Rasputin live and remember analysis theme idea. Your own and human court

In 1974, Rasputin wrote “Live and Remember.” The heroes of this work, the events described in it, as well as the problems of the story are very interesting. We will talk about all this in this article.

Rasputin begins “Live and Remember” in the following way. The main characters of the work are Andrei Guskov and his wife, Nastena. In the last year of the war, Andrei Guskov, a local resident, secretly returns to the village located on the Angara. He doesn’t think he will be welcomed back home with open arms, but he believes in his wife’s support. Indeed, Nastena, although she does not want to admit it to herself, instinctively understands that her husband has returned. She didn't marry him for love. 4 years of marriage were not particularly happy, but the heroine was devoted to her husband and for the first time in her life found his reliability and protection in the house (Nastena grew up an orphan).

Nastena's life in her husband's house

Without any extra thought, the girl married Andrei: she will have to marry anyway, so why delay? She had little idea what awaited her in a strange village and a new family. It turned out that from among the workers (Nastena lived and worked with her aunt) she again ended up as a worker, only the yard was different, the demand was stricter and the farm was larger. Perhaps the new family would treat her better if the girl gave birth to a child. However, she had no children.

News about Andrey

She had heard since childhood that a woman without children is no longer a woman. Nastena considers herself guilty. Only once, when, reproaching her, Andrei said something unbearable, the woman responded out of resentment that it was unknown whether the reason was him or her. Then her husband beat her half to death. Nastena, when Andrei is taken to war, is even a little glad that she is left without children. Letters arrive regularly from the front, then from the hospital. After this, there is no news for a long time, only one day a policeman and the chairman of the village council come into the hut and ask Nastena to show the correspondence.

Meeting with my husband

Rasputin's story "Live and Remember" continues as follows. When the ax disappears in the Guskov family bathhouse, Nastena thinks that perhaps her husband has returned. She leaves bread in the bathhouse just in case, one day she even drowns it and meets Andrei here. His return becomes their secret and is perceived by Nastena as her cross.

Help Andrey

She comes ready to help her husband, is ready to steal and lie for him. In marriage you have to accept everything: both good and bad. Courage and enthusiasm settle in Nastena’s soul. She selflessly helps her husband, especially when she realizes that she is expecting a child. Nastena is ready for anything: for meetings with her husband across the river in the winter hut, for long conversations about the hopelessness of this situation, for difficult work at home, for insincerity in relations with other villagers. Nastena pulls her strap with remarkable male strength. You will learn more about her relationship with her husband by reading the analysis at the end of the article. Rasputin wrote “Live and Remember” not only to show the difficult relationships between the heroes. You can also find out about other issues raised in the story by reading the article to the end.

Andrei is not a traitor, not a murderer, but just a deserter who escaped from the hospital where they wanted to send him to the front without proper treatment. He has already set his mind on vacation and cannot refuse to return. Realizing that there will be no forgiveness for him in his village, in the world, in the country, he wants to delay until the last, without thinking about his wife, parents and future child.

Unsolvable question

The personal that connects Nastena with Andrei comes into conflict with their way of life, as the analysis shows. Rasputin (“Live and Remember”) notes that Nastena cannot raise her eyes to the wives who receive funerals, unable to rejoice, as before, when the neighboring men return from the war. At the village festival in honor of the victory, she remembers with unexpected anger about Andrei, because because of him she cannot rejoice at her like everyone else. The husband posed an insoluble question to Nastena: who should she be with? Andrei’s girlfriend condemns him, especially now that the war is ending and it seems that he would have remained intact. However, while condemning, she retreats: after all, she is his wife.

Nastena's suicide

Nastena's former friends, noticing her pregnancy, begin to laugh at her, and her mother-in-law drives her out of the house. The girl, forced to restrain her feelings, hide them, becomes more and more exhausted. Her fearlessness turns into risk, into wasted feelings. They are pushing her to commit suicide. Nastena finds peace in the waters of the Angara.

