A small Christmas story "The Boy at Christ on the Christmas Tree" was written by F. I. Dostoevsky. It very much echoes the story of the great Danish storyteller G. H. Andersen "The Little Match Girl". If you think about them, then you immediately remember the terrible fate of children, guilty only of the fact that they are poor, and therefore deprived of all the joys that are due to them. Their destiny is unfulfilled dreams and suffering. Below will be a summary of "The Boy at Christ on the Christmas Tree" - a masterpiece of the Russian genius.
History of creation
After Fyodor Mikhailovich took his six-year-old daughter Lyubochka in 1876 to a merry children's ball and a beautiful Christmas tree on December 26, the next day he met a seven-year-old boy on the streets of St. Petersburg several times begging for alms. Such children are usually sent out into the street in any frost for money, and when they return, adults take everything from them to the penny and drink themselves unconscious. These contrasting impressions formed the basis of the work "The Boy at Christ on the Christmas Tree", which was printed at the end of January 1877.
Introduction
The story is in two parts. In the first, the author describes the children of factory workers. These poor fellows live in completely inhuman conditions, renting not a room, but only a corner. They cease to be people, driving away their young children in any weather to collect alms.
A child begging for alms called himself "a boy with a pen." Parents immediately drink away the money they bring. Sometimes, in order to laugh at a child, vodka is forcibly poured into his mouth, and from this poison, choking, he falls helplessly to the floor. When the boys grow up, they are sent to work in a factory, their money is taken from them and drunk again. To survive, children start stealing and quickly get used to cheating, without even realizing that they are committing a crime.
Plot plot
The novelist “seems” that he has composed a story about real events taking place somewhere. In his opinion, all events take place during severe frosts in a huge city. His hero, a boy of about five or six, woke up in a nasty, cold, smelly basement. We begin to retell the summary of "Christ's Boy on the Christmas Tree."
The child was very cold and hungry, but no one, not even the mother, who was lying seriously ill in oblivion, paid no attention to him. He entertained himself by exhaling air from his mouth, which turned into a small white cloud. So the whole day passed, during which he did not find a single crust of bread. The day ended, but no one lit the fire. The little boy, bewildered, tried to wake his mother, but for some reason she did not wake up and became cold, like walls.
Continuation of the story
Then he found his cap and groped out of the cellar. The boy came from a small town where the shutters were always locked in the evenings, but he was always given food. Oh, how he now wanted to eat! And here, on the wide bright streets, life is in full swing.
Outside the windows, he sees a large tree, a toy horse, cheerful children who run and play. This rich and beautiful world, which he had never seen before, arouses admiration in the boy. In the meantime, he was completely cold: his fingers turned red and stopped bending on his arms and legs. He cried and ran on. Suddenly, through the glass, he saw a table laden with pies, at which the ladies were sitting and treating everyone who came to them. Further, the summary of "The Boy at Christ's Tree" becomes even sadder. The little boy made his way into the house, but he was quickly escorted out, putting a penny into his stiff fingers, which he could not hold with them, and she rolled away. The little boy ran to no one knows where. He is both scared and sad. But suddenly he saw dolls in the window, dressed in beautiful multi-colored dresses, and next to them - an old violinist. All of a sudden our little one was having fun. But his joy was short-lived. This is reported by the summary of "The Boy at Christ on the Christmas Tree". An angry big boy flew at him and tore off his cap, kicked him with his foot. The baby fell and rolled. He was terribly frightened and ran into a yard and hid behind firewood. Suddenly he felt warm and warm and wanted to sleep.
Ending
Then he heard (this is how F. M. Dostoevsky continues his story “The Boy at Christ on the Christmas Tree”) the gentle voice of his mother. But another quiet voice called him to the Christmas tree.
Someone bent over him, picked him up, and then a miracle happened: everything shone, a smart Christmas tree appeared, and girls and boys ran around, began to kiss him and fly with him. And mom is standing on the sidelines and smiling. The boy wants to tell everyone about the dolls he saw and find out where he is now. "Girls and boys, who are you?" - he asks his new friends and learns from them that they all died and became angels, and for them Christ always arranges a Christmas tree on this day. They are all happy here, just like their mothers are happy.
