Essay on the topic The meaning of the title of Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of Man. “The Fate of a Man”: the meaning of the title of Sholokhov’s story (essay) What is the meaning of the title of the story the fate of a man

The story “The Fate of a Man” by Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov was written in the mid-fifties of the twentieth century. This was a time of revision of the ideological guidelines of the Stalin era, when some relaxations arose in the strict restrictions of censorship. In particular, it became possible to talk in print about people who, during the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 were captured by the Nazis. Previously, these people were considered traitors and were violated in their civil rights. Many, returning from captivity to their homeland, after the fascist concentration camps ended up in Stalin’s, where conditions, according to the testimonies of survivors of repression, were even worse than in the fascist ones. The typical fate of such people was shown by Sholokhov in the image of Andrei Sokolov.
In addition to addressing a previously forbidden topic, Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man” has other features that distinguish it from the standard works of Soviet literature about the war. It was customary in them to emphasize the dedication of Soviet soldiers, consciously going to the feat in
The name of the socialist Motherland and its leader

Stalin. In other words, an indispensable condition for writers was the depiction of a heroic character in a poster spirit. And Andrei Sokolov, despite participating in his youth in civil war, a completely apolitical person, completely indifferent to “great socialist achievements” and similar propaganda chatter. His patriotism is purely Russian, the “Soviet” influence is almost imperceptible in him (except that he does not believe in God). Before the war, he was a simple driver, occupied exclusively family life and chatting with friends, don’t mind drinking. When the war begins, Andrei Sokolov is in no hurry to volunteer for the front, which was also the standard for poster heroes of Soviet literature. But when he receives a summons, he takes it for granted and goes to war with the same calm confidence in the necessity of this as he previously carried out his official duty at work. At the same time, at the front he shows extraordinary courage, and when he is forced into captivity, he meets his mortal enemies, waiting for a bullet, face to face. His courage is not ostentatious, but natural, which was inherent in many Russian people. In the first days of captivity, he commits another courageous act: with his own hands he destroys a traitor who was going to hand over his commander to the Nazis for execution.
Despite all the apparent artlessness and truthfulness of Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man,” a certain falsehood, human and artistic untruth is noticeable in it. At the very least, incompleteness, lack of understanding.
For example, there is a sensitive episode in the story, on which the author skillfully does not focus the reader’s attention. This is Andrei Sokolov's service in the fascist army. From a concentration camp, a prisoner of war ends up being chauffeured by a German major. Wears a German uniform. It is not explained by the author how this is possible if he does not know German language. It is known that at the end of the war, the Nazis had a catastrophic shortage of soldiers and they were forced to allow prisoners into some secondary, non-responsible positions. But for a Soviet prisoner of war to be kept not in the rear, but in the active army? It is very doubtful that this could actually happen. It is unlikely that the Germans were so gullible as not to suspect the Russian of seeking, at the first opportunity, to take revenge for beatings, humiliation, and backbreaking labor.
The heroic crossing of the front line with a captured Fritz and valuable documents - only this made it possible for Sokolov to avoid filtration, or even a concentration camp. In principle, from the point of view of the Soviet authorities of those years, he remained a traitor to the Motherland: after all, Andrei Sokolov served in the Wehrmacht. True, he redeemed himself with a brave act, and yet the fate of the Sholokhov hero in this regard turned out to be atypical, simply exceptional - happier than that of hundreds of thousands of other Soviet prisoners of war: he did not have to go from German captivity to his native Soviet one.
Summing up the analysis of Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man,” we can conclude that for its time it was a largely truthful depiction of the Russian national character, but under the conditions of the dominance of communist ideology, the writer was unable to tell the whole truth about the fate of Soviet prisoners of war.

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The theme of the Great Patriotic War is one of the leading ones in Russian literature of the second half of the twentieth century. She paid special attention to such great writer like M.A. Sholokhov. I propose to speculate on the meaning of the title of his story “The Fate of Man.”

What is fate? I think everyone has met those who believe in it and consider life to be predetermined, and those who do not believe in fate. But in any case, a person’s life is always equally filled with happiness and troubles, white stripes give way to black, like day follows night...

So Andrei Sokolov tells his listener about the difficult life path which he had to go through.

