Composition

Humanism, kindness and self-sacrifice of the teacher. V. G. Rasputin’s story “French Lessons” takes us to the distant post-war period. For us, modern readers, it is sometimes difficult to understand all the circumstances in which people lived at that difficult time. Starving boy main character stories are not the exception, but rather the rule. After all, this is how most people lived. The boy does not have a father, and in the family, besides him, there are many children. An exhausted mother cannot feed her entire family. But nevertheless, she sends her eldest son to study. She believes that he will at least have hope for better life. After all, nothing good had happened in his life until now.

The main character tells how he “swallowed himself and forced his sister to swallow the eyes of sprouted potatoes and grains of oats and rye in order to spread the plantings in the stomach - then you won’t have to think about food all the time.” Despite hunger, cold and hardship, the main character is a talented and capable boy. Everyone notes this. That is why, as the main character recalls, “my mother, in spite of all misfortunes, gathered me, although no one from our village in the area had studied before.” It’s not easy for the boy in his new place.

No one needs him here, no one cares about him. In harsh, difficult times, everyone has the desire to survive themselves and save their children. Nobody cares about someone else's child. The main character is a boy with poor health, deprived of the support and care of loved ones. He is often hungry, suffers from dizziness, and his food is often stolen. However, the resourceful child is looking for his way out of this situation. And he finds it. The boy begins to gamble for money, although, from the point of view of the school authorities, such an act was a real crime. But it is precisely the game for money that allows the main character to buy milk for himself: with his anemia, milk is simply necessary. Luck does not always smile on him - often the boy has to go hungry. “The hunger here was not at all like the hunger in the village. There, and especially in the fall, it was possible to intercept something, pick it, dig it up, pick it up, fish walked in the Hangar, a bird flew in the forest. Here everything around me was empty: strangers, strangers’ gardens, strangers’ land.”

A young teacher unexpectedly comes to the aid of the main character. French, Lidia Mikhailovna. She understands how difficult it is for a boy cut off from home and family. But the main character himself, accustomed to harsh conditions, does not accept help from the teacher. It’s hard for the boy to visit her and drink the tea that she treats him to. And then Lidia Mikhailovna uses a trick - she sends him a package. But how does a city girl know that a remote village does not and cannot have such products as pasta and hematogen. However, the teacher does not abandon thoughts of helping the boy. Her solution is simple and original. She starts playing with him for money, and tries to do everything possible so that he wins,

This act demonstrates the amazing kindness of the young teacher. The title of the story “French Lessons” makes us think about the role of this subject in the harsh post-war years. Then, study foreign languages seemed a luxury, unnecessary and useless. And even more so, the French language seemed superfluous in the village, where students could barely master the basic subjects that seemed necessary. However, in the life of the main character, it was the French lessons that played the main role. The young teacher Lidia Mikhailovna taught the child lessons of kindness and humanism. She showed him that even in the toughest times, there are people who can lend a helping hand. The fact that the teacher finds such an elegant way to help the child, how to play with him for money, speaks volumes. After all, having encountered misunderstanding and pride on the part of the child when she tried to send him a parcel, Lydia Mikhailovna could have given up further attempts.

The school director, Vasily Andreevich, despite his advanced age, could not understand the true motives that guided the young teacher. He did not understand why Lydia Mikhailovna was playing for money with her student. Well, you can’t blame the director. After all, not every person has special sensitivity and kindness, which makes it possible to understand another person. Childhood is a special time. Everything a person lives with during this period is remembered for a long time. It is no coincidence that it is memories that influence the rest of our lives. You need to educate not with words, but with actions. Beautiful words mean nothing if a person does not behave in the best possible way. The young teacher left in the boy’s soul memories of kindness and sensitivity. And you can be sure that he remembered this for the rest of his life.

