Summary of M. Gorky’s novel “Childhood”
Narration on behalf of the main hero
I
Died father. Mother half naked beside him on the floor. Grandmother arrived – “round, big-headed, with huge eyes and a funny loose nose, she’s all black, soft and surprisingly interesting… she spoke kindly, cheerfully, and smoothly.” I made friends with her from the very first day. ”
The boy is seriously ill, just got to his feet. Varvara’s mother: “I see her for the first time,” she was always strict, she spoke little, she was clean, smooth and big as a horse, she had a stiff body and terribly strong hands, and now she was somehow unpleasantly swollen and disheveled, everything was bursting on her, the hair lying on her head neatly, with a large light hat, scattered over her bare shoulder… “. My mother began to struggle, gave birth to a child.
He remembered the funeral. It was raining. At the bottom of the frog pit. They were also buried. He did not want
We went by boat. The newborn Maxim died. He’s scared. Saratov. Grandmother and mother went out to bury. The sailor came. When the locomotive buzzed, he rushed to run. Alyosha decided that he also had to run. Found. Grandmother’s long, thick hair. I sniffed tobacco. Well told fairy tales. Even the sailors like it.
We arrived in Nizhniy Novgorod. They met Grandfather, Uncle Mikhail and Jacob, Aunt Natalya and cousins, both Sasha, Sister Katerina.
Nobody liked him, “I felt like a stranger among them, even my grandmother somehow faded, moved away.”
We came to a “squat one-story house, painted with dirty-pink paint, with a crooked low roof and bulging windows.” The house seemed large, but was cramped. The yard is unpleasant, covered with wet rags, is filled with vats of colored water.
II
“The grandfather’s house was filled with a fog of mutual enmity between everyone and everyone, it poisoned adults, and even children took a lively
Grandfather closely followed the boy. It seemed that the grandfather was angry. I made him teach the prayers. This was taught by Natalia. I did not understand the words, I asked Natalya, she made me just memorize, distorted specially. He was not beaten before. Sashka had to flog for a thimble. Was guilty and itself. I decided to paint something. Sasha Yakovov suggested painting the tablecloth. The gipsy tried to save her. Grandmother hid the tablecloth, but Sasha blurted out. They also decided to flog him. All were afraid of the mother. But she did not take away her child, her authority was shaken by Alyosha. We spotted it before losing consciousness. It hurt. The grandfather came to him. He told me how the barge was pulling in his youth. Then the water. His name was, but he did not leave. And the boy did not want to leave.
The gypsy girl put his hand up so that the boy was not so hurt. He taught me what to do so that it would not hurt so much.
III
Gypsy women took a special place in the house. “The golden hands of Ivanka.” Uncle did not joke with him, as with Gregory. They spoke angrily about the gipsy. So they cunning each other, so that no one would take it to work. He’s a good worker. They were still afraid that his grandfather would leave him.
The gipsy is a foundling. My grandmother was 18. I got married at 14.
I liked the Gypsy very much. He was able to handle children, he was cheerful, he knew tricks. Mice loved.
On holidays, Jacob liked to play the guitar. He sang an endless melancholy song. The gypsy women wanted to sing, but there was no voice. Dancing Gypsies. Then grandmother with him.
Uncle Yakov hammered his wife to death.
He was afraid of Gregory. I was friends with the Gipsy. He put his hand anyway. Every Friday Tsyganok went for provisions.
The gypsies died. Yakov decided to cross his wife. Large, oak. The cross was carried by uncles and gypsies. “I fell down, but he was crushed… And we would be crippled, but we dropped the cross in time.” The gipsy lay for a long time in the kitchen, the blood from his mouth. Then he died. Grandmother, grandfather and Gregory greatly worried.
IV
She sleeps with her grandmother, and she prays for a long time. He does not speak from the written, from the heart. “I really like Grandma’s god, so close to her,” that he often asked me to talk about him. “Speaking of God, heaven, angels, she became small and meek, her face was young, her eyes moistened with especially warm light.” Grandmother said that he lives well. But this is not so. Natalia asked the god of death, Grigory saw worse and planned to go around the world. Alyosha wanted to see him. Natalya was beaten by his uncle. My grandmother told me that her grandfather had also beaten her. She told me that she saw impure people. And also fairy tales and stories, there were also poems. I knew a lot of them. I was afraid of cockroaches. In the dark, I heard them and asked them to kill them. So I could not sleep.
