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Rasputin's story "French Lessons" is studied in the 6th grade at literature lessons. The heroes of the story are close to modern children with a variety of characters and a craving for justice. In “French Lessons”, it is advisable to analyze the work after reading the biography of the author. In our article, you can find out what the work teaches, get acquainted with a detailed analysis according to the “French Lessons” plan. This will greatly facilitate the work in the lesson when analyzing the work, as well as the analysis of the story will be needed to write creative and test papers.

Brief analysis

Year of writing – 1973.

History of creation- the story was first published in 1973 in the newspaper "Soviet Youth"

Subject- human kindness, indifference, the importance of a teacher in a child's life, the problem of moral choice.

Composition- traditional for the genre of the story. It has all the components from the exposition to the epilogue.

Genre- story.

Direction- rural prose.

History of creation

The story “French Lessons”, which takes place in the late forties, was written in 1973. Published in the same year in the Komsomol newspaper of the city of Irkutsk "Soviet Youth". The work is dedicated to the mother of a close friend of the writer Alexander Vampilov, teacher Anastasia Prokopyevna Kopylova.

According to the author himself, the story is deeply autobiographical, it was childhood impressions that formed the basis of the story. After graduating from a four-year school in his native village, the future writer was forced to move to the regional center of Ust-Uda in order to continue his studies in high school. It was a difficult period for a little boy: life with strangers, a half-starved existence, the inability to dress and eat as expected, the rejection of a village boy by classmates. Everything that is described in the story can be considered real events, because the future writer Valentin Rasputin went exactly this way. He believed that childhood is the most important period in the formation of talent, it is in childhood that a person becomes an artist, writer or musician. There he draws his inspiration for the rest of his life.

In the life of little Vali, there was the same Lidia Mikhailovna (this is the real name of the teacher), who helped the boy, tried to brighten up his difficult existence, sent parcels and played “wall”. After the story came out, she found her former student and a long-awaited meeting took place, with special warmth he recalled the conversation that took place with Lydia Mikhailovna in adulthood. She forgot many things that the writer remembered from childhood, he kept them in his memory for many years, thanks to which a wonderful story appeared.

Subject

rises in the work theme of human indifference kindness and help to those in need. Problem moral choice and special “morality”, which is not accepted by society, but has a reverse side - bright and disinterested.

The young teacher, who was able to consider the boy's misfortune, his deplorable situation, became a guardian angel for a certain period of his life. Only she considered the boy's diligence and ability to study behind poverty. The French lessons she gave him at home became life lessons for both the boy and the youngest woman herself. She missed her homeland very much, prosperity and comfort did not give a feeling of joy, and “returning to a serene childhood” saved her from everyday life and homesickness.

The money that the protagonist of the story received in fair play allowed him to buy milk and bread, to provide himself with the most necessary things. In addition, he did not have to participate in street games, where for his superiority and skill in the game he was beaten by boys from envy and impotence. The theme of "French Lessons" Rasputin outlined from the first lines of the work, when he mentioned the feeling of guilt before the teachers. The basic idea The story is that by helping others, we help ourselves. Helping the boy, giving in, cunningly, risking her job and reputation, Lidia Mikhailovna realized what she herself lacked in order to feel happy. The meaning of life is to help, to be needed and not to depend on the opinions of others. Literary criticism emphasizes the value of Rasputin's work for all age categories.

Composition

The story has a traditional composition for its genre. The narration is conducted in the first person, which makes the perception very realistic and allows you to enter a lot of emotional, subjective details.

Climax is the scene where the principal of the school, without getting through to the teacher's room, comes to her and sees the teacher and the student playing for money. It is noteworthy that the idea of ​​the story is presented by the author in the philosophical phrase of the first sentence. It also follows from it issues story: a sense of guilt towards parents and teachers - where does it come from?

The conclusion suggests itself: they invested in us all the best, they believed in us, but were we able to meet their expectations? The story ends abruptly, the last thing we learn is a parcel from the Kuban, which came to the boy-narrator from a former teacher. He sees real apples for the first time in the hungry year of 1948. Even at a distance, this magical woman manages to bring joy and celebration into the life of a small person.

main characters

Genre

The genre of the story, in which Valentin Rasputin dressed his story, is ideal for depicting true life events. The realism of the story, its small form, the ability to plunge into memories and reveal the inner world of the characters by various means - all this turned the work into a small masterpiece - deep, touching and truthful.

The historical features of the time were also reflected in the story through the eyes of a little boy: famine, devastation, impoverishment of the village, the well-fed life of city dwellers. The direction of rural prose, to which the work belongs, was widespread in the 60s-80s of the 20th century. Its essence was as follows: it revealed the features of rural life, emphasized its originality, poeticized and somewhat idealized the village. The prose of this trend was also characterized by showing the devastation and impoverishment of the village, its decline and anxiety for the future of the village.

Artwork test

Analysis Rating

Average rating: 4.8. Total ratings received: 850.

We offer you to get acquainted with one of the best stories in the work of Valentin Grigorievich and present his analysis. Rasputin published "French Lessons" in 1973. The writer himself does not distinguish it from his other works. He notes that he did not have to invent anything, because everything described in the story happened to him. The photo of the author is presented below.