Analysis of the work

So, you have familiarized yourself with the content of the work that Rasputin wrote (“Live and Remember”). The issues raised in the text deserve separate consideration. Philosophical questions about honor and conscience, the meaning of life, and people’s responsibility for their own actions usually come to the fore. The author talks about betrayal and selfishness, about the relationship between the public and the personal in the human soul, about life and death. In the work “Live and Remember” (Rasputin) is also revealed.

War is a tragic and terrible event that has become a test for people. A person shows the true traits of his nature. The central image in the work is the image of Nastena. This is important to note when conducting analysis. Rasputin (“Live and Remember”) portrayed this girl as combining in her character the features of a village righteous woman: faith in man, mercy, responsibility for the fate of others, kindness. The problem of forgiveness and humanism is closely connected with her bright image.

She found the strength in herself to help Andrei, to feel sorry for him. This was a difficult step for her: the girl had to be cunning, lie, live in fear, dodge. She already felt that she was becoming a stranger, moving away from her fellow villagers. However, she chose this path for the sake of her husband, because she loved him.

The war greatly changed the main characters, as you can see by doing your own analysis. Rasputin (“Live and Remember”) notes that they realized that in worldly life their distance from each other and quarrels were absurd. In difficult moments, the couple was warmed by the hope of a new life. Nastena hopes that her husband will be able to repent and come out to people. However, he does not dare to do this.

The main idea of ​​the work is the moral responsibility of a person for his actions. The author shows, using the example of Andrey Guskov’s life, how easy it is to make an irreparable mistake, to show weakness, to stumble. Rasputin told us about all this. “Live and Remember” receives positive reviews from many after reading it. The writer managed to raise important issues and skillfully reveal them in this story. Rasputin's story "Live and Remember" has been filmed. A film of the same name was made based on it in 2008. Director -

Vladimir Lavrov

Valentin Rasputin wrote a story about a woman's tragic love for a deserter. He was not the first to address this difficult situation in modern literature. Let us remember, for example, “Face to Face” by Ch. Aitmatov. It is easy to discover points of convergence that make their prose similar. The hard times of war gave rise to worries, troubles, and hardships common to the Kyrgyz village and the Siberian village of Atamanovka, which stretches along the banks of the Angara. There was work at the last limit of strength, there was black news about the death of sons, husbands, fathers. There were large orphaned families who had difficulty making ends meet. Their hard and bitter life is the most terrible reproach and the judgment of betrayal is already in progress. Finally, the writers are united by their condemnation of desertion not only as a grave state crime, but also as moral savagery.

At the same time, the obvious similarity of the plot further highlights and emphasizes the uniqueness of each of the stories. Without going into a detailed study of the creative manner of writers now, I will dwell on only one difference. Ch. Aitmatov's story is dynamic, events unfold abruptly in it: every now and then crisis situations arise, sharp clashes of characters. Let us certainly take into account that the events mentioned in Aitmatov’s prose fall at the time of the fierce battle on the Volga. The outcome of the war was being decided. This circumstance latently increased the dramatic intensity of the story. V. Rasputin is talking about the spring of 1945, a time filled with anticipation of victory. The end of the war was obvious, its day was guessed. Having softened the severity and effectiveness of the plot, the writer transfers the center of gravity to the sphere of spiritual experiences. Their complexity and strength are such that literally in the first episodes of the story two almost autonomously existing worlds are identified. The ghostly everyday existence of the characters will increasingly oppose the depth and authenticity of their feelings, moods, and memories. Hence the special atmosphere of the story, woven from the subtlest internal movements, premonitions, and the almost clairvoyant power of predicting events.

