Ln Tolstoy cow summary. Description of the character of the main character

The widow Marya lived with her mother and six children. They lived poorly. But with the last money they bought a brown cow so that there would be milk for the children. The older children fed Buryonushka in the field and gave her slops at home. One day, the mother came out of the yard, and the eldest boy Misha reached for bread on the shelf, dropped a glass and broke it. Misha was afraid that his mother would scold him, he picked up the large glasses from the glass, took them out into the yard and buried them in manure, and picked up all the small glasses and threw them into the basin. The mother grabbed the glass and began to ask, but Misha didn’t say; and so the matter remained.
The next day after lunch, the mother went to give Buryonushka slop from the pelvis, she saw that Buryonushka was boring and did not eat food. They began to treat the cow and called the grandmother. Grandma said:
- The cow will not live, we must kill it for meat.
They called a man and began to beat the cow. The children heard Buryonushka roar in the yard. Everyone gathered on the stove and began to cry.
When they killed Buryonushka, skinned her and cut her into pieces, they found glass in her throat. And they found out that she died because she got glass in the slop.
When Misha found out this, he began to cry bitterly and confessed to his mother about the glass. The mother said nothing and began to cry herself. She said:
- We killed our Burenushka, now we have nothing to buy. How can small children live without milk?
Misha began to cry even more and did not get off the stove while they ate the jelly from the cow's head. Every day in his dreams he saw Uncle Vasily carrying the dead, brown head of Buryonushka by the horns. with open eyes and red neck.

Since then the children have had no milk. Only on holidays there was milk, when Marya asked the neighbors for a pot.
It happened that the lady of that village needed a nanny for her child. The old woman says to her daughter:
- Let me go, I’ll go as a nanny, and maybe God will help you manage the children alone. And I, God willing, will earn enough for a cow a year.
And so they did. The old lady went to see the lady. And it became even harder for Marya with the children. And the children lived without milk for a whole year: they ate only jelly and tyurya and became thin and pale.
A year passed, the old woman came home and brought twenty rubles.
- Well, daughter! - speaks. - Now let's buy a cow.
Marya was happy, all the children were happy. Marya and the old woman were going to the market to buy a cow. The neighbor was asked to stay with the children, and the neighbor, Uncle Zakhar, was asked to go with them to choose a cow. We prayed to God and went to the city.
The children had lunch and went outside to see if the cow was being led. The children began to judge which cow would be brown or black. They began to talk about how they would feed her. They waited, waited all day. They went a mile away to meet the cow, it was getting dark, and they came back. Suddenly they see: a grandmother is riding along the street in a cart, and a motley cow is walking at the rear wheel, tied by the horns, and the mother is walking behind, urging her on with a twig. The children ran up and began to look at the cow. They gathered bread and herbs and began to feed them.
The mother went into the hut, undressed and went out into the yard with a towel and milk pan. She sat down under the cow and wiped the udder. God bless! - began to milk the cow; and the children sat around and watched as milk splashed from the udder into the edge of the milk pan and whistled from under the mother’s fingers. The mother milked half the milk pan, took it to the cellar and poured a pot for the children for dinner.

February 16, 2015

This story was written around the late 30s - early 40s, but was published only in 1962. At first the title of the work was "The Good Cow". In the forties, A. Platonov made attempts to publish his creation in the collections “All Life”, “Towards the Sunset” and others. In the book “All Life” this work is included along with other stories: “Ivanov’s Family”, “Granny’s Hut”, “July Thunderstorm”, “Flower on the Earth”, “Yushka”, “Nikita”.

Platonov's "Cow" tells us about the following events. The calf was taken from the cow. She still had to take care of him according to the law of nature, but he fell ill and was taken to a veterinarian. There the owner was offered a lot of money, and he sold the calf. After this, the cow could not find a place for herself - she could not imagine life without her child. Vasya Rubtsov supported the animal in every possible way, feeding the cow various delicacies. One day she ran away, but soon returned. The boy took care of the cow, he felt very sorry for her. The animal felt very bad. The boy's father, who sold the calf, began to regret his action. One day the cow walked away and remained standing on the tracks while the train was traveling. The driver did not stop in time and thus killed the animal. Feeling guilty, he gives Vasya’s father money so that he can buy a new cow. The animal's meat is salted and sold. The money is used to buy new clothes for the boy. A child at school writes an essay in which he talks about a cow, about his love for her and how she gave everything to the boy’s family: a son, milk, skin, meat, bones and entrails, “she was kind.” That's how it is summary.

Platonov's "Cow" requires detailed analysis, since the events unfolding in the work serve only as a background in order to raise and resolve a number of questions and convey the author's thoughts about life.

Main collision

The situation of confrontation with human death is one of the most stable in the prose of this author. She also forms the main conflict in the story “Cow”. The plot-forming function of the work is performed by the motive of overcoming death; it determines the focus and selection of life material, the nature of the thoughts and actions of the young hero. Vasya confronts death. Platonov’s children, in general, deny it not only by the very fact of their birth. Through labor and love they increase the vital “stuff”.

