"Colorful Butterfly" (Platonov): a summary of the story

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

Eternal questions about the meaning of life, about achieving a dream permeated many of Andrei Platonov's works. The summary of "The Colorful Butterfly" (one of the writer's stories), as well as its full version, includes reflections on this topic. Such "eternal" questions were very topical during the heyday of the writer's work. They are also reflected in the legend "Colorful Butterfly". Although the story is rather short, one can refer to the summary of Platonov's "Colorful Butterfly".

A path into the unknown

At the beginning of the story, we learn about the life of the old woman Anisya. Like the legend itself, the summary of Platonov's "Colorful Butterfly" tells about her long and lonely life. But she was not always alone: her son Timosha grew up, a very restless boy. They lived in the Caucasus, near the sea. There were mountains nearby, and every day he ran there to play and catch butterflies. And when he brought them home, he always wondered: why don't they rise into the air anymore? To this, his mother answered him that for the life of a butterflyshe needs to fly, but she can’t do it now - the boy wiped the pollen from his wings.

Every day Timosha ran away for a walk in the mountains along the same path. It was laid by one unknown person: he had no tender feelings for anyone, he had no children. Earthly existence burdened him, and he went along this path through the highest mountain to the sky and did not return from there.

Unbridled Desire

In the second part of the summary of Platonov's "Colorful Butterfly", we will find out how Anisya's son left. Once he saw an unusual butterfly the size of a bird. Her wings were strewn with flowers, quite new to the boy. It seemed to Timosha that someone was calling him, and the voice was coming from the wings of this creature.

Of course, the boy really wanted to catch her, but the butterfly flew away from him farther and farther. She did not pay any attention to him, did not answer him. But all the same, Timosha really wanted to catch her, the biggest, the very last. His desire to catch a butterfly turned out to be stronger than the desire to return home to his own mother. At the end of the path, the boy saw the biggest star, the most beautiful, and behind it - the whole sky. Stepping a little further, he found himself at the bottom of the abyss.

Road to Homecoming

In the next part of the summary of "Colorful Butterfly" by Platonov, we will find out where the boy Timosha ended up. And he found himself at the bottom of the abyss. There were a lot of butterflies there, similar to the one he was running after. But they are no longer interestedhis. He was tired of looking at them. Timosha really wanted to return to his mother, but for this he needed to pave the way through the mountain from which he fell. Without ceasing, he beat stone on stones, day and night, without even going out to those alluring butterflies. Less and less frequently Timosha heard his mother's voice, and this increased his desire to return home. At the same time, Anisya was waiting for her son every day. Looking at the stars in the evenings, she called him softly, saying: "Don't, let everything be, then you will too."

The power of a mother's love

In the last part of the short summary of Platonov's "Colorful Butterfly", the reader will learn how Timosha returned to his mother. He was blinded by the darkness in the cave, but he still heard his mother's voice deep inside him. He did not rest a day, he worked all the time, until one day he heard the familiar sound of a bucket. Timosha realized that Anisya had thrown him into the well and shouted to her, but she did not recognize her son's voice. Many years have passed, her once small and mischievous boy has turned into a real old man. Embracing him, her whole life passed to him with love - Timosha again became the same little boy. Feeling the last notes of happiness, Anisya died. The end of the brief summary of A. P. Platonov's "Colorful Butterfly" clearly demonstrates the power of maternal love and teaches that, no matter what goal a person sets for himself, it is important to remember that maternal love - the strongest in the world.