Fire. Grandmother threw herself into the fire for vitriol. Burned her hands. She loved the horse. She was rescued. The workshop burned down. It was not possible to sleep that night. Natalia gave birth. She died. Alyosha was ill, carried to bed. My grandmother had strong hands.
V
Uncle divided. Jacob is in the city. Michael is behind the river. My grandfather bought another house. Many lodgers. Akulina Ivanovna was a sorceress. Everyone helped. Gave economic advice.
History of the grandmother: the mother was maimed, but before the noble lace maker. They gave her free. She asked for alms. Akulina learned how to weave lace. Soon they knew about her in the whole city. Grandfather at 22 was already an aquatic. His mother decided to marry them.
My grandfather was ill. From boredom decided to teach the boy the ABC book. He quickly grasped.
Fighting with street boys. Very strong.
Grandfather: when the robbers arrived, his grandfather rushed to the bells to ring. Chopped. I remembered myself from 1812, when I was 12. Captive French. Everyone came to look at the captives, scolded, but many were sorry. Many of the cold died. Batman Myron horses knew well, helped. But the officer soon died. He treated the child well, even taught his language. But they forbade it.
Never talked about Alyosha’s father and mother. The children were not successful. Once the grandfather struck my grandmother’s face for nothing. “It’s hard, it’s hard for him, the old, all the failures…”
VI
One evening, without greeting, Jacob burst into the room. He said that Michael had gone completely crazy: he tore off his ready-made dress, interrupted the dishes and offended him with Gregory. Michael said that he would kill his father. Varvarino wanted a dowry. The boy had to look at the street and say when Michael appears. Terrible and boring.
“The fact that the mother does not want to live in her family raises her up in my dreams, she seems to live in an inn at a big road, with robbers who rob the passing of the rich and divide the looted with the beggars.”
Grandmother is crying. “Lord, if you have not had a good mind for me, for my children?”
Almost every day off to their goal ran the boys: “The Kashirins are fighting again!” Michael appeared in the evening, kept the house under siege all night. Sometimes with him a few drunken landowners. They pulled out raspberry and currant bushes, smashed the bath. One day my grandfather was particularly unwell. I got up and lit the fire. Mishka ran a half brick into it. Missed. Another time, my uncle took a stake and broke into the door. Grandmother wanted to talk to him, was afraid that they would mutilate, but he hit her with a stake on his arm. Michael was tied up, watered and put in a shed. Grandmother told grandfather to give them Varino a dowry. My grandmother broke a bone, came to the bust. Alyosha thought that this was his grandmother’s death, rushed at her, did not let him go to his grandmother. He was taken to the attic.
VII
Grandfather has one god, grandmother has another. Grandmother “almost every morning found new words of praise, and it always made me listen to her prayer with intense attention.” “Her god was with her all day, she even talked about animals to him, it was clear to me that everything is easily and submissively submissive to this god: people, dogs, birds, bees and grasses, he was equally good on earth, equally close “.
Once, the cabaret woman quarreled with her grandfather, and at the same time cursed her grandmother. Decided to take revenge. Locked her in the cellar. Grandma spanked when she understood. Said that in the affairs of adults did not interfere, who is to blame is not always clear. The Lord does not always understand himself. Her god became closer and more understandable to him.
Grandfather prayed wrong. “He always became the same bough of a floorboard, like a horse’s eye, stood silently for a minute, stretching his arms along the body like a soldier… his voice sounds clear and demanding… He does not beat himself in the chest and insistently asks. Now he was baptized often, convulsively, nodding his head, as if striving, his voice screams and sobs, and later, when I was in the synagogues, I realized that my grandfather was praying like a Jew. ”
Alyosha knew all the prayers for memory and watched that his grandfather did not miss, when it still happened gloating. The grandfather’s God was cruel, but he also involved him in all matters, even more often than his grandmother.
Once the grandfather rescued from a trouble the saints, it was written in the saints. Grandfather secretly engaged in usury. They came with a search. Grandfather prayed until morning. Ended safely.
