Topic: “The image of Vasily Terkin in the work of Tvardovsky. "Vasily Terkin" main characters Description of the main character in the work of Vasily Terkin

In his famous poem"Vasily Terkin" the outstanding Soviet writer and poet Alexander Tvardovsky aptly and succinctly draws the image of a resourceful and, despite the most difficult trials of the Great Patriotic War, cheerful soldier. Vasily Terkin is not just the main character of the work, he is a collective image of a people who can endure any adversity.

It was not for nothing that the poem became one of the central works of Tvardovsky, since the joker and merry fellow Terkin is one of the brightest and most positive images of Russian literature of the 20th century, and the lines written in four-foot trochee remain in memory without difficulty and for a long time.

Characteristics of the hero

Vasily Ivanovich Terkin is a simple rural guy, originally from the Smolensk region (the author made him his countryman). He is an infantryman of the infantry regiment. Without any outstanding abilities, Vasily is the real soul of his company: he is a man with a wide soul and a big heart, a resilient optimist who encourages his comrades-colleagues with the words "we will endure, we will endure."

The author deliberately does not provide details of the biography of his hero, emphasizing his "commonness" so that everyone can find a piece of the soldier Terkin in his own character: "A guy of this kind There is always in every company, Yes, and in every platoon ..."

Tvardovsky conceived the work even before the start of the Second World War, but that Vasily Terkin, who became a kindred spirit to thousands simple soldier appeared in 1942. This collective image of a Russian soldier gave strength, inspired and helped real people fight.

At the same time, Vasily is not a super-hero, not a great warrior with heroic strength and a powerful physique. However, in some places of the poem, folklore notes are guessed, with the help of which the author brings the hero even closer to the people. So, in the chapter "Two Soldiers" Terkin, like the real Ilya Muromets, protects the weak and infirm, comes to the aid of the old people, about whom at the beginning of the chapter it is said in a fabulous manner "there were a grandfather and a woman." Such a hero is not distinguished by impressive size, but in abundance of ingenuity, optimism, courage and love for his native land.

Tvardovsky "modernized" the public defender, adding to the above sparkling humor, the necessary cunning and endurance. Vasily is even able to "sleep in reserve", quickly adapting to the changing conditions of the surrounding reality. And its most important advantage is never to lose heart, because this is the only way to survive in a terrible war!

Terkin is a heroic figure, but not ostentatious. For him, war is an ordeal and a job to be done. He rushes into the November river to inform his people about the strengthening of the platoon on the shore (chapter "Crossing"); in the chapter "Turkin is wounded" holds enemy bunker, being wounded, before the arrival of help; shoots down an enemy aircraft, raises a soldier behind him instead of a dead officer and breaks into the village first, enters into an unequal battle with a superior German and even Death itself! And with all this, he notes with humor "No, guys, I'm not proud ... I agree to a medal."

Vasily is not only the soul of the company, but also a talented craftsman: in his hands an old saw came to life, a clock that had stood for many years. He perfectly plays the accordion, sings and dances, does not go into his pocket for a word, entertaining tired fighters in rare calm hours.

It is no coincidence that the surname of the main character of the poem: Terkin - from the word "grated", experienced, who has seen life

The image of the hero in the work

Since Vasily Terkin is a collective image, detailed descriptions of his appearance cannot be found in the poem. Everything that the author reports: a rural guy, over 20 years old, of medium height, of a dim appearance. However, his main beauty is inside, in a broad soul, a kind and compassionate heart, heroism and optimism.

Tvardovsky does not give this heroic personality any romantic halo, on the contrary, he even slightly lands him with the help of common expressions: "he cracked ... between the eyes", hit the German with the sound "shmyak". This artistic technique also allows the reader to see in a generalized way a person, an individuality, for whom war is not a way to rise, get medals and awards, but a fight "for the sake of life on earth."

In one of the chapters, Vasily meets his namesake Ivan. The author distinguishes the two Terkins by hair color (Ivan - red) and military specialization (the second Terkin - armor-piercing), otherwise these two soldiers are very similar. This is another method of individualization and generalization, with the help of which the author shows that such a Terkin is not a unique phenomenon, there are thousands, millions of them, which are inseparable from the entire mass of the warring people. And the goal is one for all - liberation native land, for the sake of life on it.