Once upon a time I lived main character happily: he had a desired and beloved mistress-wife, a son and two daughters. He worked hard and was not angry with fate. But his whole life (as well as the lives of other ordinary people) was turned upside down in an instant by one terrible word - war. Then he goes to the front, diligently serves, but is soon captured. All the sorrows that befell him could have “broken” any ordinary soldier, but not Sokolov. He accepted the blows of fate with dignity, in a Christian manner, as befits a Russian man with a capital R.

The episode of the fight with Muller is indicative. Having learned that Andrei was being summoned to the German authorities, the hero not only did not chicken out, but also went to his death with pride, not allowing the enemy to see the fear in his eyes. And how steadfastly he stood in front of the table, bursting with treats, when he himself had already forgotten about human food! It all shows best qualities soldier and man: courage, courage and fortitude.

Faith played an important role in his courage: faith in the best, anticipation of meeting his family (in his dream Andrei spoke to his family). But the next blow for him was the news of the death of his wife and daughters. Having suffered the loss heavily, the hero now lives only with the hope of a peaceful life with his son, but he also had to bury Anatoly.

Exhausted and beaten by a fickle, evil fate, Andrei Sokolov lost interest in life. Only a little boy, who had to endure no less sorrows, was able to revive the soldier: having met Vanyusha, the narrator realized that in order to build a happy future they simply needed to stick together. “Two orphaned people,” father and son, set off on a long journey along the road of life.

Bottom line: the work shows not just the life of an individual soldier Andrei Sokolov, but the fate of a person in general, who embodied all the main national typical traits. The trials that the hero endured are trials that befell the whole generation that went through the Great Patriotic War. Hence the generalization in the title of the story: a “man”, and not just a “soldier”, survived all this.

Name in work of art- one way of expressing author's position . It either reflects the essence of the conflicting works, or names the key episode or main character, or expresses the main idea of ​​the work. Many years after the Great Patriotic War in 1957, M.A. Sholokhov writes the story “The Fate of a Man”, the plot of which is based on the life story of an ordinary person Andrei Sokolov. The story is narrated in the first person, on behalf of the main character, who talks about his life to a stranger whom he mistook for a driver. Having carefully examined Andrei Sokolov, the narrator pays special attention to the man’s eyes: “eyes, as if sprinkled with ashes, filled with such an inescapable mortal melancholy that it is difficult to look into them.” This detail speaks of the difficult, very difficult life of Andrei Sokolov, because the eyes are the mirror of the soul. The hero tells about his fate. This is exactly the word given to M.A. Sholokhov in the title of the story. Not fate, not fate, not predestination, but precisely fate: a word that contains all previous meanings, but at the same time, here for the writer it is a synonym for the word life. Indeed, the life of Andrei Sokolov at first “was ordinary”: family, wife, three children, a good job, but the war began, which brought pain and suffering. First captivity, then the death of his wife and daughters, and finally the death of his son. Any person who experienced this could become angry, bitter, and curse his fate. But Andrei Sokolov found the strength to help the little boy Vanyusha, who was left an orphan after the war: the hero adopted Vanyusha: “A burning tear began to boil inside me, and I immediately decided: “We must not disappear separately!” I’ll take him as my child.” Andrei Sokolov himself decided to take in an orphan boy, thereby changing his destiny and filling his life with meaning. M.A. Sholokhov called the work “The Fate of a Man,” without indicating that the story would be about the life of a specific person who lost the most precious thing in the war: his wife, children, but who retained the most important thing - the human heart. Thus, from a story about the fate of a specific person, the work turns into a story about the fate of all humanity, when everyone is responsible to themselves and others for their lives. The title of Sholokhov's story is ambiguous: it indicates the moral essence of Andrei Sokolov: from an ordinary driver who married Irinka, had three children, survived captivity, when “death passed by... only a chill came from it...” he becomes the man who adopted Vanya, and Now Sokolov is afraid for his life (my heart is swaying, the piston needs to be changed..."), since now he is responsible for the little boy. The dream of a soul mate united two orphan destinies: a soldier who went through the war and an orphaned boy, and from now on, united, they walk through life together. Thus, the title of Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of Man” raises the narrative to the level of universal generalization, making short story a deep epic that reveals the most complex problems, touching on the foundations of human coexistence.

A title in a work of art is one of the ways to express the author’s position. It either reflects the essence of the conflicting works, or names the key episode or main character, or expresses the main idea of ​​the work.

Many years after the Great Patriotic War in 1957, M.A. Sholokhov writes the story “The Fate of a Man”, the plot of which is based on the life story of an ordinary person Andrei Sokolov.