The story begins with the fact that someone stole an ax and skis from Mikheich, the heroine’s father-in-law. And Nastya immediately understands everything: the ax was hidden under a die, in a secluded place known only to close people. And before this event, the chairman of the village council had already arrived with a policeman and inquired about Andrei Guskov. But you never know what can happen at a time of great confusion of human destinies. In addition, let us take into account the life-giving property of the human psyche, which always strives for the best. Often even despite real circumstances. Nastya develops such unshakable confidence that she will take a loaf of bread to the bathhouse for the fugitive - and will hardly be surprised when he disappears. And then he’ll go on a date and wait for Andrey. And only after the first conversations, after rough, thieving intimacy, after they begin to say goodbye, will doubt arise for the first time about the verisimilitude of everything that is happening. This is how the world will split, and no matter how hard the heroes strive to reunite it, the abyss will continue to widen, bringing disaster closer.

In fact, Andrei Guskov killed himself the moment he made a desperate decision not to return from the hospital to the front, but to run home - first to Irkutsk, and then to Atamanovka. “After standing for a while, he went down to the Angara and walked along the ice, not seeing the village from under the ravine, to his bathhouse. There, as soon as he closed the door behind him, he fell backwards onto the floor and lay motionless for a long time, like a dead man.” In comparison - not only mortal fatigue, but also a hint of the disastrous fate. Until the last hour, Aitmatov’s Izmail had an animal thirst for life, a fierce desire to escape at any cost. Guskov has indifference to everything: to his native village, to his old parents, and, above all, to his fate. And only meetings with Nastena seem to unfreeze the soul for a while. True, in long, secretly anxious conversations, they will in every possible way beware of even a hint of today's existence, going into the world of memories of the first years of love.

However, V. Rasputin mercilessly reveals the disastrous, deadening power of even this revival, shows the terrible relationship between the refinement of feelings and the thirst for destruction. Here Andrey wanders around his native village, recognizing and remembering dear places with joyful, sweet pain. He sees a mill, which speaks so much about the holiday, the highest celebration of the grain grower. “Guskov was illuminated by these memories, he smiled, his soul seemed to warm up and be satisfied.” And suddenly, after this enlightenment, the joy that revives the soul, a fierce desire flares up to destroy, to burn down the mill, so that even the memory has nothing to cling to. With sadistic greed, he will look long and intently at the dying roe deer. The heifer will be brutally and senselessly torn to pieces. Having destroyed himself, Guskov brings death to those around him, all the time aware that he is a murderer. And as a final result, as the most precious victims - Nastena and their unborn child. But what hopes Andrei had for them? It seemed that the son (he believed that there would certainly be a son) would justify everything, write off everything. Because the blood will not be lost, that the father’s life will continue in him. So it was not in vain that he trampled the ground. Nastena's death completes the circle. There is no more way out.

Talking about the fate of Andrei Guskov, V. Rasputin once again demonstrated the accusatory power of psychological analysis. Without resorting to direct edification, journalistic invective, or satire, he nevertheless brings justice to the hero.

However, no matter how instructive the story about the drama of Andrei Guskov is, the main character and the most significant victory of V. Rasputin the artist is Nasten. Here tragedy comes into its own, and not in the metaphorical, but in the literal sense of the word. Nastena is a character of amazing purity and integrity. Its main feature is trust in life, the expectation of happiness that will certainly come along the way. And although Nastena’s short life included a hungry childhood, human injustice, and difficult days, she managed to maintain a clear spiritual light. Until the time when an overgrown, tired, almost stranger, Nastena’s husband, enters the dark bathhouse. Andrei's secret return is for her a catastrophe of such magnitude that she cannot fully measure or fully evaluate it. Somewhere in the depths of your soul, an accurate and merciless premonition will flare up - this is the end. But is it possible to immediately come to terms with such a terrible outcome?! How many more times will naive and treacherous hope arise - all this is not true, a bad dream that has been too long, an evil fate, but not real real life. But no spells can cross out or cancel reality. Everything is. The old winter hut where the fugitive found shelter. Hidden meetings. Already emerging guesses from Mikheich and fellow villagers. There must be a child. And you just don’t know one thing - what to do next, how to live...

