My impression of the story “The Last Leaf. My impressions of the story

I am used to thinking of Tolstoy as the creator of major, epoch-making works. After all, this writer is known throughout the world as the author of “War and Peace,” “Anna Karenina,” and “Resurrection.” However, towards the end of his life, Tolstoy turned to writing stories. The work “After the Ball” is one of the writer’s most famous stories.

It is known that the writer learned about the incident that formed the basis of “After the Ball” in his youth. While a student at Kazan University, Tolstoy heard from his friends about the cruel punishment that took place during Lent. The impression of this terrible story sank into the writer’s soul so much that he remembered it for many years.

I can't say that I liked this story. He makes a very painful impression. Its main part, describing the punishment of a fugitive Tatar, leaves a feeling of horror. The same melancholy horror that the narrator experienced after everything he had seen: “Meanwhile, there was an almost physical melancholy in my heart, reaching the point of nausea, such that I stopped several times, and it seemed to me that I was about to vomit with all that horror, which entered me from this sight.”

Reading the first part of the story, which describes the ball, you are filled with a light and bright feeling. You experience a feeling of peace and happiness that only Tolstoy could create in his works. On the pages of his best works, which describe family comfort and home holidays, this warm, wonderful mood is always present. In “After the Ball,” the narrator at the ball is as happy as a young man in love who knows no troubles in life can be. Ivan Vasilyevich enjoyed his youth, his beauty, his love.

Tolstoy psychologically subtly describes the state of the narrator: “Just as it happens that after one drop poured out of a bottle, its contents pour out in large streams, so in my soul, love for Varenka freed all the ability of love hidden in my soul. At that time I embraced the whole world with my love. I loved the hostess in the feronniere, with her Elizabethan bust, and her husband, and her guests, and her lackeys, and even the engineer Anisimov, who was sulking at me. At that time I felt a kind of enthusiastic and tender feeling towards her father, with his home boots and a gentle smile similar to hers.”

How beautiful is the description of Varenka’s dance with her father! The father, already overweight, but still handsome and fit, cannot get enough of his beautiful daughter. Their dance speaks of the love of father and daughter, a strong family, and the warmth of emotional relationships. All this was so clearly visible that at the end of the dance the guests applauded the colonel and Varenka. The narrator felt that he, too, loved Pyotr Vladislavich. How could it be otherwise: after all, he is the father of his beloved Varenka!

The description of the ball leaves a warm and bright impression. You are happy for the hero, you feel good and light at heart. And what a contrast the second part of the story, which is the main part of the work, sounds like! The feeling of fear and horror approaches gradually. Its first sign is music, “harsh and bad,” as well as something large, black, approaching the narrator.

A passing blacksmith also witnesses the Tatar's punishment. His reaction confirms the inhumanity and nightmarishness of what is happening. On the field, through two rows of soldiers, a Tatar, naked to the waist, was driven away. He was tied to the guns of two soldiers who led him through the line. Each of the soldiers had to hit the fugitive. The Tatar's back turned into a bloody piece of meat. The fugitive begged to end his torment: “At each blow, the punished, as if in surprise, turned his face, wrinkled with suffering, in the direction from which the blow fell, and, baring his white teeth, repeated some of the same words. Only when he was very close did I hear these words. He did not speak, but sobbed: “Brothers, have mercy. Brothers, have mercy." But the soldiers knew no mercy.

The colonel watched everything that happened, strictly following the Tatar. The narrator recognized this colonel as Varenka's father, who pretended not to know Ivan Vasilyevich. The colonel not only observed what was happening, but made sure that the soldiers did not “smear” and hit with full force.

And this happened on the first day of Lent! Without a doubt, all these soldiers, not to mention the colonel, considered themselves true Christians. I’m not saying that such mockery of a person is not Christian at all. But do this during Lent, when all people remember the torment of Christ! Or do the soldiers believe that a Tatar is not a person because he is of a different faith?

The first feeling that the narrator experienced was universal shame for everyone: for these people, for himself. How can this happen in the world, and what needs to be done to prevent this from happening again? These questions remain in your head after reading the story. But, in my opinion, these are eternal questions that have tormented people for many centuries and will always torment.

The narrator decided them about himself: he simply withdrew. Ivan Vasilyevich decided never to serve, so as not to be involved in such crimes against his soul. Or rather, it was an unconscious decision. This was the dictate of Ivan Vasilyevich’s soul, the most correct in his conditions, in my opinion.

I don’t know if I liked L.N.’s story. Tolstoy "After the Ball". I can only say with confidence that he did not leave me indifferent. And one more thing: I want my future children to read it.

“French Lessons,” created by the writer in 1973, made a very strong impression on me. First of all, this work made me think about how sometimes cruel and unfair life can be, and how important it is that there are still kind people in it who are able to come to the aid of their neighbors at the right time.

Such a person in the work is the French school teacher Lidiya Mikhailovna. Realizing that one of her students is in a difficult situation, this young woman decides to help and support the boy.

The life of the main character of the story is indeed very difficult and joyless. The boy grows up in the harsh post-war era, when hunger and poverty reign in the country. At best, he eats only bread and potatoes, and at worst, he drinks only a glass of boiling water for dinner. Buying milk for the hero is a real holiday, since this drink allows him to finally experience the long-awaited “full sweetness”.