The final
In the morning, the janitors behind the woodpile found the frozen corpse of a little boy. They also found his dead mother. It always seems to the author that all this could have happened in reality, but he does not know what to say about the events in heaven. After all, it is no coincidence that he is a writer, he could come up with everything - such a profession.
Story characters
The main character of the story is a nameless boy, whom the author deliberately did not give a name, because his name is legion. Such a terrible story can happen to anyone. This kind and defenseless kid can later grow up and become the “boy with a pen” from the first part of the story. But for now, this is an unfortunate, hungry and frozen child that no one needs. Before us will pass all the main characters of the "Christ's Boy on the Tree".
To him, with poorly hidden malice or complete indifference, are the inhabitants of the basement, who are renting corners: a completely insensible drunken factory worker who is fast asleep, and an old woman embittered from rheumatic pains.
A policeman tries not to notice him on the festive street, deliberately turning away.
The kid is kicked out just before Christmas, instead of being fed and warmed by the rich ladies. They thus violate Russian Christmas and Christmas traditions.
"Christ's boy on the Christmas tree": analysis
If in the first part of the story we are presented with a real rough and cruel world, then in the second there is a mixture of reality and a fantastic, illusory story, which are opposed in two ways. What does the analysis say? The boy near Christ on the Christmas tree, only after dying and going to heaven, did he know happiness, kindness and mercy. In life, he saw only the world behind the glass of shining windows, where everyone rejoices and has fun, eats tasty and satisfying food and receives gifts.
In addition, he saw that there is a beautiful puppet world in which pupae are opposed to living, callous, soulless people. A kid who freezes on the streets of a big city is not interesting or needed by a single person. This is the complete bitter truth that F. M. Dostoevsky reveals. He emphasizes at the end of the story that there are a lot of children on Christ's Christmas tree who died without knowing kindness and mercy.
The writer wants to reach people's hearts by writing the story "The Boy at Christ's Tree". Dostoevsky with his fairy tale calls for help to all disadvantaged children. Unfortunate and abandoned, and therefore the dead children of him find peace and rest only in heaven.
"Christ's boy on the Christmas tree": reviews
Every single modern reader highly recommend reading this work. It carries a huge semantic load, has a great moral and moral significance. This touching and sad story invites everyone who has had a good life to look back so that other people's misfortunes echo in their hearts with pain. Readers believe that the work is useful to discuss with children who grow up without grief, whose wishes are often fulfilled. They should know that in our time there are orphanages where children do not live too badly, but they lack love and affection, real family life, their own corner. We must teach ourselves and our children to appreciate what everyone has, not to complain about life. Some readers regret that this work is not passed at school.
F. M. Dostoevsky himself read this work in public more than once and always evoked an emotional response from the audience.
Shortly before the new year of 1876, he and his daughter visited the Christmas tree in the club of artists, and then visited the children's colony. Around the same time, the writer often met a beggar boy on the street. New Year's Eve impressions soon appeared in the form of stories in the Writer's Diary. One of them is called "Christ's boy on the Christmas tree".
A small work of criticism was received enthusiastically, some even called it a masterpiece. The author himself loved this story, and read it more than once at literary evenings. I liked the tragic story about a six-year-old boy and readers. From 1885 to 1901 the story was published 22 times as a separate edition.
genre works can be defined as a "Christmas story" characteristic of Russian literature. Its main features are: a description of a kind and wonderful event that changed life for the better, the presence of a little boy among the heroes is a reminder of the newborn Jesus. The time of action is Christmas or Christmas time. The story must have a happy ending.
All conditions in the work were met, except for a good ending. Here Dostoevsky did not consider it necessary to embellish reality. Indeed, in his other stories about children, small beggars beg on the streets, and then often end up in colonies. It is likely that such a fate awaited the hero of this story, if he did not freeze in the street.