Vasya Rubtsov (Platonov, "Cow")

The heroes of this work are few in number; among the main ones, only a little boy and a cow can be distinguished. However, their relationship is very interesting material. In the story of Andrei Platonovich Platonov, we meet Vasya Rubtsov, the son of a track watchman, as already mentioned in the “summary” section. Platonov's "Cow" is a work that gives a fairly detailed image of this boy. The author portrays the main character this way. He was very kind, studied in the fourth grade and attended a school located five kilometers from his home. Despite the fact that it was a long way to go, the boy loved the classes because, while reading books and listening to the teacher, he imagined the whole world in his mind, which was not yet known to him. It seemed to the boy that all the people and countries had been waiting for a long time for him to grow up and come to them. Rubtsov always wanted to learn as much as possible about the subject that interested him.

One day his mother asked him to meet a train arriving at night. The hero immediately realized that something was wrong with him: the train was slipping. Vasya offered his help - he began to scoop up a handful of sand and pour it onto the rails. The driver really liked this hardworking boy.

Vasya loved the cow, he often stroked and caressed her, he himself gave her food, watered her and cleaned her in the barn. The animal was a real hard worker. The boy's father often plowed the land there.

Vasya was also hardworking. He worked not because he was forced, but because he enjoyed it. It is not for nothing that they say that work ennobles people. In his essay about future life this boy wrote that he wants the people of our country to benefit from him.

Image of a steam locomotive

For Plato's heroes, the world experience is always tragic, but at its core is a great love for the world. This feeling is presented in the work in two forms, which form two stages of the child’s development. The first can be called, using the author’s own definition, “love of the distant.” Its symbol in the work is the image of a steam locomotive, with which the boy’s dreams and hopes are correlated. This love is abstract and bookish in nature. It often turns out to be passing, fleeting, like the trains quickly rushing past Vasya. Such love does not always bring benefits. It is not enough for spiritual growth, but it is needed, because this attitude towards the world awakens warmth and sensitivity in Vasya.

Cow image

The image of this animal has already been mentioned in the “summary” section. It is not for nothing that Platonov’s cow is even outwardly depicted as similar to a person. The author seems to want to emphasize that she is no different from us. The image of this animal is recreated in association with a portrait of a person: kind eyes, a large thin body. She is the personification of the miracle of life, the strength hidden in weakness, external exhaustion. The cow is associated with the motif of a kindred feeling that unites all living beings. In caring for her, the boy finds a completely different, deeper relationship.

This selfless animal and the boy Vasya are the main characters of the work created by Andrei Platonov. “Cow,” a brief summary of which was presented in our article, is a story about their relationship. He teaches us kindness and love for our neighbor.

Literary criticism

Platonov's work "Cow" was received very negatively in the literary world of that time. Soviet critics were outraged by this writer’s persistent interest in the themes of orphanhood, death, and the tragedy of existence, and Andrei Platonovich’s desire to restore moral values (compassion, love, universal kinship, and others) was regarded as “foolishness,” “a revision of Christianity.” Indicative in this regard is the sharp rejection that the ending of “The Cow” caused among Platonov’s opponents. For example, Subotsky believed that Vasya’s composition at the end of the story was essentially meaningless, falsely meaningful, and sounded like a parody. Yu. Libedinsky did not understand why the author needed to combine “foolish reasoning” about the kindness of a cow with such a serious feeling as patriotism. The consequence of these claims is the disappearance of this topic of the essay from most publications in which the posthumous story “Cow” by Platonov was published. The boy writes in them on a topic “from his life.”

Conclusion

However, Platonov’s story “Cow” (see the summary of the work above) is not at all about the fact that Vasya realized that all living things are subject to death. It’s about how a child’s soul resists her. The boy knows about the existence of death even before the death of the calf and cow. He calls out “don’t die!” To young man, whom I noticed in the window of a passing train. Platonov focuses his attention on the boy’s attitude towards death as something that should not exist on earth, his desire to act contrary to it (“not to forget”, “to remember”).

Vasya is attracted and excited the world. He is fascinated by the distance. The call of space was given to S.G. Semenova interprets it as a revival of childish, naive, unbridled grief for the dead.

This story is about a kind and hardworking schoolboy Vasya Rubtsov. The boy loved to go to school, read books with pleasure and wanted to bring benefit to this world. He lived with his father and mother near railway. His father was a railway watchman. Vasya liked trains since childhood; he understood them and even somehow helped the locomotive driver cope with a problem.

In their yard there was an old barn filled with firewood and old unnecessary things. A cow lived in this barn. The kind boy Vasya loved his cow very much, he loved to come to her, stroke her fur and talk to her. The cow had a calf, it got sick and Vasya’s father went with it to the veterinarian. Late in the evening the father returned, but without the calf. He was offered good price for it and he agreed to sell it.

