: “An old friend is better than two new ones.”

Then Lena, having come to terms with the boy’s action and completely disappointed in him, gathers all her will and decides to leave the city. everyone around her calls her a scarecrow and she takes a brave step, shaves off her hair in order to correspond to the new title.

Everyone thought that she decided to leave her city because she was afraid of her classmates, but this turned out not to be the case. She left the boy alone, did not want to take revenge on him, and then everyone realized that it was not they who won, but Lena. The guys felt ashamed, but there was no going back. The girl and her grandfather left the city and it is unknown how her life continued. Before leaving, grandfather gives the school a picture of his grandmother, and she looks so much like a girl.

Awareness comes to the children too late and they write “Scarecrow, forgive us” on the board! But the girl is determined and does not want to study at this school anymore. I want to say that not everyone will survive this. I consider her an example for young people. After all, another would not have passed by, but would have punished this boy, but she did not. I am amazed at her stamina, endurance, after all, she is only 12 years old and it is unknown how all this could and did affect her psyche. You must always remain humane and not follow anyone’s lead, have your own opinion and learn to express it and stick to it. It doesn’t matter how you dress, whether you are beautiful, the main thing is what’s inside you. Be kinder!

5th, 6th, 7th grade.

Several interesting essays

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• Essay The image of Lelya and her characteristics in the story by Elka Zoshchenko

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I thought and discussed for a long time on the topic of which words are the most precious for a person and came to the conclusion that these are words that bring special feelings that touch the soul, but do not cripple it.

help me compose a problem-thematic analysis of the work “Scarecrow” and received the best answer

Answer from GALINA[guru]
Zheleznikov "Scarecrow"
The main character in this work is Lena Bessoltseva, who faces the problem of expulsion from society.




The children in the class thought that Lena was leaving out of fear, but that was not the case. And all the guys realized that Lena had won. And when she refused to boycott Somov, it became clear that she was above them. And despite Somov’s terrible attitude and his betrayal, she did not boycott him. Another person in her place would have driven Dima into a corner and hit him hard. Yes, Lena won! The boys felt ashamed, and so did their teacher, but every action has its own price, and here the price is quite large: Lena left the city forever, grandfather left his favorite business, and most importantly, Lena’s psyche suffered. And besides, Lena learned too early what it was to be an outcast, and not everyone learns this. And who knows what will happen to her in the future. I believe that Lena still reacted weakly to the humiliation of her class, but, most importantly, she did not lose her composure and became older than her years.

Answer from Soft Alexander[active]
I read the story “Scarecrow” by V. Zheleznikov. The main character in this work is Lena Bessoltseva, who is faced with the problem of expulsion from society.
Lena was a pretty nice girl, quite kind and not very beautiful, but the fact is that she was not like everyone else, and it is not very easy for such people to live in society. And because she took the guilt of the person she loved upon herself, the class led by the Iron Button resorted to bullying, and the twelve-year-old girl became an outcast.
In general, children are very cruel and mistreat people who are not like them. Children do not understand the pain they cause to such people. Likewise, this class considered Lena a traitor and boycotted her, but in addition to the boycott, they persecuted her. When she was chased around the city, she experienced such an eerie feeling, as if she were a fox, and evil dogs were chasing her. Lena had one - only friend, because of her love for whom she took his guilt upon herself. Lena considered him a very brave and strong person, and he promised her to confess everything to the class, but she continued to be bullied. There were a lot of situations of bullying, and Somov did not admit to anything.
I believe that Somov was a pitiful and petty person and that for the sake of his position in society he betrayed a loved one. He ruined Lena's life in order to occupy a leading place in the class. He was a vile coward.
After being disappointed in Dima, Lena began to show her will. Lena got fed up with all this and decided to leave the city. Mironova’s company called Lena a scarecrow, and in order to confirm this title, she took a brave action: she cut her hair bald, but in addition to the children, some adults did not like Lena either. For example, Aunt Klava, who believed that because of Lena, her son did not go to Moscow to see his father. But after Lena’s story, the hairdresser realized her mistake and agreed to cut her hair.

UDC 82:801.6; 82-1/-9

E. A. Poleva, E. I. Myachina THE IMAGE OF THE CENTRAL HEROINE IN V. K. ZHELEZNIKOV’S STORY “SCARED”

An analysis of V. K. Zheleznikov’s story “Scarecrow”, written during the writer’s creative heyday (1970s), is presented, as well as techniques for revealing the image of the central character (using the points of view of different subjects of speech, including the narrator and narrator; comparison of naming and essence , internal content and external appearance of a person; the relationship between the characters’ behavior and different animals; building allusions). The story fits into the context of the search for a moral ideal in Russian classical prose, and contemporary Zheleznikov literature. The writer puts at the center of the story an existential type of personality who is ready to defend his principles (non-resistance to evil through violence, the value of human dignity, mercy, faith in the triumph of kindness) in a borderline situation.

