M. Zoshchenko entered the literature, having served at the front of the First World War and severely undermined his health. This was in the early 20s, when the NEP marched around the country. From everywhere, petty bourgeois crawled out who clung tenaciously to the new system and strove to be at the level of time. The story "Monkey language" reveals these "new Russians."
It is relevant today, when after the changes in the “dashing” 90s of the last century, foam and an indomitable thirst for profit surfaced, and in the language on the streets you still hear and use profanity from the lips of girls. In them we hear modern monkey language. But they consider themselves to be cultured people, because they can easily manage computers and study at colleges and institutes. However, they do not speak Russian. Their destiny is monkey tongue.
Three heroes of the story
At a party meeting, three people were nearby. One of them does not keep up with the times and grieves how difficult the Russian language is. The difficulty for him is the appearance in the speech of new foreign words, such as “plenum”, “quorum”.
He does not understand their meaning, and there is no one to explain. And two people sitting next to them are pouring them with other foreign words. The conversation, according to the narrator, is very intelligent and smart, but since he has no higher education, he sits and just pops his ears. Because of this, the poor thing, as always with such "smart" conversations, has problems with both breathing and nerves. He did not reach the definition of "monkey language", for him it is a high style of presentation of high thoughts.
The language of two chatters
From the very first words he is full of absurdity. Interlocutors with a clever look distort the Russian language as soon as they can, turning it into an imitative monkey language. Their speech is replete with an abundance of vernaculars, and also demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of what their mouth says.
The word "plenum" and the adjectives formed from it have different shades. The meeting can be simply “plenary” and “strongly plenary”. And the word "quorum" comes to life, and it is not known why it is selected. The speaker of this phrase cannot explain it to the interlocutor, but the narrator who is eagerly listening to them only reels up new difficult and necessary words on his head. And how remarkably more educated the interlocutor puts it into his speech that he “permanently refers to meetings”. This is truly a monkey language, which M. Zoshchenko masterly uses. He shows his three characters both miserable, insignificant, and arrogant. Zoshchenko’s language fully characterizes his characters: small and extra people who climb into great life from the sidelines of the old world. They have a lot in common with the heroes of N. Gogol and A. Chekhov.
Puppet dolls
Puppets from the puppet theater appear before us three heroes Zoshchenko. Monkey language is the main thing that turns them from people into obedient puppets, ready for anything to survive and live with all the amenities they require. It is necessary - and they sit for hours at a boring meeting, which is "industry from empty to empty." Better than Zoshchenko, monkey language is used only by his heroes.
How the story is built
There is no intrigue or action in it. The writer only analyzes the three bourgeois, while using special comic turns of speech. The absurdities that they utter with a clever look, they are ready to listen from the rostrum when a speaker comes to her. Moreover, their dictionary is full of vulgarisms (for example, the word "come out"). The presidium turns out to come out, and this is a man. He is characterized by a leading, most competent interlocutor, as a sharp and first speaker. And then another vulgarism “forever” pops up. The neighbors eagerly listen to the person on the podium and nod their heads to the beat, like obedient dolls. Their narrow horizons and low intelligence do not allow anything else to do. The narrator even admits that for him all the words are dark and foggy, and this couple poses as smart and understanding people, which further emphasizes their wretchedness. They are not only dolls, but also monkeys with their imitative demeanor. Or maybe these people came from pigs?
The main thing in the work of M. Zoshchenko is the tradesman. His original talent had the ability to highlight, as a searchlight, the tradesman in any guise. They bountifully bred like bugs, and climbed out of all the cracks. This depressed the writer, made his look ironic and bitter. The characters of the story “Monkey language” are incredibly far from what is happening in society. They do not understand the causes or consequences of what is happening, but only try to comply, at least in appearance, with new trends. Everyone should read the short and capacious story "Monkey Tongue." The analysis that we did will be gladly continued by the reader on his own.