Symbolism in the work of farewell to the mother. The story of V. Rasputin "Farewell to Matyora": the plot and the system of characters. Farewell scene

"Country of birch chintz" -

dedicated to the Year of Ecology in Russia

“The image of the House in the story of Valentin Rasputin “Farewell to Matyora”

Project participants:

Students of 10 "A" class. Head - Rodionova T.V.

Objective of the project:

Preservation of historical memory and the establishment of moral values ​​and the connection of generations through literature.

Project tasks:

1. Literary and environmental education of schoolchildren.

2. Development of the creative potential of students.

3. Promotion of literature and reading.

4. Education of morality, respect for the literary and historical heritage of our country.

5. Education of respect for nature.

Project implementation:

February 2017

Project description:

In the most difficult periods of life, people strive to find answers to their questions. And the easiest way to do this is through fiction, since the writer's talent lies in the ability to comprehend and convey to the reader the history of the country using examples of artistic images.

The controversial 60-70s of the 20th century, when industrialization proceeded at a tremendous pace, sometimes to the detriment of nature, became the heyday of rural prose. The writers talked about ordinary people living on earth, protecting the outgoing Russia, keeping the traditions of Ancient Rus'. Undoubtedly, one of the most prominent representatives of this genre was Valentin Rasputin.

on which your house stands.
V.G. Rasputin

The image of the House in the novel by Valentin Rasputin

"Farewell to Matera"

Two feelings are wonderfully close to us,
In them the heart finds food:
Love for native land
Love for father's coffins.
Living shrine!
The earth would be dead without them
Like ........ desert.
And like an altar without a deity.
A.S. Pushkin

Four pillars of a person in life:
home with family, work, people with whom
rule the holidays and weekdays, and the earth,
on which your house stands.
V.G. Rasputin

Motherland, like parents, is not chosen, it is given to us at birth and absorbed from childhood. For each of us, this is the center of the Earth, regardless of whether it is a big city or a small village. Over the years, becoming older and living out our destiny, we attach more and more new lands to this center, we can change our place of residence and move ... But the center is still there, in our “small” homeland. It cannot be changed.

Each person has his own small homeland, that piece of the Earth that remains for eternal memory in the heart of a person. Rasputin also has such a "piece" - this is his native village of Atalanka, which the writer embodied in the story "Farewell to Matyora", where her fate is easily read during the years of construction of the Bratsk hydroelectric power station that fell into the flood zone.

Matera is both an island and a village of the same name. For three hundred years, Russian peasants settled in this corner of the Earth. Slowly, without haste, life goes on on this island, and for more than three hundred years, many people have been made happy by Matera. She accepted everyone, became a mother to everyone and carefully nursed her children, and the children answered her with love.

But one day a sad event happened not only for the inhabitants of this village, but also for Matera herself. They decided to build a powerful power plant on the river. But, paradoxically, the island fell into the flood zone, and the whole village had to be relocated to a new settlement on the banks of the Angara River. What a shame for old people. Having lived all their lives in their native Matera, now they need to leave their home, leave everything that they have lived with for so many years.

Grandmother Daria's soul bled, because not only she grew up in Matera. This is the homeland of her ancestors, and Daria herself considered herself the guardian of the traditions of her people. And for others, strangers, can't they understand the feeling of losing their native, beloved place on the whole planet? No, for them this island is just a territory, a flood zone. First of all, the newly-minted builders tried to demolish a cemetery on the island, while losing all human respect not only for the dead, but also for the villagers, because this is their place of worship for their ancestors.

As if from her father and mother, Daria receives an order to conduct a hut, wash her like a dead man, dress her in all the best. The hut connects her with her father, with her mother, with their fathers and mothers. The feeling of this connection with the departed does not leave her.

Daria whitewashes the hut, greases the stove, washes window sills, floors, windows. All night Daria mourned her hut, and the hut seemed to understand what was being done to her."He smells, oh, he smells where I dress her."

The fate of Katerina's house is especially bitter. Its fire illuminates the fate of all maters. And therefore, the inhabitants of the land doomed to death are going to spend the first "dying" hut with the whole world.

“People have forgotten that each of them is not alone, they have lost each other, and now there was no need for each other. It’s always like this: in the event of an unpleasant, shameful event, no matter how many people there are together, everyone tries, not noticing anyone, to remain alone - it’s easier to get rid of shame later. In their souls, they were not well, it was embarrassing that they were standing motionless, that they did not even try at all, when it was still possible to save the hut - there was nothing to try. The same will happen with other huts, soon too, - Petrukhina is the first.