Tvardovsky, who himself knew the sorrows of war, in the person of Vasily Terkin conveys to the reader the main message: never lose heart and treat the trials of fate with humor, it is this approach that will help to survive in any conditions.

The Great Patriotic War is one of those events in the history of the country that remain in the memory of the people for a long time. Such events largely change people's ideas about life and art. The war caused an unprecedented surge in literature, music, painting, and cinema. But, perhaps, there was not and will not be more popular work about the war than the poem by Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky "Vasily Terkin".
A. T. Tvardovsky wrote firsthand about the war. At the very beginning of the war, he, like many other writers and poets, goes to the front. And passing along the roads of war, the poet creates an amazing monument to the Russian soldier, his feat. The hero of the “Book about a fighter”, as the author himself defined the genre of his work, is Vasily Terkin, who is a collective image of a Russian soldier. But there is another hero in the book - the author himself. We cannot even say that it is always Tvardovsky himself. Rather, we are talking about the generalized image of the author-narrator, which is present in "Eugene Onegin", "A Hero of Our Time" and other works that form the basis of Russian literary tradition. Although some facts from the poem coincide with the real biography of A. T. Tvardovsky, the author is clearly endowed with many of Terkin’s features, they are constantly together (“Terkin - further. The author - following”). This allows us to say that the author in the poem is also a man of the people, a Russian soldier, who differs from Terkin, in fact, only in that “the course passed in the capital”. A. T. Tvardovsky makes Terkin his countryman. And therefore the words

I tremble with sharp pain,
Malice bitter and holy.
Mother, father, siblings
I have beyond that line -

become the words of both the author and his hero. Amazing lyricism colors those lines of the poem that speak of the “small homeland” that each of the soldiers who took part in the war had. The author loves his hero, admires his actions. They are always unanimous:

And I'll tell you, I won't hide,
In this book, here and there,
What to say to the hero,
I speak personally.
I am responsible for everything around
And notice, if you haven't noticed,
Like Terkin, my hero,
Sometimes speaks for me.

The author in the poem is an intermediary between the hero and the reader. A confidential conversation is constantly conducted with the reader, the author respects the “friend-reader”, and therefore seeks to convey to him the “real truth” about the war. The author feels his responsibility to readers, he understands how important it was not only to tell about the war, but also to inspire readers (and we remember that Vasily Terkin was published in separate chapters during the war, and the idea goes back to the time of the Finnish war) faith in the invincibility of the spirit of the Russian soldier, optimism. Sometimes the author, as it were, invites the reader to check the truth of his judgments and observations. Such direct contact with the reader greatly contributes to the fact that the poem becomes understandable. big circle of people.
The poem constantly shows subtle author's humor. At the very beginning of the poem, the author calls the joke the most necessary in soldier's life thing:

You can live without food for days
You can do more, but sometimes
In a one minute war
Can't live without a joke
Jokes of the most unwise.

The text of the poem is filled with jokes, sayings, sayings, and it is impossible to determine who their author is: the author of the poem, the hero of the poem Terkin, or the people in general.
The author's powers of observation, the vigilance of his gaze and the skill of conveying the details of front-line life are striking. The book becomes a kind of "encyclopedia" of the war, written "from nature", in a field situation. The author is faithful not only to details. He felt the psychology of a man in the war, felt the same fear, hunger, cold, just rejoiced and grieved... the author to tell his contemporaries and descendants about the war in which “the battle is holy and right. Mortal combat is not for the sake of glory, for the sake of life on earth.

Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky was born in 1910 on one of the farms in the Smolensk region, into a peasant family. For the formation of the personality of the future poet, the relative erudition of his father, love for the book, which he brought up in his children, also mattered. “Whole winter evenings, - Tvardovsky writes in his autobiography, - we often devoted ourselves to reading a book aloud. My first acquaintance with "Poltava" and "Dubrovsky" by Pushkin, "Taras Bulba" by Gogol, the most popular poems by Lermontov, Nekrasov, A.K. Tolstoy, Nikitin happened exactly in this way.

