One of the central problems of The Tale of a Real Man is patriotism. The author, who went through the entire war from beginning to end and was one of the first journalists to see the death camps, knew that love for the Motherland was not in high words. In her name they do things.
date of creation
The analysis of the "Tale of a Real Man" should begin with the fact that the work was written in 1946. In the difficult post-war period, this book shamed the faint-hearted and helped to become stronger; it brought back to life those who despaired. Polevoy wrote the story in just nineteen days, when he was in the special correspondence at the Nuremberg trials. After the publication of the work, thousands of letters from people who did not remain indifferent to the fate of the pilot Meresyev went to the editorial office of the magazine.
This book is amazing not only because it is read in different countries, but also because it helped many people in difficult times, taught them courage. In the work, the author clearly shows how, in the destructive conditions of the war, a simple person showed real heroism, courage and moral endurance. B. Polevoy with admiration tells how Alex is stubbornly achieving his goal. Overcoming terrible pain, hunger and loneliness, he defies despair and chooses life instead of death. The willpower of this hero is admirable.
Meeting with the hero
Continuing the analysis of the "Tale of a Real Man", it should be noted that the work is based on the biography of a real person. Pilot Maresyev was shot down in the territory occupied by the enemy. With damaged feet, he made his way through the forest for a long time and fell to the partisans. Without both legs, he stood up again to do as much as possible for his country, to sit at the helm again, to win again.
During the war, Boris Polevoy went to the front as a correspondent. In the summer of 1943, the military commander met with a pilot who shot down two enemy fighters. They talked until late in the evening, Polevoy stayed overnight in his dugout and was awakened by a strange knock. The writer saw that from under the bunk where the pilot was lying, one could see someone's legs in officer boots.
The military commander instinctively put his hand behind the gun, but heard the fervent laughter of his new acquaintance: "These are my prostheses." Polevoy, who had seen a lot during the two years of the war, lost his dream instantly. The military commander wrote down a story for the pilot, which is impossible to believe. But it was true - from beginning to end: the hero of this story - the pilot Maresyev - sat in front of him. In his story, the author changed one letter in the surname of the hero, since this is still an artistic image, not a documentary one.
Air battle
We continue the analysis of "The Story of a Real Man." The narrative in the work is on behalf of the author. The story of the hero pilot opens with a description of the winter landscape. From the very first lines the tension of the situation is felt. The forest is restless and anxious: the stars sparkled coldly, the trees froze in a daze, you can hear the "biting of wolves" and the "yapping of foxes." In the viscous silence a man moaned. The bear, raised from the den by the roar of close combat, crunched over a strong crust and headed for the human figure "driven into the snow."
The pilot lay in the snow and recalled the last battle. We continue the analysis of the “Tale of a Real Man” with a description of the details of the battle: Alexei “threw a stone” at the enemy’s plane and “shot” with machine gun bursts. The pilot didn’t even watch the plane "poke into the ground", he attacked the next car and, "laying down the" Junkers ", outlined the next target, but hit the" double ticks ". The pilot managed to escape from their convoy, but his plane was shot down.
From the episode of air combat, it is clear that Meresyev is a brave and courageous man: he shot down two enemy aircraft and, having no ammunition, again rushed into battle. Alexei is an experienced pilot, because “ticks” are the worst thing that can happen in aerial combat. Alexei still managed to break free.
Bear fight
We continue the analysis of the “Tale of a Real Man” by Field episode of the pilot’s battle with the bear. Meresyev’s plane fell into the forest, the tops of the trees softened the blow. Alexei was "torn out of the seat" and, slipping on a tree, he fell into a huge snowdrift. After the pilot realized that he was alive, he heard someone breathing. Thinking that they were Germans, he did not move. But when he opened his eyes, he saw a big, hungry bear.
Meresyev was not at a loss: he closed his eyes, and “great efforts” he had to suppress the desire to open them, when the beast “pulled his claws”. Aleksey put his hand in his pocket with a "slow" motion and felt for the handle of the gun. The bear pulled the jumpsuit even harder. And at that moment when the beast grabbed his overalls for the third time, pinching the pilot’s body, he, overcoming the pain, pulled the trigger at the moment when the animal pulled it out of the snowdrift. The beast was dead.
“The tension subsided,” and Alexey felt such intense pain that he lost consciousness. From this episode it is clear that Meresyev is a strong-willed man: he gathered all his will into a fist and survived in mortal combat with a wild beast.
