Alyosha Peshkov's grandfather was short and frail, but this did not stop him from being the head of the house. All his sons obeyed him and obeyed him.
At the beginning of the story, the grandfather seems to us to be a very rude, cruel person. For any offense, even the most insignificant, he punishes his grandchildren with flogging. Spanks long and hard. After Alyosha was first subjected to this punishment, he could not get out of bed for a long time. But it is precisely this incident with Alyosha’s illness that allows us to see in the elder Kashirin a different person - kind, strong, who suffered a lot and was hardworking. The grandfather does not tolerate any disobedience because life treated him too cruelly. He got what he had acquired through hard, backbreaking labor - the exhausting work of a barge hauler. Therefore, any encroachment on his property infuriated his grandfather.
However, how this man valued any manifestation of talent in people! He was very supportive of his adopted son Ivan, who, according to him, had golden hands. Noticing Alyosha’s intelligence, his grandfather teaches him his letters and is incredibly happy to see the boy’s success.
Unlike the stern grandfather, Kashirin’s grandmother immediately wins over everyone, as well as Alyosha. She was “all dark, but she shone from within—through her eyes—with an unquenchable, cheerful and warm light. She was stooped, almost hunchbacked, very plump, and she moved easily and deftly, like a big cat - she is soft, just like this affectionate animal.”
Always affectionate and friendly, Kashirina’s grandmother could also be strong. She did not panic during the fire, but gave orders to all household members and neighbors in a firm voice. She reproached Alyosha’s mother for not taking her son away from under his grandfather’s rods.
Thanks to his grandmother, Alyosha Peshkov became acquainted with Russian folklore. This woman could tell fairy tales, epics, legends endlessly. She was a master of Russian dance. Alyosha says that “before her, it was as if I was sleeping, hidden in the dark, but she appeared, woke me up, brought me into the light, tied everything around me into a continuous thread, wove everything into multi-colored lace and immediately became a lifelong friend, closest to my heart.” my most understandable and dear person, - it was her selfless love for the world that enriched me, satiating strong strength for a difficult life."
Kashirin’s house in Nizhny Novgorod is both a living illustration of Maxim Gorky’s story “Childhood” and an opportunity to see with your own eyes a huge number of things that the great writer touched.
Survived by a miracle
“The flow of people wanting to see the house where the great writer grew up is huge,” says Tamara Shukhareva, head of the Museum of Childhood A.M. Gorky "Kashirin's House". - We constantly have guests - both children and adults. They come in families, classes, university groups. There are many foreigners among the guests: Gorky is one of the most famous Russian writers abroad. At one point there was a real pilgrimage of Chinese students. Apparently, one group came first, and then these guys told their compatriots about this museum.”
The history of the small estate at the Postal Congress is unique. Before acquiring the status of a museum, it was twice under threat of demolition: at the beginning of the 20th century (but the First World War and the revolution interfered with urban planning plans), then in the 1930s - then the Nizhny Novgorod intelligentsia came to its defense.
The founder and first director of Kashirin's House was Fyodor Pavlovich Khitrovsky. He knew Gorky personally - they worked together in the Nizhny Novgorod List. The museum opened to visitors on January 1, 1938. The house and furnishings have been restored since 1935. Khitrovsky asked Gorky personally to help recreate everything here as it was under the Kashirins. In 1936, Gorky sent a plan of the house drawn with his own hand.
Grandfather Vasily Kashirin's room. The famous raccoon coat remains behind the scenes. Photo: AiF-Nizhny Novgorod/ Natalya Burukhina
“It’s like the Kashirins just came out!”
Many people who were here under the Kashirins helped to recreate the atmosphere of the house. Neighbors, friends, relatives - everyone remembered how the furniture was arranged, what kind of curtains were on the windows.
“There are a lot of real things here, from Kashirin,” says Tamara Shukhareva. - When grandfather Vasily Kashirin decided to divide the inheritance between his sons, Mikhail’s family lived in a separate room in the house at the Postal Congress. He, unlike his brother Yakov, did not squander his property. Many things were brought to the museum by the descendants of Mikhail Kashirin. So almost all the dishes returned here, round table and a velvet tablecloth. Even grandmother’s feather bed and quilt, spoons and forks that the Kashirins used have been preserved. A beautiful sugar bowl-house and a butter dish with chickens were also in the house when little Alyosha Peshkov came here.”
The restorers were delighted to find old wallpaper under the plaster. Under the wallpaper there was a layer of newspapers with dates that corresponded to the time the Kashirins lived. The artists restored the wallpaper design, and new ones were printed to special order.
