Andrey Platonov, "The Pit": analysis. "Pit" Platonov: the problematic of the work

In this article we will consider the work that created by Andrei Platonov, we will carry out his analysis. Plotonov's "ditch" was conceived by the author in 1929, in the autumn, when Stalin's article entitled "The Year of the Great Break" appeared in print, in which he argued for the need for collectivization, and then announced in December about the beginning of an "offensive against the kulaks" and liquidation of it Class. In unison, he says one of the heroes of this work that everyone should be thrown "into the brine of socialism." The planned bloody campaign was successful. The tasks set by Stalin were fulfilled.

His intentions were carried out by the writer, which confirms the analysis. "Pit" Platonov was conceived as a rethinking of the history, the correctness of the path chosen by our country. It turned out a deep work with a social and philosophical content. The writer comprehended reality, conducted its analysis.

"Pit" Platonov, we begin to describe the story of the creation of the work.

History of creation

The story, which is remarkable, was written just in the period of Stalin's active work - from 1929 to April 1930. In those days, Andrei Platonovich Platonov worked in the department of land improvement in his specialty, in the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, located in the Voronezh region. Therefore, he was, if not a direct participant, at least a witness to the elimination of kulaks and collectivization. As an artist who paints nature, Andrei Platonovich Platonov wrote pictures of the fate of people and events that occurred with the depersonalization and leveling of the grinders that had fallen into the meat grinder.

The topic of the works of Andrei Platonovich in the general ideas of the building of communism did not fit, the doubting and thinking hero of the story was subjected to criticism on the part of the authorities, which was picked up by the press. She conducted her own analysis, which was by no means flattering for the author.

Plotonov's "excavation" was first published only in 1987, at the time of Gorbachev, in the magazine "Mir". During this period, the Soviet Union was again reconstructed.

Such is the brief story of Platonov ("The Pit"), the story of creation.

Features of the presentation

Prominent by the Bolsheviks contemporaries of the author - writers Kataev, Leonov, Sholokhov - in their works glorified the achievements of socialism, depicting collectivization on the positive side. Poetic Platonov, unlike them, an optimistic description of the pictures of selfless labor and construction was alien. This author was not attracted by the magnitude of the tasks and aspirations. He was primarily interested in man and his role in historical events. Therefore, the work "Pit," as well as other creations of this author, is characterized by a thoughtful, slow development of events. There are many in the narrative of abstract generalizations, since the author concentrates on the thoughts and emotions of his characters. Only the external factors help the hero to understand himself, and at the same time in the symbolic events that Platonov tells us.

"Pit: content in summary"

Typical plot of the story for the works of that time, dedicated to collectivization, and a little bit. It consists of dekulakization with scenes of an attempt on the part of activists of the party and peasants who are defending their good. But Platonov managed to present these events from the point of view of a thinking person who turned out to be involuntarily dragged into events about which the story "The Pit" tells.

The summary of the chapters is not the subject of this article. We only briefly describe the main events of the work. The hero of the story, Voshchev, after he was fired from the plant because of reverie, gets to excavators who dig a foundation pit for the house of the proletarians. Brigadier Chiklin leads an orphaned girl whose mother died. Chiklin and his comrades liquidate the kulaks, rafting them on a raft into the sea with their families. After that they return to the city and continue their work. The story "The Pit" ends with the death of the girl, who found her last shelter in the pit wall.

Three motives in the work of Platonov

Platonov wrote that in his life he was struck by three things - love, wind and a long road. All these motives are present in the work "Pit". The summary of the chapters, if you refer to it, will confirm our idea. But it should be noted that these motives are presented in a kind of submission of the author. The plot is tied to the image of the road. However, Voshchev, the hero of Platonov, although he is a stranger, but not in the traditions of Russian literature, because, firstly, he is forced to wander, or rather, to wander, because he was fired, and secondly, his goal - The search is not for adventures, but for truth, the meaning of existence. Wherever this hero went later, again and again the author returns it to the foundation pit. As if the life of a person closes and goes around in a circle.

A lot of events are the story "The Pit," but there is no causal relationship between them. Heroes seem to be circling around the pit, dreaming to break out of this pit. One wanted to leave to study, having increased the experience, another expected re-qualification, the third dreamed to get over to the party leadership.

Method of editing episodes of a work

Platonov in the composition of the work uses the method of editing diverse scenes: there is a bear-hammer, and an activist who enlightens in the politics of village women, and kulaks who are forgiven before being sent to sea on a raft with each other.

