The problems of morality in contemporary literature
“Man is born not just to eat and drink, it would be much more convenient to be born with a rain worm,” wrote Vladimir Dudintsev in his novel “Not by bread alone”. The search for the meaning of life is the lot of every thinking and conscientious person. That is why our best writers have always been searching for the artistic solution of this eternal question. And Soviet literature did not bypass it. And today, when the old ideals have faded, and the new ones are only being confirmed, these problems have become almost the most important.
The question of moral problems, of course, is broader than the question of the meaning of life, but this, the latter, constitutes the core of morality. When there is no faith, there is no reason for life, there is no morality. Ville Lipatov in the story “Gray Mouse” depicted the former boss, who had been so drunk that he had nothing to eat, and there were not even mice in the house. So, the meaninglessness of
In his other work “And this is all about him.” Lipatov considers the conflict between good and evil. Komsorg Eugene Stoletov seeks to live in truth, deeply believes in goodness, justice, honesty. And of course, he inevitably encounters a man who has long sold conscience, living for the sake of profit, deceiving people and the state. This is the master Petr Gasilov. The novel was written in the years when deception and hypocrisy flourished, so Zhenka’s death was the inevitable finale.
We find moral problems in the works of Valentin Rasputin. In the story “Live and Remember,” the author posed the question: is it fair to consider a criminal as a man who honestly fought for three years, who after death was mortally wanted to go home? You can argue differently, but it’s a pity for Andrei Guskov, who fell under a repressive machine.
Chingiz Aitmatov in his books has always tried to show a man looking for his place in life. With special force, this manifested itself in his novel “Scaffold”.
Far from philosophy, the shepherd Boston is also looking for the meaning of life. Seeing the abnormal relationships that have developed in his farm, he painfully reflects: “If I do not master my own business, does someone eventually have to be the master?” Shepherd sees the meaning of life in honest work, in the love of animals, in the land, in the multiplication of the wealth of society, in decency in relations with people. However, his honesty and dedication to work, just like Stoletov and Callistratov, are in conflict with the established system of conventional deception, the spirit of profit.
Fate pursues Boston. His figure becomes Shakespeare’s tragic. During the transition to a new pasture, his friend perishes. Then his wife dies. Around the new wife, the friend’s widow, gossip begins. Finally, nature takes revenge on people, choosing it as an unjust sacrifice. Offended by another person, wolves blow the child of Boston. Delivered to despair, the shepherd commits murder.
So timelessness, the lack of faith in society, continues the tragic conflict between honest and dishonest. The plague ends with Obadiah’s life and the plowing is the life of Boston.
Also Onisimov, the hero of the work of Alexander Beck, “The New Appointment,” ascends to his block. This is a high-ranking apparatchik, chairman of the state committee, an approximate Stalin. Objectively, this is a person who has a sense of duty and amazing performance. His personal devotion to Stalin is unlimited, despite the fact that his brother died in the camps. In this devotion, he finds his meaning of life, demanding the same devotion and full return from his subordinates. But the writer emphasizes that a false understanding of duty breaks and distorts the nature of man. There is a “strange disease” – the result of “the error of two opposing impulses – orders coming from the cerebral cortex and internal motives.” In the end, a person begins to do evil, justifying himself with duty. That is why Onisimova was so influenced by the exposure of the personality cult – the meaning of life and the certainty of rightness are lost. He could not “get out of the soul of those times,” as Chelyshev advised him, and it’s not for nothing that the author “rewards” the hero with an incurable disease, because he is leaving with his time. Yes, the novel says that each person has to find his own meaning of life himself, no one can give it in ready form.
Thus, modern writers, considering the problems of morality, inherit the traditions of Russian classical literature – highly inhuman and at the same time highly demanding of a person.
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