"Cow": a short summary. "Cow" Platonov: the main characters

This story was written approximately in the late 30's - early 40's, but was published only in 1962. At first the title of the work was "The Good Cow". A. Platonov in the forties attempted to print his creation in the collections "All Life", "Towards the Sunset of the Sun" and others. In the book "All Life" this work is included along with other stories: "Ivanov's Family", "Grandma's Hut", "July Thunderstorm", "Flower on the Ground", "Yushka", "Nikita".

Summary

"Cow" Platonova tells us about the following events. The cow was robbed of the calf. She still had to take care of him under the law of nature, but he fell ill, and he was taken to a vet doctor. There the owner was offered a lot of money, and he sold the calf. After that, the cow could not find a place - she could not imagine a life without her child. Vasya Rubtsov supported the animal in every possible way, fed the cow with various delicacies. Once she ran away, but soon returned. The boy took care of the cow, he was very sorry for her. The animal felt very bad. The father of the boy, who sold the calf, already began to regret his actions. Once the cow left and remained standing on the rails when the train was traveling. The driver did not stop on time and thus killed the animal. Feeling his guilt, he gives Father Vasya money to buy a new cow. Animal meat is salted and sold. On the proceeds, the boy buys new things. A child at school writes an essay about the cow, about his love for her and about how she gave the boy's family everything: son, milk, skin, meat, bones and insides, "she was kind." This is the summary.

"Cow" Platonov requires a detailed analysis, because the events unfolding in the work, serve only as a background to put and resolve a number of issues, to convey the author's thoughts about life.

The main collision

The situation of the confrontation of the death of a man is one of the most stable in the prose of this author. She and in the story "The Cow" is the main collision. The motif for overcoming death fulfills the plot-forming function of the work, it determines the focusing and selection of the material of life, the character of the thoughts and actions of the young hero. Vasya is opposed to death. Platonov's children, in general, deny it not only by the very fact of their birth. With labor and love they increase the life "substance".

Vasya Rubtsov (Platonov, "The Cow")

The heroes of this work are few, among the main ones one can distinguish only a small boy and a cow. However, their relationship is very interesting material. In the story of Andrei Platonovich Platonov we get acquainted with Vasya Rubtsov, the son of the road guard, as mentioned in the section "summary". "Cow" Platonov is a work in which a rather detailed image of this boy is given. The author is so depicting the protagonist. He was very kind, he studied in the fourth grade and attended a school located five kilometers from the house. Despite the fact that it was far to go, the boy loved classes, because reading books and listening to the teacher, represented in his mind the whole world that he was not yet known. It seemed to the boy that all people and countries long awaited when he would grow up and come to them. Rubtsov always wanted to learn as much as possible about the subject that interested him.

One day, his mother asked him to pick up a train that arrived at night. The hero immediately realized that something was wrong with him: the train was skidding. Vasya offered his help - he began to pour sand into a handful and pour it onto the rails. The machinist liked this hardworking boy.

Vasya loved the cow, he often stroked and caressed her, he himself gave food, he drank and cleaned in the shed. The animal was a real hard worker. The boy's father often plowed the land on it.

Vasya was also hardworking. He did not work because he was forced to do it, but because he enjoyed it. No wonder they say that labor ennobles people. In his essay on the future life, this boy wrote that he wants people of our country to benefit from it.

The image of the locomotive

Platonov's heroes are always tragic, but at the heart of it is a huge love for the world. This feeling is represented in the work in two hypostases, which form two stages of development of the child. The first can be called, using the definition of the author himself, "love of the distant." Its symbol is the image of the locomotive in the work, with which the boy's dreams and hopes are correlated. This love is abstract in its nature. It often turns out to be passing, fleeting, like trains, sweeping past Vasya. Such love is not always beneficial. It is not enough for spiritual growth, but it is needed, since this attitude to the world awakens warmth and sensitivity in Vas.

Image of a cow

The image of this animal has already been mentioned in the "summary" section. Cow Platonov is not in vain, even outwardly portrayed similar to a man. The author seems to want to emphasize that it is no different from us. The image of this animal is recreated in association with the portrait of a person: kind eyes, a big lean body. It is the personification of the miracle of life, the power hidden in weakness, external exhaustion. With the cow, the motive of a related feeling is connected, which unites all living beings. In caring for her, the boy finds completely different, deeper relationships.

This self-sacrificing animal and the boy Vasya are the main heroes of the work created by Andrei Platonov. "Cow", a brief summary of which was presented in our article, is a story about their relationship. He teaches us kindness and love for our neighbor.

Literary criticism

The work of Platonov "The Cow" was met in the literary world of that time very negatively. Soviet critics were indignant at the steady interest of this writer in the themes of orphanhood, death, tragedy of being, and Andrei Platonovich's desire to restore moral values (compassion, love, universal kinship, etc.) was regarded as "foolishness," "revision of Christianity." Significant in this respect is the sharp rejection that the final of the "Cow" caused the opponents of Platonov. For example, Subotsky believed that the composition of Vasya in the end of the story is meaningless in essence, falsely-significant, sounds parodic. Yu Libedinskii did not understand why the author needed to combine "jurod reasoning" about the kindness of a cow with such a serious feeling as patriotism. The consequence of these claims is the disappearance of this topic of the essay from the majority of publications in which the story of the "Cow" Platonov came posthumously. The boy in them writes on the theme "from his life".

Conclusion

However, Platonov's story "The Cow" (the short content of the work see above) is not at all about the fact that Vasya realized that all living things are subject to death. He is about how the child's soul opposes her. The boy knows about the existence of death even before the death of the calf and cow. He calls "do not die!" To the young man, whom he noticed in the window past the passing train. Platonov focuses his attention on the boy's attitude toward death as to what should not be on earth, his desire to act contrary to it ("do not forget," "remember").

Washu attracts and worries the world around him. He is fascinated far away. Call of space and gave SG. Semenova interprets as a revival of childish, naive, unrestrained grief over the dead.