home Educational literature Saltykov Shchedrin is a wise gudgeon content. Saltykov-shchedrin is a wise gudgeon. Bear in the province

Saltykov Shchedrin is a wise gudgeon content. Saltykov-shchedrin is a wise gudgeon. Bear in the province

02.11.2017

In the article you will get acquainted with a summary of the famous fairy tale by Saltykov-Shchedrin "The Wise Minnow", which can be used to reader's diary. Written in 1883. In the original, it is called not “minnow”, but “piskar”, since this type of fish makes sounds similar to squeaking. The work has a satirical orientation and is written for adults - in it the author denounces the moods of cowardice and cowardice that have taken possession of society.

So, a summary of the tale of Saltykov-Shchedrin

The young minnow had very smart parents who managed to live a long life and die a natural death, avoiding the hook of a fisherman and the attack of a predatory pike.

The minnow father told his son before his death that if he wants to enjoy life, he must look both ways. The young gudgeon himself understood that he was in danger from all sides: a big fish could swallow it, cut a crayfish with its claws, or a water flea would bite into it. But the biggest threat to life came from a man with his nets, nets and fishing rods.

The father shared his memories of how he was caught by a net as a kid and almost hit his ear, but was released by a kind old man. Following the instructions of his father, he dug himself such an excellent refuge-burrow in a year that no one except him could climb into it.

At night, when the river and all its inhabitants fell asleep, he took exercise in the moonlight, and during the day he sat in a mink and trembled. He allowed himself to leave the mink in search of food only at noon, when the entire fish kingdom was already full.

Every day he was glad that he had held out and remained alive, and he thought with fear what would happen next. After all, dangers lay in wait for the gudgeon who was protecting his life at every step. Once, in front of his shelter, a cancer froze and watched the gudgeon with his bone eyes. Another time, a pike lay in wait for him all day, chattering his teeth intimidatingly, but he swam away with nothing.

The wise minnow lived for a long time, as planned, but at the same time he was deprived of his family, offspring and communication with fellow minnows. For his hundred years of life, he paid with loneliness and constant fear.

In his dying thoughts, he came to the conclusion that all minnows would have been hatched long ago if they behaved like him.

Even dying, the gudgeon trembled. He disappeared from the ebullient river life, but no one even noticed. This is such a sad story.

Retelling provided by Marina Korovina.

Saltykov-Shchedrin is a writer who very often resorted to such a genre as a fairy tale, because with its help in an allegorical form it was always possible to reveal the vices of mankind, while his creative activity was surrounded adverse conditions. With the help of this genre, he could write in the difficult years of reaction and censorship. Thanks to fairy tales, Saltykov-Shchedrin continued to write, despite the fear of liberal editors. In spite of censorship, he gets the opportunity to castigate the reaction. And so we met one of his fairy tales called the Wise Gudgeon in the lesson and now we will make a short one according to the plan.

Brief analysis of the fairy tale The Wise Gudgeon

Analyzing the fairy tale by Saltykov-Shchedrin The Wise Gudgeon, we see that main character is figurative. The tale begins, as usual, with the words Once upon a time. Next we see the advice of the minnow's parents, followed by a description of the life of this little fish and its death.

Reading Shchedrin's work and analyzing it, we trace a parallel between life in the real world and the plot of a fairy tale. We get acquainted with the main character minnow, who lived at first, as usual. After the death of his parents, who left him parting words and asked him to take care of himself and look both ways, he became miserable and cowardly, but considering himself wise.

At first, we see in the fish a thinking being, enlightened, with moderately liberal views, and his parents were not stupid at all, and managed to live to a natural death. But after the death of his parents, he hid in his little hole. He trembled all the time as soon as someone swam past his hole. He swam out of there only at night, sometimes during the day for a snack, but immediately hid. Didn't eat or sleep. His whole life passed in fear, and in this way Minnow lived up to a hundred years. No pay, no servants, no playing cards, no fun. No family, no procreation. There were somehow thoughts to swim out of the shelter, to heal full life, but immediately fear won over intentions and he left this venture. And so he lived without seeing anything and without knowing anything. Most likely, the wise Minnow died by his own death, because even a pike will not covet a sick minnow.

