Indifference and responsiveness in the work of the Paustovsky telegram. "Telegram" main characters. from Paustovsky's story "Telegram"

from Paustovsky's story "Telegram"

Attitude of a person towards parents, indifference towards relatives

Very often, children forget about their parents, plunging into their worries and affairs. So, for example, in the story of K.G. Paustovsky's "Telegram" shows the daughter's attitude towards her aged mother. Katerina Petrovna lived alone in the village, while her daughter was busy with her career in Leningrad. The last time Nastya saw her mother was 3 years ago, she rarely wrote letters, she sent her 200 rubles every two or three months. This money worried little Katerina Petrovna, she reread a few lines that her daughter wrote along with the translation (that there is no time not only to come, but also to write a normal letter). Katerina Petrovna missed her daughter very much, listened to every rustle. When she became very ill, she asked her daughter to come to see her before her death, but Nastya did not have time. There were many cases, she did not take her mother's words seriously. This letter was followed by a telegram stating that her mother was dying. Only then did Nastya realize that "no one loved her as much as this decrepit, abandoned old woman." She realized too late that there had never been anyone dearer than her mother in her life and never would be. Nastya went to the village to see her mother for the last time in her life, to ask for forgiveness and say the most important words, but she did not have time. Katerina Petrovna is dead. Nastya did not even have time to say goodbye to her and left with the realization of "irreparable guilt and unbearable severity."

The problem of loneliness, indifference towards relatives
No person deserves to be alone. Even worse are situations when people become lonely who are not really alone in this world. This happened to the heroine of the story K.G. Paustovsky "Telegram" by Katerina Petrovna. In her old age, she was left completely alone, although she had a daughter. Loneliness destroyed her every day, the only thing that kept Katerina Petrovna was the expectation of a meeting with her daughter. She waited three years, but only a couple of days were not enough for her. Very often, indifference towards loved ones kills more than illness. Perhaps if Nastya was more sensitive, then the sick person would not have to die alone.

Guilt
Guilt is a feeling that is familiar to any person. Guilt becomes especially terrible in cases where a person does not have the opportunity to correct the situation, as in the story of K.G. Paustovsky "Telegram". The main character Nastya showed callousness towards her mother. She did not come to her, because she was busy with her own affairs. She was not with her mother when she was ill. Nastya did not take the last letter from her mother seriously. For this reason, she did not have time to tell her mother that she loves her, she could not ask for forgiveness for not coming. Nastya realized her mistakes too late: Katerina Petrovna died. Therefore, all the words remained unsaid, and a terrible feeling of guilt remained in the soul. There are actions that cannot be corrected and there is guilt that nothing can atone for.

History of creation

The story "Telegram" was written by Paustovsky in 1946, soon after great Soviet and foreign fame came to him. The origins of the story can be found in the works of 1937 - the cycle of stories "Summer Days", the story "Meshcherskaya Side". Here there is a mention of the fate of the daughter of a famous artist, which is subsequently transformed into an independent story "Telegram". The story has not been studied in Soviet school until the end of the 90s, since larger works of the socialist realism genre had priority.

Story analysis

Description of the story

The plot of the story can be summarized in a few sentences: a lonely woman of advanced age lives in a remote, remote village, in a “memorial” house built by her father, an outstanding artist. It's not even about physical help - the woman is completely alien to the villagers, with whom she has no points of contact. Surprisingly, she has a daughter who sometimes sends money to her mother and writes her short letters about how busy she is. There comes a time when the elderly mother realizes that she will not survive the impending winter, and she writes a draft letter to her daughter. Nastya leaves in more than two weeks, and then - after an already alarming telegram about the approaching death of her mother. The daughter does not have time either for the bed of the dying, or for the funeral, and when she arrives, she experiences the most terrible remorse in the world.