Meaning of the title of this story

The word "lesson" has two meanings in the work created by Rasputin ("French Lessons"). An analysis of the story allows us to note that the first of them is an academic hour dedicated to a certain subject. The second is something instructive. It is this meaning that becomes decisive for understanding the intent of the story that interests us. The boy carried the lessons of cordiality and kindness taught by the teacher through his whole life.

To whom is the story dedicated?

Kopylova Anastasia Prokopyevna was dedicated by Rasputin to "French Lessons", the analysis of which interests us. This woman is the mother of the famous playwright and friend Valentin Grigorievich. She has worked at school all her life. Memories of childhood life formed the basis of the story. According to the writer himself, the events of the past were able to warm even with a slight touch.

french teacher

Lidia Mikhailovna in the work is called by her own name (her last name is Molokova). In 1997, the writer told a correspondent of the Literature at School publication about his meetings with her. He told that Lidia Mikhailovna was visiting him, and they recalled the school, the village of Ust-Uda and much of that happy and difficult time.

Features of the genre of the story

According to the genre "French Lessons" - a story. In the 1920s (Zoshchenko, Ivanov, Babel), and then in the 1960s and 1970s (Shukshin, Kazakov and others), the Soviet story flourished. This genre reacts faster than any other prose to changes in the life of society, since it is written faster.

It can be considered that the story is the first and oldest of literary genera. After all, a brief retelling of some event, for example, a duel with an enemy, a hunting incident, and the like, is, in fact, an oral story. Unlike all other types and kinds of art, the story is inherent in mankind from the beginning. It arose along with speech and is not just a means of transmitting information, but also acts as an instrument of social memory.

The work of Valentin Grigorievich is realistic. Rasputin wrote "French Lessons" in the first person. Analyzing it, we note that this story can be considered fully autobiographical.

The main themes of the work

Starting the work, the writer wonders why we feel guilty every time before the teachers, as well as before the parents. And the blame is not for what happened at school, but for what happened to us after. Thus, the author defines the main themes of his work: the relationship between the student and the teacher, the image of a life illuminated by moral and spiritual meaning, the formation of a hero who, thanks to Lidia Mikhailovna, acquires spiritual experience. Communication with the teacher, French lessons became life lessons for the storyteller.

Game for money

The game of a teacher with a student for money, it would seem, is an immoral act. However, what is behind it? The answer to this question is given in the work of V. G. Rasputin ("French Lessons"). The analysis allows you to reveal the motives that drive Lidia Mikhailovna.

Seeing that in the post-war famine years the schoolboy is malnourished, the teacher invites him under the guise of extra classes to her home to feed him. She sends him a package, supposedly from her mother. But the boy refuses her help. The idea with the parcel was not crowned with success: it contained "urban" products, and the teacher gave herself away with this. Then Lidia Mikhailovna offers him a game for money and, of course, "loses" so that the boy can buy milk for these pennies. The woman is happy that she succeeds in this deception. And Rasputin does not condemn her at all ("French Lessons"). Our analysis even allows us to say that the writer supports it.

The climax of the work

The climax of the work comes after this game. The story exacerbates the paradox of the situation to the limit. The teacher did not know that at that time such a relationship with the ward could lead to dismissal and even criminal liability. The boy didn't even know this. But when trouble nevertheless happened, he began to understand the behavior of his school teacher more deeply and realized some aspects of the life of that time.

Story ending

Almost melodramatic is the ending of the story, which was created by Rasputin ("French Lessons"). An analysis of the work shows that the parcel with Antonov apples (and the boy never tried them, since he was a resident of Siberia) seems to echo the unsuccessful first parcel with pasta - city food. This ending, which turned out to be by no means unexpected, is also preparing new strokes. The heart of a distrustful village boy in the story opens before the purity of the teacher. Rasputin's story is surprisingly modern. The writer portrayed in him the courage of a young woman, the insight of an ignorant, withdrawn child, taught the reader the lessons of humanity.

The idea behind the story is that we learn feelings, not life, from books. Rasputin notes that literature is the education of feelings, such as nobility, purity, kindness.

main characters

Let's continue "French Lessons" by V. G. Rasputin with a description of the main characters. They in the story are an 11-year-old boy and Lydia Mikhailovna. She was at that time no more than 25 years old. The author notes that there was no cruelty in her face. She treated the boy with sympathy and understanding, was able to appreciate his determination. The teacher saw great learning abilities in her student and was ready to help them develop. This woman is endowed with compassion for people, as well as kindness. She had to suffer for these qualities by losing her job.

In the story, the boy is striking in his determination, the desire to learn and go out to people under any circumstances. He entered the fifth grade in 1948. In the village where the boy lived, there was only an elementary school. Therefore, he had to go to the regional center, which was 50 km away, in order to continue his studies. For the first time, an 11-year-old boy, by the will of circumstances, was cut off from his family, from his usual environment. But he understands that not only relatives, but also the village have hopes for him. According to fellow villagers, he should become a "learned man." And the hero makes all his efforts for this, overcoming homesickness and hunger in order not to let down his countrymen.

With kindness, wise humor, humanity and psychological accuracy depicts the relationship with a young teacher of a hungry student Rasputin ("French Lessons"). The analysis of the work presented in this article will help you understand them. The narration flows slowly, rich in everyday details, but its rhythm gradually captures.