The humanism of the story is that in any conditions there is someone who can lend a helping hand, even if it’s not easy for him. After all, Lidia Mikhailovna herself was probably not rich; it was just as hard for her financially as for everyone around her. And yet she is ready to deny herself something for the sake of her student. True kindness manifests itself when it comes to the weak and defenseless. The boy is just like that. He may seem proud, unchildishly stern, and even somewhat embittered. Alas, such is life, harsh, to which he is already accustomed. Even attention from the teacher cannot make the boy a little more pliable. But even despite this, the story leaves us in a good mood, it allows us to feel faith in people, in their humanity and mercy.

Other works on this work

The moral choice of my peer in the works of V. Astafiev “The Horse with a Pink Mane” and V. Rasputin “French Lessons”. The moral choice of my peer in the stories of V. Astafiev and V. Rasputin Have you ever met a person who selflessly and selflessly did good to people? Tell us about him and his affairs (based on the story by V. Rasputin “French Lessons”)

History of creation

“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 the pen. Education, books, life experience nurture 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 to get the prototype. I needed to return to people the good that they did for me in their time.”

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

The story is autobiographical. Lydia Mikhailovna is named in the work as her own name(her last name is Molokova). In 1997, the writer, in a conversation with a correspondent of the magazine “Literature at School,” talked about meetings with her: “I recently visited me, and she and I long and desperately remembered our school, and the Angarsk village of Ust-Uda almost half a century ago, and a lot from that difficult and happy time.”

Genre, genre, creative method

The work “French Lessons” is written in the short story genre. The heyday of the Russian Soviet story occurred in the twenties (Babel, Ivanov, Zoshchenko) and then the sixties and seventies (Kazakov, Shukshin, etc.) years. The story reacts more quickly to changes in social life than other prose genres, since it is written faster.

The story can be considered the oldest and first of the literary genres. Brief retelling an event - a hunting incident, a duel with an enemy, and the like - is already an oral story. Unlike other kinds and types of art, which are conventional in their essence, storytelling is inherent in humanity, having arisen simultaneously with speech and being not only the transfer of information, but also a means of social memory. The story is the original form of 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 story “French Lessons” is a realistic work written in the first person. It can fully be considered an autobiographical story.

Topics

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

Idea

From a pedagogical point of view, a teacher playing for money with her student is an immoral act. But what is behind this action? - asks the writer. Seeing that the schoolboy (during the hungry post-war years) was 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, naturally, “loses” so that the boy can buy milk for himself with these pennies. And she’s happy that she succeeds in this deception.

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

Main characters

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

Lydia 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, and appreciated his determination. She recognized her student's remarkable learning abilities and was ready to help them develop in any way possible. Lydia Mikhailovna is endowed with an extraordinary capacity for compassion and kindness, for which she suffered, losing her job.

The boy amazes with his determination and desire to learn and get 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 regional center.”
2. “I studied well here too... in all subjects except French, I got straight A’s.”
3. “I felt so bad, so bitter and hateful! “worse than any disease.”
4. “Having received it (the ruble), ... I bought a jar of milk at the market.”
5. “They beat me in turns... there was no more unhappy person that day than me.”
6. “I was scared and lost... she seemed to me like an extraordinary person, not like everyone else.”

Plot and composition

“I went to fifth grade in 1948. It would be more correct to say, I went: in our village there was only Primary School, therefore, in order to study further, I had to travel fifty kilometers from home to the regional center.” For the first time, due to circumstances, an eleven-year-old boy is torn away from his family, torn from his usual surroundings. However, the little hero understands that the hopes of not only his relatives, but also the entire village are placed 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 fellow countrymen down.

A young teacher approached the boy with special understanding. 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. Lydia Mikhailovna’s idea with the parcel was not crowned with success. The teacher filled it with “city” products and thereby gave herself away. Looking for a way to help the boy, the teacher invites him to play wall game for money.

The climax of the story comes after the teacher begins to play wall games with the boy. The paradoxical nature 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 trouble did happen, he began to understand the teacher’s behavior more deeply. And this led him to realize some aspects of life at that time.

The ending of the story is almost melodramatic. The package with Antonov apples, which he, a resident of Siberia, had never tried, seemed to echo the first, unsuccessful package with city food - pasta. More and more new touches are preparing this ending, which turned out to be not at all unexpected. In the story, the heart of a distrustful village boy opens up to 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 narrative flows slowly, with everyday details, but its rhythm imperceptibly captures it.