To hide from people, from yourself, immersed in vague hopes that you yourself don’t believe in... To forget yourself for a short time. To pay for a short minute of joy with painfully long hours and days lived in deception and untruth. Or what will happen next? And how painful it is to meet a widowed friend and see her hungry children. Previously, this feeling did not exist; before, they were equal in the face of a common misfortune that did not spare a single house in Atamanovka. The first front-line soldier returned to the village, but Nastena can no longer rejoice with everyone, because her husband will not return. Finally, the May Victory Days will come, which will further alienate Nastena from people. For them the war was over, for her it hid like the last snow in a forest ravine. “Just to hold on, not to fly out at a turn, not to be left behind - it’s easier with people,” Nastena thinks, vaguely and shrewdly realizing that she has long been thrown away from common life. And along with this, the feeling grows and strengthens: “The judgment is close, close - human, or your own? - but close. Nothing in this world comes for free.”

It is a trial, not a condemnation. Nastena is too strong and independent in nature to be afraid of rumors and human ill will. But she already threw down the challenge, not being afraid of rumors. There is something more powerful, which you cannot get rid of, which you cannot overcome. Torment of conscience, judgment of conscience, inability to live in a lie. So the moment is inevitably approaching when the waters of the Angara will part and close over the Wall. And this will be the only way out, salvation, victory.

This is how the tragic story told to us by a modern writer will end, a story that testifies to the difficult and persistent search conducted by V. Rasputin. He appeared in literature relatively recently. He spoke calmly and happily. No critical battles flared up around his works. The stories “The Deadline” and “Money for Maria” were well received by readers and critics. However, unanimity of assessment is not only a good thing. It can give rise to the temptation of complacency. Rasputin avoided this temptation. Already the story of one trip, “Up and Down the Stream,” has become evidence of complex internal shifts, the search for a new quality, and the intensification of dramatic thinking. The story “Live and Remember” is a new stage in the work of the Irkutsk prose writer. The conversation here takes on a larger scale and is conducted on a large scale. About the main thing in a person. About his eternal and beneficial dialogue with conscience. On the need for constant moral verification.

"Live and Remember" analysis of the work - theme, idea, genre, plot, composition, characters, issues and other issues are discussed in this article.

The plot of the story by V.G. Rasputin's “Live and Remember” is reminiscent of a detective story: old man Guskov’s skis, ax and self-propelled gabak disappeared from the bathhouse. However, the work itself is written in a completely different genre: it is a deep philosophical reflection on the moral foundations of existence, on the power of love. Since the ax disappeared from under the floorboard, Nasten’s daughter-in-law immediately guesses that one of her own took it. A complex range of feelings takes possession of her. On the one hand, she wants to see her husband, whom she sincerely loves. On the other hand, he understands that if he is hiding from people, it means he has deserted from the front, and such a crime is not forgiven in wartime. A number of bright visual and expressive means of V.G. Rasputin shows the depth of Nastena’s experiences.

First, “she lay for a long time in the dark with her eyes open, afraid to move, so as not to give away her terrible guess to someone,” then she sniffed the air in the bathhouse like an animal, trying to catch familiar smells. She is tormented by a “stubborn horror in her heart.” The portrait of Nastena (long, skinny, with awkwardly protruding arms, legs and head, with frozen pain on her face) shows what moral and physical torment the war brought to the woman. Only her younger sister Katka forced Nastena to show interest in life and look for work. Nastena endured all the hardships steadfastly, learning to remain silent. She considered childlessness to be her greatest misfortune. Her husband Andrei was also worried about this and often beat her.

Rasputin does not try to justify Andrei’s desertion, but seeks to explain it from the position of a hero: he fought for a long time, deserved leave, wanted to see his wife, but the leave he was entitled to after being wounded was canceled. The betrayal that Andrei Guskov commits creeps into his soul gradually. At first he was haunted by the fear of death, which seemed inevitable to him: “If not today, then tomorrow, not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow, when his turn comes.” Guskov survived both wounds and shell shock, experienced tank attacks and ski raids. V.G. Rasputin emphasizes that among the intelligence officers Andrei was considered a reliable comrade. Why did he take the path of betrayal? At first, Andrey just wants to see his family, Nastena, stay at home for a while and return. However, having traveled by train to Irkutsk, Guskov realized that in winter you couldn’t turn around in three days. Andrei remembered the demonstration execution, when in his presence they shot a boy who wanted to run fifty miles away to his village. Guskov understands that you won’t get a pat on the head for going AWOL.