And they looked, looked, not missing anything, as it is, in order to know how it will be - so a person with frenzied attention plunges his eyes into the dead, trying to imagine in advance in that position that he cannot escape, himself.

A burning hut predicts the fate of those who remain. “The gap on the roof suddenly rose upright in the fire and, black, coal, but still burning, bent towards the village - there, there will be fires, look there.”

Life is harsh and the result is sad... And so the whole village disappeared from the map of Siberia, and with it the traditions and customs that for centuries formed the soul of a person, his unique character.

The way of life is changing, mores are changing, and with the change of mores, it is more and more alarming for a person. The old wisdom says: do not cry for the dead - cry for the one who has lost his soul and conscience. The most important conclusion that can be drawn after reading this story is that you need to protect not only your soul, but also preserve the spiritual values ​​of the people.

Stanislav Kunyaev "Valentin Rasputin"

At home, as in space, do not count
Fire and forest, stone and space,
You can’t fit everything, is it because there is
Each of us has his own Matera,
Own Eye, where the chill pulls
On the pre-winter day from thickened moisture,
Where the sand still crunches under the foot,
Coarse-grained and frosty...
Farewell, Matera! To be or not to be
You in the coming human life -
We can't decide, but we can't stop loving
Your fate, unfathomable things.
I know that the people are boundless,
What is in it, as in the sea, light or turbidity,
Alas, do not count ... Let there be ice drift,
May there be others after us!
Farewell, Matera, farewell to my pain,
I'm sorry that there are not enough cherished words,
To say all that, over the edge
Shimmering, melting in the blue abyss...

Again we have before us “old women” with typical Russian names and surnames: Daria Vasilievna Pinigina, Katerina Zotova, Natalya Karpova, Sima. Among the names of episodic characters, the name of another old woman, Aksinya, stands out (perhaps a tribute to the heroine of The Quiet Flows the Don). The most colorful character, similar to a goblin, was given the semi-symbolic name Bogodul (from the word Bogokhul?). All of them have a working life behind them, lived by them conscientiously, in friendship and mutual assistance. “Heat and warm” - these words of the old woman Sima are repeated in different versions by all the writer's favorite characters.

The story includes a number of episodes that poeticize such a common life - life in the world. One of the semantic centers of the story is the haymaking scene in the eleventh chapter. Rasputin emphasizes that the main thing for people is not the work itself, but the blissful feeling of life, the pleasure of unity with each other, with nature. Andrei, the grandson of Daria's grandmother, very accurately noticed the difference between the life of mothers and the vain activities of the builders of the hydroelectric power station: “They live there only for work, and here you seem to be the other way around, it seems like you work for a living.” Work for the writer's favorite characters is not an end in itself, but participation in the continuation of the family lineage and, more broadly, the entire human tribe. That is why he did not know how to take care, and Darya's father worked for wear and tear, bequeathing the same to his daughter. That is why Daria herself, feeling behind her the structure of generations of ancestors, “a system that has no end”, cannot accept that their graves will go under water - and she will find herself alone: ​​the chain of times will break.

That is why for Daria and other old women, the house is not only a place for housing and things - not only things. This is a part of their life animated by their ancestors. Rasputin will tell twice how they say goodbye to the house, to things, first Nastasya, and then Daria. The twentieth chapter of the story, which tells how Daria whitewashes her house, already doomed to burning tomorrow, by force, decorates it with fir, is an accurate reflection of the Christian rites of unction (when spiritual relief and reconciliation with inevitability comes before death), washing the deceased, funeral and burials.

“Everything that lives in the world has one meaning - the meaning of service.” It is this thought, embedded by the writer in the monologue of the mysterious animal, symbolizing the owner of the island, that guides the behavior of the old women and Bogodul. All of them are aware of themselves responsible to the departed for the continuation of life. The land, in their opinion, is given to a person “to keep”: it must be protected, preserved for posterity. Hence the perception of everything that lives and grows on earth as one's own, blood, native. Therefore, it is impossible not to remove the potatoes, it is impossible not to mow the grass.