Before the opening, we were invited to the museum Anna Kirillovna Zalomova, friend of Gorky's mother. Zalomova often visited the Kashirins, it was she who became the prototype main character novel "Mother". Anna Kirillovna was almost 90 years old in 1938. She looked around the house and said: “It’s as if the Kashirins just left here!”
Stove in Kashirin's house. Photo: AiF-Nizhny Novgorod/ Natalya Burukhina
Fairy tales and rods
“Little Alyosha listened to fairy tales every evening,” continues Tamara Shukhareva. “He slept in his grandmother’s room on a chest, and opposite his bed there was a stove with tiles. They are perfectly preserved. The subjects of the pictures are different on each one. They, one might say, were the first illustrations for fairy tales for the future writer.”
In the Kashirins' house, colored glass was inserted into some frames - this was an indicator of prosperity. The glass has been preserved. These colored highlights also seemed fabulous to Alyosha.
But nearby in the kitchen there was a bench and rods in a large tub... While his father was alive, no one touched Alyosha with a finger. But, once at his grandfather’s house, the boy encountered a different world - almost immediately he had to taste the rod. The child, realizing that he was going to be spanked, did not behave meekly like the other children in the family. He pulled his grandfather's beard and bit his finger.
But we must not forget that it was the grandfather who was the first teacher of the future writer. He taught him to read and write, noticed that his grandson had a good memory and an ability to learn. IN good mood Kashirin even promised Alyosha to give him his raccoon fur coat.
Did the gypsy survive?
“Gorky’s story “Childhood” describes both this house at the Postal Congress and its inhabitants,” says Tamara Shukhareva. - But we must understand that “Childhood” is still not a scientific article, but work of art. So, for example, literary scholars do not have a clear opinion about who was the prototype of the Gypsy.”
The gypsy woman in Gorky's story is one of Alyosha's close friends; he clearly had a great influence on the future writer. It is Tsyganok who teaches Alyosha how to behave correctly during a spanking and tries to help him avoid punishment for pranks. The guy works in a dye shop, he is his grandmother’s favorite, cheerful, lively, and crafty.
In the story, Gypsy dies because of the Kashirin brothers. But what really happened? And was Gypsy even in this house?
The gypsy, it turns out, did not die under the cross. Photo: AiF-Nizhny Novgorod/ Natalya Burukhina
“The story says that Vanya Tsyganok is a foundling: “in early spring, on a rainy night, he was found at the gate of the house on a bench,” says Tamara Shukhareva. - Nikolai Zaburdaev, who headed the State Gorky Museum for almost 20 years, studied the prototypes and the history of the creation of the story for many years. In the police archives, he did not find any mention of a baby being thrown into the Kashirins’ house. There were also no records of adoption in the city government papers.”
Most likely, Gypsy is a collective image of several students of grandfather Kashirin.
One of these students was the company foreman, cantonist Movsha Festovsky, he was 19 years old. It was him who Vasily Kashirin adopted and even baptized - Movsha became Nikolai. But Nikolai Festovsky did not die like the Gypsy under the cross. In 1864 he was recruited as a soldier and returned to Nizhny Novgorod in 1870 with the rank of non-commissioned officer of the 145th Novocherkassk Infantry Regiment. Nikolai Zaburdaev writes that after the service, Festovsky was assigned to the Nizhny Novgorod philistinism and, apparently, went back to work for the Kashirins. In 1874, Festovsky got married and began trading. His house with the sign “Vegetable Trade” is captured in the photo of Maxim Dmitriev.
In Gorky’s story “In People,” grandmother Akulina Ivanovna says that the grandfather went completely broke after giving money in interest without a receipt to his godson Nikolai. In the 1930s, Khitrovsky, while collecting materials for the museum, talked with Mikhail Kashirin’s son, Konstantin. He remembered that in life, Vasily Kashirin, shortly before his death, lent 3 thousand rubles to a fruit merchant, but did not issue a receipt, and the money disappeared. True, Konstantin Kashirin calls the merchant Krestovsky. Zaburdaev believed that the confusion in surnames was simply a memory error.
The tiles on the stove near Alyosha’s bed are perfectly preserved. Photo: AiF-Nizhny Novgorod/ Natalya Burukhina
Three facts about “Childhood” and Kashirin’s House
- There were no children's books in the Kashirins' house, although little Alyosha listened to fairy tales every evening.
- My grandfather's raccoon coat, which is now more than 200 years old, hangs in the museum in his room. Vasily Kashirin was proud of this outfit. In those days, such fur coats were mainly worn by merchants. Grandfather Kashirin was the foreman of a dyeing shop, he was elected to the Duma, but he never became a merchant.