Keywords: teenage literature, psychological prose, Zheleznikov, “school story”, “Scarecrow”, theme of cruelty, moral values, existential issues, existential realism.

The story “Scarecrow” (1973-1981) by Vladimir Karpovich Zheleznikov (born 1925) is included in the book called “Leaving Childhood” by the author himself and includes works about teenagers on the verge of entering adulthood. According to the writer, the difficulty of leaving childhood is associated with increased responsibility for one’s moral and spiritual decisions. Mistakes made can lead to dire consequences, but at the same time they contribute to the accumulation of life experience. “The sooner a person thinks about the world around him, about his place in it, about its values, about the constant cruel confrontation between good and evil, the sooner he matures, the sooner he turns into a person,” noted V. Zheleznikov in the preface to the publication. The existential issues of self-determination and choice in a borderline situation (bullying, execution, despair, loneliness, abandonment, circumstances of confrontation with others) are central to the analyzed story, and the image of the main character Lenka Bessoltseva embodies the writer’s ideal of a person capable of defending moral values ​​and one’s own dignity.

Despite the fact that the story "Scarecrow" is included in school curriculum and represents the pinnacle achievement of Russian teenage prose of the second half of the twentieth century, it has been little studied philologically1. The authors of textbooks on children's literature (for example, T. D. Polozova, I. I. Rozanov) noted both the innovation of the story and its connection with the traditions of psychological prose of the 19th-20th centuries. . I. Arzamastseva, E. E. Zubareva wrote about the depth of psychological elaboration of the characters’ images, the “confessional” nature of the narrative was noted by N. L. Leiderman

1 The lack of study of V. Zheleznikov’s work does not so much characterize the attitude of researchers specifically towards this writer, but in general reflects (as already noted) the situation with the understanding of children’s and youth literature, especially modern literature.

and M.N. Lipovetsky. Methodological teachers offered their own options for studying the problem of cruelty and personal self-determination based on the material of the story “Scarecrow”. Certain aspects of the poetics of the story (the significance of images of art, aesthetic categories) were studied by D. Nikitina. However, the existing works, as a rule, present general judgments without a systematic analysis of the poetics of the work, or emphasize an aspect that does not coincide with the object of this study.

In the narrative, the image of the heroine is revealed through her self-reflection, that is, through the figure of the narrator; an objectified description of Lenka’s portrait and experiences by a conceptualized narrator; conveying the perception of its characters with different points of view. Classmates perceive Lenka in the context of their life experience and note her “eccentricity” and awkwardness, causing them laughter and contempt, and the grandfather sees in his granddaughter a worthy successor to the Bessoltsev family.

The image of Lenka is revealed in a tense plot filled with drama, the exposition of which includes Bessoltseva’s arrival in the city of her ancestors and the transition to the sixth grade of a new school for her, where she is given the nickname Scarecrow, and in the beginning - the announcement of a boycott of Lenka and the beginning of her persecution because of for accusations of treason. In the development of the plot, the comparison of Lenka with the hare is important. This begins in an episode where children visit a children's toy factory. Lenka tries on a hare mask, and the guys, putting on other masks, sing around her: “Grey bunny, white bunny... We will outwit you!” . This episode is significant because it establishes the original roles that the teenage characters follow. As the main conflict develops, classmates implement models of behavior of predators (fox, wolf, tiger), and Lenka - a hare, which is what his grandfather admits.

ke: “Can you imagine, they chased me around the city. In front of everyone. It was difficult for me to run... Have you ever been chased like a hare?..”

The comparison with a defenseless animal allows Zheleznikov to correlate external weakness and internal strength in the image of the heroine. Lenka is not idealized; at first she is afraid of an aggressive crowd of classmates, she experiences a “hare” fear: the story begins with Lenka’s appeal to her grandfather with a request to leave the city - this is the behavior of a hare running away from danger. And grandfather Nikolai Nikolaevich compares Lena with a hare: “Well, what did she do so terrible that they pushed her away from them, despised her and chased her like a hare?..”. However, the grandfather calls his granddaughter for a frank conversation, provoking her to decide: who is she - a cowardly animal or a brave person?

Unlike the other characters in the story, Lenka is not just a subject of speech, but a narrator, to whom the author gives the authority to express his version of events. The process of her narrating what happened is important in the story as an act of self-awareness. Understanding the situation, Lenka understands that she cannot give in to the animal in herself, she cannot run, and decides that she will no longer be a hunted hare: “It turns out that if I ran, it means I’m guilty. Now I’m a scientist - you have to fight back, even if there are a lot of them and they beat you. But you can't run. I didn’t understand it then and ran.”

Lenka's courage lies not only in confronting the crowd and overcoming the fear of physical violence and outcastry, but also in an honest awareness of her shortcomings and mistakes, which she finds the strength to admit. In this she is the opposite of Dimka Somov, who is not ready to overcome the low in himself and betrayed not only Lenka, but also his own ideals.

