The story "Chelkash" was written in 1894. M. Gorky heard this story in Nikolaev, when he was in the hospital, from a neighbor in the ward. Its publication took place in 1895 in the June issue of the magazine “Russian Wealth”. This article will analyze the work “Chelkash”.
Introductory part
At the port, under the hot sun, the porters laid out their simple and simple food. The well-worn thief Grishka Chelkash approached them and learned that his friend and constant partner Mishka had broken his leg. This somewhat puzzled Gregory, because that night there was a profitable business ahead. He looked around and saw a stocky village guy, broad-shouldered, with blue eyes. He looked innocent. Chelkash quickly met Gavrila and persuaded him to take part in the night adventure. Familiarity with the story is required for the analysis of the work “Chelkash” to be clear.
Night voyage
At night, Gavrila, shaking with fear, sat on the oars, and Chelkash ruled. Finally they reached the wall. Grigory took the oars, passport and knapsack from his cowardly partner, and then disappeared. Chelkash appeared suddenly and handed his partner something heavy, oars and his things. Now we need to return to the harbor without falling under the lights of the patrol customs cruiser. Gavrila almost lost consciousness from fear. Chelkash gave him a good kick, sat down on the oars, and put Gavrila behind the wheel. They arrived without incident and quickly fell asleep. In the morning, Gregory woke up first and left. When he returned, he woke up Gavrila and gave him his share. Knowledge of the action taking place in the story will help to analyze the work “Chelkash”.
Denouement
When Chelkash was counting out the money, he was unpleasantly struck by the greedy village guy. The peasant begs to give him everything. The hero, with disgust for such greed, threw away the money. Gavrila began collecting them and telling them that he wanted to kill his accomplice because of them.
Grishka simply went wild, took the money from him and went. The stone whistled and hit Chelkash in the head. He fell onto the sand, motionless. The peasant, horrified at what he had done, ran to revive his partner. When Grishka came to his senses, he took a hundred for himself and gave the rest to Gavrila. They went in different directions. Now, having familiarized ourselves with the content of the story, we can analyze the work “Chelkash”.
Heroes: Chelkash and Gavrila
The spirit of romance and connection with nature permeates all the early works of M. Gorky. Chelkash is free from the laws of society.
He is a thief and a homeless drunk. Long, bony, stooped, he looks like a steppe hawk. Chelkash is in an excellent mood - he will earn money at night.
Gavrila, a strong village guy, returns home. He didn't make any money in Kuban. He is in a sad mood.
Gorky describes in detail the thoughts of each of them before they agree on the robbery at night. Chelkash is a proud person; he remembers his former life, his wife, and his parents. His thoughts jump to the downtrodden country boy whom he can help. The main character loves the sea immensely. In his element, he feels free, and thoughts of the past do not bother him there. We are looking at the heroes of the story “Chelkash” (Gorky). An analysis of the work without their characters will not be complete.
Gavrila
Gavrila is not like that. He is immensely afraid of the sea, the darkness, and possible capture. He is cowardly and greedy. These qualities push him to an outright crime when in the morning he saw big money for the first time in his life. First, Gavrila falls to her knees in front of Chelkash, begging for money, because he is just a “vile slave.”
The main character, feeling disgust, pity and hatred for the little soul, throws him all the money. Upon learning that Gavrila wanted to kill him, Chelkash becomes furious. This is the first time he's been so angry. Gregory takes the money and leaves. Gavrila, unable to control her greed, seeks to kill her accomplice, but this makes the insignificant soul afraid. He again begs for forgiveness from the main character - a man of a broad soul. Chelkash throws money to the pathetic Gavrila. He staggers and leaves forever. Having examined the main characters, you can analyze the story as a whole.
Analysis of the work “Chelkash” (Maxim Gorky)
First there is a detailed description of the port and its life. Then the heroes appear. Gorky emphasizes cold gray eyes and nose, humpbacked and predatory, and a proud free disposition. Gavrila is a good-natured guy who believes in God, and, as it turns out, is ready to do anything for money. At first it seems that the villain Chelkash is forcing the simple-minded Gavrila to turn from the straight path onto the thieves' path. The sea is an important and significant component of the story. It reveals the nature of the heroes.