Gradually Andrei began to hate himself. In Irkutsk, he settled for some time with a mute woman, Tanya, although he had absolutely no intention of doing this. A month later, Guskov finally found himself in his native place. However, the hero did not feel joy from the sight of the village. V.G. Rasputin constantly emphasizes that, having committed betrayal, Guskov embarked on the path of the beast. After some time, life, which he valued so much at the front, became no longer pleasant to him. Having committed treason, Andrei cannot respect himself. Mental anguish, nervous tension, the inability to relax for a minute turn him into a hunted animal.

Andrei's betrayal falls fatally on Nastena's shoulders. For a long time she cannot comprehend what has happened: her husband, who came secretly to his native land, seems to her to be a werewolf: “Understanding little, she suddenly realized: is it her husband? Wasn't it a werewolf with her? Can you see it in the dark? And they say they can pretend so that even in broad daylight you can’t tell them apart from the real thing.” Because of Andrey, the woman has to lie and dodge. With touching naivety, Nastena tries to confront cruel reality. It seems to the heroine that she only dreamed of the night meeting with her deserter husband. V.G. shows with fine detail. Rasputin, like Nastena, strives to remove the obsession from himself, to get rid of it like a nightmare. Official religiosity, lost during the years of Soviet power, is still alive in the depths of the consciousness of Russian people. It is her (as the strongest family amulet) that the unfortunate Nastena calls for help: “Not knowing how to place a cross correctly, she haphazardly crossed herself and whispered the words of a long-forgotten prayer that came to mind, left over from childhood.” However, the entire depth of grief and horror of the unfortunate woman, her awareness of the fatal line that Andrei’s betrayal drew between their family and the rest of the world, is embodied by the last phrase of the third part of the story, when Nastena freezes from the treacherous thought: “Wouldn’t it be better if this Was it really just a werewolf?

Nastena begins to help her husband hide and feeds him. She trades food for things. All the worries fell on this woman’s shoulders (about her younger sister, about her elderly in-laws). At the same time, a terrible secret puts a stone wall between Nastena and her fellow villagers: “Alone, completely alone among people: no one to talk to, no one to cry to, everything must be kept to oneself.”

The heroine's tragedy is intensified by the fact that she became pregnant. Having learned about this, Andrei at first rejoices, and then understands what a difficult situation his wife finds herself in: after all, everyone will think that the woman spoiled this child while her husband is fighting at the front. In a difficult conversation on this topic, the symbolically important image of the Angara arises. “You only had one side: people. There, on the right hand of the Angara. And now there are two: people and me. It’s impossible to bring them together: the Angara needs to dry out,” says Andrey Nastene.

During the conversation, it turns out that the heroes once had the same dream: Nastena, in her girlish form, comes to Andrei, who is lying near the birch trees and calls him, telling him that she was tortured with the children.

The description of this dream once again emphasizes the painful intractability of the situation in which Nastena found herself.

Talking about the fate of the heroine, V.G. Rasputin simultaneously sets out his views on life and happiness. They are sometimes expressed by him in aphoristic phrases: “Life is not clothes, you don’t try them on ten times. What you have is all yours, and it’s not good to renounce anything, even the worst.” It’s paradoxical, but, left alone with their common joy and misfortune, the heroes finally found that spiritual closeness, that mutual understanding that was not there when they lived happily as a family before the war.