Lenka's attitude towards Dimka, a real traitor, expresses the most important quality of her personality - the ability to empathize, understand and forgive. Imbued with Dimka’s feelings, she notes: “He did not yet know that he was a coward, just as I did not know that very soon I would become a traitor.” Correlating the person who has stumbled with herself, who is also not sinless, allows her not to act as a judge, but to realize and formulate her existential guilt, associated not with the accusations attributed to society of betraying her classmates, which she did not commit, but with “yielding” to what she does not agree with , with a departure from her values, with false shame for her grandfather, which does not correspond to her real attitude towards him, which she admits, sincerely repenting: “I was ashamed of you. that you are walking. in patches. in old galoshes."

Lenka deals with her guilt, with her weaknesses, without encroaching on the correction of others.

This is an important quality of the heroine for Zheleznikov, since through it the writer proves: external influence, persecution, executions (Lenka is metaphorically burned at the stake) do not correct a person, they can only break him. The only way to awaken self-awareness, conscience, and humanity in another is stoic non-resistance to evil through violence (Zheleznikov’s story clearly continues the traditions of classical Russian literature, develops the ideas of F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy). Therefore, Lenka does not betray Dimka the traitor, does not utter words of self-justification, abandoning the role of both executioner and victim and giving new chances to his classmates to change their (animal, in essence) behavior of rapists, aggressors, inquisitors, those who believe that he “has the right” to humiliate another: “Maybe she should go out and shout all about Dimka<...>But immediately a fierce resistance arose within her, something beyond her control, not allowing her to do all this. What was it? Pride, resentment towards Dimka?.. No, it was a feeling of impossibility and unwillingness to destroy another person. Even if this person is guilty."

Moral feelings and ideals, according to V. Zheleznikov, are brought up not by school, but by family. The child can follow parents and elders. Thus, Valka has a value priority - money, for which one can kill (he and his older brother catch and sell dogs to the "knackery"), Shaggy - power, through which, it seems to him, justice can be restored, Shmakova - external beauty . A teenager can form an opinion, rejecting the attitudes of his parents, like the Iron Button (Mironova), who despises the principle by which her mother lives: “She believes that everyone can live as they want... and do what they want... And nothing no one will be asked. If only everything was covered and covered."

The comparison of Lenka with the Iron Button is carried out at the level of both the author (in the plot) and the characters (in their assessments of each other). Both are individuals who are ready to defend their principles, but in the logic of the development of action, Lenka proved her rightness, putting mercy above justice, faith in a person above justice, and forgiveness above punishment. E. E. Zubareva correctly noted: “From chapter to chapter, the conflict between the dehumanism of the morality of Mironova and her company and the humaneness of the morality of Lenka Bessoltseva worsens.” Defending the ideals of justice, Mironova sees herself as an objective judge, and in the end it turns out that she was wrong, which led to the tragic consequences of persecuting an innocent person.

In the formation of personality, V. Zheleznikov argues, constructive connections between generations are important, which are absent in the teenage characters of the story. Compared to her classmates, Lenka stands out because she is the only one who has a trusting relationship with the older generation. Through communication with her grandfather (a front-line soldier and art collector), she feels living connections not only with the entire Bessoltsev family, but also with her native history and culture, since representatives of different generations of the family were creators of both history (by participating in the wars of liberation) and culture, serving education (Maria Nikolaevna Bessoltseva “founded a women’s gymnasium in the town”), art (in the finale, the grandfather bequeaths to open a museum in his house, where he collected a collection of paintings painted by his ancestor). For the Bes-Soltsevs, the connection with the family turns out to be not an empty ritual, but a real fulfillment of life: it allows Nikolai Nikolaevich to overcome the feeling of mortality, to feel “that his life is eternal,” Lenke - to communicate with the portrait of her great-great-grandmother, “Mashka”: between ancestors and descendants there is a metaphysical connection, since Lenka not only talks with “Mashka”, but is her double, repeating the appearance and inheriting the moral qualities of Maria Bessoltseva - “the sacrifice” and the “holy soul”.

In revealing the image of Lenka, the intertextual layer of the story is important. Thus, her fate of “being at the stake,” loyalty to her principles and Lenka’s justification by her classmates after persecution and a staged execution correlate her with Joan of Arc, after the burning of a rehabilitated and canonized saint. This allusion is also supported by the similarity of her image with the face as perceived by her grandfather: ". Lenka's face seemed to him unusually spiritual: a sweet face, just the face of a saint. " This comparison and Lenka's behavior refers to the hagiographical motive of suffering for the faith, existential in its essence, since the stoicism of saints, manifested in defending their position without retaliatory aggression, seems other absurd, but reflects the personal meaning of existence.