The language of the work

Simple and expressive at the same time is the language of the work, the author of which is Valentin Rasputin ("French Lessons"). An analysis of its linguistic features reveals the skillful use of phraseological turns in the story. The author thus achieves figurativeness and expressiveness of the work ("sell with giblets", "like snow on the head", "sleeveless", etc.).

One of the language features is also the presence of obsolete vocabulary, which was typical for the time of action of the work, as well as regional words. This, for example: "lodge", "one and a half", "tea", "toss", "blather", "bale", "hlyuzda", "tack". After analyzing Rasputin's story "French Lessons" on your own, you can find other similar words.

The moral value of the work

The main character of the story had to study at a difficult time. The post-war years were a serious test for adults and children. In childhood, as you know, both bad and good are perceived much sharper and brighter. However, difficulties also temper character, and the main character often displays such qualities as determination, endurance, a sense of proportion, pride, and willpower. The moral significance of the work lies in the chanting of eternal values ​​- philanthropy and kindness.

The value of Rasputin's work

The work of Valentin Rasputin invariably attracts more and more new readers, because next to the mundane, everyday in his works there are always moral laws, spiritual values, unique characters, the contradictory and complex inner world of the characters. The writer's thoughts about man, about life, about nature help to find inexhaustible reserves of beauty and goodness in the surrounding world and in oneself.

This concludes the analysis of the story "French Lessons". Rasputin is already one of the classical authors whose works are studied at school. Undoubtedly, this is an outstanding master of modern fiction.

One of the best works of V. Rasputin is the book "French Lessons", a summary of which is offered in the article. It is dedicated to A.P. Kopylova - the teacher of the writer, who for the first time made a teenager think about what kindness, humanity, readiness to sacrifice oneself for the well-being of another.

The beginning of an independent life

The story is told in the first person and represents the memories of an adult about the most significant days of his difficult childhood.

The action takes place in 1948 in a Siberian village. The protagonist is an eight-year-old boy who was the eldest of three children in the family. The mother had to bring them up alone, but, seeing her son's excellent learning abilities, she decides to send him to the 5th grade of the district school. It was fifty kilometers from home, and therefore the boy, who had never parted with his family before, felt very lonely there. He lived with a familiar mother, who also raised children without a husband.

Studying was easy, only the French lesson caused problems. Rasputin (a brief summary conveys only the main points of the story) noted that his village accent in every possible way opposed foreign words. And every time the teacher, Lidia Mikhailovna, began to frown and close her eyes in despair.

Chica game

Another problem was constant hunger. The mother handed over few products, and they ended very quickly: either the hostess helped, or her children. Therefore, the hero immediately began to eat all the products, and then for several days he “planted his teeth on the shelf”. A couple of times my mother handed over money: not much, but I bought a jar of milk for five days. More often he went to bed after drinking boiling water.

The summary of the work "French Lessons" continues with a story about how the hero began to play for money. One day Fedka, the landlady's son, took him to the gardens. The boys played chica there. While the boy had no money, he carefully observed and delved into the rules. And when the village driver brought money from his mother, he decided to try his luck at the game instead of buying milk. At first he lost, and therefore in the evenings he ran to the clearing, took out a hidden puck and trained. Finally, for the first time, the hero won. Now he had money for milk every evening. I didn’t want much - I won the ruble and immediately ran away. This was the cause of an unpleasant story that soon occurred in the clearing. Here is its summary.

"French Lessons" contains a story about boys gathering outside the gardens. The main was Vadik - the oldest. He directed the game and did not touch the boy for some time. But one day he stopped him when he was about to leave. Vadik, who stepped on the coin, said that it did not turn over from the blow, which means that there was no winning. As a result, the hero tried to prove something, and he was beaten.

difficult conversation

In the morning, Lidia Mikhailovna, who was also the class teacher, immediately noticed the bruises on the boy's face. After class, she left the student to talk. Here is a summary of it.

"French Lessons" emphasizes the contrast between the characters. Lidia Mikhailovna was neat, beautiful, a pleasant smell of perfume always emanated from her, which made her seem unearthly to the boy. He walked around in altered father's clothes, old teals, which no one else had at school. And now he was answering her questions about where he spends the money he won. The author emphasizes that the news about milk came as a complete surprise to the teacher.

This incident did not reach the director, which the hero was very happy about.

Painful classes with Lydia Mikhailovna

In the fall, the hero's affairs became very bad: the driver no longer came, and the bag of potatoes he had brought literally evaporated. The boy had to go to the gardens again. However, on the fourth day he was beaten again, and Lidia Mikhailovna, seeing bruises on his face, went to the trick. She decided to give him a private French lesson at her home.

Rasputin (the summary does not fully tell how hard these visits to the teacher were for the hero) notes that the boy was lost in fear and every time he could not wait for the lesson to end. And Lidia Mikhailovna at first tried to invite him to the table, and when she realized that it was useless, she sent a parcel. Opening the box, the boy was delighted, but immediately realized: where did his mother get pasta? They never existed in the village. And hematogen! He immediately understood everything and went with the package to the teacher. She was sincerely surprised that she could eat only potatoes, peas, radishes… Such was the first attempt to help a capable but starving student. We have described its summary. French lessons with Lydia Mikhailovna continued, but now they were real classes.