The story is narrated in the first person, on behalf of the main character, who talks about his life to a stranger whom he mistook for a driver. Having carefully examined Andrei Sokolov, the narrator pays special attention to the man’s eyes: “eyes, as if sprinkled with ashes, filled with such an inescapable mortal melancholy that it is difficult to look into them.” This detail speaks of the difficult, very difficult life of Andrei Sokolov, because the eyes are the mirror of the soul. The hero tells about his fate. This is exactly the word given to M.A. Sholokhov in the title of the story. Not fate, not fate, not predestination, but precisely fate: a word that contains all previous meanings, but at the same time, here for the writer it is a synonym for the word life. Indeed, the life of Andrei Sokolov at first “was ordinary”: family, wife, three children, a good job, but the war began, which brought pain and suffering. First captivity, then the death of his wife and daughters, and finally the death of his son. Any person who experienced this could become angry, bitter, and curse his fate. But Andrei Sokolov found the strength to help the little boy Vanyusha, who was left an orphan after the war: the hero adopted Vanyusha: “A burning tear began to boil inside me, and I immediately decided: “We must not disappear separately!” I’ll take him as my child.”

Andrei Sokolov himself decided to take in an orphan boy, thereby changing his destiny and filling his life with meaning.

M.A. Sholokhov called the work “The Fate of a Man,” without indicating that the story would be about the life of a specific person who lost the most precious thing in the war: his wife, children, but who retained the most important thing - the human heart. Thus, from a story about the fate of a specific person, the work turns into a story about the fate of all humanity, when everyone is responsible to themselves and others for their lives.

The title of Sholokhov's story is ambiguous: it indicates the moral essence of Andrei Sokolov: from an ordinary driver who married Irinka, had three children, survived captivity, when “death passed by... only a chill came from it...” he becomes the man who adopted Vanya, and Now Sokolov is afraid for his life (my heart is swaying, the piston needs to be changed..."), since now he is responsible for the little boy.

The dream of a soul mate united two orphan destinies: a soldier who went through the war and an orphaned boy, and from now on, united, they walk through life together.

Thus, the title of Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of Man” raises the narrative to the level of universal generalization, making the small story a deep epic that reveals the most complex issues and touches on the foundations of human coexistence.

M. Sholokhov's story “The Fate of a Man” is one of famous works domestic literature. It tells the story of the life of a single person, Andrei Sokolov, whose fate was befallen by the most terrible epoch-making events: revolution, war, which crippled a person’s life, which, in my opinion, suggested the title of the story to the author.

Only the fate of a truly worthy person could be described in the work. The difficult life of Sokolov, who managed to go through severe trials, preserving his humanity and kindness, faith and hope, perseverance and personal dignity, love for life and people, was suitable for this.

Three times Sokolov, a native of the Voronezh province, experiences losses. And what! In the hungry year of 1922, he loses his parents, but finds the strength to live, work, and love. Andrey meets his only Irinka. He knows happiness at that time: his home, his beloved children. Happiness that will be destroyed by war.

From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Sokolov was at the front. He fights heroically, but is captured. But even in captivity he remains a Man, he does not lose his dignity and pride as a Russian soldier. There is so much nobility in his words: “... they did not turn me into a beast, no matter how hard they tried.” And how Andrei experiences his meeting with his native land after a successful escape from German captivity. So he remembers: “...fell to the ground and kissed it, and I couldn’t breathe...”. Freedom! Your people are around! And suddenly terrible blow fate: his house in Voronezh was hit by a bomb. My wife and daughter died. It’s as if Andrei’s heart hardened, and only faith in his son Anatoly and life together with it gave the soldier strength.

The last days of the war... Victory! What a joy! And Sokolov is in grief: the damned fascists will kill him on the days of his heroic son’s triumph. Here it is, fate!

But he doesn't give up soviet man: not everything has yet turned to stone in his heart! He decides to adopt a boy, a child of war. “Two orphaned people, two grains of sand, thrown into foreign lands by a military hurricane of unprecedented force” find each other by the irony of evil fate and become the closest people.

Thus, M.A. Sholokhov, forming new views and depicting in all authenticity the fate of an individual person of the era, depicts the fate of the entire country. Having unfortunately lost close people and the opportunity to be happy, Russian people did not lose the most important thing, human dignity and desire to live. I think that’s why M.A. Sholokhov’s story is called that.