Lenka’s attitude towards Dimka, in which she saw a brave knight ready to protect the weak, refers to the image Beautiful lady, with which she associates herself: “...I kissed him<...>So are women. they used to thank the knights.<...>And you, Dimka, are a knight, you saved the dog and me from Valka.” Against the background of Dimka’s false knighthood, the plot reveals the correspondence of Lenka’s image to the ideal of female wisdom, manifested in loyalty to her lover, readiness to patiently wait for him to wake up from a bad dream

(cf. Bessoltseva falls in love with him because of the similarity of his appearance with the statue of the “Asleep Boy”), will show his chivalry. These qualities of Lenka are reinforced by allusions associated with her name. Unlike her classmates and the conceptualized narrator, Bessoltseva’s grandfather, being alone with his granddaughter, calls her full name- Elena . In combination with this, the characteristics given by the grandfather refer to the image of Helen the Beautiful: “. her face, which had just been on fire, became childlike and beautiful...”; “And the love of such a beauty, such a wonderful person,” Nikolai Nikolaevich thought with indignation, “was rejected by this unfortunate, pathetic Dimka Somov!” . We are not talking about the specific correspondence of the image of Lenka to the character of the ancient Greek epic or Russian fairy-tale prose2, but about the relationship with stable phrase, having the semantics of true femininity.

V. Zheleznikov uses in the story the technique of comparing naming and essence, manifested already in the title. The dictionary meaning of the word “stuffed animal” combines the semantics of external resemblance to something living and aesthetically unsightly: “1. An animal figure made from something stuffed. his skins.<...>2. Scarecrow for birds in the form of a doll like a person”; in turn, “scarecrow” has a figurative meaning - “about a person with a frightening appearance...”. In the minds of children, the nickname Scarecrow refers to Lenka, but the author’s position is revealed in the contrast, firstly, with the view of teenagers and the perception of their grandfather, and secondly, with the behavior of Lenka and others.

Different points of view in the story are needed to demonstrate the relativity of assessments and the determinism of perception by one’s own values ​​and life experiences. Lenka's awkwardness is confirmed in the narrator's speech. But Zheleznikov poses questions: how does external ugliness relate to true (spiritual) beauty, what is more terrible, more dangerous - to appear like a “beast”, empty inside, ugly (stuffed animal) or to be one in essence?

While her classmates behave like “kids in a cage” right up to the end, Bes-soltseva sheds her hare mask, abandoning the habits of a prey animal and the social role prescribed for her by society. But Lenka is not free from connections with society; his and his grandfather’s house-museum serves as a refuge only for a while: and the terrible reality itself bursts into it (Dimka Pu-

2 Although fairy-tale allusions, including to Helen the Beautiful and to the motif of werewolfism (in connection with Dimka dressing the head of a bear), take place in the story and deserve special research attention.

greets her with a stuffed bear), and Lenka is forced to go out into external world. Therefore, at the beginning of the persecution, Bessoltseva decides to convince the crowd that she does not meet the characteristics of empty and ugly.

Showing Lenkin's attempts, Zheleznikov uses the semantics of hair. In archaic general cultural meanings, hair is associated with the manifestation of the individual, with personal destiny, with a reflection of a person’s inner strength. At first, Lenka does a voluminous hairstyle at the hairdresser, as if revealing her self, trying to prove that she is not a scarecrow, but her classmates perceive this not as an expression of essence, but worthy of ridicule external change: “And carry it like a princess! She’s a beauty among us,” Shmakova laughed.”

The false perception of Lenka by her classmates as unpleasant not only externally, but also internally (she is accused of betrayal) is due to a distorted interpretation of events: teenagers “drive” and judge an innocent girl. Therefore, for Lenka, the desire to change the attitude towards himself is connected with the desire to discover the truth, to restore justice. But, having taken the guilt of another, she cannot open up directly and betray friendship. Finding herself without the support of her false friend and false knight Dimka, Lenka in the pre-final episodes gives her classmates another chance to refuse to perceive a person based on external, superficial, and therefore imaginary qualities. To do this, she shaves her head, trying to really look like a scarecrow. Shaving off one's hair in the story is not a sign of renunciation of individuality and struggle, but of exposing one's self, an unconscious manifestation of one's openness and vulnerability while being willing to face danger in order to defend one's dignity. Lenka’s bald head emphasized her fragility (“... a head on a thin neck, an early spring flower. All unprotected, but somehow bright and open”), against the background of which the inner strength of an existential hero was revealed, who was executed, but did not betray himself , nor anything else. In the finale, Lenka formulates her existential position: “I was at the stake. And they chased me down the street. And I will never chase anyone. And I will never bully anyone. At least kill me!” . Having survived a series of betrayals and persecutions, the heroine did not become bitter, but, on the contrary, strengthened in her desire to be merciful, even “to the fallen.” (And the heroine’s surname, derived from “without salt,” reflects the semantics not of “flatness,” but of good-naturedness, the inability to “annoy” or commit meanness).