Having learned about Nastena's pregnancy, her fellow villagers condemn her. Only Andrei's father Mikheich understands with his heart the bitter truth about which he is so stubbornly silent. Tired of shame and eternal fear, she throws herself from the boat into the waters of the Angara River. Plot-story by V.G. Rasputin's “Live and Remember” shows that in difficult moments for the homeland, every person must courageously share its fate, and those who showed cowardice and cowardice will face retribution. They have no future, no right to happiness and procreation.

In addition to the main storyline, the story contains interesting author's reflections on the fate of the village. During the war, the village becomes shallow. The souls of people are hardened by grief. Pain for the fate of the Russian village is a cross-cutting theme in V.G.’s work. Rasputin.

The story “Live and Remember” was written in 1974. In 2008, the work was filmed by director Alexander Proshkin. The main roles in the film were played by Daria Moroz and Mikhail Evlanov.

The main character of the story is a young woman named Nastya. The orphan was brought up in her aunt's house, not knowing any love or even just good treatment. From an early age, Nastya was forced to work hard so as not to be a freeloader in someone else’s house. When Andrei Guskov asked the girl to marry him, she accepted his proposal without hesitation. Nastya never loved her husband, but she was sure that in marriage she would find happiness, which she did not have in her childhood. For several years of living together, the Guskov family never had children. Andrei blamed his wife for this. Nastya constantly felt guilty.

The head of the family leaves for the front. A young wife receives letters from her husband. But one day a policeman and the chairman of the village council came to her. Andrei has gone missing and is suspected of desertion. When the ax disappeared from the bathhouse, the young wife immediately realized that her husband had returned home. After some time, the meeting of the spouses did take place. It seemed to Nastya like an obsession, a nightmare.

The superstitious woman was sure that the man she met in the bathhouse was not her husband, but a werewolf. Nastya doubted for a long time the reality of everything that happened at night, believing that she had only dreamed it all. Subsequently, Andrei explained to his wife that he was not a murderer or a traitor. He didn't commit any crime. The reason for his desertion was his too early discharge from the hospital. Guskov had to go back to the front, despite the fact that his treatment was not yet completed.

Andrei understands that his actions will be regarded by the authorities as one of the most terrible crimes, but does not want to correct the situation in any way. Nastya carefully hides the illegal return of her husband from her fellow villagers. The young woman still does not love her husband. A sense of duty forces her to lie. The long-awaited pregnancy becomes an unexpected joy for the Guskovs. For the sake of her husband and unborn child, Nastya is ready to endure even greater hardships.

A hopeless situation
Pregnancy brought more than just joy. The absence of a husband and the presence of a child can only mean one thing: Nastya cheated on Andrey. If this is not the case, it means that Guskov has returned, which, in turn, indicates his desertion. Nastya agrees to be considered an unfaithful wife if it helps save her husband.

A young woman faces hatred and contempt from those around her. Upon learning that the daughter-in-law is pregnant, the mother-in-law immediately kicks her out of the house. Despair leads Nastya to suicide. A young woman rushes into the Angara.

Nastena Guskova

Having not received love and affection in childhood, the main character dreams of her own family, where she would be the mistress. Nastya doesn't have time to wait for true love. She wants to leave her aunt's house as soon as possible and accepts a marriage proposal from an unloved man.

The main character trait of the main character is a feeling for a long time. Nastya knows that she must be married, must have children, must be a faithful and devoted wife to her husband. This is her purpose, and she does not see her life differently. When Andrei is in trouble, Nastya makes every effort to help him. The young woman still does not love her husband. But Andrei is her only close person whom she does not want to lose.

The dream of true happiness seems especially close to Nastya after she finds out about her pregnancy. Now she will have a full-fledged family, and she will no longer consider herself a flawed woman. But at some point the main character realizes that this time too happiness will pass by. The long-awaited child was conceived at the wrong time. It will bring sorrow instead of joy.

A sense of duty makes Nastya suffer severely. She fulfilled her duty to her husband, but at the same time betrayed her homeland. Seeing how funerals are brought to other families, Nastya reproaches herself for the fact that another woman became a widow instead of her. Her husband is alive only because other people's husbands died. This seems unfair to Nastya.