But in the boy’s life, in addition to constant hunger and poverty, there are many other unpleasant things. He early has to learn about human meanness, cruelty and betrayal. The yard boys severely beat the hero only because he was able to get ahead in his business and is now honestly beating them in a game of chance and does not want to put up with their cheating: “They beat me in turn, one and two... Someone third, a little one.” and angry, kicked me in the legs..."

At that moment, when the boy is already completely desperate and is thinking about quitting his studies in order to return to his native village, teacher Lidia Mikhailovna comes to his aid. This woman does a very noble deed with incredible ease, perseverance and grace.

Through several trials and errors, she finally finds an approach to her student and begins to play “wall” with him at home. The teacher does this only to allow the child to honestly win money from her and buy food for themselves with it.

It seems to me that this act, despite its outward immorality, is highly moral, since it was impossible to force the boy to accept help in any other way. He refused the dinner offered by the teacher and returned to the woman the food that she sent him.

Lidia Mikhailovna understood perfectly well that by playing a gambling game with a schoolboy, she was risking her job, but this did not stop her. The woman had to pay a high price for her nobility, because, upon learning about the incident, the school director fired the teacher. And this plot twist of the story also evokes a strong emotional response in me, since life can indeed be very cruel to the most noble, honest and pure people.

But nevertheless, the ending of the work makes me again experience bright and joyful feelings, since goodness and justice triumph in it. Lidia Mikhailovna, even after parting with her pupil, continues to help him: she sends the boy a parcel with real Kuban apples, which he had previously only seen in pictures.

M. M. Zoshchenko was born in Poltava, in the family of a poor artist. He did not graduate from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University and volunteered for the front. In his autobiographical article, Zoshchenko wrote that after the revolution he “wandered through many places in Russia. He was a carpenter, went to the animal trade on Novaya Zemlya, was an apprentice shoemaker, served as a telephone operator, a policeman, was a search agent, a card player, a clerk, an actor, and again served at the front as a volunteer - in the Red Army.” The years of two wars and revolutions are a period of intense spiritual growth for the future writer, the formation of his literary and aesthetic convictions.

Mikhail Mikhailovich was a continuer of the traditions of Gogol, early Chekhov, Leskov. And based on them, he became the creator of an original comic novel. The urban tradesman of the post-revolutionary period and the petty clerk are the writer’s constant heroes. He writes about the comical manifestations of the petty and limited everyday interests of a simple city dweller, about the living conditions of the post-revolutionary period. The author-narrator and Zoshchenko's characters speak a colorful and broken language. Their speech is rude, stuffed with clerical sayings, “beautiful” words, often empty, devoid of content. The author himself said that “he writes concisely. The phrases are short. Available to the poor."

The story “Galosh” is a vivid example of the comic short story genre. The heroes of the story remind us of the heroes of Chekhov's stories. This is a simple man, but we don’t learn anything about his talent, genius or hard work, like Leskov’s heroes. Other actors are employees of government agencies. These people deliberately delay the resolution of a trivial issue, which indicates their indifference to people and the uselessness of their work. What they do is called red tape. But our hero admires the work of the apparatus: “I think the office works great!”

Is it possible to find a positive hero in the story? All heroes cause us contempt. How pathetic are their experiences and joys! “Don’t let the goods go to waste!” And the hero sets out to search for the “almost brand new” galoshes lost on the tram: worn “for the third season”, with a frayed back, without a flap, “heel... almost missing.” For a hero, a week of work is not considered a drag. So what is considered red tape then? And issuing certificates of lost galoshes for some is

We cannot call this story humorous, since humor presupposes fun and goodwill. In the same story, sadness and frustration seep through the laughter. The characters are rather depicted as caricatures. By ridiculing evil, the author shows us what we should not be.

The best impression is always made by those works in which the characters can set a good example for the reader. Literature and reading have a lot of useful things: it is interesting, educational and very exciting.

The story “The Last Leaf” by O. Henry contains an amazing example of human sincere and genuine kindness, wonderful empathy and desire to help. It tells about creative people who are always guided primarily not by their minds, but by their bright emotional impulses. This is why their behavior from the outside looks so beautiful and impressive. The old artist Berman had not painted anything worthwhile for a long time, but still hoped to create a real masterpiece. The right time for this occurred when Berman's neighbor, a young woman named Jones, became very ill and found herself on the verge of life and death.

The girl was so afraid of her own weakness that she decided that she would die very soon - when the last leaf fell from the tree that stood outside the window. The girl spent days and nights waiting for the leaf to fall and her own death, but the leaf still did not fall, every day instilling hope and faith in Jones’ own recovery. In the end, faith in the best in the girl’s soul won and she was able to overcome such a terrible disease. But, as it later turned out, the reason for this was not a natural miracle, but Berman’s beautiful masterpiece, the creation of which he had been preparing for many years. An elderly man drew a leaf on a tree in bad weather; it was this creation that instilled in Jones faith in his own final recovery.

Of course, I am surprised and amazed by this wonderful work. It satisfies almost all my requirements for a quality literary work. This short story from O. Henry is interesting to read, it gives a good idea of ​​the characters and motives of people's behavior. Thanks to reading this work, you can again believe in humanity, make sure that there really are people in the world who are willing to take risks and sacrifice themselves in the name of something high. An example of such a person was the old artist Berman, who saved someone else’s life, created a beautiful drawing, and therefore became my favorite hero of this work.