The game of freeze

A couple of weeks after the story with the package, the teacher started talking about the chick, as if in order to compare it with the “stunners”. In fact, it was the only way to help the boy. At first, she simply told him about how she loved to play in the "wall" as a girl. Then she showed what the essence of the game is, and finally, she offered to try her hand "for fun". And when the rules were mastered, she noted that it was not interesting to play just like that: money adds excitement. This is how the short story continues.

The French lesson now went by quickly, and then they began to play "walls", or "measured". The main thing is that the boy could buy milk every day with “honestly earned money”.

But one day, Lidia Mikhailovna began to “swing”. This happened after the hero realized that she was playing along with him. As a result, a verbal skirmish arose, the consequences of which turned out to be tragic.

Conversation with the director: summary

"French Lessons" ends not very fun for the characters. They were so carried away by the argument that they did not notice how the director entered the room - it was at the school. Stunned by what he saw (the class teacher plays with his student for money), he called what was happening a crime and did not even try to understand the situation. Lidia Mikhailovna said goodbye and left three days later. They never saw each other again.

In the middle of winter, a parcel arrived at the school in the name of the boy, in which there were pasta and three apples from the Kuban.

This is the summary of the story, in which the French lesson became, perhaps, the main moral lesson in the life of the hero.

"French lessons" analysis of the work - theme, idea, genre, plot, composition, characters, problems and other issues are disclosed in this article.

In 1973, one of Rasputin's best stories, French Lessons, was published. The writer himself singles it out among his works: “I didn’t have to invent anything there. Everything happened to me. I didn't have to go far for the prototype. I needed to return to people the good that they once did for me.

Rasputin's story "French Lessons" is dedicated to Anastasia Prokopievna Kopylova, the mother of his friend, the famous playwright Alexander Vampilov, who worked at school all her life. The story was based on the memory of a child's life, it, according to the writer, "was one of those that warm even with a slight touch to them."

The story is autobiographical. Lidia Mikhailovna is named in the work by her own name (her last name is Molokova). In 1997, the writer, in an interview with a correspondent of the Literature at School magazine, spoke about meetings with her: “Recently I was visiting me, and we long and desperately remembered our school, and the Angarsk village of Ust-Uda almost half a century ago, and much of that difficult and happy time."

Genus, genre, creative method

The work "French Lessons" is written in the genre of the story. The heyday of the Russian Soviet short story falls on the twenties (Babel, Ivanov, Zoshchenko) and then the sixties and seventies (Kazakov, Shukshin, etc.). More quickly than other prose genres, the story reacts to changes in social life, as it is written faster.

The story can be considered the oldest and the first of the literary genres. A brief retelling of an event - a hunting incident, a duel with an enemy, and the like - is already an oral story. Unlike other kinds and forms of art, conditional in its essence, the story is inherent in humanity, having arisen simultaneously with speech and being not only the transmission of information, but also a means of social memory. The story is the original form of the literary organization of language. A story is considered to be a completed prose work of up to forty-five pages. This is an approximate value - two author's sheets. Such a thing is read "in one breath."

Rasputin's short story "French Lessons" is a realistic work written in the first person. It can be fully considered an autobiographical story.

Subject

“It’s strange: why do we, just like before our parents, every time feel guilty before our teachers? And not for what happened at school - no, but for what happened to us afterward. So the writer begins his story "French Lessons". Thus, he defines the main themes of the work: the relationship between the teacher and the student, the image of life illuminated by spiritual and moral meaning, the formation of the hero, the acquisition of spiritual experience by him in communication with Lidia Mikhailovna. French lessons, communication with Lydia Mikhailovna became life lessons for the hero, education of feelings.

Idea

Playing for money a teacher with her student, from the point of view of pedagogy, is an immoral act. But what is behind this action? the writer asks. Seeing that the schoolboy (during the hungry post-war years) is malnourished, the French teacher, under the guise of additional classes, invites him to her home and tries to feed him. She sends him packages, as if from her mother. But the boy refuses. The teacher offers to play for money and, of course, "loses" so that the boy can buy milk for these pennies. And she is happy that she succeeds in this deception.

The idea of ​​the story lies in the words of Rasputin: “The reader learns from books not about life, but about feelings. Literature, in my opinion, is primarily the education of feelings. And above all, kindness, purity, nobility. These words are directly related to the story "French Lessons".

Main heroes

The main characters of the story are an eleven-year-old boy and French teacher Lidia Mikhailovna.

Lidia Mikhailovna was no more than twenty-five years old and "there was no cruelty in her face." She treated the boy with understanding and sympathy, appreciated his determination. She saw remarkable learning abilities in her student and is ready to help them develop in any way. Lidia Mikhailovna is endowed with an extraordinary ability for compassion and kindness, for which she suffered, having lost her job.

The boy impresses with his determination, desire to learn and go out into the world under any circumstances. The story about the boy can be presented in the form of a quotation plan:

1. "In order to study further ... and I had to equip myself in the district center."
2. “I studied well here ... in all subjects, except French, I kept fives.”
3. “I felt so bad, so bitter and disgusted! - worse than any disease.
4. "Having received it (ruble), ... I bought a jar of milk at the market."
5. "They took turns beating me ... that day there was no person more unfortunate than me."
6. "I was frightened and lost ... she seemed to me an extraordinary person, not like everyone else."