Chelkash loves its strength, power, vastness and freedom. Gavrila is afraid of him, prays and asks Gregory to let him go. The peasant becomes especially frightened when searchlights illuminate the distance of the sea. He takes the light of the ship as a symbol of retribution and promises himself to order a prayer service to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. In the morning, a drama plays out due to the greed that has gripped Gavrila. It seemed to him that Chelkash gave him little money. He is on the verge of murder, and no thoughts about God bother him. Wounded by him, Chelkash disgustedly gives away almost all the money, which Gavrila quickly hides. All traces of blood are washed away by the rain. Water is unable to wash away the dirt from the soul of Gavrila, who fears God. Gorky tells how the peasant loses his human image, how low a creature who considers himself human falls when it comes to profit. The story is built on the principles of antithesis. This is where Chelkash ends. The work is briefly analyzed.
Chelkash and Gavrila – victims of the capitalist world?
(Based on the story “Chelkash” by M. Gorky)
Petrova Natalia Nikolaevna,
teacher at Kamennikovskaya school
Rybinsk district
Lesson: traditional.
Lesson type: learning new material
Goal: using the example of M. Gorky’s story “Chelkash” to show the injustice of a society where money rules, as well as the unpredictability of our lives, false and real, that often a person with a certain appearance does not correspond to his inner “content”.
Textbook: G.V.Moskvin, N.N.Puryaeva, E.L.Erokhina. Literature: 7th grade: Textbook-reader for general education institutions: in 2 hours. Part 2. - M.: Ventana-Graf, 2010.
Lesson summary: a traditional lesson using techniques from critical thinking technology: clusters, comparison table, forecasting, syncwines; different types of work with text are practiced, the ability to express one’s point of view with reason, to find the necessary facts and episodes in the text, to analyze key episodes of the story, and the moral rules of human society are instilled: honesty, sincerity, nobility. Preliminary homework: reading an article about M. Gorky (p. 198-199), reading the story “Chelkash” (preface and part 1).
During the classes:
Checking d/z. Independently reading an article about Gorky at home makes it possible to answer questions A p. 198 and B1 p. 199, as well as predict the plot and features of the story “Chelkash”. Discussion.
Discussion of the part of the story “Chelkash” read at home.
Where does the action take place? What time? Label the colors and sounds.
How did you understand the phrase – the first sentence of the third paragraph (a hymn to trade).
The harbor means ships with goods and the people who work here. Let's divide into groups and characterize them by filling in the clusters: “Steamboats” and “People”.
Discussion of the result. – What artistic techniques does Gorky use to create more expressive images? Examples? Why is he doing this? (The details of the picture create the feeling that work here is not pleasure, but slave labor; a feeling of hopelessness, injustice...).
Why does the author call the comparison of ships and people “cruel irony”? (people, on the one hand, are creators, they created such giant steamships, they conduct trade, it seems there should be money, but, on the other hand, they are beggars, have nothing, “what people created enslaved and depersonalized them”).
What does this description give us, the readers? What feelings do you experience and what do you anticipate? (a tense feeling, something terrible, bad will happen next; in such a situation nothing bright can happen...).
Grishka Chelkash, the main character of the story, appears in the very first lines of the first chapter. Remember his description: appearance, who he resembles, gait, speech, etc. What words does Gorky emphasize? For what? Express your first opinion about the hero.
For the first time here in the story the words appear tramps, tramps. How do you understand?
How do Grishka’s dialogues with other workers and the port guard help us understand his character?
At the same time, a comparison table is filled in (reception from the RKMChP technology):
Grishka Chelkash
Matching lines
Character traits
Attitude towards others
Attitude of others
In the same chapter we meet another hero of the story - Gavrila. Let’s supplement the table by quoting and recalling facts from the part we read concerning the personality of this hero.
How does part 1 end? Re-read Chelkash's internal monologue. What can you say about him? Your attitude?
Part 2. independent reading in class. Discussion.
What is this part about?