The language of the narrative is simple and at the same time expressive. The writer skillfully used phraseological units, achieving expressiveness and imagery of the work. Phraseologisms in the story “French Lessons” mostly express one concept and are characterized by a certain meaning, which is often equal to the meaning of the word:

“I studied well here too. What was left for me? Then I came here, I had no other business here, and I didn’t yet know how to take care of what was entrusted to me” (lazyly).

“I had never seen a bird at school before, but looking ahead, I’ll say that in the third quarter it suddenly fell on our class out of the blue” (unexpectedly).

“Hunging and knowing that my grub would not last long, no matter how much I saved it, I ate until I was full, until my stomach hurt, and then after a day or two I put my teeth back on the shelf” (fast).

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

One of the features of the story’s language is the presence of regional words and outdated vocabulary characteristic of the time the story takes place. For example:

Lodge - rent an apartment.
One and a half truck - a truck with a lifting capacity of 1.5 tons.
Teahouse - a type of public canteen where visitors are offered tea and snacks.
Toss - sip.
Naked boiling water - pure, without impurities.
Blather - chat, talk.
Bale - hit lightly.
Hlyuzda - rogue, deceiver, cheater.
Pritaika - what is hidden.

Meaning of the work

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

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 more acutely. But difficulties strengthen character, so the main character often displays such qualities as willpower, pride, a sense of proportion, endurance, and determination.

Many years later, Rasputin will again turn to the events of long ago. “Now that quite a 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, she showed me a gesture of attention, sending me apples and pasta, as before. And no matter who 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 upon herself, left school, and at parting she said to me: “Study well and don’t blame yourself for anything!” With this she taught me a lesson and showed me how a real man should act. a kind person. It’s not for nothing that they say: school teacher- teacher of life."

“French Lessons” analysis of Rasputin’s autobiographical story can be found in this article.

“French Lessons” analysis of the story

Year of writing — 1987

Genre- story

Topic “French Lessons”- life in the post-war years.

Idea "French Lessons": selfless and selfless kindness is an eternal human value.

The end of the story suggests that even after parting, the connection between people is not broken, does not disappear:

“In the middle of winter, after the January holidays, I received a package by mail at school... it contained pasta and three red apples... Previously, I had only seen them in the picture, but I guessed that it was them.”

“French lessons” problematic

Rasputin touches on problems of morality, growing up, mercy

The moral problem in Rasputin’s story “French Lessons” is in the education of human values ​​- kindness, philanthropy, respect, love. A boy who does not have enough money for food constantly experiences a feeling of hunger; he does not have enough supplies from matter. In addition, the boy was sick, and in order to recover, he needed to drink a glass of milk a day. He found a way to earn money - he played chica with the boys. He played quite successfully. But having received money for milk, he left. The other boys considered this a betrayal. They provoked a fight and beat him. Not knowing how to help him, the French teacher invited the boy to come to her class and eat. But the boy was embarrassed, he did not want such “handouts”. Then she offered him a game for money.

The moral significance of Rasputin's story lies in the celebration of eternal values ​​- kindness and philanthropy.

Rasputin thinks about the fate of children who have taken on their fragile shoulders the heavy burden of the era of coups, wars and revolutions. But, nevertheless, there is kindness in the world that can overcome all difficulties. Belief in the bright ideal of kindness is a characteristic feature of Rasputin's works.

"French Lessons" plot

The hero of the story comes from the village to study in the regional center, where the eight-year-old is located. His life is difficult, hungry - post-war times. The boy has no relatives or friends in the area; he lives in the apartment of someone else’s aunt Nadya.

The boy starts playing “chika” in order to earn money for milk. At one of the difficult moments, a young French teacher comes to the boy’s aid. She went against all the rules in place by playing with him at home. This was the only way she could give him money so he could buy food. One day the school principal found them playing this game. The teacher was fired, and she went to her home in Kuban. And after the winter, she sent the author a parcel containing pasta and apples, which he had only seen in the picture.