Finding herself in a hopeless situation, the main character sees the only solution to her problem. However, the author does not want Nastya to be considered a suicide. Trying to justify his heroine, he says that the young woman is simply very tired. She was looking for rest, not death.

Andrey Guskov

Unlike his wife, Andrei is not burdened with a sense of duty. He can easily be called an irresponsible person. Andrey lives for himself and for himself. He recognizes only his own truth. For the absence of children, the main character, first of all, blames his wife. He does not consider himself either a deserter or a traitor. Andrei ran away from the hospital because they wanted to send him to the front ahead of time. He was simply saving his life and had no intention of betraying anyone. Besides, he is just a peasant, not a warrior. Andrei was not born to kill other people.

Guskov selfishly accepts all his wife’s sacrifices, without even thinking about what suffering he is dooming her to with his actions. Having shifted all his problems to the weak, fragile Nastya, Andrey does what he considers necessary. His wife's suffering means nothing to him. She is a woman, her destiny is to endure. Despite the fact that his wife’s pregnancy only worsened the current situation, Andrei does not feel any remorse and does not blame himself for conceiving a child in such difficult circumstances. He finally got what he wanted for so long.

main idea

The desire to follow duty may not always be justified. The desire to constantly give for free is no less destructive than the constant desire to unrequitedly accept a sacrifice. By disturbing the energy balance, both the giver and the taker remain losers.

Analysis of the work

Valentin Rasputin presented the life of ordinary Russian people in his story. “Live and Remember” (a summary of this work is hardly capable of conveying the entire palette of feelings experienced by the characters) is not a unique story. There were many women and men like Nastya and Andrey during the Great Patriotic War.

The author does not condemn his heroes, does not pass harsh sentences on them. Nastya refused to hand over her unloved husband to the authorities. She wanted to be happy no matter what. You shouldn’t blame Andrey either. He was not born to kill and destroy. The mission of a simple peasant is creative work. Andrei does not consider himself a traitor because he always served his homeland in a different way: he cultivated the land, as his ancestors did. The main character is sure that it was not he who betrayed his homeland, but his homeland in some way betrayed him. He fought for a long time, was wounded and hoped for a vacation, during which he could be with his family and heal his wounds. But instead, Andrei will again have to go to the hated war.

The horrors of a bloodbath awaken in a person the instinct of self-preservation - one of the most ancient human instincts. The fewer chances for life a person has, the stronger his desire to stay alive.

In Russian literature, Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin has earned the reputation of one of the best representatives of “village prose”. The most striking and emotionally powerful was Rasputin’s story “Live and Remember,” in which he revealed the issues of moral choice, duty, responsibility and love. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the analysis of the work, which will be useful for 11th grade students in preparation for a literature lesson.

Brief Analysis

Year of writing– 1974.

History of creation– Experiencing financial need, Rasputin entered into an agreement to write a book on the topic of building communism. However, in the end he turned in a manuscript whose central character was a deserter. The story immediately gained great popularity not only in the USSR, but also far beyond its borders.

Subject– The central theme of the work is the moral choice of each of the characters. The author also touches on the problems of duty, responsibility, compassion, and love.

Composition– The composition is based on an antithesis - the opposition of two human principles - Andrei and his wife Nastena. The composition includes an epilogue (description of the main characters and their lives), a plot (Andrei’s departure to the front), developments (Andrei’s hospitalization, his desertion), a climax (Nastena’s suicide), and a denouement (the search for Andrei in the village).

Genre- A story.

Direction– Realism.

History of creation

According to Valentin Grigorievich, the story “Live and Remember” turned out to be completely unplanned: the writer did not nurture its idea for many months, did not collect bit by bit the material he needed.

In the 70s, finding himself in a cramped financial situation, Rasputin entered into an agreement to write a book dedicated to the construction of communism. However, as a result, instead of an ideological work, Rasputin wrote the deeply dramatic story “Live and Remember.”