According to tradition, on the eve of the holidays, people build a nativity scene, which symbolizes the cave where Jesus was born. After all, there was no place for the Mother of God in the city. Dostoevsky exaggerates, but the parallel can be clearly traced: on one of the streets before Christmas there is a den-basement with a dead woman who came to the city and did not find a place for herself or her child here.
On Christmas days in Russia it is customary to help the poor and destitute. This tradition is followed by representatives of all walks of life. But a freezing baby on the streets of a big city does not meet with sympathy.
The death of a six-year-old child from hunger and cold is a crime of the whole society. The old woman in the basement, and the policeman, and the saleswomen in the candy store, and another boy who hit our hero and ripped off his cap are also guilty. Dostoevsky emphasizes several times that this fiction is quite real. Moreover, the case is not isolated. On the Christmas tree near Christ, the little hero meets many boys and girls whose fates are ruined by the indifference of adults.
Dostoevsky does not name the city where this tragic event takes place, although from the descriptions one can easily guess the Petersburg flavor. For the same purpose, he does not tell the name of the boy, emphasizing that this can happen to everyone and everywhere.
Dostoevsky helps us to look at the world through the eyes of a child, to feel his feelings. For greater immersion in the children's world, the writer uses words in a diminutive form: "chrysalis", "violin", "penny", "robe" etc.
Compositionally"Christ's Boy on the Christmas Tree" is built on contrasts. A terrible basement with a dead woman gives way to brightly lit pre-holiday streets, where everything is rich, beautiful and causes children's delight. But very quickly the child realizes that this whole wonderful world with sweet pies, toys and elegant Christmas trees is hidden from him behind thick glass. He is superfluous here, and the dolls in the windows are more alive than people with a hardened soul.
Then again the contrast is the Christmas tree near Christ, where the boy is his, he is loved and accepted. Nearby are the same children, his unfortunate mother smiles, and Christ is very kind. The poor boy did not find sympathy and love on earth, but only in a dream, in the Kingdom of Heaven. The parallels with the Christmas biblical story draw the reader's attention to the fact that people are just as cold-hearted and cruel as they were two thousand years ago.
Dostoevsky more than once turned in his works to children's tragedies, to the theme of the poor and the destitute. He wanted every person to awaken a conscience, to awaken responsibility for what is happening, so that people would not be indifferent.
- "Crime and Punishment", analysis of the novel
- "Idiot", analysis of the novel
- Analysis of the images of the main characters in the novel "Crime and Punishment"
- "The Brothers Karamazov", a summary of the chapters of Dostoevsky's novel
Samsonova Anastasia
Through all the work of F.M. Dostoevsky passes the thought of children, of their early impressions, deceived expectations. The writer was sure of the purity and sinlessness of the child's soul and even insisted on this:
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Research
"Christ's boy on the Christmas tree"
as a Christmas story in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky
completed by a 7th grade student "A"
high school number 4
Samsonova Anastasia.
Through all the work of F.M. Dostoevsky passes the thought of children, of their early impressions, deceived expectations. The writer was sure of the purity and sinlessness of the child's soul and even insisted on this:
"Listen, we should not exalt ourselves over children, we are worse than them. And if we teach them something to make them better, then they teach us a lot and also make us better by our mere contact with them."
Relevance
Among the "humiliated and insulted" heroes of F.M. Dostoevsky, children suffering without guilt, punished without crime are especially distinguished. It is this theme of childhood suffering that sounds in the Christmas story"Christ's boy on the Christmas tree". In the work, the image of childhood is mournful - "the child is crying." Children's tears are perceived here as the result of the unrighteous, evil life of adults. And only the genre of the Christmas story allows you to escape from the everyday bustle, human indifference, look into the world of the wonderful, remind you of kindness and mercy. At present, the interrupted tradition of publishing Christmas stories is actively returning, which is the reason for the relevance of our study.
