Literature is not just the art of words, but also a powerful way of influencing readers. Writers and poets in their works almost always strive to convey some idea of their own, to put some thought into us, to cultivate certain qualities in our soul. Literature is designed not only to entertain and serve as a means to spend leisure time, but also to develop us - to teach something, to inspire something ... And therefore, you can’t just read books, removing only the top layer of the plot and characters from them, you should always look deeper , it is necessary to analyze the work, learn to see in it the deepest that the author wanted to say, look for the main idea, idea, concept. And so it is necessary to do with each work, whether it be a poem or a play, an epic novel or an essay.
Where to begin?
Of course, it is better to start a deep study of literary masterpieces with small in volume, the most understandable and simple works. For example, from stories. One of such uncomplicated, at first glance, but deserving nevertheless thorough analysis, is the story of V. M. Shukshin “The Freak”. We will try to parse it in this article.
about the author
Before proceeding with the analysis of Shukshin’s story “Freak”, let’s say a few words about the author. In general, if you are studying a work, do not forget to ask about the fate of the writer, it is often she who determines the point of view from which to look at his brainchild.
Vasily Markovich Shukshin was born in 1929 in a peasant family in the village of Srostki, which is located in the Altai Territory. From a very young age, the writer was forced to engage in hard work - he worked on a collective farm, in factories, then served in the navy (by the way, it was during the service that a test of Pen Shukshin took place - he then read his stories to other sailors). After he returned to his small homeland and became a teacher of the Russian language and literature, however, he stayed in the village for a short time. In 1954, Shukshin went to conquer Moscow, entered the VGIK, in the directing department. It was in his student years at the insistence of his supervisor that Vasily Markovich began sending his works to various magazines. The first publication took place in 1958 in the magazine "Change" (the story "Two on a cart").
Shukshin took place not only in the career of a writer, he proved himself as a talented actor, director, screenwriter. His literary heritage is composed of two novels, several stories, he even wrote three plays, the main part of Shukshin’s work is stories. One of these is the work "Crank".
The author was awarded many popular prizes in the field of cinema and literature, some of them were awarded to the writer posthumously. Shukshin died in 1974 at the 46th year of his life, the cause of death was a heart attack.
What a story?
In order to analyze a work, you need to read it very carefully. Small in volume can even be doubled. Before conducting an analysis of Shukshin’s “Freak”, let us briefly recall what, in fact, this story is about.
The hero of the work is Vasily Yegorych Knyazev, he is a little strange, has unusual habits, for which his wife calls him only as Chudik, works as a projectionist, lives in the village. And now he is going to visit his brother, whom they have not met for long twelve years and who lives in a city in the Urals. During the trip, some troubles constantly occur with the hero: either he will lose money, then, having helped, he will catch up, then he will feel the hostility of his daughter-in-law. After Knyazev understands that his brother’s house is not welcome, he flies back. In his native village, he again feels happy.
Idea
It seems to be a simple sketch from the life of a strange, unfortunate person, however, when analyzing Shukshin’s “Freak”, it becomes clear that the author does not just describe all the troubles that happen to his hero. So, Shukshin raises his favorite problem, which is found in many of his works - the opposition of the city and the village. In the city, Vasily Yegorych feels unacceptable, alien, he constantly performs those actions that cause ridicule, bewilderment, even the anger of others. He acts simply, as his naive heart tells him - they don’t do it in the city, and therefore the hero seems wonderful, funny and strange. He wants to help, do a good deed, but it only gets worse. In the end, Crank understands that in a city like him, there is no place, and leaves for his village. Here the hero finds peace again, he is at home again, happy again. So Shukshin shows that a person with simple moral values, a natural naive view of the world is alien to the conditional space of the city, filled with artificial rules and norms of behavior.
main characters
When analyzing Shukshin’s work “The Freak” one cannot ignore his heroes. There are three characters in the story (side characters do not count) - this is Chudik himself, Vasily Yegorych Knyazev (it is noteworthy that the name of his reader is revealed only at the end of the story), his brother Dmitry Egorovich and daughter-in-law Sofya Ivanovna. All of them come from the village, but their worldview is very different from each other. If on one pole the character of Chudik is naive, simple, strange, then the image of Sofia Ivanovna is the opposite - she, despite her origin, is contemptuous and arrogant towards rural people, in everything she seeks to comply with the norms of urban life, the measure of success for her is leadership position. Dmitry is somewhere in the middle between his wife and brother. He now lives in the city, but, having adapted to this new life, he has not forgotten his roots - he is still close to his brother, can still have a sincere conversation with him, and he still appreciates simplicity and naturalness.
Minor Characters
Also, when analyzing Shukshin’s “Freak”, one cannot bypass other heroes who take part in the plot. And the cashier, in whom Vasily Yegorovich dropped fifty rubles, and the passenger of the plane, who lost his false jaw, and the telegraph operator who forced Chudik to change the text of the message to his wife - all of them are carriers of urban morality, are in opposition to the village simplicity of the protagonist and thereby reveal his character .
Composition
The next step in the analysis of "Freak" by V. M. Shukshin is the analysis of the composition of the story. The whole work can be divided into three parts. The first is the introduction. Here we see how the hero has the idea of going to visit his brother. In the second, main, part, we see Chudik’s misadventures in the city, this part ends with the culmination of the whole story - Vasily’s attempt to make his daughter-in-law pleasant by painting her stroller, and her swearing in response to this. The last, third, part is the denouement of the plot, where the hero returns to his village, where he, as a child, runs barefoot in the soft grass and rejoices that he is back at home, that his soul is back in place.
Specific traits
Also, the analysis of Shukshin’s “Freak” would be incomplete if we had not mentioned that the works on this subject are characteristic of the writer. Very often in his work this type of hero is encountered - a simple, positive eccentric, which is not clear to the "evil" resident of the city with an already ossified soul.