Compositionally, the story is divided into three parts: in the first, an acquaintance with Katerina Petrovna takes place, the unusualness of her existence is mentioned, it is noted that this is an unusual person. The second part tells about the daughter Nastya, about her important work and character. The third part is connected with the story of the telegram, or rather, about two telegrams. The first one informed Nastya that her mother was seriously ill. The second, out of deepest sympathy, is written by Tikhon, the watchman in the house of Katerina Petrovna. A man from the people, an ignorant but pure man, he still remembers Katerina Petrovna's father and respects both of them as smart, intelligent people. Tikhon's ignorance does not prevent him from having a kind, sympathetic heart and indestructible moral principles in him. Tikhon composes a telegram for the dying Katerina Petrovna, allegedly from her daughter, in which she writes on her behalf that she will arrive soon. However, she allows such an absurd construction of the phrase in the telegram that Katerina Petrovna immediately understands that it was not Nastya who wrote it. Katerina Petrovna guesses everything and thanks Tikhon for his kindness and kind words. This second telegram is a symbol of a pure impulse, a holy lie for salvation, and its voicing by Tikhon is the climax of the story.

main characters

The origin of Katerina Petrovna is probably noble, because the author mentions that she was brought up in a family related to art. Katerina Petrovna received a good education, she was familiar with many people from the world of art, it is even mentioned that while in Paris she saw the funeral of Victor Hugo. But this information, talk about art, will not be of interest to anyone in a godforsaken village, just like antique things from a woman's wardrobe - ostrich feathers, wrinkled gloves, beaded clothes. People in the village live indifferent - a neighbor girl, a postman and a watchman Tikhon, goes to an elderly woman, but they simply cannot brighten up her loneliness, people are too different. Katerina Petrovna is waiting for letters from her daughter, but she does not write herself, so as not to bother the girl. He can’t stand it only once, sending touching lines to the girl, as he anticipates an imminent death.

(Frame from the movie "Telegram" 1957)

The life of the second heroine, Nastya, on the contrary, is full of energy and worries. And if the reader had not found out in the previous part of the story what was happening to her mother, he would have considered Nastya a sensitive, cordial and sympathetic person. After all, her soul responds so impetuously to art, to someone else's misfortune (for example, the harsh existence of the sculptor Timofeev). To someone else's, but not to her mother's - after all, Nastya does not even read a letter from her mother right away, but goes to her in general in 2 weeks.

Repentance comes too late. Nastya does not have time to go anywhere, even to the funeral. All night the girl cries in the empty mother's house, and in the morning she leaves secretly from the village, as if stealing away - she is ashamed.

Konstantin Paustovsky is a wonderful Russian writer who went through two wars and wrote many books imbued with kindness and love. His story "Telegram" cannot leave anyone indifferent, it touches the most delicate spiritual strings. In the article you will find school essay on the theme of the main idea of ​​this work and the position of the author.

The "Telegram" tells about an elderly woman, Katerina Petrovna, who lives in the village in her father's house. He was a famous artist, traveled to countries and cities, communicated with famous people. Katerina Petrovna is looked after by the neighbor girl Manyushka and the watchman Tikhon. They do it disinterestedly, just like that, from a pure soul.

Katerina Petrovna has a daughter, Nastya, who went to Leningrad, and very rarely visits her mother, does not write letters, only sends money that is completely unnecessary for a woman. Nastya herself worked as a secretary in the Union of Artists, organized exhibitions and competitions. She helped artists and sculptors exhibit their work and become famous. She did not have time to escape to her mother in the village.

Suddenly, at the next exhibition, Nastya receives a telegram “Katya is dying. Tikhon. After reading it, she did not understand who it was about, crumpled up a piece of paper and threw it into her bag.

At the exhibition, everyone applauded her, and she kept thinking what kind of telegram. She raised her eyes and saw a sculpture of Gogol, who looked at her reproachfully and with her appearance helped to understand who Katya and Tikhon were.

Nastya arrived in the village two days after the old woman's funeral. She wept in an empty house all night, went to the grave and went back to the city stealthily so that no one would notice her.

The main idea of ​​the story

This story advises us to never forget our parents, to show our love for them more often, to express care, despite all our busyness and passion for everyday affairs. After all, parents are the most precious thing in life, their life is not eternal, and at any moment they may be gone. Paustovsky himself speaks of this very precisely in his other work, in The Book of Wanderings: “Perhaps, looking at the back of a person who is leaving forever is the worst thing that one has to endure.”

The position of the author in the story "Telegram"

The image of Gogol well demonstrates the author's own view of what is happening, shows his attitude towards Nastya and her actions. The sculpture in Nastya's imagination constantly condemns her behavior, that is, it is a kind of voice of conscience. Why Gogol? And not Pushkin, for example, or some other famous Russian writer? As you know, one of Gogol's most popular works is the poem Dead Souls. And a daughter who demonstrates such indifference to the mother who raised and raised her can also rightfully be considered dead soul. We remember how Tikhon, turning to Manyushka, says that goodness must be repaid with kindness, not to be ungrateful, otherwise such a person is not a person at all, but a “kestrel”.