F.M. Dostoevsky was one of the first to talk about homeless children. in the story"Boy with a Pen"associated with the story"Christ's boy on the Christmas tree"The writer focused on the problem of the future of such children. Here, F.M. Dostoevsky proved himself to be a prophet. The problems identified in two works are relevant at the present time. Statistics give terrible numbers:in today's Russiatwo million street children,tens of thousands of juvenile delinquents.Drug addiction among children has become the norm. But children are the future of Russia.
The purpose of the research work
Consider the story "The Boy at Christ on the Christmas Tree" as a Christmas story.
Object of studyis the story "The Boy at Christ on the Christmas Tree" and related to it - "The Boy with the Pen".
Subject of research is the specificity of the manifestation of the genre of the Christmas story in the work under study.
Based on the object, subject and purpose of the course work, we have formulatedthe following tasks:
to identify the features of the history of the emergence of the genre of the Christmas story, to determine its genre features;
determine the place of the story in the "Christmas tradition" and the context of F.M. Dostoevsky's work.
Christmas story (Christmas story) is a literary genre that belongs to the category of calendar literature and is characterized by certain specifics in comparison with the traditional genre of the story.
With all the variety of holiday stories, the main thing was preserved - a special, Christmas worldview. The stories contained dreams of a good and joyful life, of generous and selfless souls, of a merciful attitude towards each other, of the victory of good over evil.
In the holy storyLeskov "Pearl necklace"the hero-narrator discusses the features of this genre: “It is absolutely required from the Christmas story that it be timed to coincide with the events of the Christmas evening - from Christmas to Epiphany, that it be somewhat fantastic, have some kind of morality, at least like a refutation of a harmful prejudice, and finally - so that it ends without fail cheerfully. The researchers add that the latter is not always necessary: there are stories with sad and tragic or dramatic endings.
The forerunners of the literary Christmas story wereoral histories or tales,usually told in the villages on Christmastide evenings - twelve days after the Nativity of Christ until Christmas Eve on the feast of the Epiphany. Christmas time was considered one of the largest and noisiest holidays of peasant life, combining violent fun and a person’s fear of the forces of darkness. According to popular ideas, evil spirits acquired special power at that time and freely walked the earth, right up to Baptism. Christmas stories usually told about incidents with fortune-tellers (meeting with a betrothed) or about meetings with evil spirits.
The cult of the House, the cult of the Hearth, so comfortably blazing in the living room and opposing the street bad weather - all this was well known to the Russian reader from the works of Charles Dickens, rightfully recognized as the founder of the "Christmas" genre. "The ideal of comfort is a purely English ideal; it is the ideal of an English Christmas, but most of all, the ideal of Dickens.""Christmas Stories" ("Christmas Carol in Prose", "Bells", "Cricket on the Stove")The writer was translated in Russia almost immediately after his appearance. Played an important role"Lord of the Fleas" and "The Nutcracker" Hoffmann, as well as someAndersen's fairy tales, especially "Christmas Tree" and "The Little Matchmaker".
One of the main motifs in the Christmas (Christmas) story is a motif that has a Christian basis.- this is the motif of the "divine child"- a baby sent to earth by God for the salvation of mankind.
The motif of the "divine child" is clearly seen in the storyN.P. Wagner "Christ's child" (1888).A foundling found and rescued, this baby on Christmas Eve symbolizes the idea of love and mercy.
The Christmas story contains moments that make it related to the Christmas tradition. Thisthe role of the supernatural, the miracle that happens at Christmas - the second motif of Christmas (Christmas) stories.It should be noted here the role of conversation, which often serves as a frame for the main plot, as well as the tendency to sudden narrative moves that make the work entertaining.
The Christmas story always contains a certainmoral lesson, parable, awakens hope and love in the hearts of readers.
The third motif of the Christmas (Christmas) story - this is the motive of "moral rebirth". According to Dickens, children are the best way to contribute to the moral revival, the re-education of other characters.