How do characters behave in the same situation?
What else do we learn about the heroes? What can you add to the table?
What is your attitude towards both characters? Is it changing?
Part 3. The last part remains. It is done. We confirmed to ourselves that Chelkash is a thief, experienced, brave, always thinking about everything, but risking for the sake of big money, for the sake of rest and entertainment that will come later. The attitude of most of you towards him is negative, and this is understandable. The attitude towards Gavrila is different. The hulk, a hard-working peasant, having become friends with Chelkash, broke the law, became a thief, an accomplice. We sincerely feel sorry for him, we worry about him: lest his good intentions end in tears (after all, we know the “predatory” Grishka!).
Reading aloud part 3 (the “reading with stops” technique from the RKMChP technology)
1) to p. 222 to the question “What is this bothering you”?
So what action of the heroes did Gorky leave us with at the end?
Money. What is the attitude of our heroes towards them? What are their actions? Compare. What is your attitude to what is happening?
2) before the words “...Give them to me!”
Did you expect this?
Re-read the words describing the state of Gavrila and Chelkash. Conclusion?
What do you think Chelkash will do?
3) until the end of the story.
Express your attitude to what is happening. What was expected and what was not?
And one more point that cannot be missed in the story: this is the sea. We see his description throughout the entire story. What meaning does it carry? (location of action, emphasizes the character of the main character...). Why do the last lines of the story end with a seascape again?
5. Conclusions.
What are the themes and problems of Gorky's story?
Let's return to the topic of our lesson: can you confirm once again that both Chelkash and Gavrila are victims of the capitalist world?
What features of Gorky’s early stories have we become familiar with?
6. D/z: 1) draw up a story plan (optional - quotation); 2) written reasoning – p.228 question B 10; 3) optional - syncwines.
"CRUEL IRONY"
“WHAT PEOPLE CREATED HAS enslaved and dehumanized them”
In the story "Chelkash" there are two characters - Chelkash and Gavrila.
It was generally accepted that in this story Gorky romanticizes the tramp. However, the text of the story does not provide grounds for such a conclusion; Gorky rather feels sorry for him. We did not learn from the story why Chelkash’s fate turned out this way, what broke him, turned him into a tramp. There is only a vague hint of the bitter “cup that fate gave him to drink.” But
one thing is obvious - his soul is alive. Re-read the part of the story where Chelkash recalls his past peasant life.
These memories inspire him; they contain so much poetry and warmth. It is clear that it was not the life of a tramp that made Chelkash so spiritually generous as we meet him on the pages of the story, that the foundations of this character were laid in his past, in his past peasant life. For Chelkash, the main thing in peasant life is freedom and independence: “You are your own master. You have your house - it’s worth nothing - but it’s yours. You have your own land - and even a handful of it - but it’s yours! You are a king on your own land! You have a face... you can demand respect from everyone.”
Chelkash’s words are a true hymn to peasant life and the land. It is here, in peasant labor, that there is true freedom. The freedom of the tramp Chelkash is illusory; every minute he can be captured and sent to jail. At
of all external independence, he is not free and understands this. That’s why Gavrila’s words hurt him so much: “Look at yourself, what are you now without land? You won’t forget the earth, brother, like your mother for a long time.”
Eleven years of tramping separated Chelkash from his past peasant life, but it continues to excite his imagination and fills his heart with warmth. Tell us about the past life of Gregory (Chelkash). Pay attention to the feeling of deep love for the earth that colors this memory, and to the feeling of loneliness, “thrown out forever from that order of life.”
What happened to the peasantry after the revolution? How did peasants live during the years of Soviet power? Remember the works you have already studied, which tell about the transformations that took place in the village after the revolution. What was the essence of these transformations, how did they affect the life of the village, the villagers? Why did the Russian village begin to die? What works of Russian and native literature reflect the process of the death of the village? The peasant’s land no longer attracts him; people have been separated from the land, and both the people deprived of land and the land left without peasant supervision have found themselves destitute. Think about whether this statement is true. The motif of independence, will, and freedom is heard throughout the entire narrative.