I did not like the street. With street fights. He was not loved. But it did not offend him. Their cruelty disturbed them. They mocked the drunken beggars. The poor Igosh died in the Pocket. Master Gregory is blind. I went with a little gray old woman and she asked for alms. Could not approach him. Grandmother always gave him, talked with him. Grandmother said that God would punish them for this man. After 10 years, he went and asked for charity. On the street there was also a slutty woman Voronikh. She had a husband. He wanted to get a higher rank, sold his wife to the boss, who took her away for 2 years. And when she returned, her boy and girl died, and her husband lost state money and began to drink.
They had a starling. His grandmother took the cat away from her. She taught me to speak. The starling imitated his grandfather when he read the prayer. The house was interesting, but sometimes an incomprehensible melancholy fell.
VIII
Grandfather sold the house to the owner. I bought another one. He was better. There were many lodgers: a military man from the Tatars with his wife, a cabman Peter and his dumb Stephen nephew, a freeloader Good Deed. “He was a thin, stooped man with a white face in a black forked beard, with kind eyes, glasses.” He was silent, imperceptible, and when he was invited to dinner he always replied: “It’s good.” My grandmother called him so. “All his room was filled up with some boxes, thick books of a civil press unfamiliar to me, everywhere there were bottles with multicolored liquids, pieces of copper and iron, rods of lead. From morning till evening… melted lead, soldered some copper stuff, weighed something on small scales, mooed, burned our fingers… and sometimes stopped suddenly in the middle of the room or at the window and stood for a long time, closing his eyes, lifting his face,
When there was no grandfather arranged interesting meetings. All the residents were going to drink tea. Fun. Grandmother told a story about Ivan the warrior and Myron the hermit. The Good Deed was shocked, said that this story must be recorded. The boy again pulled to him. Loved to sit together and be silent. “I do not see anything special in the yard, but from these jerks and from short words everything seems to me to be especially significant, everything is remembered firmly.”
Went with the grandmother for the water. Five townspeople beat a peasant. Grandmother fearlessly poked them with a yoke. Good Case believed him, but said that these cases can not be remembered. Learned to fight: faster – then stronger. My grandfather beat him for every visit. He survived. They did not like him, because he was a stranger, not like everyone else. I prevented my grandmother to clean the room, called all the fools. Grandfather was glad that he survived. Alyosha broke the spoon with anger.
IX
“As a child, I imagine myself to be a hive, where various simple, gray people carried down the honey of their knowledge and thoughts about life, generously enriching my soul, who than they could. Often this honey was dirty and bitter, but all knowledge – all the same honey. “
I became friends with Peter. He looked like his grandfather. “… he looked like a teenager dressed up for a joke by an old man. He face was woven like a sieve, all of fine leather flagella, funny jaunty eyes with yellowish squirrels jumped between them, as if they lived in a cage, his gray hair curled, the beard curled in rings, he smoked a pipe… “. I argued with my grandfather, “which of the saints whom is holier.” On their street the gentleman who for entertainment shot people was settled. I almost fell into the Good Deed. Peter loved to tease him. One day, a shot hit his shoulder. He told the same stories as a grandmother with his grandfather. “Diverse, they are all strangely similar to one another: in each they tortured a person, mocked him, drove him”.
On holidays the brothers came to visit. They traveled along the roofs, saw the master, he had puppies. They decided to frighten the master and take the puppies. Alyosha had to spit on his bald spot. The brothers were not involved.
Peter praised him. The rest scolded. After that, he disliked Peter.
In the house of Ovsyannikov lived three boys. I watched them. They were very friendly. Once they played hide and seek. The little one fell into the well. Alyosha saved, made friends. Alyosha caught the birds for them. They had a stepmother. An old man came out of the house and forbade Alyosha to go to him. Peter lied about Alyosha to his grandfather. Alyosha and Petra began a war. Acquaintance with the barchuki continued. Went secretly.
Peter often dispersed them. “He was now looking sideways somehow and had long since stopped visiting grandmother’s evenings, did not treat him with jam, his face withered, his wrinkles became deeper, and he walked about swaying, raking his legs like a sick man.” One day a policeman came. He was found dead in the courtyard. The dumb was not at all dumb. There was a third one. They realized that they robbed churches.
