The childhood of Maxim Gorky, one of the bestRussian writers, was held on the Volga, in Nizhny Novgorod. His name was then Alyosha Peshkov, the years spent in the grandfather's house were full of events that were not always pleasant, which allowed Soviet biographers and literary critics to interpret these memories as an accusatory evidence of the depravity of capitalism.
Memories of the childhood of a mature man
In 1913, being a mature man (and he alreadywas forty-five years old), the writer wanted to remember how his childhood passed. Maxim Gorky, by that time the author of three novels, five novels, a dozen plays and several good stories, the reader loved. His relations with the authorities were complex. In 1902 he was an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, but soon he was stripped of this title for inciting riots. In 1905, the writer joined the RSDLP, which, it seems, finally forms his class approach to the evaluation of his characters.
At the end of the first decade, theautobiographical trilogy, composed by Maxim Gorky. "Childhood" is the first story. Her initial lines immediately set up the fact that it was written not for the public, hungry for entertainment. It begins with a grave scene of his father's funeral, which the boy remembered in all its details, right up to the eyes closed with five-kopeck coins. Despite the rigidity and some detachment of childish perception, the description is truly talented, the picture is vivid and expressive.
Autobiographical plot
After the death of his father, the mother takes the children and carries them on a steamboat from Astrakhan to Nizhny Novgorod, to his grandfather. The baby, Alyosha's brother, is dying on the way.
Accept them at first kindly, onlythe exclamations of the head of the family "Eh, you-and-and!" give out the old conflict that arose on the grounds of the undesirable marriage of the daughter. Grandfather Kashirin is an entrepreneur, he has his own business, he is engaged in painting fabrics. Unpleasant smells, noise, unusual words "vitriol", "fuchsin" irritate the child. Maxim Gorky's childhood took place in this turmoil, the uncles were rude, cruel and, most likely, stupid, and the grandfather had all the habits of a domestic tyrant. But all the hardest, the definition of "leaden abominations," was ahead.
Characters
Множество бытовых подробностей и разнообразие relations between the characters imperceptibly enchant every reader who took the first part of the trilogy, written by Maxim Gorky, "Childhood". The main characters of the story talk so that their voices seem to be hovering somewhere near, so individual is the manner of speech of each of them. Grandmother, whose influence on the formation of the future writer's personality can not be overemphasized, as it becomes an ideal of kindness, at the same time, pugnacious brothers who are seized with greed cause a feeling of disgust.
Хорошее Дело, соседский нахлебник, был человеком eccentric, but at the same time, obviously, possessed an outstanding intellect. It was he who taught little Alyosha to express a thought correctly and clearly, which undoubtedly influenced the development of literary abilities. Ivan-Gypsy, a 17-year-old foundling who was brought up in a family, was very kind, which was sometimes manifested in some oddities. So, going to the market for shopping, he invariably spent less money than he should have supposed, and gave the difference to his grandfather, trying to please him. As it turned out, to save money, he was stealing. Excessive effort and led to his premature death: he overstrained himself, carrying out the master's order.
There will be only gratitude ...
Reading the story "Childhood" by Maxim Gorky, it is difficultnot catch the feeling of gratitude that the author felt for the people who surrounded him in his early years. What he received from them enriched his soul, which he himself compared with a hive filled with honey. And nothing that tasted he was sometimes bitter, and seemingly dirty. Departing from the hateful grandfather at home “into people,” he was enriched enough by his life experience so as not to disappear, not to disappear unknown in a complex adult world.
The story turned out to be eternal. As time has shown, relations between people, often even linked by blood, are characteristic of all ages and social formations.