Plot and composition

“I went to the fifth grade in forty-eight. It would be more correct to say, I went: in our village there was only an elementary school, therefore, in order to study further, I had to equip myself from a house fifty kilometers away to the district center. For the first time, an eleven-year-old boy, by the will of circumstances, is cut off from his family, torn from his usual environment. However, the little hero understands that the hopes of not only his relatives, but the whole village are pinned on him: after all, according to the unanimous opinion of his fellow villagers, he is called to be a "learned man." The hero makes every effort, overcoming hunger and homesickness, so as not to let his countrymen down.

With special understanding, a young teacher approached the boy. She began to additionally study French with the hero, hoping to feed him at home. Pride did not allow the boy to accept help from a stranger. The idea of ​​Lidia Mikhailovna with the parcel was not crowned with success. The teacher filled it with "urban" products and thereby gave herself away. In search of a way to help the boy, the teacher invites him to play for money in the "wall".

The climax of the story comes after the teacher began to play with the boy in the wall. The paradox of the situation sharpens the story to the limit. The teacher could not help but know that at that time such a relationship between a teacher and a student could lead not only to dismissal from work, but also to criminal liability. The boy did not fully understand this. But when the trouble did happen, he began to understand the behavior of the teacher more deeply. And this led him to realize some aspects of the life of that time.

The ending of the story is almost melodramatic. A parcel with Antonov apples, which he, a resident of Siberia, never tried, seems to echo the first, unsuccessful parcel with city food - pasta. More and more strokes are preparing this finale, which turned out to be not at all unexpected. In the story, the heart of an incredulous village boy opens before the purity of a young teacher. The story is surprisingly modern. It contains the great courage of a little woman, the insight of a closed, ignorant child, and the lessons of humanity.

Artistic originality

With wise humor, kindness, humanity, and most importantly, with complete psychological accuracy, the writer describes the relationship between a hungry student and a young teacher. The narration flows slowly, with everyday details, but the rhythm imperceptibly captures it.

The language of the story is simple and at the same time expressive. The writer skillfully used phraseological turns, achieving expressiveness and figurativeness of the work. Phraseologisms in the story "French Lessons" for the most part express one concept and are characterized by a certain meaning, which is often equal to the meaning of the word:

“I studied here and it’s good. What was left for me? Then I came here, I didn’t have anything else to do here, and I didn’t know how to treat everything that was entrusted to me in a slipshod way” (lazily).

“At school, I had not seen a bird before, but, looking ahead, I’ll say that in the third quarter, he suddenly, like snow on his head, fell on our class” (unexpectedly).

“Hungry and knowing that my grub would not last long, no matter how much I saved it, I ate to satiety, to pain in my stomach, and then after a day or two I again planted my teeth on the shelf” (starve).

“But there was no point in locking myself up, Tishkin managed to sell me with giblets” (betray).

One of the features of the language of the story is the presence of regional words and obsolete vocabulary, characteristic of the time of the story. For example:

Lodge - rent an apartment.
Lorry - a truck with a carrying capacity of 1.5 tons.
Tea room - a kind of public dining room where tea and snacks are offered to visitors.
toss - sip.
Naked boiling water - pure, without impurities.
Blather - talk, speak.
bale - Hit hard.
Hluzda - a rogue, a deceiver, a trickster.
pritaika - what is hidden.

The meaning of the work

The work of V. Rasputin invariably attracts readers, because next to the ordinary, everyday in the works of the writer there are always spiritual values, moral laws, unique characters, a complex, sometimes contradictory, inner world of heroes. The author's thoughts about life, about man, about nature help us to discover in ourselves and in the world around us inexhaustible reserves of goodness and beauty.

In difficult times, the main character of the story had to learn. The post-war years were a kind of test not only for adults, but also for children, because both good and bad in childhood are perceived much brighter and sharper. But difficulties temper character, so the main character often shows such qualities as willpower, pride, sense of proportion, endurance, determination.

Many years later, Rasputin will again turn to the events of bygone years. “Now that a fairly large part of my life has been lived, I want to comprehend and understand how correctly and usefully I spent it. I have many friends who are always ready to help, I have something to remember. Now I understand that my closest friend is my former teacher, a French teacher. Yes, decades later, I remember her as a true friend, the only person who understood me while studying at school. And even years later, when we met with her, she showed me a gesture of attention, sending apples and pasta, as before. And whoever I am, no matter what depends on me, she will always treat me only as a student, because for her I was, am and will always remain a student. Now I remember how then she, taking the blame on herself, left the school, and said goodbye to me: “Study well and don’t blame yourself for anything!” By doing this, she taught me a lesson and showed me how a real kind person should act. After all, it’s not for nothing that they say: a school teacher is a teacher of life.