X
Alyosha caught the birds. They did not go into a trap. I was annoyed. When I got home, I found out that my mother had come. He was worried. My mother noticed that he had grown up, his clothes were dirty and he was all white with frost. She began to undress him and rub her ears with goose bacon. “… it was painful, but it gave off a refreshing, delicious smell, and this reduced the pain.” I pressed myself against her, looking into her eyes, numb with excitement… “The grandfather wanted to talk with his mother, he was driven away. My grandmother asked me to forgive my daughter. Then they cried, Alyosha also burst into tears, hugging them. He told his mother about a good thing, about three boys. “It hurt and my heart, I immediately felt that she would not live in this house, she would leave.” Mother began to teach him a civil letter. In a few days I learned. “She began to demand that I learn more and more verses, and my memory took them all the worse for these lines, and it grew more and more, an unconquerable desire to change, distort the verses, and pick up other words to them became more and more angry; it was easy for me – the unnecessary words were whole swarms and quickly confused the obligatory, bookish. “The mother now taught algebra, grammar and writing.” The first days after her arrival, she was deft and fresh, and now she had dark spots under her eyes, she whole I went about dressed in a crumpled dress, not fastening a sweatshirt, and this bothered and upset me… “Grandfather wanted to marry a daughter.” Grandmother began to intercede. Grandfather severely beat his grandmother. Alyosha threw himself pillows, his grandfather overturned a bucket of water and left to myself. “I dismantled her heavy hair,” it turned out that a hairpin deep inside her skin, I pulled it out, found another, my fingers were numb. ” She asked me not to tell my mother about it. Decided to take revenge. I cut my father’s grandfathers. But I did not have time. There was a grandfather, began to pound, grandmother took away. A mother appeared. She stood up. I promised to paste everything on my calico. I confessed to my mother that my grandfather had beaten my grandmother. Mother made friends with the lodging, almost every evening she went to her. Officers and young ladies came. Grandpa did not like it. He drove them all. He brought furniture, forced her rooms and locked it. “We do not need to stand, I’ll take guests myself!” On holidays there were guests: grandmother’s sister Matryona with sons Vasily and Viktor, uncle Yakov with a guitar and a watchmaker. It seemed that he had once seen him on the cart arrested. I confessed to my mother that my grandfather had beaten my grandmother. Mother made friends with the lodging, almost every evening she went to her. Officers and young ladies came. Grandpa did not like it. He drove them all. He brought furniture, forced her rooms and locked it. “We do not need to stand, I’ll take guests myself!” On holidays there were guests: grandmother’s sister Matryona with sons Vasily and Viktor, uncle Yakov with a guitar and a watchmaker. It seemed that he had once seen him on the cart arrested. I confessed to my mother that my grandfather had beaten my grandmother. Mother made friends with the lodging, almost every evening she went to her. Officers and young ladies came. Grandpa did not like it. He drove them all. He brought furniture, forced her rooms and locked it. “We do not need to stand, I’ll take guests myself!” On holidays there were guests: grandmother’s sister Matryona with sons Vasily and Viktor, uncle Yakov with a guitar and a watchmaker. It seemed that he had once seen him on the cart arrested.
His mother wanted to marry him, but she flatly refused.
“Somehow it was hard to believe that they did all this seriously and that it’s hard to cry, and the tears, their cries, and all the mutual torments, flashing up often, fading quickly, became familiar to me, they turned me on less and less, a heart”.
“… Russian people, in their poverty, generally like to play with grief, play them like children, and are rarely ashamed to be unhappy.”
XI
“After this story, the mother immediately got stronger, straightened up and became a mistress in the house, and the grandfather became invisible, thoughtful, quietly unlike himself.”
Grandfather had chests with clothes and old and good things. Once my grandfather allowed my mother to wear it. Was very beautiful. Her guests often visited her. most often the brothers Maximov. Peter and Eugene.
Sasha’s father, Mikhail, got married. My stepmother disliked me. Grandmother took it to her. They did not like the school. Alyosha could not disobey and walked, but Sasha refused to go, buried his books. My grandfather found out. Whipped both. Sasha ran away from the escorted escort. Found.