In the middle of the XIX century. there are many so-called"Christmas tree texts".They can be classified as follows:
1 ) A cycle of stories, the center of which is the Christmas tree itself - the heroine of the festive celebration.Here the researchers point to the influence of the fairy taleG.H. Andersen "Yolka", the plot center of which is the idea of family, mercy, forgiveness.
2 ) A group of stories dating back to the European tradition. They are clearly influenced by the plot of Andersen's fairy tale "The Girl with Sulfur Matches" and F. Rückert's poem "The Orphan's Tree". These are the stories: M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin "Yolka"(included in the "Provincial essays")F.M. Dostoevsky "The boy at Christ on the Christmas tree", K.M. Stanyukovich "Christmas Night", "Yolka".
Thus, the genre of the Christmas story in Russia arose before the Christmas one. The forerunners of the first were oral histories or bylichki told on Christmas Eve. The Christmas story is more closely connected with Christmas, the first stories of this type appeared in Europe. The English writer Charles Dickens is recognized as the ancestor of this genre. The indispensable finale in his stories was the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, the moral rebirth of heroes. The Christmas story can be recognized by the following features:
chronological confinement;
the presence of an element of the miraculous;
the presence of a narrator;
the presence of a child among the heroes;
the presence of a moral lesson, morality.
According to the wife of F.M. Dostoevsky, A.G. Dostoevskaya, "The Boy at Christ on the Christmas Tree" was one of those works of art that the writer most valued at the end of his life.
in the story F.M. Dostoevsky "The boy at Christ on the Christmas tree"There are all of the above signs. So, its action takes place on Christmas Eve. The image of the protagonist reflects the motif of the "divine child": the infant Christ, not accepted by the world. The image of Christ is indicated by the age of the hero and his clothes: he is six years old or even less, he is dressed in some kind of robe.This is how the infant Christ appears in many Orthodox icons.The motif of the "divine child" connects the story under study with other Christmas works("The Cricket Behind the Hearth" by Charles Dickens, "Christ's Child" by Wagner)where the child symbolizes the idea of goodness and mercy.
The story "The Boy at Christ on the Christmas Tree" contains all the genre features of the Christmas story. Its action takes place in two time layers: in real and in fantasy. And if reality turns into a tragedy for the hero (a child freezes on Christmas Eve). This tragic denouement makes the story related to other Christmas stories:G.H. Andersen "Girl with Sulfur Matches" and F. Ruckert "Orphan Tree", in which, according to the plot, the children-heroes find happiness, warmth, comfort in the other world.
The fantastic plan of the depicted introduces an element of the miraculous. Motif of the miraculous associated in the story with the surreal, with the dying vision of a freezing boy. The miracle here is represented by the appearance of Jesus Christ.
In one of the episodes from the life of street children, the cold indifference of those around them is shown.. "One of them, - Dostoevsky points out, - spent the night for several nights in a row with one janitor in some kind of basket, and he never noticed him. "The author did not accidentally use the imperfect form of the verb" did not notice."Didn't notice" is a one-time action. The imperfective verb emphasizes the constancy of the action; "didn't notice" expresses the indifference of people to the fate of the child as an ordinary fact. As Dostoevsky believed, criminal indifference is the cause of the crimes of children. This is what the following sentence says:Of course they become thieves." In this way, Children's crimes are a consequence of adult crimes.Such a society awaits in the future savagery, ignorance of what a home, family, Motherland, God are, and this is what holds the life of mankind together, what it stands on.
In the city in which the boy finds himself, there is an eccentric boiling of life, selfishness, coldness, isolation of everyone from each other, so the feeling of loneliness and a sense of fuss around does not leave the one who finds himself in this vast space:"And longing takes him, because he suddenly felt so lonely and terribly ...". The result of universal disunity is indifference to children's suffering:"The peace officer passed by and turned away so as not to notice the boy."