All his life, the gudgeon considered himself wise, and only closer to death did he see a life lived aimlessly. The author managed to show us how dull and miserable life becomes if we live by the wisdom of a coward.

Conclusion

In his fairy tale, the wise minnow, brief analysis which we have just done, Saltykov-Shchedrin depicts the political life of the country in the past. In the image of the minnow, we see the liberals of the inhabitants of the era of reaction, who only saved their skins, sitting in holes and caring only about their own good. They do not try to change anything, they do not want to direct their forces in the right direction. They had only thoughts about their own salvation, and none of them was going to fight for a just cause. And at that time there were a lot of such minnows among the intelligentsia, so when reading Shchedrin's fairy tale at one time, the reader could draw an analogy with officials who worked in the office, with editors of liberal newspapers, with bank employees, offices and other people who did nothing , fearing all who are higher and more influential.

The fairy tale “The Wise Minnow”, intended for adults, demonstrates typical features of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. The writer was a master of subtle irony. Within the framework of the chosen style, the author draws very characteristic images, helping himself with the use of grotesque techniques and exaggerating the figures of the main characters.

Literary criticism Soviet school sought to look for features of class confrontation and social struggle in the Russian classics of the imperial period. The same fate befell the tale of the wise minnow - in the main character, they diligently looked for the features of a contemptible petty official, trembling with fear, instead of devoting his life to the class struggle.

However, the majority of Russian writers were still worried not so much about revolutionary ideas as moral issues society.

Genre and meaning of the name of the fairy tale

The fairy tale genre has long been attractive to fiction writers. It is interesting because within the framework of allegory one can afford to draw any parallels with objective reality and the real figures of contemporaries, not stinting on epithets, but at the same time not annoying anyone.

A typical genre of a fairy tale implies the participation in the plot of animals endowed with intelligence, quickness, human manner of communication and behavior. AT this case the work, with its phantasmagoric nature, fits perfectly into the plot of the fairy tale.

The work begins characteristically - once upon a time. But at the same time, it is called a fairy tale for adults, because the author, in allegorical language, invites the reader to think about a problem that is by no means a child's - about how to live one's life so as not to regret its meaninglessness before death.

The title is quite appropriate for the genre in which the work is written. The minnow is called not smart, not wise, not intellectual, but precisely “wise”, in best traditions fairy-tale genre (suffice it to recall at least Vasilisa the Wise).

But already in this title one can guess the sad irony of the author. It immediately sets the reader up to think about whether it is fair to call the protagonist wise.

main characters

In the fairy tale, the image of the most wise minnow is created by the brightest portrait. The author not only characterizes general level development - "mind chamber" tells the background of the formation of the features of his character.

He describes in detail the motives of the protagonist's actions, his thoughts, mental anguish and doubts shortly before his death.

Minnow son - not stupid, thinking, even prone to liberal ideas. At the same time, he is such a cowardly individual that he is ready to fight even with his instincts in order to save his life. He agrees to live always hungry, not creating his own family, not communicating with his relatives, practically not seeing sunlight.

Therefore, the son heeded the main teaching of his father and, having lost his parents, decided to take all available measures in order to never risk his life. Everything that he subsequently did was aimed at realizing his plan.

As a result, it is not life itself in its entirety, but the preservation of life that has acquired highest value has become an end in itself. And for the sake of this idea, the gudgeon sacrificed absolutely everything, for which, in fact, he was born.

The minnow-father is the second hero of the tale. He, deserving a positive characterization of the author, lived ordinary life, had a family and children, took risks in moderation, but had the imprudence to scare his son for life with a story about how he almost hit his ear.

The main picture of his personality is formed in the reader mainly due to the story of this dramatic incident, narrated in the first person.

Summary of Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tale "The Wise Gudgeon"

Minnow, the son of good and caring parents, left alone after their death, rethought his life. The future scared him.

He saw that he was weak and defenseless, and the water world around him was full of dangers. To save his life, the minnow began to dig his own hole to hide from the main threats.

During the day he did not get out of it, he walked only at night, because of which, over time, he almost went blind. If there was danger outside, he preferred to stay hungry so as not to risk it. Because of his fear, the minnow refused a full life, communication and procreation.