- The prototype of the Gypsy Movsha (Nikolai) Festovsky in 1870 acted as the groom's guarantor in the second wedding of Alyosha Peshkov's uncle - Yakov.
The image of the grandfather is one of the central ones in Gorky’s cycle of autobiographical works, including in the story “Childhood”.
Artistic features of the story "Childhood"
The work is part of a trilogy telling about the difficult fate of the author:
- "Childhood".
- "In people."
- "My Universities"
The first part is devoted to the life of the main character in the family of his grandfather. Gorky unfolds before the reader a picture of the life of the Volga merchants. At the same time, the emotional tone of the story is quite heavy, since the author talks about the widespread cruelty, rudeness and anger in which his relatives lived.
It is interesting that there are practically no positive characters in the story. Gorky's memories are painted in relatively light colors only about his mother, grandmother and Gypsy, one of the workers in his grandfather's house.
The image of the grandfather in the work
The grandfather of the protagonist of the story “Childhood” evokes ambivalent impressions. On the one hand, he is smart, cunning and good at his business. On the other hand, the cruelty and tyranny of this man is amazing. He is a typical Volga merchant, greedy for money and thinking exclusively about his own benefit.
In different episodes, the image of the grandfather is shown from different sides. So, when he teaches the main character to read and write, he appears before the reader as a strict, but passionate, and sometimes even cheerful teacher. At the same time, there are many moments in the work in which the grandfather appears as a real despot, beating his wife and grandchildren. Even grown children are afraid of his anger.
This image is well revealed in the story of the Gypsy and his death. The harsh and selfish hero is first shown by the author as a person with feelings. Surprisingly, the death of an ordinary dyer worker causes grandfather Kashirin more emotions than all the hardships that happen to members of his own family. After all, after the death of his mother, he sends his grandson to the people with a calm soul, so as not to spend money on his maintenance.
Thus, grandfather Kashirin is one of the most controversial characters presented in the story.
In 1913, Maxim Gorky wrote the first part of the famous trilogy. “Childhood” (contents and analysis are given in the article) is a work about the formation of the personality of the main character Alyosha Peshkov, the prototype of which was the author himself. It is narrated in the first person, which allows you to fully experience the feelings and experiences of a boy who finds himself in an environment that is unusual for him, which nevertheless contributed to his formation and maturation.
Features of the genre
“Childhood” by Maxim Gorky is an autobiographical story. It is based on facts from the life of the writer himself; he even leaves the characters their real names. At the same time, this is a work of art, since the author’s task is not just to tell about himself as a child, but to rethink what happened to him from the position of an adult, to evaluate the events. According to the author, his fate is not unique: there are many people existing in that “close, stuffy circle of impressions” in which Alyosha was in the Kashirins’ house. And this truth must be “known to the root” in order to be wrested from the memory and soul of man, from the very Russian way of life, “heavy and shameful.” Thus, speaking about himself and at the same time describing the “leaden abominations of life,” Gorky expresses the author’s position regarding the present and future of Russia.
The hero's beginning to grow up
Alyosha Peshkov was brought up in a family based on mutual respect and love. Father Maxim was engaged in the construction of the triumphal gates, which were erected for the arrival of the Tsar. Varvara's mother was expecting the birth of her second child. Everything changed when my father died of cholera. He was buried on a rainy day, and Alyosha forever remembered the frogs sitting in the hole - they were buried along with the coffin. The boy looked at them and held back his tears. Never cry - his parents taught him to do this. And the mother went into premature labor out of grief. This is how the first chapter of Gorky’s work begins sadly.
Then there was a long journey along the Volga from Astrakhan to Nizhny Novgorod. The newborn died on the way, and the mother still could not calm down from the grief that had fallen. Alyosha was taken care of by her grandmother, Akulina Ivanovna, who arrived at a difficult moment for the family. It was she who took her daughter and grandson to Novgorod, from which Varvara had once left against her father’s will. It was to Grandma that Gorky dedicated the best pages of the story. She was a kind, sympathetic person, always ready to help. This was immediately noticed by the sailors on the ship, who found the hero when he got lost on one of the piers. Despite her plumpness and age, Akulina Ivanovna moved quickly and deftly, reminiscent of a cat. She often told amazing stories that attracted the attention of others. And it seemed to Alyosha that she was all glowing from within. It is the grandmother who in the future will become a source of goodness for the boy and the main support, will help him endure the upcoming adversities. And with his arrival in Nizhny, there will be many of them in the hero’s life, as Maxim Gorky will write about in his story.