Rasputin finds a very accurate metaphor for expressing Darya Vasilievna's thoughts about the course of life: a family is a thread with knots. Some knots bloom, die, and new ones are tied at the other end. And the old women are by no means indifferent to what these new people coming to replace them will be like. That is why Daria Pinigina thinks all the time about the meaning of life, about truth; enters into a dispute with his grandson Andrey; questions the dead.

In these disputes, reflections, and even in accusations, there is righteous solemnity, anxiety, and, of course, love. “Eh, how we are all good people individually, and how recklessly and a lot, as if on purpose, we all do evil together,” Daria argues. “Who knows the truth about a person: why does he live? - the heroine suffers. - For the sake of life itself, for the sake of children or for the sake of something else? Will this movement be eternal?.. How should a person feel for whom many generations have lived? He doesn't feel anything. Doesn't understand anything. And he behaves as if life began with him first and it will end with him forever.

Thoughts about procreation and her responsibility for it are mixed in Daria with anxiety about the “full truth”, about the need for memory, the preservation of responsibility among descendants - anxiety associated with the tragic awareness of the era.

In numerous internal monologues of Daria, the writer again and again speaks of the need for every person to “dig for the truth himself”, to live by the work of conscience. Most of all, both the author and his old men and women are disturbed by the desire of an increasing part of people to “live without looking back”, “lighten”, to rush along with the flow of life. “You don’t tear the navel, but you spent your soul,” Daria throws in her hearts to her grandson. She is not against machines that make it easier for people to work. But it is unacceptable for a wise peasant woman that a man who has acquired tremendous strength thanks to technology should uproot life, thoughtlessly cut off the branch on which he sits. “Man is the king of nature,” Andrey convinces grandmother. “Here, king. He will reign, he will reign, but he will grieve, ”the old woman answers. Only in unity with each other, with nature, with the entire Cosmos, can a mortal man overcome death, if not individual, then generic.

Space, nature are full-fledged characters in the stories of V. Rasputin. In “Farewell to Matera” the quiet morning, light and joy, the stars, the Angara, the gentle rain are the bright part of life, grace, give the prospect of development. But they, in tune with the gloomy thoughts of the old men and women, caused by the tragic events of the story, create an atmosphere of anxiety and trouble.

A dramatic contradiction, condensed into a symbolic picture, appears already on the first pages of Farewell to Matera. Consent, peace and peace, the beautiful full-blooded life that Matera breathes (the etymology of the word is clear to the reader: mother - homeland - earth), desolation, exposure, expiration (one of V. Rasputin's favorite words) are opposed. The huts are moaning, the wind is blowing, the gates are slamming. “Darkness has fallen” on Matera, the writer claims, by repeated repetitions of this phrase evoking associations with ancient Russian texts and with the Apocalypse. It is here, anticipating the last story of V. Rasputin, that the episode of the fire appears, and before this event “the stars fall from the sky”.

The writer opposes the bearers of folk moral values ​​with modern “cuttings”, drawn in a very harsh manner. Only the grandson of Darya Pinigina endowed the writer with a more or less complex character. On the one hand, Andrei no longer feels responsible for his family, for the land of his ancestors (it is no coincidence that he did not bypass his native Matera on his last visit, did not say goodbye to her before leaving). He is attracted by the bustle of a large construction site, he argues to the point of hoarseness with his father and grandmother, denying what is eternal values ​​for them.

And at the same time, Rasputin shows, “a minute of empty gazing at the rain”, which completed the family discussion, “managed to bring together again” Andrei, Pavel and Daria: unity with nature has not yet died in the guy. They are also united by work in the hayfield. Andrei does not support Klavka Strigunova (it is typical for a writer to give derogatory names and surnames to characters who have betrayed national traditions), rejoicing at the disappearance of his native Matera: he feels sorry for the island. Moreover, not agreeing with Daria in anything, for some reason he is looking for conversations with her, “for some reason he needed her answer” about the essence and purpose of a person.

Other antipodes of the “old women” are shown in “Farewell to Matera” quite ironically and evilly. The forty-year-old son of Katerina, the talker and drunkard Nikita Zotov, for his principle “just to live today”, is deprived of his name by the people's opinion - he has been turned into Petrukha. The writer, on the one hand, apparently, plays up here the traditional name of the farcical character Petrushka, depriving him, however, of the positive side that the hero of the folk theater still had, on the other hand, he creates the neologism “petruhat” similar to the verbs “rumble” , "sigh". The limit of Petrukha's fall is not even the burning of his own home (by the way, Klavka did this too), but mockery of his mother. It is interesting to note that Petruha, rejected by the village and his mother, seeks to draw attention to himself with new outrages in order to somehow, with evil, assert his existence in the world.