So he lived in his hole for more than a hundred years, trembling with fear and considering himself wise, because he turned out to be so prudent. At the same time, other inhabitants of the reservoir did not share his opinion about themselves, considering him a fool and a dunce who lives as a hermit in order to preserve his worthless life.

Sometimes he had a dream in which he wins two hundred thousand rubles, stops trembling and becomes so big and respected that he himself begins to swallow pike. At the same time, in fact, he does not seek to become rich and influential, these are just secret dreams embodied in dreams.

However, before his death, thoughts of a life lived in vain come to mind. Analyzing the past years, thinking that he never consoled, pleased, or warmed anyone, he realizes that if other minnows led the same useless life as he did, then the minnow family would quickly cease.

He dies just as he lived - unnoticed by others. According to the author, he disappeared, and died as a result of a natural death or was eaten - no one is interested, even the author.

What does the fairy tale "The Wise Minnow" teach

The author in allegorical language tries to force the reader to rethink the most important philosophical theme- about the meaning of life.

Exactly what a person spends his life on will eventually become the main criterion of his wisdom.

With the help of the grotesque image of a minnow, Saltykov-Shchedrin tries to convey this idea to the reader, to warn the younger generation against choosing the wrong path, and to the older one he suggests thinking about a worthy end to his life path.

The story is not new. The gospel parable about a man who buried his talent in the ground is just about this. It gives the very first and main moral lesson on this topic. Subsequently, the problem has been repeatedly raised in the literature. little man- "trembling creatures", and his place in society.

But with all this, a fair part of the generation of Saltykov-Shchedrin's contemporaries - familiar with the literary heritage of their ancestors, educated, and moderately liberal, did not draw the necessary conclusions, therefore, in their many, they were just such minnows, who had neither a civil position nor social responsibility, nor the desire for a positive transformation of society, entrenched in their little world and trembling with fear of those in power.

It is curious that society itself also considers such individuals to be ballast - not interesting, stupid and meaningless. The inhabitants of the reservoir spoke extremely impartially about the gudgeon, despite the fact that he lived without interfering with anyone, without offending anyone and without making enemies.

The end of the protagonist's life is very indicative - he did not die, he was not eaten. He dissapeared. The author chose such an ending to once again emphasize the ephemeral existence of the gudgeon.

The main moral of the tale is as follows: if during life a person did not strive to do good and be needed, then no one will notice his death, because his existence did not make sense.

In any case, before his death, the protagonist regrets precisely this, asking himself questions - to whom did he do a good deed, who can remember him with warmth? And he does not find a consoling answer.

The best quotes from the fairy tale "The Wise Minnow"

Once upon a time there was an "enlightened, moderately liberal" gudgeon. Clever parents, dying, bequeathed to him to live, looking at both. The minnow realized that trouble threatened him from everywhere: from large fish, from minnow neighbors, from a person (his own father once almost got boiled in his ear). The gudgeon built a hole for himself, where no one but him could fit, swam out at night for food, and during the day he “trembled” in the hole, lacked sleep, malnourished, but saved his life with all his might. Minnow has a dream about a winning ticket of 200 thousand. Crayfish and pikes lie in wait for him, but he avoids death.

The minnow does not have a family: "I would like to live on my own." “And the wise gudgeon of this kind lived for more than a hundred years. Everyone trembled, everyone trembled. He has no friends, no relatives; neither he to anyone, nor anyone to him. He doesn’t play cards, doesn’t drink wine, doesn’t smoke tobacco, doesn’t chase red girls - he only trembles and thinks for one thought: “Thank God! seems to be alive!” Even pike praise the minnow for its calm behavior, hoping that it will relax and they will eat it. The minnow does not give in to any provocations.

The minnow lived for a hundred years. Reflecting on pike words, he understands that if everyone lived like him, the minnows would be extinct (you can’t live in a hole, and not in your native element; you need to eat normally, have a family, communicate with neighbors). The life he leads is conducive to degeneration. He belongs to the "useless minnows." “No one is warm or cold from them, no one has honor, no dishonor, no glory, no dishonor ... they live, they take up space for nothing and eat food.” The minnow decides once in a lifetime to get out of the hole and swim normally along the river, but gets scared. Even when dying, the gudgeon trembles. No one cares about him, no one asks him for advice on how to live a hundred years, no one calls him wise, but rather “stupid” and “hateful”. In the end, the minnow disappears to no one knows where: after all, even pikes do not need him, he is sick, dying, and even wiser.