The tragic ending separates the story under study from the context of the entire "Christmas tradition", where goodness and mercy must be accomplished on earth.There is no motive of "moral rebirth of heroes" in the story, which also separates it from many Christmas pieces. Here, in the image of a hero, no one wants to recognize the baby Christ. The child is met with surprising indifference on the part of adults. And only Christ is ready to open his arms for the "humiliated and offended" boy.
"Heroes-children of Dostoevsky are able to soften callous, criminal souls, to revive the holy and saving feelings hidden in the depths of the soul of every person.According to the writer, children live as "a kind of instruction to us", they are God's messengers on earth. The author embodies this idea, revealing the amazing influence of a child on an adult. Children remind of the possibility of rebirth. "There is no such motive for the rebirth of a callous soul in the story" The Boy at Christ on the Christmas Tree ". Here the hero meets, as noted earlier, with amazing callousness and indifference to him on the part of adults. In this, Dostoevsky's work diverges from the traditional Christmas (Christmas) stories, where the image of a child reminded an adult of something good and eternal.F. M. Dostoevsky seems to want to say that one should not forget about the suffering of children not only on earth, but also in heaven.
Conclusion
In the story, a special psychologism is created, transmitted through the depicted stream of consciousness of the hero.
The story "Christ's Boy on the Christmas Tree" is associated, on the one hand, with the theme of the humiliated and offended, and on the other hand, with the philosophical and symbolic problem of the undeserved and unjustifiable, innocent suffering of children in the novel "The Brothers Karamazov", wherenot a single tear of a child can cost the happiness of the whole world.
Problems of F. M. Dostoevsky's stories. In the artistic world of Fyodor Dostoevsky, the child is endowed with exceptional powers: he seems to act as a universal and incorruptible judge, the defenseless and therefore easily vulnerable conscience of mankind, serves to unmistakably check what is good and what is evil, where truth lives and where lies lie, for reliable determination of the state of health of society, to establish the correct diagnosis if society is sick or if something is not quite right in it. Dostoevsky is convinced that by the way children feel - the tomorrow of mankind, one can rightly judge the degree of justice of the existing world order.
And I must say, Dostoevsky's picture of the existing world order is not very bright. In Dostoevsky's work, there are notes of happy children - those who would live in a normal family, with kind parents. under excellent conditions and would not encounter the vulgarity of the surrounding world.
“Motochka Nezvanova” tells the story of the childhood years of Netochka Nezvanova, a girl “from the bottom”. Netochka lived in a closet with her mother and stepfather. Netochka's mother, who had been ill for a long time, died, her stepfather went mad and ran away from her.
And Prince Xm took the girl to his big and beautiful house. The prince's daughter was struck by Netochka's dignity, from nowhere, and her zeal, her ability to learn.
The prince's family leaves, and Inaccurate moves in with their relative. Here the girl is faced with the injustice of life. The woman is very kind and caring, the child likes her. But her husband does not inspire affection. And the girl, having accidentally stumbled upon old letters, understands that this family has its own secret. Already married, Alexandra Mikhailovna fell in love with an "unequal", a petty official.
Society turned away from the criminal, her husband protected her, but now he is diligently spoiling her life, mocking her. The girl is amazed by the complexity of this life, the ruthlessness of the unfortunate woman's husband.
Another story by Dostoevsky - "The Boy at Christ's Tree" - tells the story of the unfortunate fate of a child. The little boy, who lived with his mother in a cold basement, walked through the city on Christmas Eve.
He admired the colorful shop windows, was surprised and admired the well-dressed children. No one paid attention to the child, only the older boy frightened the poor fellow, rushing after him. From fear, the boy huddled in the doorway, where he fell asleep, freezing in the cold. And he dreamed of a Christmas holiday at Christ's: "Christ always has a Christmas tree on this day for little children who do not have their own Christmas tree there ...".
The boy learned that all these children are the same as himself, only someone died in infancy, someone was thrown in a basket. Christ Himself is among the children.
The next morning, the janitors found a frozen, dead boy behind firewood. They also searched for his mother, who had died earlier. "Both met with the Lord God in Heaven."