In 1938, in the life of Tvardovsky, significant event He joined the ranks of the Communist Party. In the autumn of 1939, immediately after graduating from the Moscow Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature (IFLI), the poet participated in the liberation campaign Soviet army to Western Belarus (as a special correspondent for a military newspaper). The first meeting with the heroic people in a military situation had great importance for the poet. According to Tvardovsky, the impressions received then anticipated those deeper and stronger ones that flooded over him during the Second World War. Artists drew amusing pictures depicting the unusual front-line adventures of an experienced soldier Vasya Terkin, and poets composed text for these pictures. Vasya Terkin is a popular popular character who performed supernatural, dizzying feats: he got a tongue, pretending to be a snowball, covered his enemies with empty barrels and lit up, sitting on one of them, “he takes the enemy with a bayonet, like sheaves with a pitchfork.” This Terkin and his namesake are a hero poem of the same name Tvardovsky, who has gained nationwide fame, are incomparable.
For some slow-witted readers, Tvardovsky will subsequently specifically hint at the deep difference that exists between a genuine hero and his namesake:
Can't you conclude now?
What, they say, grief does not matter,
What the guys got up, took
Tree without difficulty?
What about constant luck
Terkin accomplished a feat:
Russian wooden spoon
Eight Fritz laid down!

Such lubok heroism was in the spirit of Vasya Terkin, the hero of the humorous page of the newspaper On Guard for the Motherland.
However, the captions to the drawings helped Tvardovsky achieve ease of colloquial speech. These forms are preserved in the "real" "Vasily Terkin", having improved significantly, expressing a deep life content.
The first plans to create a serious poem about the hero people's war, refer to the period 1939-1940. But these plans changed significantly later under the influence of new, formidable and great events.
Tvardovsky was always interested in the fate of his country at turning points in history. History and people are its main theme. Back in the early 1930s, he created a poetic picture of the complex era of collectivization in the poem "Country Ant". During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) A..T. Tvardovsky writes the poem "Vasily Terkin" about the Great Patriotic War. The fate of the people was decided. The poem is dedicated to the life of the people in the war.
Tvardovsky - a poet who deeply understood and appreciated beauty folk character. Large-scale, capacious, collective images are created in “The Land of the Ant”, “Vasily Terkin”: the events are enclosed in a very broad plot framework, the poet turns to hyperbole and other means of fabulous convention. In the center of the poem is the image of Terkin, which unites the composition of the work into a single whole. Terkin Vasily Ivanovich - the protagonist of the poem, an ordinary infantryman from Smolensk peasants.

"Just a guy himself
He is ordinary"

Terkin embodies best features Russian soldier and people in general. A hero named Vasily Terkin first appears in the poetic feuilletons of the Tvardov period of the Soviet-Finnish war (1939-1940). The words of the hero of the poem:

"I am the second, brother, war
I'm fighting for the ages"

The poem is built as a chain of episodes from the military life of the protagonist, which do not always have a direct event connection with each other. Terkin tells young soldiers about the everyday life of the war with humor; says that he has been fighting since the very beginning of the war, he was surrounded three times, was wounded. The fate of an ordinary soldier, one of those who bore the brunt of the war on his shoulders, becomes the personification of national fortitude, the will to live. Terkin swims across the icy river twice to re-establish contact with advancing units; Terkin occupies a German dugout alone, but comes under fire from his own artillery; on the way to the front, Terkin finds himself in the house of old peasants, helping them with the housework; Terkin steps into hand-to-hand combat with the German and, with difficulty, overcoming, takes him prisoner. Unexpectedly for himself, Terkin shoots down a German attack aircraft from a rifle; Terkin reassures the envious sergeant:
“Do not worry, the German has this
Not the last plane

Terkin takes over command of the platoon when the commander is killed and breaks into the village first; however, the hero is again seriously wounded. Lying wounded in the field, Terkin converses with Death, who persuades him not to cling to life; in the end, he is discovered by the fighters, and he tells them:

"Remove this woman,
I am a soldier still alive

In the image of Vasily Terkin, the best moral qualities of the Russian people are combined: patriotism, readiness for a feat, love for work.
The character traits of the hero are interpreted by the poet as traits of the collective image: Terkin is inseparable and inseparable from the militant people. It is interesting that all fighters - regardless of their age, tastes, military experience - feel good with Vasily; wherever he appears - in battle, on vacation, on the way - between him and the fighters, contact is instantly established, friendliness, mutual arrangement. Literally every scene is about it. The fighters listen to Terkin's playful bickering with the cook at the first appearance of the hero:
And sitting under a pine tree,
He eats porridge, hunched over.
"Mine?" - fighters among themselves, -
"Mine!" - exchanged glances.