In terms of the choice of topic, the Irkutsk writer turned out to be an innovator, since the main characters of his story turned out to be a deserter and his wife. The essence of the work is contained in the meaning of the title - live, but remember what you have done.

The story “Live and Remember” was first published in 1974 in the literary magazine “Our Contemporary”. Before this, small excerpts were published in newspapers. A year later, the story, which successfully survived literary criticism, was published as a separate book, after which it was reprinted several times and was translated into many foreign languages.

Rasputin's story was awarded literary prizes during the writer's lifetime, it formed the basis of theatrical productions and operas, and a feature film was made based on it.

Subject

The work is based on the theme of human moral choice during the harsh trials of life. In the story “Live and Remember,” war becomes a litmus test showing the true face of the heroes. As you know, it is in extreme, harsh conditions that a person is able to take off all his masks and reveal the true traits of his character.

The war becomes an insurmountable test for Andrei Guskov. At the front, he honestly fought for his homeland, not really thinking about possible death, and was wounded several times. But already at the very end of the war, finding himself in the hospital and learning about his premature return to the line of fire, Guskov broke down.

Finding himself in the grip of his own selfishness and cowardice, he decides to desert. However, the betrayal he committed leaves an imprint on his soul, on his entire fate. The sight of his native village no longer pleases Andrei, because he cannot openly show himself to his family - he is a deserter, a traitor, a renegade. The life that the hero treasured so much is no longer sweet to him: constant nervous tension, mental anguish, and the inability to relax turn him into a hunted animal.

However, it is not Andrei and his internal tragedy that occupies the writer. Central to the story is the image of Nastena, his wife. The young woman combines all the best traits: mercy, kindness, concern and responsibility for other people, sincere belief in a good beginning.

Having learned about Andrei's betrayal, she nevertheless finds the strength to regret and help him. Against her will, Nastena becomes an accomplice to a terrible crime, for which, according to martial law, she faces execution. For the sake of her husband, whom she helps hide in the forest, she is forced to constantly lie, cheat, and live in constant fear.

Having survived all the horrors of war, the spouses understand that true happiness is home, family, and love. However, a completely different fate is in store for them. Nastena believes that Andrey will be forgiven if he comes out to people and voluntarily repents. However, the man is too weak and cowardly to commit such an act. He finds countless excuses for his own cowardice, not worrying about the fact that, first of all, he is putting his entire family at risk.

The news of Nastena's pregnancy becomes a great happiness and, at the same time, a serious test for the woman. In the village she is accused of cheating on her husband, her father-in-law kicks her out of the house, and she is forced to endure endless humiliation. Unable to bear all the hardships that befell her, Nastena decides to commit suicide. The news of the death of his wife and their unborn child becomes a terrible blow for Andrei, who is destined to bear this cross until the end of his days.

The author emphasizes main idea of his work - there are no excuses for immoral actions. Everyone can stumble and make a mistake, but you need to find the strength to answer for your misdeeds before people, society, and your own conscience.

Composition

When analyzing the work in the story “Live and Remember,” it is necessary to note its compositional structure, based on antithesis. The characters of the main characters are especially clearly contrasted in the story: the weak, cowardly and weak-willed Andrei and his wife Nastena, an infinitely kind, sympathetic, conscientious woman.

The composition of the work includes:

• epilogue- getting to know the main characters and the peculiarities of their life in a remote Siberian village;
• plot- Andrey's departure to the front;
• development events - Andrei's serious injury, the news of his premature return to the front, the hero's decision to voluntarily return to his native village;
• climax- the suicide of Nastena, who could not withstand the mental anguish associated with Andrei’s betrayal;
• denouement- news of Andrei's desertion, his search in the village.

Main characters

Genre

“Live and Remember” is written in the literary genre of a story, and belongs to classical Russian prose. The story, which truthfully depicts the realities of wartime, belongs to the direction of realism.

Work test

Rating analysis

Average rating: 4.7. Total ratings received: 187.