On the pages of Dostoevsky's stories there is a lot of poignant melancholy and sadness, a lot of piercing light breaking through the dam of sharp conflicts, human suffering and passions, a lot of encouraging warmth and tenderness, a lot of faith in a better future.
The solution to the problem of humanism, which every time sharply arises at the turn of epochs, the testing of everything and everything for humanity, for Dostoevsky is inextricably linked with the depiction of children.
The extremity and vulnerability of Dostoevsky's humanistic idea lies in the fact that, constantly stating the presence of evil in contemporary society and rightly arguing that small creatures should not cry and bear responsibility for the sins of adults, he did not give a clear answer, what to do when suffering already spilled over the earth, when children are already dying, is there any way out of the situation that has arisen through the fault of indifferent humanity.
It should be noted that the children's theme, which is present in all of Dostoevsky's work, is solved by him mainly in a symbolic, extremely generalized way, determined both by the specifics of philosophical prose and by the fact that the ideal fostered by Dostoevsky was too far removed from the Russian reality of that time.
The writer's "child" is a universal symbol; for him it is only important that these are the sons of the humiliated and insulted, offended and deprived.
According to Dostoevsky, the "non-Bar child" should be a measure of the surrounding life, a kind of reference scale in assessing historical progress.
Despite the well-known abstraction of his symbol, dictated by the highest humanistic considerations, the novelist constantly updates it by introducing some distinctive signs, catchy details.
But the symbol remains a symbol, besides, it has a religious connotation.
The intonation with which almost all the stories about a crying child are sustained is also characteristic, chosen in order to evoke a surge of compassion and sympathy in the reader, in order to excite his callous heart.
The fate of the unfortunate children is dedicated to the story "The Boy at Christ on the Christmas Tree". This work can be attributed to the genre of the so-called Christmas stories. The tradition of the genre is to awaken good feelings in the souls of people on the eve of the bright holiday of the Nativity of Christ. Usually Christmas stories certainly ended with a happy ending. But in the story "The Boy at Christ on the Christmas Tree" the writer deviates from tradition. His little nameless hero does not receive a Christmas present from the people around him, but finds happiness and rest on the Christmas tree near Christ, that is, in the Kingdom of Heaven. At the very beginning, the author emphasizes that he is telling a fictitious story: “... after all, I myself know for sure that I composed, but I keep imagining that it happened somewhere and sometime, it happened just on the eve of Christmas, in some a huge city and in a terrible frost. And in the further narration, he emphasizes that in fact this story did not exist, it was as if the writer had a dream: “It seems to me that there was a boy in the basement, but still very small, about six years old or even less. This boy woke up in the morning in a damp and cold basement. He was dressed in some kind of dressing gown and was trembling ... He really wanted to eat. However, there is no one to feed the child. “He got drunk somewhere in the hallway, but he didn’t find a crust anywhere, and once in the tenth he already came up to wake his mother. He felt terrible, at last, in the darkness: evening had already begun long ago, but no fire was lit. Feeling his mother's face, he was surprised that she did not move at all and became as cold as a wall. The child does not understand that his mother has died, he only feels that she will not give him food, and then he goes out into the street in desperation, where it is very cold.
“Lord, I so want to eat, at least a piece of some kind,” the baby dreams in vain, “and it suddenly hurt my fingers ...” But there is no one to take care of him, no one needs him: “The peace officer passed by and turned away so as not to notice boy."
Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the city are preparing to celebrate Christmas. Here the boy sees in one of the houses “... a large glass, and behind the glass there is a room, and in the room there is a tree up to the ceiling; this is a Christmas tree, and there are so many lights on the Christmas tree, how many golden bills and apples, and all around are dolls, little horses; and children are running around the room, smart, clean, laughing and playing, and eating, and drinking something. But smart, clean children have nothing to do with a hungry freezing child. And then they inflict an undeserved insult on him: “... a big angry boy stood nearby and suddenly cracked him on the head, tore off his cap, and gave him a leg from below. The boy rolled to the ground, then they screamed, he was stupefied, jumped up and ran, ran, and suddenly he ran he didn’t know where, into the doorway, into someone else’s yard, and sat down for firewood: “They won’t find it here, and it’s dark.” From this point on, both the tone and setting of the story change.