The moral significance of V. Rasputin’s story “French Lessons”

V. G. Rasputin is one of the greatest modern writers. In his works, he preaches eternal life values ​​on which the world rests.

The story “French Lessons” is an autobiographical work. The hero of the story is a simple village boy. Life is not easy for his family. A single mother is raising three children who know well what hunger and deprivation are. Nevertheless, she still decides to send her son to the area to study. Not because he doesn’t know that it will be hard for him there, not because he’s heartless, but because “it can’t get any worse.” The boy himself agrees to leave to study. Despite his age, he is quite purposeful and has a thirst for knowledge, and his natural inclinations are quite good. “Your guy is growing up smart,” everyone in the village said to his mother. So she went “in defiance of all misfortunes.”

Finding himself among strangers, the destitute boy suddenly realizes how lonely he feels, how “bitter and hateful,” “worse than any disease.” Homesickness overcomes him, for his mother's affection, for warmth, for his native corner. From mental anguish, he becomes physically weaker, losing weight so much that it immediately catches the eye of the mother who came to see him.

There are not enough maternal packages for the boy; he is truly starving. Showing emotional sensitivity, he does not undertake to look for who is stealing his limited supplies - Aunt Nadya, exhausted by a hard lot, or one of her children, who are half-starved like himself.

The little man realizes how hard it is for his mother to get these pitiful pieces; he understands that she is tearing the last away from herself and from his brother and sister. He tries his best to study, and everything comes easy to him, except French.

Eternal malnutrition and hungry fainting push the hero on the path of searching for money, and he finds it quite quickly: Fedka invites him to play “chika”. It didn’t cost the smart boy anything to figure out the game, and, having quickly adapted to it, he soon began to win.

The hero immediately understood a certain subordination in the company of guys, where everyone treated Vadik and Ptah with fear and ingratiation. Vadik and Ptah had the upper hand not only because they were older and more physically developed than the others, they did not hesitate to use their fists, openly cheated, cheated in the game, behaved cheekily and impudently. The hero does not intend to indulge them in their unkind deeds and undeservedly endure insults. He speaks openly about the deception he has noticed and repeats this without stopping, all the time while he is being beaten for it. Do not break this small, honest man, do not trample on his moral principles!

For the hero, gambling for money is not a means of profit, but a path to survival. He sets a threshold for himself in advance, beyond which he never goes. The boy wins exactly a mug of milk and leaves. The aggressive passion and passion for money that control Vadik and Ptah are alien to him. He has strong self-control, has a firm and unbending will. This is a persistent, courageous, independent person, persistent in achieving his goal.

An impression that remained for the rest of his life was his meeting with his French teacher, Lydia Mikhailovna. By right of the class teacher, she was more interested in the students of the class where the hero studied than others, and it was difficult to hide anything from her. Seeing the bruises on the boy’s face for the first time, she asked him about what had happened with kind irony. Of course he lied. Telling everything means exposing everyone who played for money, and this is unacceptable for the hero. But Tishkin, without hesitation, reports who beat his classmate and why. He sees nothing reprehensible in his betrayal.

After this, the hero no longer expected anything good. “Gone!” - he thought, because he could easily be expelled from school for playing with money.

But Lidia Mikhailovna turned out to be not the kind of person to make a fuss without understanding anything. She strictly stopped Tishkin’s ridicule, and decided to talk to the hero after lessons, one on one, the way a real teacher should have done it.

Having learned that her student only wins a ruble, which is spent on milk, Lidia Mikhailovna understood a lot about his childishly difficult, long-suffering life. She also understood perfectly well that playing with money and such fights would not bring the boy to any good. She began to look for a way out for him and found it, deciding to assign him additional classes in French, with which he was not doing well. Lydia Mikhailovna’s plan was simple - to distract the boy from going to the wasteland and, inviting him to visit her, feed him. This wise decision was made by this woman who was not indifferent to the fate of others. But it was not so easy to cope with the stubborn boy. He feels a huge gap between himself and the teacher. It is no coincidence that the author draws their portraits side by side. Hers - so smart and beautiful, smelling of perfume and him, unkempt without a mother, skinny and pathetic. Finding himself visiting Lydia Mikhailovna, the boy feels uncomfortable and awkward. The most terrible test for him is not his French classes, but the teacher’s persuasion to sit at the table, which he stubbornly refuses. To sit at the table next to the teacher and satisfy his hunger at her expense and in front of her eyes is worse than death for a boy.