Alyosha has smallpox. Grandmother left him vodka. Saw a secret from my grandfather. I told him the story of my father. He was the son of a soldier, who was exiled to Siberia for cruelty with his subordinates. My father was born there. He lived badly, ran away from home. Beat badly, the neighbors were taken away and hidden. Mother had already died before. Then my father. His godfather took it-a carpenter. He taught the craft. He escaped. He drove the blind through the fairs. He worked as a carpenter on a steamer. At 20 he was a cabinetmaker, an upholsterer and a drapery. Came to get a match. They were already married, only they needed to be married. The old man would not give his daughter that way. We decided secretly. There was a foe on my father, the master, I talked. Grandmother pruned her horse at the shaft. Grandfather could not cancel the wedding. He said that there is no daughter. Then he forgave. They began to live with them, in the garden in the wing. Alyosha was born. Uncle did not like Maxim. They wanted lime. Lured on a pond ride, pushed into an ice hole. But his father emerged, grabbed the edge of the hole. And the uncles were beaten by the hands. He stretched out under the ice, breathing. They decided that they would drown, leave their heads in their heads and leave. And he got out. He did not turn in to the police. Soon they left for Astrakhan.
Grandma’s tales occupied less. I wanted to know about my father. “Why is the father’s heart worried?”
XII I
recovered and began to walk. I decided to surprise everyone and quietly go downstairs. I saw “still a grandmother.” Scary and all green some. Mother mated. They did not tell him. “A few trickling days passed monotonously in a thin trickle, after a collusion the mother left somewhere, the house was depressingly quiet.” I began to build a dwelling in a pit.
“I hated the old woman – and her son – with concentrated hatred, and this heavy feeling brought me a lot of beatings.” The wedding was quiet. The next morning the young people left. Almost moved to his place in the pit.
They sold the house. Grandfather took two dark rooms in the basement of the old house. Grandmother called with her brownie, grandfather did not give. He said,
“Mother appeared after the grandfather had settled in the basement, pale, thin, with huge eyes and a hot, surprised glint in them.” She is dressed ugly, pregnant. They said that everything burned down. But my stepfather lost everything to cards.
Lived in Sormovo. The house is new, without wallpaper. Two rooms. Grandmother is with them. Grandmother worked for the cook, chopped wood, washed the floors. It was rarely allowed on the street – he fought. Mother was beating. Once he said that he would bite her, run to the field and freeze. Has ceased. My stepfather was with my mother. “Because of your stupid belly, I can not invite anyone to visit me, cow, you are like that!” before giving birth to his grandfather.
Then again the school. Everyone laughed at his poor clothes. But soon got along with all but the teacher and priest. The teacher pestered. And Alyosha was mischievous in revenge. Pop demanded a book. There was no book, he drove away. Wanted to kick out of school for unworthy behavior. But Bishop Chrysanthus came to school. Bishop Alyosha liked it. Teachers began to treat him better. And Bishop Alyosha promised to play less mischievous.
He told fairy tales to peers. They said that the book about Robinson is better. Once, inadvertently, I found 10 rubles and a ruble in my stepfather’s book. The ruble took. I bought “The Sacred History” and Andersen’s tales, as well as white bread and sausage. I liked the Nightingale very much. Mother beat him, took away books. The stepfather told this to his colleagues, they learned to children, they called the children a nickname, they called him a thief. My mother did not want to believe what my stepfather told me. “We are poor, we have every penny, every penny…” Brother Sasha: “awkward, bighead, he looked at everything around with beautiful, blue eyes, with a quiet smile and as if waiting for something.” He began to speak unusually early, never He did not cry, living in a continuous state of quiet fun. He was weak, barely crawling and very happy when he saw me… He died unexpectedly, not ill… “.
With school it was adjusted. Again they relocated to his grandfather. My stepfather changed my mother. “I heard him hit her, rushed into the room and saw that the mother, falling on her knees, leaned her back and elbows on the chair, arching her chest, throwing her head, wheezing and terribly bright eyes, and he, cleanly dressed, in a new uniform strikes her in the chest with her long leg. “I grabbed a knife from the table… it was the only thing my mother left after my father – he grabbed me and with all his strength struck the leader on his side.” Mother pushed away Maximov, he remained alive. He promised his mother that he would hurt his stepfather and himself, too.
