Roman A.S. Pushkin " Captain's daughter»
an excerpt from chapter 11 "Rebellious settlement"
"KALMYTSKAYA TALE"
(Pugachev) I'll tell you a story that an old Kalmyk woman told me as a child. Once an eagle asked a raven: tell me, raven-bird, why have you been living in this world for three hundred years, and I am only thirty-three years old? - Because, father, the raven answered him, that you drink living blood, and I feed on carrion. The eagle thought: let's try and we eat the same. Good. The eagle and the raven flew. They saw a dead horse; went down and sat down. The raven began to peck and praise. The eagle pecked once, pecked another, waved its wing and said to the raven: no, brother raven; than to eat carrion for three hundred years, it is better to drink living blood once, and then what God will give! - What is the Kalmyk tale?
(Grinev) - Intricate, - I answered him. - But to live by murder and robbery means to peck at the carrion for me.
Pugachev looked at me in surprise and did not answer. We both fell silent, each immersed in his own thoughts. The Tatar started a sad song ...
- Translate the text of this parable from figurative language into clear, simple language.
- With whom of the heroes of the parable does Pugachev relate himself? Imagine yourself in the place of Pugachev, pick up catch phrases describing Pugachev's position and arguments in defense of his position.
- Imagine yourself in Grinev's place. What is the meaning of Grinev's answer to Pugachev? Pick up catch phrases that describe Grinev's position and the arguments defending his position.
- If you met this parable on its own (in life, not in a novel), how would you explain it? Find illustrative examples for the position of "eagle" and "crow" by referring to literary works, biographies famous people, feature films, etc.
the meaning of the Kalmyk tale in the captain's daughter and got the best answer
Answer from yuri didyk [guru]
You probably remember what tale Pugachev told Grinev in the story of Alexander Pushkin "The Captain's Daughter"?
“Listen,” Pugachev said with some wild inspiration. - I'll tell you a story that an old Kalmyk woman told me as a child. Once an eagle asked a raven: “Tell, raven-bird, why do you live in this world for 300 years, and I’m only 33 years old? "-" Because, father, - the raven answered him, that you drink living blood, and I feed on carrion. " The eagle thought: "Let's try and we eat the same." Good. The eagle and the raven flew. They saw a dead horse, went down and sat down. The raven began to peck and praise. The eagle pecked once, pecked another, waved its wing and said to the raven: “No, brother raven: than to eat carrion for 300 years, it is better to drink living blood once, and then what God will give! »- What is the Kalmyk fairy tale?
- Intricate, - I answered him. But to live by murder and robbery means, for me, to peck at carrion.
Pugachev looked at me in surprise and did not answer. "
Strange, but the researchers hardly mention this episode: either in passing, or not at all.
The teacher at school explained its meaning to us as follows: Grinev, they say, with his noble limitations, cannot understand Pugachev's broad nature, his answer is out of tune and out of place, and Pugachev said nothing, realizing what a gap between them.
It turned out (however, it was suspected earlier) that the teacher did not come up with it herself. In a manual for teachers, published in stagnant times, we read: “Pugachev takes a desperate risk ... His broad nature is alien to compromise decisions ... Grinev's abstract humanism looked at least naive, Pugachev could easily refute his objections. But, wanting to show the scale of the personality of Pugachev, Pushkin ... somehow makes it clear to the reader that the leader of the uprising knew how to listen to judgments that were contrary to his own ideas. "
Thus, according to the laws of class Soviet morality, it turned out that the desperate risk of Pugachev, that is, imposture and the crimes that followed, was the correct line of behavior. He called himself a tsar - after all, he was a true people's tsar.
The opinion that Pugachev in the structure of Pushkin's work performs the function of a tsar, that he is the real tsar, and Empress Catherine against his background is shallow and insignificant, more convinced and hotter than all Soviet literary critics put together (although many of them have similar conclusions) expressed Marina Tsvetaeva. Here are some excerpts from her article "Pushkin and Pugachev".
