Remembering the classics. V.M. Shukshin: "Freak", summary

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The work of V. M. Shukshin is a clear indicator that in the Soviet era there were writers who were not afraid to tell the truth about the life of the people, highlight the problems that are relevant to them, talk about such vital, pressing issues as conscience, morality, spirituality. Telling for the most part about the fate of the inhabitants of Russian villages, he chose characters in his works that, on the one hand, were typical of their social group, and on the other, stood out from it with spiritual beauty, some kind of zest, a special view of the world, people, life itself. Critics call them "weirdos" for a reason.

What does freak mean?

The word itself appeared in the title of one of the stories that Shukshin wrote: "Crazy". The summary of the work will help to understand what the essence of the “eccentricity” of the character is, and what meaning is put into it (in the word) in general. We learn the real name and surname of the hero at the very end: Knyazev Vasily Yegorych, a projectionist, a lover of dogs and detectives, who dreamed of being a spy as a child. He is 39 years old, but by his actions we are a weirdosometimes it seems like a true child - naive, conscientious, spontaneous. Often he behaves in what seems to be contrary to common sense. Shukshin repeatedly draws the reader's attention to this. “Freak”, the summary of which can be reduced to a few sentences, is interesting in that it makes it possible to imagine the whole life of the hero in several fragments. And although we already have a mature personality in front of us, we understand: Knyazev was like that five years ago, and ten. It is not for nothing that he is a “freak” in different situations: his wife calls him that both affectionately and when she is angry. The nickname is also called by neighbors, acquaintances, friends. They don't seem to be taken seriously. And how can you take seriously a person who saw a lot of money (50 rubles) in a store, but didn’t take it for himself, but turned to people: “Who lost it?” And when he discovered that he had dropped the bill himself, he was ashamed to return and pick it up.

I thought - people will think that someone else wants to pocket, because they will not believe that his money! This episode confirms how accurately Shukshin called his hero: "freaks".

Summary brings to mind the scenes of "collisions" between the character and his daughter-in-law, his brother's wife. That is clearly not happy with the relative who came to visit. And the fact that he sings songs until night, having drunk with his brother “for the meeting”, and the fact that he is not “responsible”, i.e. not with ranks and positions, but simple, ordinary. And the fact that he is sincerely glad to meet Dmitry, in general that he is sincere, open, sincere, not prudent, like her and those whom Sofya Ivanovna respects immensely. In a frank conversation with his brother, Dmitry complains and wonders: “Why are people evil?” Why does the wife only “bark”, barmaids and saleswomen answer customers rudely and strive to cheat? Why do people not smile, do not say kind words to each other, but are only concerned with what, where and from whom to “snatch”? Why does no one care about the beauty of God's world, the quiet human joys?

Shukshin himself asks the same questions. The eccentric (a brief summary of the work allows us to trace the confrontation planned by the author) tries to console his brother and correct the situation in his own way. He draws wonderfully, and therefore, when the daughter-in-law and brother went to work, he decided to please them with a surprise and painted the baby carriage “like a toy”. All day the hero looks forward to the surprise and admiration of Sofya Ivanovna. Yes, but he did not take into account her downright hatred, frank contempt for the village and mockery of her. In this regard, Shukshin's story is very truthful and realistic. The summary (“Freak” is concise in accordance with the genre features of the work) makes it possible to reveal the hostility of the bourgeoisie (i.e., the poorly educated, undeveloped part of the urban population), their arrogant attitude towards ordinary people. After all, Sophia herself comes from the village. It's about people like her, they put down the saying: "I left the village, I did not reach the city." And therefore, when she saw the painted carriage, she kicked out her son-in-law with a terrible scandal.

Vasily Egorych blames himself for everything, his absurdity. However, we, the readers, do not agree with this, and the author, Vasily Shukshin, does not agree either.“Freak” (the summary clearly demonstrates this) is just right - those who condemn him, who do not want to understand, are wrong. Who seeks profit in everything and has forgotten that there is beauty of nature and human relations, sincere love and friendship, poetry of life. This is what the writer wants to tell us. So that we look inside ourselves, into our soul and try to fix at least something.

So that we, albeit quite a bit, but also become weirdos.