The apparent freedom of the tramp is contrasted with the freedom of the independent peasant, the owner. For Gavrila, freedom is not only “being your own boss, going wherever you want, doing whatever you want, walking, doing whatever you want.” He expresses a serious thought: “Just remember God.” How do you understand these words? Can we assume that Gavrila realizes that freedom is not permissiveness, it is limited by moral standards given in religion? Did Gavrila himself violate a Christian commandment, which one? Does your religion have the same commandment? What Christian commandment does Chelkash violate? What does Chelkash mean by freedom and what does Gavrila mean?
Pay attention to the duality of feelings that Chelkash experiences for Gavrila. On the one hand, he likes this naive, trusting and good-natured guy “with clear blue eyes.” It awakens in him memories of a past life.
In what situations does Chelkash develop a “cold, angry” feeling towards Gavrila, “something like a burn” in his chest? What words of Gavrila hurt Chelkash? Is it possible to assume that the “evil, cold” feeling appeared because, looking at Gavrila, Chelkash understood how low he himself had fallen, engaging in theft, and then drinking away the money he easily received, that in the depths of his soul he understood the justice of Gavrila’s words: “Tyomen you...", "Tea, there are a lot of people like you! staggering...", "An unnecessary person on earth"?
Gavrila is naive, trusting, pious. At first, he sincerely believed that Chelkash invited him to go fishing with him. When he realized that he was going on a dark deed,” he began to whisper the words of prayer, asking Chelkash to let him go, reproaching Chelkash: “It’s a sin for you... you’re ruining your soul! He promises, if everything ends well, to serve a prayer service to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. However, to Chelkash’s question: “Would you do something like this again for 200 rubles?” - answers in the affirmative, despite Chelkash’s mocking remark: “Stop! How can you lose your soul?”
The sight of money changes Gavrila. Retell the scene in which Gavrila humiliatingly asks Chelkash to give him money. How does this scene make you feel? What feelings did Chelkash have for Gavrila?
It’s very easy to call Gavrila greedy, as Chelkash does. However, remember how hard the peasant got the money, what Gavrila was going to spend the money he asked from Chelkash.
How did Gavrila’s innocence and simplicity manifest itself? Let's try to understand Gavrila's feelings and explain his actions.
Excited, excited by the money he had just received, which became real wealth for him, capable of radically changing his whole life, Gavrila immediately loses it, without even realizing what happened. Did Gavrila want to kill Chelkash when he threw a stone at him? What feelings did Gavrila experience when he committed his sinful act?
and saw that Chelkash was lying in a pool of blood?
Think about his words: “Brother, I’m sorry! The devil is me... take the sin away from your soul.” How do you understand these words? Do you believe in Gavrila's sincere repentance? In the sincerity of his request for forgiveness?
Developing our speech Chelkash calls Gavrila a calf. Explain what the word means in this context. How do you understand the expressions “dark matter”, “you are painfully dark”? In what meaning is the word “dark” used in these phrases? What other meanings of this word do you know?
Tell us how you understand the following artistic image: “a line of longshoremen carrying bread into the bellies of ships in order to earn a few pounds of bread for themselves.” What picture does your imagination paint? Explain the expression: “a face distorted by the delight of greed.” Remember that delight usually inspires, inspires, and illuminates the face. You've probably never heard of the phrase "greed's delight." An expressive artistic image has been created here. Reveal its meaning.
Think about the meaning of the following lines: “Never in his entire life had he, Chelkasha, been beaten so painfully.” What kind of pain are we talking about? Make a comparative description of Chelkash and Gavrila.
Thus, the chosen path of understanding this story will help students think and, perhaps, even understand Gavrila’s state at the moment when he threw a stone at Chelkash, and not judge him too harshly. The proposed analysis removes any touch of romance from Chelkash, presenting him without any embellishment and suggesting that we rather feel sorry for him. And, most importantly, it forces you to seriously think about the fate of thousands of disadvantaged peasants like Gavrila, not to be rash in condemning him, to understand how difficult the life and fate of the Russian peasantry are. But this seems to fade into the background in the story.
0 / 5. 0