The history of the creation of Rasputin's work "French Lessons"

“I am sure that what makes a person a writer is his childhood, the ability at an early age to see and feel everything that then gives him the right to take up a pen. Education, books, life experience bring up and strengthen this gift in the future, but it should be born in childhood,” wrote Valentin Grigoryevich Rasputin in 1974 in the Irkutsk newspaper “Soviet Youth”. In 1973, one of Rasputin's best stories "French Lessons" was published. The writer himself singles it out among his works: “I didn’t have to invent anything there. Everything happened to me. I didn't have to go far for the prototype. I needed to return to people the good that they once did for me.
Rasputin's story "French Lessons" is dedicated to Anastasia Prokopievna Kopylova, the mother of his friend, the famous playwright Alexander Vampilov, who worked at the school all her life. The story was based on the memory of a child's life, it, according to the writer, "was one of those that warm even with a slight touch to them."
The story is autobiographical. Lidia Mikhailovna is named in the work by her own name (her last name is Molokova). In 1997, the writer, in an interview with a correspondent of the Literature at School magazine, spoke about meetings with her: “Recently I was visiting me, and we long and desperately remembered our school, and the Angarsk village of Ust-Uda almost half a century ago, and much of that difficult and happy time."

Genus, genre, creative method of the analyzed work

The work "French Lessons" is written in the genre of the story. The heyday of the Russian Soviet short story falls on the twenties
(Babel, Ivanov, Zoshchenko) and then the sixties-seventies (Kazakov, Shukshin and others). More quickly than other prose genres, the story reacts to changes in social life, as it is written faster.
The story can be considered the oldest and the first of the literary genres. A brief retelling of an event - a hunting incident, a duel with an enemy, and the like - is already an oral story. Unlike other kinds and forms of art, conditional in its essence, the story is inherent in humanity, having arisen simultaneously with speech and being not only the transmission of information, but also a means of social memory. The story is the original form of the literary organization of language. A story is considered to be a completed prose work of up to forty-five pages. This is an approximate value - two author's sheets. Such a thing is read "in one breath."
Rasputin's short story "French Lessons" is a realistic work written in the first person. It can be fully considered an autobiographical story.

Subject

“It’s strange: why do we, just like before our parents, every time feel guilty before our teachers? And not for what happened at school - no, but for what happened to us after. So the writer begins his story "French Lessons". Thus, he defines the main themes of the work: the relationship between the teacher and the student, the image of life illuminated by spiritual and moral meaning, the formation of the hero, the acquisition of spiritual experience by him in communication with Lidia Mikhailovna. French lessons, communication with Lydia Mikhailovna became life lessons for the hero, education of feelings.

From the point of view of pedagogy, a game for money between a teacher and her student is an immoral act. But what is behind this act? the writer asks. Seeing that the schoolboy (during the hungry post-war years) is malnourished, the French teacher, under the guise of additional classes, invites him to her home and tries to feed him. She sends him packages, as if from her mother. But the boy refuses. The teacher offers to play for money and, of course, "loses" so that the boy can buy milk for these pennies. And she is happy that she succeeds in this deception.
The idea of ​​the story lies in the words of Rasputin: “The reader learns from books not about life, but about feelings. Literature, in my opinion, is primarily the education of feelings. And above all, kindness, purity, nobility. These words are directly related to the story "French Lessons".
The main characters of the work
The main characters of the story are an eleven-year-old boy and French teacher Lidia Mikhailovna.
Lidia Mikhailovna was no more than twenty-five years old and "there was no cruelty in her face." She treated the boy with understanding and sympathy, appreciated his determination. She saw remarkable learning abilities in her student and is ready to help them develop in any way. Lidia Mikhailovna is endowed with an extraordinary ability for compassion and kindness, for which she suffered, having lost her job.
The boy impresses with his determination, desire to learn and go out into the world under any circumstances. The story about the boy can be presented in the form of a quotation plan:
"In order to study further ... and I had to equip myself in the district center."
“I studied and it’s good here ... in all subjects, except for French, I kept fives.”
“I felt so bad, so bitter and disgusted! - worse than any disease.
“Having received it (the ruble), ... I bought a jar of milk at the market.”
"They took turns beating me ... that day there was no person more unfortunate than me."
“I was frightened and lost ... she seemed to me an extraordinary person, not like everyone else.”

Plot and composition

“I went to the fifth grade in forty-eight. It would be more correct to say, I went: in our village there was only an elementary school, therefore, in order to study further, I had to equip myself from a house fifty kilometers away to the district center. For the first time, an eleven-year-old boy, by the will of circumstances, is cut off from his family, torn from his usual environment. However, the little hero understands that the hopes of not only his relatives, but the whole village are pinned on him: after all, according to the unanimous opinion of his fellow villagers, he is called to be a "learned man." The hero makes every effort, overcoming hunger and homesickness, so as not to let his countrymen down.
With special understanding, a young teacher approached the boy. She began to additionally study French with the hero, hoping to feed him at home. Pride did not allow the boy to accept help from a stranger. The idea of ​​Lidia Mikhailovna with the parcel was not crowned with success. The teacher filled it with "urban" products and thereby gave herself away. In search of a way to help the boy, the teacher invites him to play for money in the "wall".
The climax of the story comes after the teacher began to play with the boy in the wall. The paradox of the situation sharpens the story to the limit. The teacher could not help but know that at that time such a relationship between a teacher and a student could lead not only to dismissal from work, but also to criminal liability. The boy did not fully understand this. But when the trouble did happen, he began to understand the behavior of the teacher more deeply. And this led him to realize some aspects of the life of that time.
The ending of the story is almost melodramatic. A parcel with Antonov apples, which he, a resident of Siberia, never tried, seems to echo the first, unsuccessful parcel with city food - pasta. More and more strokes are preparing this finale, which turned out to be not at all unexpected. In the story, the heart of an incredulous village boy opens before the purity of a young teacher. The story is surprisingly modern. It contains the great courage of a little woman, the insight of a closed, ignorant child, and the lessons of humanity.