I do not need, brothers, orders,
I don't need fame.

Terkin is characterized by respect and careful attitude of the master to the thing, as to the fruit of labor. It is not for nothing that he takes away the saw from his grandfather, which he mangles, not being able to sharpen it. Returning the finished saw to the owner, Vasily says:

On-ko, grandfather, take it, look.
Will cut better than new
In vain do not measles the tool.

Terkin loves work and is not afraid of it (from the hero's conversation with death):

I am an employee
I would go into business at home.
- The house is destroyed.
- I'm a carpenter.
- There is no stove.
And the baker...

a hero is usually a synonym for his mass character, the absence of features of exclusivity in him. But this simplicity has another meaning in the poem: the transparent symbolism of the hero's surname, Terkin's “tolerate-tolerate” sets off his ability to overcome difficulties simply, easily. Such is his behavior even when he swims across an icy river or sleeps under a pine tree, completely content with an uncomfortable bed, and so on. In this simplicity of the hero, his calmness, sober outlook on life, important features of the national character are expressed.

In the field of view of A.T. Tvardovsky in the poem "Vasily Terkin" is not only the front, but also those who work in the rear for the sake of victory: women and the elderly. The characters of the poem not only fight - they laugh, love, talk with each other, and most importantly - dream of a peaceful life. The reality of war is united by what is usually incompatible: tragedy and humor, courage and fear, life and death.
The chapter "From the Author" depicts the process of "mythologization" of the main character of the poem. Terkin is called by the author "a holy and sinful Russian miracle man." The name of Vasily Terkin has become legendary and a household name.
The poem "Vasily Terkin" is distinguished by a kind of historicism. Conventionally, it can be divided into three parts, coinciding with the beginning, middle and end of the war. The poetic comprehension of the stages of the war creates a lyrical chronicle of events from the chronicle. A feeling of bitterness and sorrow fills the first part, faith in victory - the second, the joy of the liberation of the Fatherland becomes the leitmotif of the third part of the poem. This is explained by the fact that A.T. Tvardovsky created the poem gradually, throughout the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
The composition of the poem is also original. Not only individual chapters, but also periods, stanzas within chapters are distinguished by their completeness. This is due to the fact that the poem was printed in parts. And it should be accessible to the reader from "any place".
The poem has 30 chapters. Twenty-five of them fully, comprehensively reveals the hero, who finds himself in a wide variety of military situations. In the last chapters, Terkin does not appear at all (“About an Orphan Soldier”, “On the Road to Berlin”). The poet has said everything about the hero and does not want to repeat himself, to make the image illustrative.
It is no coincidence that the work of Tvardovsky begins and ends with digressions. An open conversation with the reader brings inner world works, creates an atmosphere of common involvement in the events. The poem ends with a dedication to the fallen.
Tvardovsky talks about the reasons that pushed him to such a construction of the poem:
“I did not long languish with doubts and fears about the uncertainty of the genre, the lack of original plan, embracing the whole work in advance, weak plot connection of the chapters with each other. Not a poem - well, let yourself not a poem, - I decided; there is no single plot - let yourself not, do not; there is no very beginning of a thing - there is no time to invent it; the culmination and completion of the whole story is not planned - let it be written about what is burning, not waiting ... ”
Of course, the plot in the work is necessary. Tvardovsky knew and knows this very well, but in an effort to convey to the reader the “real truth” of the war, he polemically declared his rejection of the plot in the usual sense of the word.

There is no plot in war...
................
However, the truth does not hurt.

The poet emphasized the veracity and reliability of broad pictures of life by calling Vasily Terkin not a poem, but a “book about a fighter.” The word "book" in this popular sense sounds somehow special in a significant way, as a subject "serious, reliable, unconditional," says Tvardovsky.
The poem "Vasily Terkin" is an epic canvas. But lyrical motifs also sound powerful in it. Tvardovsky could call (and called) the poem "Vasily Terkin" his lyrics, because in this work for the first time the appearance of the poet himself, the features of his personality, were so vividly, diversely and strongly expressed.