Exceptionally evil, unconsciousness and shamelessness assert themselves in life "officials". The writer provides them not only with telling surnames, but also with capacious symbolic characteristics: Vorontsov is a tourist (carelessly walking on the ground), Zhuk is a gypsy (that is, a man without a homeland, without roots, a tumbleweed). If the speech of old men and women is expressive, figurative, and the speech of Pavel and Andrei is literary correct, but inconsistent, full of clichés that are unclear to them, then Vorontsov and his ilk speak in chopped, non-Russian constructed phrases, they love the imperative (“We will understand or what will we do?”; “Who allowed?”; “And none”; “You will give me connivance again”; “What is required, we will do. We won’t ask you”).

SYMBOLS OF THE FINAL. At the end of the story, the two sides collide. The author leaves no doubt about who the truth is. Lost in the fog (the symbolism of this landscape is obvious) Vorontsov, Pavel and Petruha. Even Vorontsov "calmed down", "sits with his head down, staring blankly ahead of him." All that remains for them to do is, like children, call for their mother. It is characteristic that it is Petrukha who does this: “Ma-a-at! Aunt Daria-ah! Hey Matera-a!” However, he does, according to the writer, “dumbly and hopelessly.” And screaming, he falls asleep again. Nothing can wake him up (again the symbolism!). “It has become quite quiet. All around was only water and fog and nothing but water and fog.” And at this time, the maternal old women, having united for the last time with each other and little Kolyunya, in whose eyes “unchildish, bitter and meek understanding”, ascend to heaven, equally belonging to both the living and the dead.

This tragic ending is illuminated by the story that precedes it about the royal foliage, a symbol of the perpetuity of life. The arsonists never managed to burn down or cut down the resistant tree, which, according to legend, holds the whole island, all of Matera, on itself. A little earlier, V. Rasputin twice (in the 9th and 13th chapters) will say that no matter how difficult the future life of the settlers is, no matter how the irresponsible “responsible for resettlement” who built a new village on uncomfortable lands mocked common sense, without taking into account the peasant routine, - “life ... it will endure everything and be accepted everywhere, even on a bare stone and in an unsteady quagmire, and if needed, then under water.” A person with his work will become related to any place. This is another of his assignments in the universe.

Daria Pinigina- a woman with a difficult fate. She survived the war, buried her three children, lost her husband. The lack of support, affection and understanding made the old woman insensitive. She is 80 years old. However, she continues to run the household, because apart from her there will be no one to take care of the house.

He does not want to move to the city. Communication with a living son is extremely difficult for Pinigina - it seems that there is a wall or an abyss between them and these two opposite poles will never find consensus.

Daria differs from other grandmothers in her increased susceptibility to the past and willpower. Despite the fact that she is not such an extrovert, it is in her house that all the elderly women of the neighborhood gather for pleasant tea parties.

Paul is the son of the main character. Industrious. He is about 50 years old. Fatalist - however, like his wife and children. The hero's mother does not condemn, rarely argues with her. However, understanding does not come from this. He wants peace and certainty - therefore, with all his being, he pretends that the tragedy of the village is completely indifferent to him.

Andrey- a young guy (22 years old), grandson of Daria. Village life is practically not interested. Moreover, she oppresses him. Recently returned from the army. Despite the fact that he does not show anything outstanding in himself, Andrei dreams of accomplishing feats and merging with the layer of "advanced youth". He believes that every blacksmith of his own happiness, and that only defending his opinion can bring positive results.

Bogodul- an overgrown old man, in whom there is something bestial. Lives in an abandoned building. Always walks barefoot. Weird. Sometimes likes to swear, as it should. In winter, he tries to settle down with one of the villagers, in the baths. There are rumors that he is hiding because he killed someone. It is in Matera someone like a brownie, because it protects these lands, prevents the demolition of the old cemetery

Egor and Nastasya- Neighbors of the Pinigins. We moved to the city first. However, the man dies, unable to bear the separation from his homeland. As for the wife, against the background of the death of her husband, her psyche “breaks down”: Nastasya either scares those around her with strange rumors about her husband, or talks to things. Going crazy, the heroine is constantly looking for confirmation that her existence in this world was not in vain.