Artistic originality

An analysis of the work shows how the writer describes the relationship between a hungry student and a young teacher with wise humor, kindness, humanity, and most importantly, with complete psychological accuracy. The narration flows slowly, with everyday details, but the rhythm imperceptibly captures it.
The language of the story is simple and at the same time expressive. The writer skillfully used phraseological turns, achieving expressiveness and figurativeness of the work. Phraseologisms in the story "French Lessons" for the most part express one concept and are characterized by a certain meaning, which is often equal to the meaning of the word:
“I studied here and it’s good. What was left for me? Then I came here, I didn’t have anything else to do here, and I didn’t know how to treat everything that was entrusted to me in a slipshod way” (lazily).
“At school, I hadn’t seen Bird before, but, looking ahead, I’ll say that in the third quarter, he suddenly, like snow on his head, fell on our class” (unexpectedly).
“Hungry and knowing that my grub would still not last long, no matter how much I saved it, I ate to satiety, to pain in my stomach, and then, after a day or two, I again planted my teeth on the shelf” (starve).
“But there was no point in locking myself up, Tishkin managed to sell me with giblets” (betray).
One of the features of the language of the story is the presence of regional words and obsolete vocabulary, characteristic of the time of the story. For example:
To rent - to rent an apartment.
A lorry is a truck with a carrying capacity of 1.5 tons.
A tearoom is a kind of public dining room where tea and snacks are offered to visitors.
Toss - to sip.
Naked boiling water is clean, without impurities.
Vyakat - to chat, to speak.
To bale - to strike lightly.
Hlyuzda is a rogue, a deceiver, a cheater.
Prytika - that which is hidden.

The meaning of the work

The work of V. Rasputin invariably attracts readers, because next to the ordinary, everyday in the works of the writer there are always spiritual values, moral laws, unique characters, a complex, sometimes contradictory, inner world of heroes. The author's thoughts about life, about man, about nature help us to discover in ourselves and in the world around us inexhaustible reserves of goodness and beauty.
In difficult times, the main character of the story had to learn. The post-war years were a kind of test not only for adults, but also for children, because both good and bad in childhood are perceived much brighter and sharper. But difficulties temper character, so the main character often shows such qualities as willpower, pride, sense of proportion, endurance, determination.
Many years later, Rasputin will again turn to the events of bygone years. “Now that a fairly large part of my life has been lived, I want to comprehend and understand how correctly and usefully I spent it. I have many friends who are always ready to help, I have something to remember. Now I understand that my closest friend is my former teacher, a French teacher. Yes, decades later, I remember her as a true friend, the only person who understood me while studying at school. And even years later, when we met with her, she showed me a gesture of attention, sending apples and pasta, as before. And whoever I am, no matter what depends on me, she will always treat me only as a student, because for her I was, am and will always remain a student. Now I remember how then she, taking the blame on herself, left the school, and said goodbye to me: “Study well and don’t blame yourself for anything!” By doing this, she taught me a lesson and showed me how a real kind person should act. After all, it’s not for nothing that they say: a school teacher is a teacher of life.

It is interesting

Lidia Mikhailovna Molokova is the prototype of the teacher from the famous story by Valentin Rasputin "French Lessons". The same Lidia Mikhailovna ... Since the details of her biography became known to others, Lidia Mikhailovna has to endlessly answer the same question: “How did you decide to play with a student for money?” Well, what's the answer? It remains only to tell how it really happened.

First meeting

“I scribbled in French in the manner of our village tongue twisters ... Lidia Mikhailovna, the French teacher, listening to me, grimaced helplessly and closed her eyes.”

It seems that Mr. Chance determined everything in this story. By chance, schoolgirl Lidia Danilova ended up in Siberia during the war with her parents. Accidentally entered the French department at the Irkutsk Pedagogical Institute. She was going to a historical university, but she was embarrassed ... by the walls of the future alma mater: the high gloomy vaults of the former building of the theological seminary seemed to put pressure on the young girl. The applicant took the documents and went to the pedagogical one. There were places left only in the French group ... By chance she ended up in a regional school, in the remote village of Ust-Uda. It was the worst place you could get in terms of distribution. And for some reason, it went to a student with an excellent diploma. “For insolence,” the heroine herself explains.
“My girlfriend and I arrived in Ust-Uda as exiles,” recalls Lidia Mikhailovna. “And we were greeted there wonderfully, very warmly! They even gave us three acres of potatoes to dig up so that we could have something to eat. True, while we were digging, a midge bit us. And when we drove home in our city clothes and with swollen faces, everyone we met made fun of us.
In the sponsored eighth grade, the young teacher also did not make a serious impression at first. The guys got mischievous. Valya Rasputin studied in a parallel class. More serious students gathered there. The class teacher, mathematics teacher Vera Andreevna Kirilenko, apparently, did not let them down. - In fact, Rasputin first of all wrote his teacher from Vera Andreevna, - says Lidia Mikhailovna. “Beautiful, her eyes squinted a little,” that’s all about her. Restrained, neat, with good taste. They said that she was one of the former front-line soldiers. But for some reason, Vera Andreevna disappeared from all the biographies of the writer. Having worked for the prescribed three years, Vera Andreevna left Ust-Uda for the Kuban (by the way, the heroine of French Lessons also went there). And Lidia Mikhailovna had to take on her shoulders the class leadership in the combined ninth grade. Among the noisy peers, Valentin Rasputin did not particularly stand out. Those who can loudly declare themselves are remembered. Valya did not aspire to this. Tall, thin, modest, shy, always ready to respond and help. But he himself never climbed forward. “Rasputin writes about himself in the story with the utmost honesty,” says Lidia Molokova. - His mother really brought him from a neighboring village to Ust-Uda and left him to live there, otherwise he would have had to walk a lot of kilometers every day to school in the cold. But his French was not as terrible as he described. Rasputin dressed extremely modestly. All schoolchildren of that time looked about the same. A poor little jacket, which usually passed from brother to brother in rural families, the same pretty well-worn hat. On the feet are ichigi - a Siberian form of footwear like rawhide boots, inside of which hay was stuffed so that the feet would not freeze. A canvas bag filled with textbooks hung over his shoulder.
Rasputin studied well and without exams was admitted to Irkutsk University. And Lidia Mikhailovna, having graduated from the ninth grade, went to her husband in Irkutsk.