"Pushkin is enchanted by Pugachev."
"In" The Captain's Daughter "Pushkin fell under the spell of Pugachev and did not come out from under her until the last line ... Chara in his black eyes and black beard, charm in his grin, charm in his dangerous gentleness, charm in his feigned importance."
“After“ The Captain's Daughter ”I have never been able to fall in love with Catherine II. I’ll say more: I disliked her ”.
“Against the background of fire of Pugachev - fires, robberies, blizzards, wagons, feasts - this one, in a cap and a shower jacket, on a bench, between all kinds of bridges and leaves, seemed to me like a huge white fish, a white fish. And even unsalted ... Let's compare Pugachev and Ekaterina viave:
“- Come out, red maiden, I give you freedom. I am the sovereign. " (Pugachev leading Marya Ivanovna out of the dungeon).
"- Excuse me," she said in an even more gentle voice, "if I interfere in your affairs, but I am at court ..."
How much more regal in his gesture is the peasant who calls himself the sovereign than the empress who pretends to be a companion. "
Did Marina Ivanovna realize how much water and with what pressure she poured into the mill of Soviet propaganda? No, i guess. Yes, and lived abroad in those years, so this is not written for the Soviet reader. Well, God be her judge ... It is well known that "The Captain's Daughter" is not the only work by Pushkin dedicated to the Pugachev uprising. Two years before the release of the story, the research work "The History of Pugachev" was published, where the author recreates the true events from the appearance of
the meaning of the Kalmyk tale in the captain's daughter and got the best answer
Answer from yuri didyk [guru]
You probably remember what tale Pugachev told Grinev in the story of Alexander Pushkin "The Captain's Daughter"?
“Listen,” Pugachev said with some wild inspiration. - I'll tell you a story that an old Kalmyk woman told me as a child. Once an eagle asked a raven: “Tell, raven-bird, why do you live in this world for 300 years, and I’m only 33 years old? "-" Because, father, - the raven answered him, that you drink living blood, and I feed on carrion. " The eagle thought: "Let's try and we eat the same." Good. The eagle and the raven flew. They saw a dead horse, went down and sat down. The raven began to peck and praise. The eagle pecked once, pecked another, waved its wing and said to the raven: “No, brother raven: than to eat carrion for 300 years, it is better to drink living blood once, and then what God will give! »- What is the Kalmyk fairy tale?
- Intricate, - I answered him. But to live by murder and robbery means, for me, to peck at carrion.
Pugachev looked at me in surprise and did not answer. "
Strange, but the researchers hardly mention this episode: either in passing, or not at all.
The teacher at school explained its meaning to us as follows: Grinev, they say, with his noble limitations, cannot understand Pugachev's broad nature, his answer is out of tune and out of place, and Pugachev said nothing, realizing what a gap between them.
It turned out (however, it was suspected earlier) that the teacher did not come up with it herself. In a manual for teachers, published in stagnant times, we read: “Pugachev takes a desperate risk ... His broad nature is alien to compromise decisions ... Grinev's abstract humanism looked at least naive, Pugachev could easily refute his objections. But, wanting to show the scale of the personality of Pugachev, Pushkin ... somehow makes it clear to the reader that the leader of the uprising knew how to listen to judgments that were contrary to his own ideas. "
Thus, according to the laws of class Soviet morality, it turned out that the desperate risk of Pugachev, that is, imposture and the crimes that followed, was the correct line of behavior. He called himself a tsar - after all, he was a true people's tsar.
The opinion that Pugachev in the structure of Pushkin's work performs the function of a tsar, that he is the real tsar, and Empress Catherine against his background is shallow and insignificant, more convinced and hotter than all Soviet literary critics put together (although many of them have similar conclusions) expressed Marina Tsvetaeva. Here are some excerpts from her article "Pushkin and Pugachev".
