VM Shukshin belongs to the writers of the village. The hero of most of his works is an ordinary villager, poorly educated, clumsily expressing his thoughts, often drinking. But this mediocrity is seeming. After all, in each such seemingly marginal person, Shukshin sees a Man - with his inherent crankiness, often unconscious, incomprehensible to himself and the surrounding striving for light, spirituality, beauty, culture, knowledge. And it's not his fault that sometimes, without finding an outlet, without having the opportunity to realize itself, this freak takes some strange, even ugly forms.
The story "Microscope" - from the plot to the conflict
In fact, the summary of Shukshin's story boils down to an attempt to express himself, to reveal himself, to show his own eccentricity, to become necessary to close people, neighbors, acquaintances, humanity. Find yourself, understand something important about life, find your place in it - do not be a dumb, inconspicuous cog in the universal mechanism. Such, for example, is Andrei Yerin, the protagonist of the work "Microscope." Summary of the story Shukshin can be expressed in two words: Andrew secretly withdrew money from the book and bought a microscope on them. To avoid a home scandal, his wife said that he had lost a fair amount. "He worked" the next month and a half shifts to compensate for the "loss", and then, when the passions subsided, brought a much-desired thing home and now every night with his son he observed the microbes. By chance, the fraud was revealed, Zoya, the wife, took the "toy" to the commission. This concludes the "scientific research" of Andrei. That's the whole plot (short summary) of Shukshin's story, what lies on the surface ...
And if you dig deeper? What can be discerned for an anecdotal, at first glance, situation? Very much, you just have to look closely at the text. The fact that the hero's name is Andrew, we find out only in the middle of the narrative. But the evil and contemptuous, destroying the nickname "well" (i.e., a breakthrough!), And even "crooked", sounds almost from the first words. That's what his dearest half calls him, Zoya. By the way, we learn about the fact that she has a name even later! What does this detail say? Where does not allow us to glance at the superficial acquaintance, the brief content of Shukshin's story? The fact that the couple - strangers to each other, that there is no respect between them, understanding, warm feelings. All long absorbed life and the solution of material problems. Zoya in any situation that is unfavorable to her grabs the frying pan, her husband is under his heel, often drinks at work. The family does not live well, and spiritual inquiries do not really bother them, until Erin has a passionate desire to buy a microscope. Why, you ask? After all, he has no knowledge of relevant, no training, and practically where to apply the thing? However, a man is ready to endure another portion of "everyday life", just to look at the microbes. When the dream is fulfilled, Andrei is transformed. He shines, speaks sedately and confidently (even yells at his wife), stopped drinking, hurries home after work, washed, eats hastily and enthusiastically bending over the cherished device, which brings him very close to his fifth-grader son. But the idyll does not end with Shukshin's "Microscope." A brief summary of it highlights our attention on the dramatic note. Not knowing anything in microbiology, the hero with horror recognizes that microbes are not only in water and soup, but even in blood. He wants to protect, save his son, other people from imminent death. Everything returns to normal, when the wife, after learning about the deception, takes the microscope to the commission. Andrew gets drunk "to snot", becomes the same as he was before - a drunken worker and a henpecked henpecked. But the hero is sure that his son will have a different life. He will grow up, learn and become a scientist, and scientists do not drink, they have enough work already!
Vasiliy Shukshin completes the story on such an optimistic note. The stories, whose brief content is close in the subject matter discussed, contain a general conflict: a searching, restless person with gray everyday reality, a meaningless monotony of existence, spending his life in vain. "There must be meaning in your life, people!" - as if the writer wants to tell us. And we must hear him ...