Zotova Katerina- a good, kind woman. Daria's friend. Her son doesn't work, likes to take a sip of a bottle and is a notorious liar. Trying to find support from his friend. However, he believes that sooner or later the guy will “come to his senses”, come to his senses. Together with other old people, he remains on the island to the last.

Petruha- the same "unlucky" son of Katerina. In fact, his name is Nikita. However, even his own mother does not remember this. He is a laughing stock in the village - at first because he was "accustomed" from a married man, and then he confirmed his status thanks to his actions. Weak to alcohol. He has neither a permanent job nor seasonal part-time jobs. Useless, however, considers himself significant. To elevate himself in the eyes of others, Petruha tries to lie, but few people believe him - perhaps because everyone knows him.

Minor Heroes

Vorontsov- Responsible for resettlement, chairman of the state farm. The locals don't respect him and don't understand him. As well as he does not respect and does not understand them.

Island Master- a small animal, is the spirit of Matera. Perfectly knows everything about this land. Few people see him. Appears before Daria, but she, heartbroken from the burning of the hut, does not notice his presence.

Option 2

Pinigina Daria

The main character of the work is an eighty-year-old elderly woman named Pinigina Daria Vasilievna, presented by the writer in the form of a native inhabitant of the island of Matera.

Daria Vasilievna is described in the story as a tall, lean old woman with a bloodless face, toothless mouth, dry lips, who lived a difficult human life, but did not lose her own energy. Despite her age, Dariya Pinigina is independently engaged in her large household in the form of a garden, domestic animals and household work. The characteristic features of the heroine are her truthfulness, conscientiousness and justice, which attract to her the local inhabitants of the island, who love to come for a cup of tea from Darya Vasilievna's favorite samovar. The heroine is distinguished by a special love for her native places where her ancestors are buried, and prefers to stay on Matera, despite the fact that the island is not flooded.

Pavel Mironovich

Also, the writer presents the key character of the story to the son of Darya Pinigina, Pavel Mironovich, a fifty-year-old man working at the state farm as a tractor driver, tired of the constant change from the state farm foreman to the head of the garage. Pavel is characterized in the story as a simple, honest, hardworking person who treats his mother well and tries to give her any help. Pavel Mironovich has a family consisting of a wife and three sons, the youngest of whom, Andrei, having returned from the army, lives with his parents. In the situation with the island, associated with its flooding and the resettlement of local residents, Pavel feels great pity for Matera, gets tired of his own experiences and rejoices when he realizes that certainty is coming.

Andrey Pinigin

Pavel's son, Andrei Pinigin, is one of the secondary heroes of the work, and is a young twenty-two-year-old man, healthy in appearance, recently returned from the army, distinguished by a proudly raised head and a soldier's bearing. Andrei is characterized in the story as a reasonable, adult person who builds his own life according to a plan developed by him in advance, who wants to carry out labor activities at an important facility for the state, where progressive youth work, without wasting energy on life in the wilderness.

Bogodul

Also, the secondary character of the story is the old man Bogodul, who settled on the island in ancient times, but is not its native inhabitant. Bogodul positions himself as a representative of the Polish nation, does not like to express himself in Russian, but loves the use of obscene words and expressions in his speech. The appearance of the old man resembles a fairy-tale goblin, distinguished by a shaggy head, red eyes, huge hands and the absence of shoes on his feet almost all year round. Local women are sympathetic towards Bogodul, but the men avoid him, not understanding the eccentric nature of Bogodul.

Petruha

One of the inhabitants of Matera is Petruha, the secondary hero of the story, a forty-year-old man, the son of one of the old women Katerina, who has the name Nikita Alekseevich Zotov given at birth. The local population calls him Petrukha, because in life a man manifests himself as a worthless dissolute slob, not working, having no property, except for his beloved accordion, who loves to chat and drink, distinguished by laziness and stupidity. After the start of the resettlement, Petrukha sets fire to his own hut in order to receive compensation, presenting it as an accident, and then sets fire to the neighbors' houses.