Lidia Mikhailovna is diligently looking for a way out of this situation. She collects a simple package and sends it to the hero, who quickly realizes that his poor mother could not send him pasta, much less apples.

The teacher's next decisive step is to play for money with the boy. In the game, the boy sees her completely different - not as a strict auntie, but as a simple girl, not alien to play, excitement, and delight.

Everything is ruined by the sudden appearance of the director in Lydia Mikhailovna’s apartment, who caught her in the midst of a game with a student for money. "It is a crime. Molestation. Seduction,” he shouts, not intending to understand anything. Lydia Mikhailovna behaves with dignity in a conversation with her boss. She shows courage, honesty, and a sense of self-worth. Her actions were guided by kindness, mercy, sensitivity, responsiveness, spiritual generosity, but Vasily Andreevich did not want to see this.

The word “lesson” in the title of the story has two meanings. Firstly, this is a teaching hour devoted to a separate subject, and secondly, this is something instructive from which conclusions can be drawn for the future. It is the second meaning of this word that becomes decisive for understanding the intent of the story. The boy remembered the lessons of kindness and cordiality taught by Lydia Mikhailovna for the rest of his life. Literary critic Semenova calls Lydia Mikhailovna’s act “the highest pedagogy,” “the one that pierces the heart forever and shines with the pure, simple-minded light of a natural example... before which one is ashamed of all one’s adult deviations from oneself.”

The moral significance of Rasputin's story lies in the celebration of eternal values ​​- kindness and love for humanity.

>Essays based on the work French Lessons

Humanity

What is humanity? This is, first of all, a friendly and humane attitude towards people, that is, the ability to understand another person, feel his experiences and at the right time come to the aid of his neighbor. It is this moral quality that Valentin Rasputin’s story “French Lessons” (1973) is dedicated to.

The author himself was deeply convinced that the main task of literature is to educate human feelings: “...first of all, kindness, purity, nobility.” The bearer of these moral ideals in his work is the French teacher Lidia Mikhailovna.

This young woman, in order to help her poor starving student, violated many school prohibitions and rules, for which she ultimately paid with her work. But even after this, she continued to take care of the boy and send him food.

The teacher’s ability, no matter what, to remain true to her ideals and go towards her goal is truly admirable. With her behavior, this woman demonstrates an example of true humanity.

Lidia Mikhailovna many times faced a choice: to help her pupil or to abandon him. When she first found out that the boy was playing gambling, she could report this to the director, since, from the point of view of school ideology, this is the teacher’s behavior that was considered correct. But the teacher didn't do this.

After asking the boy about his action and learning that the hero only needed money to buy a “jar of milk,” Lidia Mikhailovna was able to enter into the child’s position and understand him. Therefore, she began to study French with him additionally at home, so that later she would be able to feed the student dinner. But the boy resisted this desire every time, because from such, as it seemed to him, too generous an offer, “all appetite jumped out of him like a bullet.”

At this moment, Lidia Mikhailovna could also give up her idea of ​​​​helping the child, but she persistently moved forward, first throwing a parcel of food to the hero, and then offering to play “the wall” for money. The woman was not even frightened by the fact that the school director lived in the next apartment and could hear them. And when in the end this happened, Lidia Mikhailovna honestly admitted to the director what she had done and took all the blame upon herself. Thus, she gave her pupil a chance to continue his studies at school.

It seems to me that a person capable of demonstrating such high moral qualities certainly deserves respect. That is why the author dedicates his story to a simple school teacher who turned out to be capable of committing a truly worthy and noble act.