"Pushkin is enchanted by Pugachev."
"In" The Captain's Daughter "Pushkin fell under the spell of Pugachev and did not come out from under her until the last line ... Chara in his black eyes and black beard, charm in his grin, charm in his dangerous gentleness, charm in his feigned importance."
“After“ The Captain's Daughter ”I have never been able to fall in love with Catherine II. I’ll say more: I disliked her ”.
“Against the background of fire of Pugachev - fires, robberies, blizzards, wagons, feasts - this one, in a cap and a shower jacket, on a bench, between all kinds of bridges and leaves, seemed to me like a huge white fish, a white fish. And even unsalted ... Let's compare Pugachev and Ekaterina viave:
“- Come out, red maiden, I give you freedom. I am the sovereign. " (Pugachev leading Marya Ivanovna out of the dungeon).
"- Excuse me," she said in an even more gentle voice, "if I interfere in your affairs, but I am at court ..."
How much more regal in his gesture is the peasant who calls himself the sovereign than the empress who pretends to be a companion. "
Did Marina Ivanovna realize how much water and with what pressure she poured into the mill of Soviet propaganda? No, i guess. Yes, and lived abroad in those years, so this is not written for the Soviet reader. Well, God be her judge ... It is well known that "The Captain's Daughter" is not the only work by Pushkin dedicated to the Pugachev uprising. Two years before the release of the story, the research work "The History of Pugachev" was published, where the author recreates the true events from the appearance of
The story of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin "The Captain's Daughter" will never cease to amaze readers: so interesting are the characters of the heroes, the events described, which are based on real historical facts. The genius of Pushkin is truly great: in the story, every detail carries a huge semantic load. Interesting in this respect are the epigraphs that the author selects for the chapters. Some of the epigraphs seem to be intended to explain the content of the chapter. Others are clearly satirical. However, most of the epigraphs are aimed at revealing the character of the characters as fully as possible. The same function is performed by the Kalmyk fairy tale included in the narrative, which Pugachev tells Grinev.
"With wild inspiration" the leader of the Cossacks tells a fairy tale:
Once an eagle asked a raven: tell me, raven-bird, why have you been living in this world for three hundred years, and I am only thirty-three years old? - Because, father, the raven answered him, that you drink living blood, and I feed on carrion. The eagle thought: let's try and we eat the same. Good. The eagle and the raven flew. They saw a dead horse; went down and sat down. The raven began to peck and praise. The eagle pecked once, pecked another, waved its wing and said to the raven: no, brother raven; than to eat carrion for three hundred years, it is better to drink living blood once, and then what God will give!
Pugachev, of course, associates himself with an eagle. However, Grinev also does not recognize the crow. For him, "living by robbery", like Pugachev, is precisely "pecking at carrion." Thus, we see that each of the heroes, although he compares himself with the same fairytale character, but has his own ideas about who the "eagle" is, and firm convictions in the correctness of the path they have chosen.
Emelyan Pugachev as a person is of great interest. Of course, he is an extraordinary person. His image in "The Captain's Daughter" is heroic and stately. Knowing the needs and sorrows of all the "poor rabble", Pugachev addressed each of its groups with special slogans and decrees. He favored the Cossacks not only with the Yaik River with all its lands and riches, but also with what the Cossacks needed: bread, gunpowder, lead, money, "the old faith" and Cossack liberties. Turning to the peasants, Pugachev bestowed them with lands and holdings, by will, freed the landowners from power, whom he called to exterminate, from any duties in relation to the state, promised them a free Cossack life. He has the ability to lead people - in the ranks of his troops, not only fugitive convicts, but also ordinary peasants. Pugachev is depicted as a man who is not devoid of nobility and even kindness, it is enough to remember how he acted in relation to Pyotr Grinev and Masha Mironova. He is not without respect for Grinev's choice, for his convictions. Pugachev is able to respond kindly to good, remembering the hare sheepskin coat donated by Grinev, he does Peter in return, much more important.