Katerina Zotova

In addition, in the image of the inhabitants of the island, the story depicts Katerina Zotova, Petrukha's mother, who is a sweet and kind old woman, the spouses Yegor and Nastasya, who moved to the city from Matera due to flooding, where old Yegor, yearning for his homeland, dies, and Nastasya returns to the island to the remaining inhabitants, as well as the old woman Sima with her grandson Kolya, left to her by her dumb daughter, and Boris Andreevich Vorontsov, who holds the post of chairman of the state farm.

Master of the island

Throughout the story, the writer uses the image of the Master of the island, described as an invisible, fabulous creature, guarded by Mater, carrying out a nightly inspection of the doomed island settlement.

Characteristics 3

The heroes of this work are ordinary people who live in the village. In the work, two worlds collided, a village and a city. The lives of people who have been uprooted become meaningless. After all, people completely grow together with their land and it is impossible to tear them apart. It will be about how people got parted from their native land. It was easy for someone to leave, but for someone it was extremely difficult and painful. The plot describes the death of the village. Almost every character living in the village has his own touching story that can pierce to the core.

Daria Pinigina.

One of the main characters in the work is a strict elderly woman. An eighty-year old woman who survived the war buried her children, and her husband is considered missing. The woman runs her small household. By nature, she is a very strong woman. Other women from the village like to visit her to have tea together. Has an only son, Pavel, with whom they have a misunderstanding.
Paul.

Another character is the fifty-year-old son of an old woman. The war years left a deep imprint on his heart in his life. Pavel, despite everything misunderstanding between him and his mother, loves her and tries to help in everything. He, like his mother, lacks human feelings. He is married and has children.

In addition to her son, the heroine also has a twenty-year-old grandson who is not interested in living in the village. He wants to move forward, go along with other young people, and also start a family. For these purposes, he even quit his job at the factory.

Another very strange character is an old man, overgrown like an animal, living in an abandoned house. He always walks with bare feet and often swears. However, in winter, the old women give him lodging for the night in the baths, they feel sorry for him. Bogodul is a kind of protector of their village, he was even able to stop the demolition of the cemetery.

Nastasya and Egor.

They are neighbors of a family who moved from the village to the city. After the move, Yegor died, and Nastasya decided to go back to her native village and live there with the rest of the residents until the end of her days. After her children die, she begins acting strangely, to the point of interacting with things at home.

Katerina.

There is another elderly heroine who is Daria's friend. Has a non-working son who is addicted to alcohol and suffers greatly from it. She is constantly looking for some excuse in this and hopes for the best that her mediocrity son will someday change.

He is the son of Katerina, as well as a kind of laughing stock for the villagers, besides a terrible liar.

The work also mentions secondary characters, such as the chairman of the state farm named Vorontsov, who is not respected by the locals, for them he is considered a stranger. He was able to drive away the people who destroyed the graves in the cemetery.

There is also a mention of a small beast, some spirit of the village. Nobody has ever seen him. It looks like a small animal and protects the island.

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The plot of Rasputin's work "Farewell to Matera" is based on parting with the "small homeland", where grandfathers and great-grandfathers used to live. And now this piece of land, which has its own invisible Master, must disappear due to the construction of a hydroelectric power station. The author skillfully shows how the new world gradually highlights spirituality and what was created by the ancestors, as well as the memory of them.

The only character who remembers his obligations to his ancestors and is not ready to part with his homeland is the old people. And "the oldest of the old women" - Daria Pnigina. It is she who becomes the main character of the story. Despite her middle age, she is still quite strong, she still has strength in her arms and legs. In addition, the woman skillfully copes with "considerable housework."

With the image of Daria, the problem of generations, memory and family ties is raised. In this regard, the episode at the cemetery clearly stands out, when they began to ravage the graves. Here the extraordinary strength of spirit, which the old woman showed, was clearly visible. Not afraid of the "hefty, like a bear, man," the woman rushed to protect the holy place. After all, a cemetery is a sacred place of veneration of ancestors, and destroying it is a sin and blasphemy. But the order from above is more important for the new generation, and the attachment of older residents to the land and respect for someone else's memory are alien to them.

Daria is the embodiment of spiritual ideals. It is she who constantly talks about fidelity, about the meaning of human life, the continuity of generations and the human soul. The heroine had to live a difficult life full of losses: the loss of her husband and the death of three children. However, this did not embitter her, did not drive her to despair, but, on the contrary, gave her strength, experience and the ability to understand the main thing in life. The main thing for a person is his soul. After all, it is not for nothing that the heroine often starts conversations with her grandson Andrei. True, it is difficult for them to understand each other.