Vasya was upset, he visited the cow. The cow did not stop waiting for her son, she looked sad. The boy stroked the cow for a long time, but she did not respond to his caresses.

The next day, coming home from school, Vasya went up to the cow and hugged her, she jerked sharply, pushed the boy away and ran into the field.

Vasya and his family walked around the neighborhood until midnight and called for their wet nurse, but she never responded.
Waking up early in the morning, the child looked out the window and saw his beloved cow, she was standing near the gate and waiting to be let in. Since then, the cow has lost milk and has become even more gloomy.

During the day, the cow was released into the field, however, it moved little and mostly stood still. One day a cow walked onto the railroad tracks and her father pulled her away. However, since then Vasya began to worry about her. And his fears were not in vain.

One day, returning from school, he saw a freight train in front of the house. A train hit a cow. The driver explained that he had been honking at her for a long time and then braked urgently, but it was too late. The boy was beside himself with grief. The father sold the meat of the killed animal.

At school I was asked to write an essay about some story from my life. Vasya told about how he loved his cow, how her calf was taken away from her, about her suffering and death. He said that she was their nurse, helped plow the field and carried luggage. In the last lines he wrote that he would never forget his cow.
The story teaches the reader to be kind, caring, merciful and hardworking people.

Picture or drawing of a Cow

Other retellings and reviews for the reader's diary

Summary of Don Quixote by Cervantes
In one village, whose name is La Mancha, lived a certain Don Quixote. This hidalgo was very an unusual person, he loved to read novels about various knights who for a long time wandered the earth
Summary of Doyle Union Red
Mr. Jabez Wilson, the owner of bright red hair, turns to Mr. Sherlock Holmes for help. He brings with him a newspaper from two months ago with a strange advertisement for a job for a man with red hair.
Summary of Aitmatov Mother Field
Book famous writer from Kyrgyzstan tells about the difficult life of Tolganai from a small village during the war. At the end of the summer, she appears in a vast field and cries about her difficult lot.
Summary of Dostoevsky The Teenager
In his notes, Arkady Makarovich Dolgoruky (teenager) talks about himself, as well as about his life, and those people who were in his life.
Summary of Saltykov-Shchedrin's Poor Wolf
The wolf is the most terrible predator in the forest. He spares neither hares nor sheep. He is able to kill all the livestock of an ordinary man and leave his family to starve. But a man who gets angry with a wolf will not leave it without punishment.

Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich

L.N. Tolstoy

The next day, after lunch, the mother went to give Burenushka slops from the tub, she saw that Burenushka was boring and did not eat food. They began to treat the cow and called the grandmother. The grandmother said: the cow will not live, we must kill it for meat. They called a man and began to beat the cow. The children heard Burenushka roar in the yard. Everyone gathered on the stove and began to cry. When Burenushka was killed, skinned and cut into pieces, glass was found in her throat.

And they found out that she died because she got glass in the slop. When Misha found out this, he began to cry bitterly and confessed to his mother about the glass. The mother said nothing and began to cry herself. She said: we killed our Burenushka, now we have nothing to buy. How can small children live without milk? Misha began to cry even more and did not get off the stove while they ate the jelly from the cow's head. Every day in his dreams he saw Uncle Vasily carrying Burenushka’s dead, brown head with open eyes and a red neck by the horns. Since then the children have had no milk. Only on holidays there was milk, when Marya asked the neighbors for a pot. It happened that the lady of that village needed a nanny for her child. The old woman says to her daughter: let me go, I’ll go as a nanny, and maybe God will help you manage the children alone. And I, God willing, will earn enough for a cow a year. And so they did. The old lady went to see the lady. And it became even harder for Marya with the children. And the children lived without milk for a whole year: they ate only jelly and tyurya and became thin and pale. A year passed, the old woman came home and brought twenty rubles. Well, daughter! He says, now let’s buy a cow. Marya was happy, all the children were happy. Marya and the old woman were going to the market to buy a cow. The neighbor was asked to stay with the children, and the neighbor, Uncle Zakhar, was asked to go with them to choose a cow. We prayed to God and went to the city. The children had lunch and went outside to see if the cow was being led. The children began to judge whether the cow would be brown or black. They began to talk about how they would feed her. They waited, waited all day. They went a mile away to meet the cow, it was getting dark, and they came back. Suddenly, they see: a grandmother is riding along the street in a cart, and a motley cow is walking at the rear wheel, tied by the horns, and the mother is walking behind, urging her on with a twig. The children ran up and began to look at the cow. They gathered bread and herbs and began to feed them. The mother went into the hut, undressed and went out into the yard with a towel and milk pan. She sat down under the cow and wiped the udder. God bless! began to milk the cow, and the children sat around and watched as the milk splashed from the udder into the edge of the milk pan and whistled from under the mother’s fingers. The mother milked half the milk pan, took it to the cellar and poured a pot for the children for dinner.