Second meeting

“She sat in front of me neat, all smart and beautiful, beautiful both in clothes and in her feminine young pore ... I could smell the perfume from her, which I took for my very breath, besides, she was a teacher of not what arithmetic something, not history, but mysterious French ... ".
(V. Rasputin "French Lessons").
In general, there was nothing that went beyond the framework of the student-teacher scheme in the relationship between Lidia Molokova and Valentin Rasputin. But why else does a writer need imagination, if not in order to make something beautiful out of the ordinary? This is how the parcel with pasta appeared in French Lessons, which the teacher secretly sent to the starving student, and the game of “wall” for money, which the “Frenchwoman” imposed on the ward so that he would have extra pennies for milk.
“I took his book as a reproach: that’s what you had to be and how you were a little frivolous,” says Lidia Mikhailovna. “And the fact that he wrote so well about teachers is a matter of his kindness, not ours.
... Later they met already in Irkutsk, when Lidia Mikhailovna and her husband were walking down the street. Valya Rasputin by that time began to look more solid. Instead of an old shirt, he got a plaid jacket. - I didn’t even recognize him, I say: “Oh, Valya, how elegant you are! the teacher recalls. - And he lowered his head, shy of our praise. I asked him how he studies. That's the whole conversation."
Then their paths diverged for a long time. Lidia Mikhailovna lived in Irkutsk, raised two daughters. Soon her husband died, and she moved to Saransk, closer to her mother. Lidia Molokova worked at Saransk State University for forty years. There were also business trips abroad: at first she worked as a Russian teacher in Cambodia, then she taught the language at a military school in Algeria. And then there was another business trip to France, during which Lydia Mikhailovna found out that she had become a book heroine.

Third meeting

Again, it all happened by chance. Before the trip, our teachers were instructed according to the full program. They even gave a lecture on trends in contemporary Russian literature. Listing the best contemporary writers, critic Galina Belaya named a familiar name - "Valentin Rasputin".
I thought: “It can’t be that it was him,” Lidia Mikhailovna was shocked. But the remark still sunk into the soul. Already in Paris, Lydia Molokova went to a bookstore where they sold our books. What was not there! Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, all the most scarce collected works. But Rasputin had to be followed: his books were quickly sold out. She finally managed to buy three volumes. In the evening, Lidia Mikhailovna came to the dormitory on the campus, opened the table of contents of the book and gasped. Among the stories were "French Lessons". The teacher found the right page and...
It was then that I jumped, - the teacher recalls that day. - The teacher's name was Lidia Mikhailovna! I began to read, read to the end and breathed a sigh of relief - this is not about me. This is a collective image. Lidia Mikhailovna immediately sent one of the books to Siberia. On the parcel she wrote: “Irkutsk. Writer Rasputin. By some miracle, this parcel reached the addressee.
“I knew you would be found,” the former student immediately responded. Lidia Mikhailovna and Valentin Grigorievich began a warm correspondence. - I once complained to him that now I can’t “get rid of” pasta and gambling. Everyone thinks that it was so, - the teacher says, sorting through the letters. - And he wrote: “And do not refuse! They still won't believe you. And the guys may have a suspicion that everything beautiful in literature and life is not so pure. By the way, Rasputin himself, judging by his statements, is sure that Lydia Molokova still sent him pasta. But due to her kindness, she did not attach much importance to this. And this fact was simply erased from her memory.
... They had another meeting when Lidia Mikhailovna was visiting her cousin in Moscow. She dialed Rasputin's number and immediately heard: "Come." “I liked some kind of non-petty-bourgeois comfort in their house,” Lidia Mikhailovna shares her impressions. - A minimum of things. Just what you need. I liked his wife Svetlana, a pleasant, wise, modest woman. Then Valentin Rasputin went to see her off to the subway. They walked hand in hand through beautiful snowy Moscow: student and teacher, writer and heroine of the book. Lanterns were burning, couples were walking in love, children were playing snowballs...
And this whole story seemed at that moment even more fabulous than the most incredible fiction.
Larisa Plakhina. The newspaper "New business" No. 33 dated 11/23/2006.

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