Creating the image of Daria, her son Pavel and grandson Andrey, the author shows how a person mentally degrades from generation to generation. And if we see at least some sympathy and pity for Matera in Pavel, then Andrei doesn’t care. Leaving the village, he did not even want to walk through the places of his childhood and say goodbye to his "small homeland".

Darya has a completely different attitude towards Matera and every house and corner in the village. This is her native, living and full-fledged world. They burn the mill, the heroine goes to see her off, thinking how much good she gave her. Before they were about to burn the heroine's hut, she whitewashed it, tidied it up, as if performing a ritual over the dead. And before leaving her home, a woman locks it up so that strangers do not defile it.

The author endowed his heroine with true folk strength and spirituality. This unimaginable power of character stands in connection with the past, in the veneration of ancestors, in gratitude to the native land. It is these values ​​that V.G. Rasputin.

In his story "Farewell to Matera" V. Rasputin explores the national world, its system of values ​​and its fate in the crisis of the twentieth century. To this end, the writer recreates a transitional, borderline situation, when death has not yet come, but it can no longer be called life.

The plot tells us about the island of Matera, which should sink in connection with the construction of a new hydroelectric power station. And along with the island, the life that has evolved here for three hundred years will also have to disappear, that is, in plot this situation depicts the death of the old patriarchal life and the reign of a new life.

The inscription of Matera (island) in the infinity of the natural world order, its presence "inside" it is complemented by the inclusion of Matera (village) in the movement of historical processes, not as coordinated as natural ones, but along with them being an organic part of human existence in this world. More than three hundred years old Matera (village), she saw the Cossacks sailing to set up Irkutsk, saw the exiles, prisoners and Kolchak. It is important that the social history of the village (Cossacks setting up the Irkutsk jail, merchants, prisoners, Kolchak and Red partisans) has a duration in the story, not as long as the natural world order, but suggesting the possibility of human existence in time.

Combining, the natural and the social introduce into the story the motive of the natural existence of Matera in (islands and villages) in a single stream of natural and historical being. This motif is complemented by the motif of the ever-repeating, endless and stable cycle of life in this repetitiveness (the image of water). At the level of the author's consciousness, the moment of interruption of the eternal and natural movement opens, and modernity appears as a cataclysm, which cannot be overcome, as the death of the former state of the world. Thus, flooding begins to mean not only the disappearance of the natural (Mathers-islands), but also the ethical (Mathers as a system of tribal values, born both by being in nature and being in society).

Two plans can be distinguished in the story: life-like (documentary beginning) and conditional. A number of researchers define the story "Farewell to Matera" as a mythological story, which is based on the myth of the end of the world (eschatological myth). The mythological (conditional) plan is manifested in the system of images-symbols, as well as in the plot of the story (the name of the island and the village, Listven, the owner of the island, the rite of seeing off the deceased, which underlies the plot, the rite of sacrifice, etc.). The presence of two plans - realistic (documentary-journalism) and conditional (mythological) is evidence that the author explores not only the fate of a particular village, not only social problems, but also the problems of being a person and humanity in general: what can serve as the basis for the existence of mankind, modern state of being, prospects (what awaits humanity?). The mythological archetype of the story expresses the author's ideas about the fate of the "peasant Atlantis" in modern civilization.

In his story, V. Rasputin explores the past national life, traces the change in values ​​over time, reflects on the price humanity will pay for the loss of the traditional system of values. The main themes of the story are the themes of memory and farewell, duty and conscience, guilt and responsibility.

The family is perceived by the author as the basis of life and the preservation of tribal laws. In accordance with this idea, the writer builds a system of characters in the story, which is a whole chain of generations. The author examines three generations born on Matera and traces their interaction with each other. Rasputin explores the fate of moral and spiritual values ​​in different generations. Rasputin is most interested in the older generation, because it is they who are the bearer and custodian of folk values ​​that civilization is trying to destroy by eliminating the island. The older generation of "fathers" in the story is Daria, "the oldest of the old", the old woman Nastasya and her husband Yegor, the old women Sima and Katerina. The generation of children is the son of Daria Pavel, the son of Katerina Petruha. Generation of grandchildren: Daria's grandson Andrey.