It is not known whether the work of N. Zabolotsky had an influence on the formation of Lenka’s image, but

Zheleznikov’s heroine is similar to an “ugly girl,” and the plot of “Scarecrow” is a response to the fears and hopes of the lyrical subject of the poem: “Among other children playing / She resembles a frog.<...>Someone else’s joy, just like her own, / languishes her and breaks out of her heart, / and the girl rejoices and laughs, / embraced by the happiness of being. / This creature does not yet know a shadow of envy, nor a malicious intent. / Everything in the world is so immensely new to her, / Everything that is dead to others is so alive! / And I don’t want to think, as I watch, / That there will be a day when she, sobbing, / Sees with horror that among her friends / She’s just a poor ugly girl! / I want to believe that the heart is not a toy, / It’s hardly possible to break it suddenly! / I want to believe that this pure flame, / Which burns in its depths, / will overcome all its pain / And will melt the heaviest stone! / And even though her features are not good / And she has nothing to seduce the imagination, - / The infantile grace of the soul / Already shines through in any of her movements” (“ Ugly girl", 1955).

To the question in N. Zabolotsky’s poem (“And if this is so, then what is beauty / And why do people deify it? / Is it a vessel in which there is emptiness, / Or fire flickering in the vessel?”) V. Zheleznikov answers with a comparison Bessoltseva and Shmakova. At the end of the story, callousness devalues ​​the latter’s external attractiveness even for Popov, who blindly loves her, and Lenkin’s inner beauty, conditioned by the spiritual and moral purity of actions and thoughts, becomes visible. The awareness by others of Bessoltseva’s inner beauty is given at the denouement of the plot, when the children catch Lenka’s resemblance to the image in the portrait donated by Nikolai Nikolaevich: “Everyone looked at the picture in silence. / And longing, such a desperate longing for human purity, for selfless courage and nobility, more and more captured their hearts and demanded a way out.”

The analysis carried out allows us to assert that the story “Scarecrow” fits into the main trends in the search for the moral and ethical foundations of social existence both in classical Russian literature and prose of the 1970s. V. Zheleznikov, along with V. Rasputin, V. Astafiev, V. Makanin and others, affirms the importance of historical, cultural and tribal memory, family, Motherland, and other traditional values, the rejection of which results in the destruction of the individual and the moral degradation of society. Most of all, the problematics and poetics of the story fit into the context of existential realism, in the works of which “a person must find an individual meaning of existence in the relative world (absolutes), must remain faithful to them in

real existence, and personal efforts to preserve spiritual values ​​are recognized as significant” (T. L. Rybalchenko). Lenka Bessoltseva corresponds to the type of existential hero - a bearer of personal consciousness (but not an individualist), capable of self-reflection and awareness of his (subjectively understood as obligatory and genuine) debt and guilt, who is in a borderline situation requiring not only choice, but responsibility for his solutions. As in other works of this movement, access to “true existence” is realized in the story through “personal self-determination in overwhelming social circumstances.” At the same time, the choice of an existential hero is always the refusal to compromise, the acceptance of physical, external defeat (death, imprisonment, loss of comfortable coexistence with others) in order to preserve his values, since dignity for an existential personality is more valuable than life, though it is more important than comfort.

In contrast to critical realism, which gives typological generalizations of modernity, in existential realism it is important to “correlate the specific historical situation with situations of the past”, “identify the author’s concept in the system of cultural allusions”. Comparing the priorities of Lenka's classmates and family

Bessoltsev, V. Zheleznikov poses the problem of the crisis of humanistic values, not limited to the social cross-section of the 1970s and the “school” theme: through allusions to the times of the medieval Inquisition and the Soviet practice of searching for “enemies of the people”, “traitors to the ideals of communism”, this problem sounds like an eternal , historically recurring, based on the division of people into victims and executioners, “trembling creatures” (hares) and “those with the right” (predators). Removing the dilemma of the hero of the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky, Lenka affirms an existential worldview position: man is not a trembling creature, and has no right to encroach on the life and freedom of another. His only right is to defend his dignity.

In contrast to “adult” literature (prose by A. Solzhenitsyn, V. Shalamov, V. Bykov, Yu. Dombrovsky, etc.), where most often the hero’s existential struggle for his self does not change the circumstances and consciousness of those around him (which emphasizes the meaninglessness of the character’s behavior from the point of view of the pragmatics of existence), V. Zheleznikov in the finale expresses the hope that personal example can encourage others to reassess their behavior, views, life guidelines, and faith in the triumph of justice, humanism, spiritual and moral values.

Bibliography

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12. Nikitina D. The theme of art in V. Zheleznikov’s story “Scarecrow” // Materials of the XVI All-Russian conference of students, graduate students and young scientists “Science and Education” with international participation (April 19-23, 2010): in 6 volumes. T. .II. Philology. Part I. Russian language and literature. pp. 313-318.

13. Zheleznikov V.K. Scarecrow. M.: Astrel: AST; Vladimir: VKT, 2010. 348 p.

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18. Rybalchenko T. L. History of Russian literature: 1950-1980 (realism): methodological manual. Tomsk: TSU, 2012. URL: http://reftrend.ru/767788.html (access date: 02/12/2015).