However, all this does not justify the atrocities committed by Emelyan Pugachev. His philosophy of life - like an eagle, once to drink blood, and then, come what may - leads to the fact that he follows these beliefs almost literally. Pugachev and his army shed a lot of innocent blood of people like Captain Mironov. In the name of what? In the name of the freedom they promised the "rabble"? Hardly. If this were so, Pugachev would have had a definite program of further actions, but the future itself seemed to him and his associates somehow vaguely in the form of a Cossack state, where everyone would be Cossacks, where there would be no taxes or recruitment. Lies, murders, vice - this is what accompanies the Pugachev revolt. Here, the comparison with an eagle is already inappropriate, it is rather, in the words of a fairy tale, "pecking at carrion."
In my opinion, Pugachev is not able to objectively assess his actions. Mired in murder, robberies and robberies, which accompanied the rebellion, the leader of the Cossacks acquired a distorted idea of the true heroism that a person commits in the name of a goal. Possessing unparalleled courage, Pugachev, nevertheless, does not look like a guardian for the people's good, and therefore, his heroism is worthless. Proclaiming high ideas, Pugachev actually brings a lot of grief not only to the "top" against which he spoke, but to a greater extent to ordinary people who found themselves in the field of his "activity."
The life position of Peter Grinev, unambiguous in perception, is much closer and more understandable. An honest nobleman, he remains true to his convictions even in the face of near death. Not a shadow of a doubt arises in him about his own faith. Grinev remains firm in his word, swearing allegiance to the empress, no life circumstances will force him to back down. He, like Pugachev, is a courageous man. Even, in my opinion, his courage is much greater than Pugachev's - he risks his own life to save his beloved. In order not to tarnish the name of Masha Mironova, he is ready to accept both death and dishonor (according to Shvabrin's slander they are going to execute him as a traitor). If we talk about how applicable one of the images of the Kalmyk tale is to the personality of Pyotr Grinev, then, of course, the image of an eagle is closer to him. Only this image is interpreted by him differently. For Grinev, "pecking at carrion" is to become a traitor, to change his oath, to change himself. For him, as well as for the fabulous eagle, it is better to live a short life, but worthy.
What is the meaning of the Kalmyk tale told by Pugachev to Grinev. In the novel, the captain's daughter? and got the best answer
Answer from Maria Yankina [guru]
In the fairy tale, the raven feeds on carrion and lives for 300 years, and the eagle - on living blood and lives for 33 years. For Pugachev to live like a raven - like serfs lived, in eternal submission. It is better for the people to try like an eagle, even if not for long and bloody, but to be free. The eagle could not feed on carrion, although he wanted to live long. And people will not be able to live according to other people's laws, being someone else's property.
For Grinev, the meaning of the tale is different, he replies to Pugachev that for him to kill is the same as feeding on carrion. That is, Grinev does not support the attempt to win freedom in such a bloody terrible way.
Answer from Liudmila Sharukhia[guru]
The episode with a fairy tale is the culmination in the disclosure of the image of Pugachev. It has many meanings, and therefore it cannot be reduced (as is often done) to the extraction of morality from a fairy tale, to declare that a bold short life is allegorically glorified in it. The tale reveals the depth of Pugachev's spiritual renewal. Lively, large, sparkling eyes, so remembered by Grinev and bewitched him, predicted Pugachev's ability to high feelings, "to wild inspiration." The whole scene is constructed in such a way that the fairy tale poetically directly conveys the secret meaning of Pugachev's real life: everything known about him convinces us that this eagle-natured man cannot live according to the laws of a crow, he does not see the point in a long life, if you need to feed on carrion. There is another life - albeit short, but free: "... Better to get drunk with living blood once, and then God willing!"
Answer from Daria Vanina[newbie]
The meaning of the fairy tale is that it is better to live a short but bright life than a long and boring one.