Option 2

There once lived a smart gudgeon. This minnow's parents were smart, and when the time came for them to die, they bequeathed him to live, but to look at both. He realized that around and everywhere he was threatened with trouble.

Then the minnow decided to build himself such a hole, so that no one, out of curiosity, would fit there, except for the minnow. It so happened that at night he swam out to feed, and during the day he was in a hole and rested. So the gudgeon didn’t get enough sleep, didn’t eat up and took care of his life, tried.

He has no family, but the wise gudgeon lived a hundred extra years. He was alone in the whole world and trembled. And he had no friends or family. He does not play cards, does not drink wine, does not smoke tobacco, and does not chase girls. The gudgeon trembles and rejoices that he is alive.

Pikes praise the minnow for his calm behavior and wait for him to relax, then they eat him. But the minnow does not give in to any persuasion. Minnow thinks that if everyone lived like him, there would be no minnows. He belongs to the useless minnows. From such minnows there is no benefit to anyone, neither dishonor, nor dishonor, they only live in vain and eat food.

The minnow decided to get out of the hole and swim along the river. But it's scary. Nobody cares about him. And no one calls him wise. The minnow suddenly disappears to no one knows where, and the pikes do not need him, sick and dying, but still wise.

Essay on literature on the topic: Summary of the Wise Gudgeon Saltykov-Shchedrin

Other writings:

Summary The Wise Gudgeon Saltykov-Shchedrin

Sheep-not remembering

The forgetful ram is the hero of a fairy tale. He began to see vague dreams that disturbed him, forcing him to suspect that "the world does not end with the walls of a barn." The sheep began mockingly calling him "wise man" and "philosopher" and shunned him. The ram withered and died. Explaining what had happened, the shepherd Nikita suggested that the deceased "saw a free-ram in a dream."

Bogatyr

The hero is the hero of a fairy tale, the son of Baba Yaga. Sent by her to exploits, he uprooted one oak tree, crushed another with his fist, and when he saw the third, with a hollow, he climbed in there and fell asleep, frightening the neighborhood with snoring. His fame was great. The hero was both afraid and hoped that he would gain strength in a dream. But centuries passed, and he was still sleeping, not coming to the aid of his country, no matter what happened to it. When, during an enemy invasion, they approached him to help him out, it turned out that the Bogatyr had long been dead and rotted. His image was so clearly aimed against the autocracy that the tale remained unpublished until 1917.

wild landlord

The wild landowner is the hero of the fairy tale of the same name. Having read the retrograde newspaper Vest, he foolishly complained that "there are too many divorced ... peasants," and tried in every possible way to oppress them. God heard the tearful peasant prayers, and "there was no peasant in the entire space of the possessions of the stupid landowner." He was delighted (the “clean” air became), but it turned out that now he could neither receive guests, nor eat himself, nor even wipe the dust from the mirror, and there was no one to pay taxes to the treasury. However, he did not deviate from his "principles" and as a result, he became wild, began to move on all fours, lost human speech and became like a predatory beast (once he did not bully the police officer himself). Worried about the lack of taxes and the impoverishment of the treasury, the authorities ordered "to catch the peasant and put him back." With great difficulty they also caught the landowner and brought him to a more or less decent appearance.