The story "Telegram" describes a strange paradox, which Paustovsky very accurately noticed - we express concern for unfamiliar people, but for some reason we completely forget about those closest to us. About those who really need us, who love us like no one else and never more. After all, Nastya really helps an unfamiliar sculptor, but does not respond to her mother's last letter. At the end of the work, Nastya finally realizes her guilt, but it's too late. The author leaves the heroine unforgiven, because the one who could forgive her is gone forever.

And in conclusion, I want to recall the words of Cicero: "Love for parents is the basis of all virtues." It is impossible not to agree.

“Argumentation. Attracting literary material” is one of the main criteria for evaluating the final essay. Competently using literary sources, the student demonstrates his erudition and deep understanding of the problem. At the same time, it is important not only to give a link to the work, but also to skillfully include it in the discussion by analyzing specific episodes that correspond to the chosen topic. How to do it? We offer you, as an example, arguments from the literature in the direction of "Indifference and responsiveness" out of 10 famous works.

1. The heroine of the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" Natasha Rostova is a person with a sensitive heart. Thanks to her intervention, the carts, which were originally intended for moving and loaded with things, were given over to transport wounded soldiers. Another example of a caring attitude towards the world and people is Platon Karataev. He goes to war, helping out his younger brother, and although he does not like the fight at all, even in such conditions the hero remains kind and sympathetic. Plato “loved and lived lovingly with everything that life brought him to”, helped other prisoners (in particular, fed Pierre when he was captured), took care of a stray dog.
2. In the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment", many heroes manifest themselves as pronounced altruists or egoists. The first, of course, is Sonechka Marmeladova, who sacrifices herself to provide for her family, and then goes into exile after Raskolnikov, trying to save his soul. We must not forget about Razumikhin: he is poor and lives hardly better than Raskolnikov, but he is always ready to help him - he offers a friend a job, buys him clothes, gives him money. In contrast to these noble people, for example, the image of Luzhin is presented. Luzhin "more than anything in the world loved and valued ... his money"; he wanted to marry Raskolnikov's sister Dunya, pursuing a base goal - to take a poor wife who would be eternally obliged to him. It is noteworthy that he does not even bother to ensure that the future bride and her mother get to St. Petersburg comfortably. Indifference to the fate of the closest people results in the same attitude towards the world and characterizes the hero from the negative side. As we know, fate paid tribute to sympathetic characters, but punished indifferent characters.
3. The type of a person who lives for himself is drawn by I.A. Bunin in the story "The Gentleman from San Francisco". The hero - a wealthy gentleman whose name we will never know - goes on a journey "solely for fun." He spends time in a circle of his own kind, and divides other people into attendants and an annoying "hindrance" to his pleasure - such, for example, are commission agents and ragamuffins on the embankment, as well as inhabitants of miserable houses, which the gentleman from San Francisco has to contemplate along the way . However, after a sudden death, he himself, from a supposedly respected and revered person, becomes a burden, and the same people in whose devotion he believed, because "he was generous", send his corpse to his homeland in a soda box. With this crude irony, I.A. Bunin illustrates the well-known folk wisdom: as it comes around, it will respond.
4. An example of selflessness is the hero of the collection of stories M.A. Bulgakov "Notes of a young doctor". A young doctor by the name of Bomgard, who recently graduated from the university, goes to work in a rural hospital, where he encounters harsh living conditions, human ignorance, terrible diseases, and, finally, death itself. But against all odds, he fights for every patient; goes out to the sick both day and night, not sparing himself; constantly learning and improving his skills. It is significant that Bomgard is not a heroic person, he is often unsure of himself and, like everyone else, is afraid, but at the decisive moment a sense of professional duty wins over everything else.
5. The indifference of people to each other is especially terrible when, like a virus, it covers the whole society. Such a situation developed in the story of V.P. Astafiev "Lyudochka". It contrasts life path the heroine and the attitude towards her by others, from the family to society as a whole. Ludochka is a village girl who moves to the city in search of a better life. She works hard at work, resignedly takes care of the housework instead of the woman from whom she rents an apartment, endures the rudeness of the “youth” around her, consoles the dying in the hospital until the last minute ... She is too unlike the stupid, spoiled herd of people, surrounded by which she is forced to be, And this time after time leads her to trouble. Alas, no one, not even her own mother, extended a helping hand to her at the right time, and the girl committed suicide. The saddest thing is that for society this situation is in the order of things, which is reflected in the dry, but terrible statistics.