“It is not only that our life is amazing, that the layer of any beastly rubbish is so prolific and fatty in it, but the fact that the bright, healthy and creative vegetation still victoriously grows victoriously through this layer, the good grows – human, exciting an unshakable hope for our revival bright, human life “.
XIII.
Again with my grandfather. Property division. All pots to grandmother, the rest to myself. Then she took her old dresses, sold for 700 rubles. And he gave the money to a Jewish godson as a percentage. Everything was divided. One day grandmother prepares from his provisions, the other – with the money of his grandfather. Grandmother always had better food. Even tea was counted. It is the same for the fortress.
Grandmother wove lace, and Alyosha began to practice the rags. Grandmother took money from him. Also he stole firewood with the company of children. Company: Sanka Vyakhir, Kostroma, Tatar woman Khabi, Yaz, Grishka Churka. Vyakhire was beaten by his mother, if he did not bring her money for vodka, Kostroma saved money, dreaming of pigeons, Churki’s mother was sick, Khaby also saved, going back to the city where he was born. Vyahir all made peace. I still considered my mother good, I was sorry. Occasionally, Vyakhire’s mother would not beat her. Vyakhir also wanted to know the letter. He was called to see Churka. His mother taught Vyakhir. Soon I read something. Vyakhir felt sorry for nature. Fun: they collected worn-out bast shoes and threw them into the hook-Tatars. Those in them. After the battle, the Tatars took them with them and fed their food. On rainy days they gathered at Father Yaz at the cemetery. “… I did not like it,
“He spoke very often about women and always – dirty… He knew the history of the life of almost every slobozhanin buried in the sand… he seemed to open the doors of houses before us… we saw how people live, they felt that something serious, important. “
Alyosha liked this street independent life. At school it is difficult again, called a ragweed, a beggar. They even said that it smells of him. Lies, thoroughly washed before school. Successfully passed the exams in 3 class. They gave a commendable leaf, a gospel, Krylov’s fables and “Fata-Morgana.” Grandfather said that it was necessary to hide it in the trunk, rejoiced. My grandmother was ill. For several days she had no money. My grandfather complained that he was being eaten. He took the books, took them to a shop, got 55 cents and gave it to my grandmother. The commemorative leaf spoiled inscriptions and gave to his grandfather. He, without unfolding, hid in a trunk. My stepfather was expelled from work. He disappeared. Mother with a little brother, Nicholas, settled with his grandfather. “A dumb, dried-up mother barely moved her legs, looking at everything with frightful eyes, her brother was scrofulous… and so weak that he could not even cry…” they decided that Nikolas needed will, sand. Alyosha collected sand and poured it on the bake under the window. The boy liked it. Very attached to his brother, but he was a little bored. Grandfather himself fed the child and fed enough.
Mother: “She is completely speechless, she rarely says a word in a boiling voice, or she dies all day silently in the corner and dies.” That she was dying – I, of course, felt that, I knew, and my grandfather too often, persistently spoke of death… “
“I slept between the stove and the window, on the floor, I was short, I put my legs in the baking, they were tickled by cockroaches.” This corner gave me a lot of evil pleasures, “the grandfather cooked and constantly knocked out the windows in the window with the ends of sticks and pokers.” Alyosha took a knife and cut off his long handles, his grandfather scolded that they could not go out with a saw, they could come out with rolling pins. My stepfather came back from the trip, my grandmother and Kolya moved to him. Her mother died. Before this she asked: “Go to Yevgeny Vasilyevich, tell me – I ask him to come!” She hit her son with a knife. But the knife escaped from her hands. “A shadow was floating over her face, moving into the depths of her face, pulling on the yellow skin, sharpening her nose.” The child did not immediately believe that her mother had died. My stepfather came. Grandmother, like a blind man, smashed her face on the grave cross. Vyakhir tried to make him laugh. It did not work out. He suggested laying a grave on the turf. Soon the grandfather said that it was time for him.
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