Some episodes, about which the work of Platonov, "The Pit," seem completely random and unmotivated: suddenly, in the course of the action, close-ups appear minor characters, just as suddenly disappearing. As an example, you can bring dressed only in the pants of an unknown person, whom Chiklin brought to the office unexpectedly for everyone. The man, who was swollen with grief, demanded to return the coffins harvested for future use, which were found in the foundation pit, his village.

Grotesque

In the dialogue between peasants and workers, it is surprising with what commonness they talk about death, with what hopelessness and humility they prepare coffins for themselves and their children. The funeral box turns into a "child's toy", into "bed", ceasing to be a symbol of fear. Such a grotesque reality permeates, in fact, the whole story of "Pit".

Allegory

The author of the work except the grotesque also uses allegory in the transmission of the madness of events. Thanks to this and previous techniques, the subject matter of this work is more fully revealed in the story "The Pit." Not finding a character who could, like Judas, point to wealthy families of peasants, he chooses a bear for this role. And given that this animal in folk folklore has never been the personification of evil, one can speak here of a double allegory.

The story of Voshchev's wanderings organically intertwines with another - the failed construction of a monumental general proletarian house. But the workers believed to the last that the local proletariat would live in it in a year. This building is associated with the Tower of Babel, because it became a grave for its builders, just as the pit for the proletarians turned into a grave for the girl, for which, in fact, was erected.

Although in the beginning of the work Pashkin claims that happiness will still "come historically," it becomes clear by the end of the narrative that there is no hope for finding the future meaning of life, since the present is built on the death of a girl, and adults with such persistence worked on a pit as As if they were longing to be saved in his abyss.

The work "The Pit" after reading leaves a heavy residue on the soul, but at the same time it is felt that Andrei Platonovich is a humanist writer who tells us about the sad events of the story with regret, love and deep compassion for the heroes, through which the ruthless and uncompromising machine of power, Trying to turn everyone into an obedient performer of godless design.

Description of the characters in the story

Do not give the Plato a detailed external description of the characters, their deep internal characteristics. He, as a surrealist artist who works by breaking logical connections at the subconscious level, only touches his portraits of characters living in an immaterial world, devoid of everyday details and interior. No, for example, no data on the appearance of the main character, Voshchev, said only that to him at the time of the narration thirty years. In the description of Pashkin an elderly person is indicated, as well as a bent body, not so much from lived years, but from the burden of "social". Safonov had a face "active-thinking", and Chiklin had a head, which, according to the author's definition, was "a small stone", Kozlov had "raw eyes" and a monotonous cloudy face. Such are the characters in the story "The Pit" (Platonov).

The image of Nastia

To understand the meaning of the work, the image of a girl living with diggers on construction is very important. Nastya is a child of the 1917 revolution. Her mother was a bourgeois, that is, a representative of an obsolete class. The renunciation of the past, as is well known, means the loss of cultural traditions, historical ties and the replacement of their ideological parents by Lenin and Marx. The people who deny their past can not, according to the author's opinion, have a future.

Nastia's world is disfigured, because the mother, in order to save her daughter, encourages her not to talk about her non-proletarian origin. A propaganda machine had already entered its consciousness. The reader is horrified to learn that this heroine advises Safronov for the cause of the revolution to kill the peasants. Who will the child turn into when he grows up, if he keeps his toys in his coffin? The girl at the end of the story dies, and with it the last ray of hope dies for Voshchev and all the other workers. He wins in the original confrontation between Nastia and the foundation pit. The dead body of the girl lies in the foundation of the house under construction.

Hero-philosopher

Present in the story is a character who is a so-called home-grown philosopher who thinks about the meaning of life, strives to live by conscience, seeks the truth. This is the protagonist of the work. He is the spokesman of the author's position. This character, included in Platonov's novel The Pit, seriously reflected and doubted the correctness of what was happening around him. He does not move along with the general line, he seeks to find his own way to the truth. But he does not find it.

The meaning of the title of the story "Pit"

The name of the story is symbolic. Not only does construction mean a pit. This is a huge grave, a pit that the workers are digging for themselves. Many here also perish. A happy home for the proletarians can not be built on a slavish attitude towards human labor and the humiliation of the dignity of the individual.

Pessimism, which was not hidden by Platonov (the novel "The Pit" and other works), of course, could not fit into the cheerful gait of Russian literature of that time with positive images of party members, meetings and overfulfilment of plans. It was not at all in the foot that this author went on with time: he was ahead of him.