Thousand steps
Alex tried to get up, but pain pierced the whole body so that he cried out. Both feet were broken and the legs were swollen. Under normal conditions, the pilot would not even try to stand on them. But he was alone in the forest, behind enemy lines, so he decided to go. With the first movement in my head the pain rustled. Every few steps he had to stop.
We continue the analysis of "The Story of a Real Man." Boris Polevoy devoted several chapters to the story of how his hero courageously endured hunger, cold, unbearable pain. The desire to live and fight further gave him strength.
To ease the pain, he turned all his attention to "counting." The first thousand steps came hard for him. After another five hundred steps, Alex began to get confused and could not think of anything except burning pain. He stopped after a thousand, then after five hundred steps. But on the seventh day the wounded legs refused to obey him. Alex could only crawl. He ate the bark and buds of the trees, since the cans of canned meat did not last long.
Along the way, he met traces of the battle and cruelty of the invaders. Sometimes the forces completely left him, but the hatred of the invaders and the desire to beat them to the last made him crawl on. Alexei on the way warmed by the memories of a distant house. Once, when it seemed that he wasn’t even able to raise his head, he heard the rumble of planes in the sky and thought: “There! To the guys. "
Their
Without feeling his legs, Alex crawled on. Suddenly he saw a moldy cracker. Biting his teeth into him, he thought that partisans should be nearby. Then he heard the crack of twigs and someone's whisper excited. He thought Russian speech. Crazy with joy, he jumped to his feet with all his might and, as if cut off, fell to the ground, losing consciousness.
Further analysis of the work “The Tale of a Real Man” shows that the inhabitants of the village of Plavni selflessly came to the aid of the pilot. They fled from the German-occupied village and settled in dugouts in the forest, who dug all together. They settled in teams, preserving the “collective farm customs”: suffering from hunger, they carried “everything that was left after their flight to the common dugout” and cherished the “public cattle”.
A third of the settlers died a starvation, but the inhabitants supplied the wounded pilot with the latter: the woman brought a "bag of semolina", and Fedyunka noisily "draws in saliva", looking eagerly at the "pieces of sugar." Vasilisa’s grandmother brought the only chicken for “her own native” pilot of the Red Army. When Meresyev was found, he was a "real skeleton." Vasilisa brought him chicken soup, looked at him “with infinity pity,” and said that she would not thank: “Mine are fighting too.”
Newspaper article
Meresyev was so weak that he did not notice the absence of Grandfather Mikhail, who reported his "found". His friend Degtyarenko flew over Alexey, considered that Alexey had been in the forest without food for eighteen days. He also said that they were already waiting for them in the Moscow hospital. While waiting for the ambulance on the airfield, he saw his colleagues and told the doctor that he wanted to stay here in the hospital. Meresyev, no matter what, wanted again in operation.
Before the operation, he “grew cold and contracted”, Alexei was scared and his eyes “widened with horror”. After the operation, he lay motionless and looked at one point on the ceiling, “did not complain,” but “lost weight and chach.” A pilot who lost his legs, he thought he was missing. Flying means living and fighting the Motherland. But the meaning of life has disappeared, the desire to live has disappeared: “Was it worth it to crawl?” - thought Alex.
The attention and support of Commissioner Vorobyov, the professor and the people around him in the hospital returned to his life. Himself seriously wounded, the commissar treated everyone with care and attention. He instilled faith in people and aroused interest in life. Once he let Alexei read an article about a World War I pilot who did not want to lose his foot and leave the army. He persistently engaged in gymnastics, invented the prosthesis and returned to duty.
Back in operation
Alexei had a goal - to become a full-fledged pilot. Meresyev, with the same stubbornness with which he crawled out to his own, began to work on himself. Alexey complied with all the doctor’s instructions, forced himself to eat and sleep more. He invented his gymnastics, which he complicated. His companions teased him, the exercises brought unbearable pain. But he, biting his lips to blood, was engaged.
When Meresyev sat at the helm, his eyes filled with tears. The instructor Naumenko, learning that Alexei has no legs, said: “Native, you don’t know what kind of MAN you are!” Alex returned to heaven and continued to fight. Courage, endurance and immeasurable love for the homeland helped him return to life. To complete the analysis of “The Tale of a Real Man” by B. Polevoy I would like to say the words of the regiment commander Meresyev: “You won’t lose a war against such people.”