Poleva E. A., candidate of philological sciences, associate professor, head. department. Tomsk State Pedagogical University.

St. Kyiv, 60, Tomsk, Russia, 634061. E-mail: [email protected]

Myachina E.I., student.

Tomsk State Pedagogical University.

St. Kyiv, 60, Tomsk, Russia, 634061. E-mail: [email protected]

The material was received by the editor on February 24, 2015.

E. A. Poleva, E. I. Myachina

IMAGE OF THE LEADING CHARACTER IN THE STORY OF VLADIMIR ZHELEZNIKOV "SCARECROW"

The authors analyze Zheleznikov's story the "Scarecrow" written in the flourishing period of the writer (in the 1970s), and reveal the ways to bring out the image of the leading character, such as: showing the points of view of different subjects of speech including the storyteller; the comparison of names of characters and their inward nature, the comparison of the internal and external of characters; the comparison of characters" behavior with different animals; using illusion). The story fits into the context of searches of moral ideal in the Russian classical prose and in the contemporary literature with Zheleznikov. The writer puts the existential type of character in the centre, who is ready to defend the principles such as: non-resistance to evil by force, value of human dignity, mercy, belief in the triumph of kindness, in an extreme situation.

Key words: the youth literature, psychological prose, Zheleznikov, " the school novella", "Scarecrow", topic of cruelty, moral values, existential problematics, existential realism.

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7. Zubareva E. E., Sigov V. K., Skripkina V. A. at al. Children's literature: uchebnik. Ed. E. E. Zubareva. Moscow, Vysshaya shkola Publ., 2004. 551 p. (in Russian).

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10. Korzhuk S. V. Razgovor o zhestokosti v 6th grade: po book V. Zheleznikova “Chuchelo”. Literatura - Literature, 1996, no. 14, p. 1 (in Russian).

11. Khakimova G. G. Urok-konferentsiya po knige V. Zheleznikova “Chuchelo”: “Uroki zhizni, uroki dobroty” URL: http://festival.1september.ru/articles/518740/ (accessed 12 January 2015) (in Russian).

12. Nikitina D. Tema iskusstva v povesti V. Zheleznikova "Chuchelo". Materialy XVI Vserossiyskoy s mezhdunarodnym uchastiyem konferentsii studentsov, graduate students i molodykh uchenykh "Nauka i obrazovaniye" V 6 t. Tom II.

Filologiya. Chast" I. Russian yazyk i literatura. . Vol. 2 "Philology. Part 1 Russian language and literature". 2010. Pp. 313-318 (in Russian).

13. Zheleznikov V. K. Chúchelo. Moscow, Astrel Publ., AST Publ., Vladimir, VKT Publ., 2010. 348 p. (in Russian).

14. Ozhegov S. I. Slovar" russkogo yazyka. Ed. prof. L. I. Skvortsova. Moscow, ONIKS 21st century Publ., 2003. 1200 p. (in Russian).

15. Uspenskiy B. A. Filologicheskiye razyskaniya v oblasti slavyanskikh drevnostey. (Relikty yazychestva v vostochnoslavyanskom kul"te Nikolaya Mirlikiyskogo). Moscow, MGU Publ., 1982. 248 p. (in Russian).

16. Zabolotskiy N. Stikhotvoreniya i poemy. Rostov-on-Don, Irbis Publ., 1999. 408 p. (in Russian).

17. Rybal "chenko T. L. Istoriya literatury XX century kak istoriya literaturnykh techeniy. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta-TSUBulletin, 1999, vol. 268, pp. 68-72 (in Russian).

18. Rybal "chenko T. L. Istoriya russkoy literature: 1950-1980 godov (realizm): metodicheskoye posobiye. Tomsk, TGU Publ., 2012. URL: http://reftrend.ru/767788.html (accessed 12 February 2015) (in Russian).

Email: [email protected]

Tomsk State Pedagogical University.

Ul. Kievskaya, 60, Tomsk, Russia, 634061.

Why are people cruel to each other? There is no clear answer to this question. Hostility, envy, desire for revenge, unmotivated aggression. There are many reasons. Cruelty in peacetime and especially among children causes a feeling of catastrophe.

Zheleznikov’s story “Scarecrow” caused a lot of noise in its time. The pedagogical community angrily argued that the situation described in the work was slander against Soviet children and teenagers. The story shows a monstrous situation when, in one of the provincial cities, sixth grade students brutally harassed their classmate Lena Bessoltseva. They accused her of treason and declared a boycott. In fact, the girl did not betray anyone, she simply took on someone else’s guilt.