6. The image of a kindhearted sympathetic person- key in the work of A.I. Solzhenitsyn "Matryonin Dvor". The fate of Matryona cannot be called enviable: she was a widow, buried six children, worked for many years on a collective farm “for the sticks of workdays”, did not receive a pension and remained poor in old age. Despite this, the heroine retained a cheerful disposition, sociability, love of work and a willingness to help others, without demanding anything in return. The apogee of her self-sacrifice is a tragic incident on railway, which ends with the death of the heroine. Surprisingly, her face, untouched by the terrible accident, was “whole, calm, more alive than dead” - just like the face of a saint.
7. In the story "Gooseberry" A.P. Chekhov, we meet a hero obsessed with a base material goal. Such is the narrator's brother, Nikolai Chimsha-Himalayan, who dreams of buying an estate, and certainly with gooseberry bushes. For this, he stops at nothing: he lives stingily, is greedy, marries an old rich widow and torments her with hunger. He is indifferent to people, so he is ready to sacrifice their interests for his own. Finally, his dream comes true, he feels happy and does not notice that the gooseberries are sour - to such an extent he has renounced real life. This terrifies the narrator, he turns to " happy man", calling to remember, "that there are unfortunates, that no matter how happy he is ... trouble will strike ... and no one will see or hear him, just as now he does not see or hear others." The narrator discovered that the meaning of life is not in personal happiness, "but in something more reasonable and great." "Do good!" - this is how he ends his speech, hoping that young people who still have the strength and the opportunity to change something will not follow the path of his brother and become sympathetic people.
8. It is not easy for a person with an open and sympathetic soul to live in the world. So it happened with the Chudik from the story of the same name by V.M. Shukshin. As an adult male, the hero thinks and behaves like a child. He reaches out to people, likes to talk and joke, strives to be on good terms with everyone, but he constantly gets into trouble due to the fact that he does not look like a “correct adult”. Let's remember one episode: on the plane, Chudik asks his neighbor to buckle up, as the stewardess ordered; he takes his words with obvious displeasure. The landing is not entirely successful: Chudik's neighbor falls from his chair, so much so that he loses his dentures. The weirdo rushes to his aid - but in response he again receives a portion of irritation and anger. And this is how everyone treats him, from strangers to family members. The responsiveness of the Freak and the unwillingness of society to understand someone who does not fit into the framework are two sides of the same problem.
9. The story of K.G. is devoted to the topic of indifference to one's neighbor. Paustovsky "Telegram". Girl Nastya, secretary of the Union of Artists, gives all her strength to work. She fusses about the fate of painters and sculptors, organizes exhibitions and competitions, and does not find time to see her old sick mother who lives in the village. Finally, having received a telegram stating that her mother is dying, Nastya sets off, but too late ... The author warns readers against making the same mistake, the guilt for which will probably remain with the heroine for life.
10. Manifestations of altruism in wartime have special meaning because it is often a matter of life and death. The novel Schindler's Ark by T. Kenilli is a story about a German businessman and NSDAP member Oskar Schindler, who during the Holocaust organizes production and recruits Jews, thereby saving them from extermination. This requires a lot of effort from Schindler: he has to keep in touch with the right people, go for bribery, forge documents, but the result - more than a thousand lives saved and the eternal gratitude of these people and their descendants - is the main reward for the hero. Strengthening the impression of this selfless act is the fact that the novel is based on real events.
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In Paustovsky's story "Telegram", the characters live their lives far from their relatives, forgetting that the human age is short. The description of the old, dilapidated house of Ekaterina Petrovna, her dull life and state of mind are piercing, deep and strong so much that you want to change the plot of the work. The author in the image of the last days of the life of an elderly woman is ruthlessly realistic, the image of her daughter does not cause compassion. She lives in a parallel “universe”, where they stiltedly talk about care and love for one’s neighbor, about the meaning human life. Behind this fuss, Nastya forgets about her own mother ...

Characteristics of the heroes of “Telegram”

main characters

Minor characters

In the work, the author raises the problems of morality: responsibility, kindness, remorse, guilt, conscience. Pictures of nature play an important role: they are consonant with the state of mind of a lonely woman, they emphasize the events taking place in the story. Main character"Telegram" - human loneliness, the worst thing that can be - lonely old age. Written immediately after the war, Astafiev's story "Telegram" was included in the list of the most famous works of socialist realism.

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