In a strange yard, the child found peace:
“Come to my Christmas tree, boy,” a quiet voice suddenly whispered above him. He thought it was all his mother, but no, not her; Who called him, he does not see, but someone bent over him and hugged him in the darkness, and he held out his hand to him and ... and suddenly, - oh, what a light! Oh what a tree! And this is not a Christmas tree, he has not yet seen such trees! Where is he now: everything glitters, everything shines and all around are dolls - but no, they are all boys and girls, only so bright, they all circle around him, fly, they all kiss him, take him, carry him with them, yes and he himself flies, and he sees: his mother is looking and laughing at him joyfully ... ”And we guess that it was Christ who called the baby to himself:“ Christ always has a Christmas tree for little children that don’t have their own Christmas tree there ... “We understand that the poor orphan died of cold and hunger, that his soul flew off to another world. There he saw children like himself: “... these boys and girls were all the same as he, children, but some froze still in their baskets, in which they were thrown on the stairs to the doors of St. Petersburg officials, others suffocated some of them died at the withered breasts of their mothers, during the Samara famine, the fourth suffocated in third-class carriages from the stench, and yet they are here now, they are all now like angels, everything is with Christ, and He himself is in the midst of them, and stretches out his hands to them, and blesses them ... "And in earthly life," ... the next morning, the janitors found a small corpse of a boy who ran in and froze for firewood ... "The story ends with the author's explanation with readers:" And why did I write such a story ? .. It seems to me and it seems to me that all this could really happen - that is, what happened in the basement and behind the firewood, and there about Christ’s Christmas tree - I don’t know how to tell you whether it could happen, or not? That's why I'm a novelist, to invent. These last words contain the bitter irony of the writer. He denounces a society that leaves dozens and hundreds of unfortunate little children, deprived of parental care, to the mercy of fate, and only Christ can console them and lead them to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky wrote this Christmas story for children to show how unfairly our life is arranged - there are poor, beggars in it, and there are rich. He wanted to show the suffering of a child; showed how difficult it is to live in the world when you are starving and freezing.
Dostoevsky was especially worried about the situation of disadvantaged children. He owns the famous phrase that no bright future is worth the tears of one child.
For Dostoevsky it was important: if a child suffers and cries, it means that something is wrong in this world, it means that our life is unfair, incorrectly arranged. But it is so important that every person remembers his childhood with love and joy. Then he himself will be fairer, kinder, more merciful.
Christmas stories have a happy ending, and the boy is dead. The end of the story is by no means a happy one.
It is Dostoevsky who invites you, the reader, to decide whether the ending is happy or not. If you believe in Christ's Christmas tree, then it's happy, if not, it's another matter. Believe it or not, that's what matters.
The ending seemed to me both happy and tragic: after all, the boy died, but, on the other hand, he got on the Christmas tree, he felt happy.
Mercy… What does this concept mean? To whom can this quality be attributed to their heroes of the story? Mercy is doing something good to another person, helping him. And this can rightly be attributed to the hero of the story - Christ ("quiet voice").
What is "mercy"?
Mercy - willingness to help someone out of compassion, philanthropy. Compassion - pity, sympathize.
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF RUSSIA
Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution
higher professional education
"ASTRAKHAN STATE UNIVERSITY"
Entrepreneurial Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology
Faculty of Pedagogy, Social Work and Physical Education
Department of Pedagogy and Subject Technologies
Analysis of the Christmas story
Dostoevsky "The Boy at Christ on the Christmas Tree"
Performed:
1st year student in the direction
training "Pedagogical education"
profile of preparation "Preschool education"
group DO-11 s/o
Alieva G.M.
Checked:
Candidate of Philology,
Associate Professor of the Department of Literature
Gromova T.Yu.