When you read the story, you are amazed at how cruel teenagers can be. They not only called her a scarecrow and chased her around the city, they staged a public burning of a scarecrow symbolizing Lena in front of her eyes. What are the reasons for such cruelty? There are probably several of them. Lena was not like the others. This is a kind, spontaneous, trusting girl. From the first minute she appears in class, she causes ridicule because she is the granddaughter of the “patcher,” which is the name of Lena’s grandfather in the city. People who stand out from the general environment, the so-called “white crows,” always cause fire on themselves. If you look at Lena’s classmates, among them you can single out several guys who were the cause of the bullying. Mironova, nicknamed “The Iron Button,” is a girl with a tough, fighting character who does not recognize any compromises. “No one should go unpunished. No one will escape the answer” - this heroine lives under these slogans. It is from her that the initiative comes to declare a boycott of Scarecrow. This is her way of asserting herself. She considers herself fair, but in reality she is ruthless and power-hungry. Shmakova and Popov knew perfectly well that Lena was innocent, but they were interested to see how the situation would unfold. These are indifferent and narcissistic people. The noble and brave Somov, whom Lena “covered”, turned out to be a coward. All classmates united in a pack pursuing their prey. This behavior of teenagers indicates that they could not feel someone else’s pain, could not put themselves in the place of unfortunate Lena. These are already the costs of the education received at home and at school.

Several decades have passed since the book was published. Nowadays you won’t surprise anyone with examples of cruelty among children. Bullying, beatings, persecution - they don’t even try to hide it; they post videos for everyone to see on the Internet. IN modern society reasons for the manifestation of cruelty have been added: instability, decline in morality, aggression emanating from the Internet and computer games. But there is one reason for all times - the inability to feel the pain of another person.

Lesson-debate based on the story “Scarecrow” by V. Zheleznikov

“About indifference and cruelty, kindness and spiritual generosity”

Target:

Introduce the work of V. Zheleznikov;

To cultivate feelings of kindness, generosity, honesty, and human dignity.

During the classes:

Librarian: Hello guys. Today in class we will talk about the most famous story by V. Zheleznikov “Scarecrow”.

We took the words of the author as the epigraph for the lesson: “ In children's literature, personality must be constantly highlighted, because it is our human hope. This is exactly the character who is able to understand, appreciate and preserve moral and spiritual values ​​before others before the onslaught of an omnipotent, well-armed barbarian, blindly carried away by jeans, all kinds of clothes, and videos of bad taste.”

1.Biography of the writer

Vladimir Karpovich Zheleznikov was born into a military family and spent his childhood in border towns. Graduated from the artillery school. After the war, he began to study at the Law Institute, but left it and entered the Literary Institute. M. Gorky.

Each work by Zheleznikov is a “hot confession”, with rare psychological authenticity and emotional richness.

Time changes, the writer’s characters change, but kindness as a key human principle retains its significance for the writer.

The writer is impressed by an open, friendly hero who is able to “treat everyone very well.” Such is Lena Bessoltseva - a “stuffed animal” - who took upon herself the guilt of the boy whom she really liked.

The story " Scarecrow"(1978) - the most significant. The writer’s concern about increasingly bitter teenagers and the ever-widening gap between generations was not groundless then, and is especially true today.

In one of his interviews, V. Zheleznikov said: “ When I came to children's literature, I thought children were wonderful creatures. So I wrote and believed that everything bad that is in children comes from adults, adults deprive them of their children's lives... Then I saw that children also have negative character traits. They are often selfish, even egocentric, they do not take into account the world of adults, they can be tactless. And then I had a desire to show the children what they really are, so that they could see themselves.”

In this story, the writer comes to the conclusion about the possibility of such cruelty in a children's group that even adults are not capable of.

The main character - Lena Bessoltseva - emotional, romantic, naive and infinitely compassionate, “wonderful” - became the object of severe persecution from her peers not so much for her fictitious betrayal, but for her originality. The protracted game quickly turns into a dramatic, then into a tragic phase of the conflict, when the heroine “came to the fire one person, and got up from the ground... completely different.” Despite all the disappointments, the pain from the loss of illusions, Lena does not become bitter, she is imbued with pity for her classmates who have lost their human face - “You poor, poor people.”

When the misunderstanding is cleared up, the girl’s classmates will be shocked, but no amount of repentance will change the fact that the grandfather and granddaughter - the conscience and soul of the city - will leave forever the place where generations of their ancestors lived, leaving behind a picture reminder - there are people in the world who “never they won’t persecute... And they will never persecute anyone.”

The writer has the ability to convey the sharpness and drama of a child’s worldview, when an event that is trivial for adults can grow in the eyes of a child to the scale of a tragedy. Indifference, criminal inattention of the surrounding elders can play the role of a detonator of the process, which will radically affect the fate of everyone involved in it. A vicious circle of indifference and cruelty leads to irreparable trouble with Lena Usoltseva.

And today the story is not at all outdated, it has become even more relevant. Teenage cruelty, the division of children into “poor” and “rich”, the moral deafness of many adults - these problems have become even more acute these days.

2. Discussion of the story

In one of his interviews, V. Zheleznikov said: “To be heard, you had to shout. That's why I wrote Scarecrow. What did the writer want to shout about, what excited him so much?

(He was disturbed by children's cruelty.)

. Why do you think Lena Bessoltseva took on someone else’s guilt?