Karas-idealist

Karas-idealist is the hero of the fairy tale of the same name. Living in a quiet backwater, he is sympathetic and cherishes dreams of the triumph of good over evil, and even of the opportunity to reason with Pike (whom he has never seen) that she has no right to eat others. He eats shells, justifying himself by the fact that "they climb into their mouths" and they have "not a soul, but steam."

standing in front of Pike with his speeches, for the first time he was released with the advice: "Go to sleep!" In the second, he was suspected of "sicilism" and fairly bitten during interrogation by Okun, and the third time, Pike was so surprised at his exclamation: "Do you know what virtue is?" - that she opened her mouth and almost involuntarily swallowed her interlocutor. "In the image of Karas, the features of contemporary liberalism are grotesquely depicted by the writer. Ruff is also a character in this fairy tale. He looks at the world with bitter sobriety, seeing strife and savagery everywhere. Karas ironically over the reasoning, convicting him of perfect ignorance of life and inconsistency (Karas is indignant at Pike, but eats shells himself). However, he admits that "still, you can talk with him alone," and at times even slightly hesitates in his skepticism, until tragic outcome The "dispute" between Karas and Pike does not confirm his innocence.

sane hare

The sensible hare is the hero of the fairy tale of the same name, "he reasoned so sensibly that it fit the donkey." He believed that "every animal has its own life" and that, although "everyone eats" hares, he is "not picky" and "agrees to live in every possible way." In the heat of this philosophizing, he was caught by the Fox, who, bored with his speeches, ate him.

Kissel

Kissel, the hero of the fairy tale of the same name, "was so flamboyant and soft that he did not feel any inconvenience from what he ate. The gentlemen were so fed up with them that they provided pigs with food, so, in the end, "only jelly remained dried scrapes", In a grotesque form, both peasant humility and the post-reform impoverishment of the village, robbed not only by the "masters" - landowners, but also by new bourgeois predators, who, according to the satirist, like pigs, "satisfaction ... do not know".

Sheep-not remembering

poor wolf

Bogatyr

Faithful Trezor

Petition Raven

Dried vobla

Hyena

Lord Golovlev

village fire

wild landlord

Fool

History of one city

Karas idealist

Kissel

Konyaga

Liberal

Bear in the province

Eagle Patron

wise gudgeon

Lost conscience

Christmas tale

selfless hare

Summary
Saltykov-Shchedrin

Sheep-not remembering
poor wolf
Bogatyr
Faithful Trezor
Petition Raven
Dried vobla
Lord Golovlyov
village fire
wild landlord
Virtues and Vices
Fool
sane hare
Toy business people
History of one city
Karas-idealist
Kissel
Konyaga
Liberal
Bear in the province
Watchful eye
About the origin of the Foolovtsy
Eagle philanthropist
The story of how one man fed two generals
Pompadours and pompadours
Poshekhonskaya antiquity
wise gudgeon
Lost conscience
Christmas tale
selfless hare
Hyena fairy tale
Neighbours
Christ night
Chizhikovo mountain

Saltykov-Shchedrin is rightfully recognized as the best satirist of the nineteenth century. This is a writer who combined in his work such areas as fiction and journalism. He continued the traditions of Swift and Rabelais, guided Bulgakov, Zoshchenko and Chekhov along the right path.

Saltykov-Shchedrin began to write at a young age. The first work was written by him at the age of six and on French. And the first publication is dated March one thousand eight hundred and forty one.

After moving to St. Petersburg, the writer began to devote a lot of time to creating reviews for Sovremennik, in the same edition he published the novels: Contradictions and A Tangled Case. The result of these publications was the immediate exile of Saltykov-Shchedrin to Vyatka. So Nicholas I himself personally ordered. The writer spent about eight years in the Vyatka "captivity". He was able to build an enviable career, in between times he managed to get acquainted with the system of bureaucracy, way of life landowners and serfs. In the future, all this will be reflected in his works.

Only after the death of the tsar, Saltykov-Shchedrin was allowed to return to St. Petersburg, where he began to work on the Provincial Essays, which brought the writer unheard of popularity. Being on public service, Saltykov managed to publish in several publications. He later retired and continued literary creativity. In one year of work with Sovremennik, he published sixty-eight works, which included his first stories from the Pompadours and Pompadours series and a novel with a satirical touch, The History of a City. The material problems that arose forced Saltykov to return to the service. Then there were two years of severe creative crisis.

Having finally retired, he was appointed executive editor of the journal Domestic Notes, in which he continued his publications. The writer was able to form his personal, inherent only to him style of the writer. He bypassed strict censorship through the use of allegories. In his works, Saltykov-Shchedrin satirically reflected the picture modern Russia, ridiculed the vices of society and described in detail the typical bureaucracy and reactionaries.