For the old women, the inevitable death of the island is the end of the world, since they cannot imagine themselves or their lives without Matera. For them, Matera is not just the earth, but it is part of their life, their souls, part of the common connection with those who have left this world and with those who are to come. This connection gives the old people the feeling that they are the owners of this land, and at the same time a sense of responsibility not only for their native land, but also for the dead, who were entrusted with this land, but they could not save it. “They will ask: how did you allow such arrogance, where did you look? They will say they hoped for you, and you? And I have nothing to answer with. Daria thinks. The connection with previous generations can also be traced in the system of moral values.

Mothers treat life as a service, as a kind of duty that must be carried to the end and which they have no right to shift to anyone else. Mothers also have their own special hierarchy of values, where in the first place is life in accordance with the conscience, which used to be "very different", not like at the present time. Thus, the basis of this type of people's consciousness (ontological world outlook) is the perception of the natural world as spiritualized, the recognition of one's specific place in this world, and the subordination of individual aspirations to collective ethics and culture. It was these qualities that helped the nation to continue history and exist in harmony with nature.

V. Rasputin is clearly aware of the impossibility of this type of worldview in modern history, so he is trying to explore other options for people's consciousness.

The period of heavy reflection, a vague state of mind is experienced not only by the old women, but also by Pavel Pinigin. His assessment of what is happening is ambiguous. On the one hand, it is closely connected with the village. Arriving in Matera, he feels how "time closes" behind him. On the other hand, he does not feel the pain for his home that fills the souls of old women. Paul recognizes the inevitability of change and understands that the sinking of the island is necessary for the common good. He considers his doubts about resettlement a weakness, because young people "do not even think of doubting." This type of attitude still retains the essential features of ontological consciousness (rootedness in work and home), but at the same time resigns itself to the advent of machine civilization, accepting the norms of existence it has set.

Unlike Pavel, according to Rasputin, the young completely lost their sense of responsibility. This can be seen in the example of Darya's grandson Andrey, who left the village a long time ago, worked at a factory and now wants to get into the construction of a hydroelectric power station. Andrey has his own concept of the world, according to which he sees the future solely for technical progress. Life, from Andrey's point of view, is in constant motion and one cannot lag behind it (Andrey's desire to go to the hydroelectric power station - the country's foremost construction site).

Daria, on the other hand, sees the death of a person in technical progress, since gradually a person will obey technology, and not control it. "He's a little man," says Daria. "Small", that is, not having gained wisdom, far from the boundless mind of nature. He still does not understand that it is not in his power to control modern technology that will crush him. In this opposition of the ontological consciousness of Darya and the "new" consciousness of her grandson, the author's assessment of the technocratic illusions of the reorganization of life opens up. The sympathies of the author, of course, are on the side of the older generation.

However, Daria sees the cause of death of a person not only in technology, but mainly in alienation, removal of him from his home, his native land. It was no coincidence that Andrei's departure offended Darya so much, who did not even look once at Matera, did not walk over her, did not say goodbye to her. Seeing the ease with which the younger generation lives, getting into the world of technological progress and forgetting the moral experience of previous generations, Daria thinks about the truth of life, trying to find it, because she feels her responsibility for the younger generation. This truth is revealed to Daria in the cemetery and lies in her memory: "The truth is in the memory. Whoever has no memory has no life."

The older generation in modern society sees the blurring of the boundaries between good and evil, the combination of these principles, incompatible with each other, into a single whole. The embodiment of the destroyed system of moral values ​​was the so-called "new" masters of life, the destroyers of the cemetery, who deal with Matera as if they were their own property, not recognizing the rights of the old people to this land, therefore, ignoring their opinion. The lack of responsibility of such "new" owners can also be seen in the way the village was built on the other side, which was built not with the expectation of the convenience of life for a person, but with the expectation of completing the construction as soon as possible. The marginal characters of the story (Petrukha, Vorontsov, the destroyers of the cemetery) are the next stage in the deformation of the national character. Marginals ("Arkharovtsy" in "Fire") are people who have no soil, no moral and spiritual roots, therefore they are deprived of family, home, friends. It is this type of consciousness, according to V. Rasputin, that gives rise to a new technological era that completes a positive national history and means a catastrophe for the traditional way of life and its system of values.

At the end of the story, Matera is flooded, that is, the destruction of the old patriarchal world and the birth of a new one (village).