(She wanted to help Dima Somov out, especially since he told her that he would soon tell the guys everything. In addition, Lena “ possessed those wonderful qualities of character that certainly required her to participate in the destinies of other people and pain for them.”)

Talking with her grandfather, Lena admitted that she was a traitor. What did she mean?

(I too, like Dimka... a traitor!.. I betrayed you!.. I was ashamed of you... that you walk... in patches... in old galoshes... Do you think that I rushed at Dimka with my fists when he told me that you teased by the Patchmaker? Do you think she came to your defense? Do you think she explained to him that you spend all your money on the painting? No, grandfather! On the contrary, she began to be ashamed of you...”)

. What motto did the guys choose for themselves?

(But the main thing is not CONSCIENCE, but POWER!.)

. Do you agree with this statement?

Describing the guys who bullied Lena, the writer draws attention to their eyes. Please find the description in the text and comment.

(“They all had the same eyes: angry, prickly, alien.”)

. Why didn’t Dima admit to the guys that it was his fault that their trip to Moscow was ruined?

(Dima Somov is used to enjoying success with those around him, he is an egoist and more than anything else in the world he is afraid of appearing in front of others in an unfavorable light; in addition, he is afraid of losing his authority among his classmates. He turned out to be a weak person. Therefore, he became cowardly, acted lowly and vilely. Cowardice gives birth to MEANNESS.)

. What scene in the story do you think can be called a turning point for Lena?

(This is the scene of a bonfire on which a scarecrow was burned. Lena kept waiting for Dima to put an end to this monstrous act. But she was mistaken in him. At first he did not give her the dress, accepting everyone’s game. And then he set fire to the scarecrow. “I froze - I was waiting for the last time! Well, I think he’ll look back now and say: “Guys, Lenka is not to blame for anything... It’s all me!” But this did not happen, Dimka “struck a match, and a flame of fire grew over his shoulders.”. This scene seriously influenced Lena, the scales fell from her eyes, she now understood everything about Dima. Now she will need to cope with all difficulties on her own - she has become stronger. “I came to the fire one person, and stood up from the ground to meet Dimka completely different.”)

When the truth was revealed, why didn’t Lena support the guys when they announced a boycott of Somov?

(For Lena, this whole story was a big lesson, she experienced a lot, a lot was revealed to her, she remembered the pain and betrayal of her friend, so she didn’t want revenge: “I was at the stake. And they chased me down the street. And I will never chase anyone... And I will never poison anyone. At least kill me!”)

. What action does Red perform for the first time? And why?

(When Somova is announced, Red is against: “I personally fuck off. I despise Somov... But now I won’t declare a boycott... Since Lenka is against it, then I’m against it. I've always been like everyone else. Everyone hit, and I hit. Because I'm a redhead and I was afraid to stand out. And for the first time, maybe in my entire lifesighed in relief.")

. Let's remember the scene that happened at Dima Somov's birthday. Why did Lena come to the guys?

(Having survived the “burning at the stake” scene, she was no longer afraid of anything: “Lenka looked at the guys and first, meeting their gaze, didn't flinch" At her birthday party, she told her classmates about her departure: “Rejoice...you achieved your goal! You are winners!.. I'm leaving tomorrow. So let's say in unison: “There is no more Chu-che-la in our class!”... She was silent. Then she said seriously and sadly: “Honestly, I feel sorry for you. Poor you, poor people.")

. What gift did Lena’s grandfather give to the city and school and why did the children not understand this act?

(All his life, Nikolai Ivanovich Bessoltsev collected paintings that belonged to his family. He spent all his money on these canvases, denying himself everything.

“How much did they pay him? – Valka asked curiously.

- I explained - he gave it all! – Margarita Ivanovna said joyfully again.

- For free? All for nothing?..

Valka was confused. The meaning of life was losing ground for him . He wanted to earn a lot, a lot of money, he considered this the greatest happiness, because with the money he would buy himself a car, a color TV, a motor boat and live for his own pleasure. And suddenly “someone”, of his own free will, gives up all his wealth...".)

. How does the story end?

(Lena and her grandfather are leaving. The guys are looking at a painting donated to the school, which depicted Masha, a former literature teacher who lived in this city 100 years ago. She was very similar to Lena. : “Head on a thin neck, early spring flower. All unprotected, but somehow bright and open. Everyone looked at the picture in silence. And longing, such a desperate longing for human purity, for selfless courage and nobility, was seizing more and more from the heart and demanding a way out. Therefore, there was no strength to endure anymore... Scarecrow, forgive us!"Both the class and the city have lost the purest, most the best people.)

3.Final words

The writer speaks about indifference and cruelty as directly and truthfully as about kindness and spiritual generosity. Eccentrics make the world a better place, and Vladimir Zheleznikov is always on their side.

Sometimes it can be very easy to succumb to the general mood. Reigning in a group of your friends. It is much more difficult in such a situation to control your actions, to think about the consequences, about whether they will bring suffering to others.