The poem "Vasily Terkin" was written by Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky during the Great Patriotic War and was published chapter by chapter in various newspapers. This work supported the morale of the soldiers, gave them hope, inspired and, most importantly, it could be read from any chapter. This is due to the fact that each chapter in the poem is a separate story, which is full of deep patriotism, optimism, faith in the future.

The image of the main character Vasily Terkin, a simple Russian soldier, is an example human dignity, courage, love for the Motherland, honesty and selflessness. All these qualities of the hero are revealed in each chapter of the work, but, of course, only the study and analysis of the entire poem as a whole can give a complete picture of the character of the hero, of all his virtues.

Since the work was written during the war, it goes without saying that the main qualities of the hero, which the author focuses on, are selfless courage, heroism, a sense of duty and responsibility.

In the chapter “Crossing”, Vasily Terkin bravely agrees to swim across the icy river, and when he finds himself on the opposite bank, frozen and tired, he immediately begins to report, showing his responsibility and sense of duty:

Allow me to report...

The platoon on the right bank is alive and well

To spite the enemy!

In the chapter "Who shot?" the protagonist, instead of hiding in a trench like everyone else, bravely shoots down an enemy plane from a rifle, risking his life in the process.

The image of Vasily Terkin is multifaceted, he is not only a courageous soldier, but also a wonderful worker-craftsman. And we find confirmation of this in the chapter "Two Soldiers".

Terkin got up:

Or maybe, grandfather, she does not have a divorce?

He takes the saw himself - Come on ...

And in his hands she drank, for sure

Raised pike, Sharp back led.

The same thing happens with the clock, which stood for many years, and in the hands of Vasily it went again. To the old people, in whose house the hero manifests himself as a "jack of all trades", he has deep respect and reverence.

Name symbolism. The real, non-feuilleton Terkin, the hero of The Book of a Fighter, appeared in the first two chapters of Tvardovsky's book in September 1942. The front-line "biography" of Terkin is as follows: he begins to fight during the Finnish campaign, re-enters service in June 1941, retreats with the entire army, is surrounded several times, then goes on the offensive and ends his journey in the depths of Germany.

Vasily Terkin is a multifaceted image. He is a symbolic image, a man-people, a collective Russian type. It is no coincidence that nothing is said about his personal biography: they are, as it were, average. He is "a great hunter to live up to ninety years", a peaceful, civil man, a soldier by necessity. His usual life on the collective farm was interrupted by the war. War for him is a natural disaster, hot work. The whole poem is permeated with the dream of a peaceful life.

Already at the first mention, the surname Terkin clearly outlines the boundaries of character: Terkin means an experienced, grated person, "grated kalach", or, as the poem says, "a grated person". Compare, for example, with the Russian proverb: "Patience and work will grind everything," etc. This is the core of the name, the core of the image varies many times, is played out in the poem:

The image of Terkin is a generalized image, for all its realism and ordinariness. Tvardovsky endows his hero with a "general Russian" appearance, avoids portrait signs (this would make him overly individualized): "He was endowed with beauty / He was not excellent. / Not tall, not that small, / But a hero-hero." Terkin is a bright, unique personality, and at the same time he includes the features of many people, he seems to be repeated many times in others 1 . See, for example, the chapter "Terkin - Terkin": it turns out that there are two Terkins in the book. This is the hero of the book Vasily Ivanovich and his namesake Ivan. Duality emphasizes the generalizing nature of the protagonist. But their duality is not absolute: the second Terkin turns out to be red-haired, does not smoke, and his front-line profession is an armor-piercer. The situation is resolved by a "strict foreman":

Tvardovsky selects the most general, typical episodes of the war, rarely uses specific geographical names and exact chronological designations (the place and time of his book - field, forest, river, swamp, village, road, winter, spring, summer, autumn). The same is true for Terkin's military profession: in different situations he turns out to be either a signalman, or a shooter, or a scout. It is important that Terkin belongs to the most massive branch of the military - the infantry. The hero is an infantryman. "In it - the pathos of the infantry, the troops closest to the earth, to the cold, to fire and death," Tvardovsky wrote at the very beginning of his plan. Terkin is one of the laborers of the war, on whom the country rests, who bore the brunt of the war on their shoulders. The hero of Tvardovsky's poem is the hero of a specific war with the Germans, and at the same time there is something in him that brings him closer to the Russian soldier of all times. Tvardovsky himself always liked this idea about the deep national roots of his hero, and there are lines in the handwritten versions of the poem:

Tvardovsky paints the life of the war as a whole, but the overall picture of the war is made up of individual, very vivid and accurate details of the war. The concreteness and tangibility of the pictures drawn by Tvardovsky are greatly enhanced by the numerous and precise details of front-line life: in the parking lot, “water with ice rattled from a bucket into a smoky tank”; the telephone operator "blew into the receiver for order"; soldiers write letters "on a halt, by fire, on each other's backs, removing gloves with their teeth, in the wind in any frost," etc. The pictures of the war in the poem are always dynamic, alive, visually perceptible.

The system of rhymes used in relation to the name and surname of the hero also contributes to the achievement of generalization of the image of the protagonist. Tvardovsky uses rhymes that characterize the life of the army and the mood of the hero ("Terkin" - "bitter", "shag", "sayings", "in the tunic", "in the supply room", etc.). The most responsible in the poem is the rhyme "Vasily - Russia", repeated several times in the text, that is, it is emphasized that the hero is the embodiment of the heroism of the Russian people, representing all of Russia, all the people.

The image of Vasily Terkin is known to every Russian person. During the Great Patriotic War, the work of Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky called on the Russian soldier to fight for his homeland to the end. Main character poems became the personification of the simple Russian people.

Description

The hero of the work of A. T. Tvardovsky is not afraid to give own life for the well-being of their country. It is to her that all the actions of the hero are devoted. Terkin boldly and valiantly defends the honor of his Motherland. In all situations, he behaves like a real fighter, which is why the author called his work "a book about a fighter."

Despite all the exploits of Terkin, he is not a proud man, on the contrary, he is very modest: he does not need either fame or orders.

Terkin never loses heart, despite the fact that he saw really terrible and tragic pictures. The hero can be called an optimist. Vasily supports people in difficult times for everyone, not because he wants fame, but because he wants to defeat the enemy faster. Only by common efforts will this be done. And the emotional spirit of the soldiers is important for victory. Therefore, Terkin pays great attention to him.

Vasily Terkin is not only an excellent fighter, but also a good ringleader. The hero knows how to play the accordion, he sings and dances, that is, he amuses the people and tries to make them forget all the troubles and difficulties. This is the only way to survive in a war.

The meaning of the name of the hero

A. T. Tvardovsky endows his hero-"brother" speaking surname. The hero of the poem repeats to the soldiers: “We will endure. Let’s cross…”. A Russian person is strong in that he can endure and endure a lot. It is patience, according to the author, that will help protect and save the Motherland.

The author also mentions in the work that Terkin is "a man who has been worn out by life." He really saw a lot on his way: pain, suffering, and troubles. However, this did not break his character. He remained a cheerful and cheerful person.

The very name of Vasily Terkin emphasizes his closeness to the common people. It speaks of generalization and collectiveness.

Collective image

The author of "Vasily Terkin" wrote about the creation of his hero as follows: "It had to be a kind of cheerful, successful fighter, a conditional figure, popular print." The goal of A. T. Tvardovsky from the very beginning was to show a generalized image, an image that would contain all the most best qualities simple Russian people, ready to stand up for their homeland. The writer wanted that during the Great Patriotic War, every Russian soldier could see himself or his friend in the image of Vasily Terkin. The work of A. T. Tvardovsky was very popular in those days, because it motivated people to fight the enemy, readers saw a similarity with the main character, so they tried to be like him in everything, especially in courage and courage. Terkin inspired the Russian people to various feats.

The writer also speaks about the collective nature of the image in the narrative. Vasily Terkin "there is always in every company, and in every platoon." This quote emphasizes that Terkin is a completely "ordinary" guy, of which there were thousands.

This article, which will help write an essay on the topic “The Image of Vasily Terkin”, will consider the main character through his character, speaking name and collection of the image.

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