The work “Childhood” continues with the introduction of new characters. On the shore, the arrivals were met by a large family of Kashirins, the main one of which was Vasily Vasilyevich. Small and dry, Alyosha didn’t like his grandfather right away, and time will pass, before he takes a fresh look at him and tries to understand him as a person.
First spanking
In the Kashirins’ large house, in addition to their grandfather and grandmother, their two sons and their families lived. Alyosha, who had previously grown up in a completely different environment, found it difficult to get used to the constant hostility and anger that reigned between relatives. Their main reason was the desire of Mikhail and Yakov to quickly divide their property, which their grandfather did not want to do. With Varvara’s arrival, the situation became even more tense, since she was also entitled to a share in her father’s inheritance. In their desire to annoy each other, adults knew no bounds, and their confrontation extended to children.
Another boy witnessed a procedure that was terrible for him - every Saturday children were flogged. The hero did not escape this fate. On the advice of one of his brothers, he decided to paint the holiday tablecloth to bring joy to his grandmother. As a result, I ended up on a bench under my grandfather’s rods. Neither Akulina Ivanovna nor her mother could save her from punishment. This is one of the first bitter events in the hero’s new life, which Maxim Gorky introduces to the reader of the story. Alyosha will also remember his childhood thanks to Gypsy, who during the spanking put his hands up, trying to take the main force of the blows.
The grandfather beat his grandson half to death, and the boy lay in bed for several days. During this time, Vasily Vasilyevich visited him and told him about his youth. It turned out that my grandfather was once a barge hauler, and suffering, mental and physical, hardened his heart. This was, in fact, a new acquaintance with his grandfather, which made it clear that he was not as scary and cruel as Alyosha had thought before. Be that as it may, according to the author, the first spanking seemed to expose Alyosha’s heart and force him to take a different look at everything that was happening around him.
Gypsy
Ivan was a foundling in the Kashirin family. The grandmother told her grandson that she gave birth to eighteen children, of whom only three survived. In her opinion, God took the best ones to himself, and sent Gypsy in return. Gorky continues his story “Childhood” with a story about his bitter fate.
Ivan was found at the gate, and his grandmother took him in as a foster child. Unlike his own sons, he grew up kind and caring. He also showed himself to be a good worker, which became another reason for the enmity between Mikhail and Yakov: each of them dreamed of taking Gypsy to themselves in the future. Often, for the amusement of everyone, Ivan arranged entertainment with cockroaches or mice, and showed tricks with cards. Alyosha also remembered the evenings when his grandfather and Mikhail left home. At these hours everyone gathered in the kitchen. Yakov tuned the guitar, and after the songs the merry dance of the Gypsy began. Then he was joined by Akulina Ivanovna, who at that moment seemed to be returning to her time of youth: she became so younger and prettier while dancing.
The grandmother prophesied a bad future for the young man and was afraid for him. The fact is that Tsyganok went grocery shopping every Friday and, in order to save money and please his grandfather, he stole. Akulina Ivanovna believed that someday he would be caught and killed. Her fears came true, but partly: the Gypsy was killed not by strangers, but by Mikhail and Yakov. The latter beat his wife to death, and as a form of repentance, he vowed to place an oak cross on her grave. Three of them carried him, and they put Ivan under the butt. On the way, he stumbled and was crushed by the cross, which the brothers let go of at that moment, notes Maxim Gorky.
“Childhood” in abbreviation introduces only the main moments from the life of the main character, but it is impossible not to mention that Gypsy, whose painful death was also deposited in the boy’s mind, along with his grandmother, became a source of light and kindness for him and helped him survive the first trials in his new life .
Grandmother
Alyosha loved to watch how Akulina Ivanovna prayed in the evenings. In front of the icons, she told about everything that happened that day and asked for everyone. And the boy also liked stories about what God was like. At these moments the grandmother looked younger, and her eyes radiated a special, warm light. Sometimes Akulina Ivanovna saw devils, but they did not frighten her. Only cockroaches aroused fear in my grandmother, and often at night she woke Alyosha up and asked him to kill them. But the image of the grandmother appears especially vividly in the fire scene, which continues (Maxim Gorky describes it in detail) “Childhood”.
The grandmother was praying when the grandfather ran in shouting: “We’re burning!” The workshop was burning, and Akulina Ivanovna threw herself into the flames to prevent an explosion. She brought out the bottle and began giving orders what to do next. She calmed the horse, which the grandfather himself was afraid of. And then, with burnt hands, she gave birth to Aunt Natalya. And only when it was all over (Mikhail’s wife died after all), Alyosha heard his grandmother’s groans caused by severe burns. All this leads to the idea: only a person with a broad soul can fight a fire so fearlessly, and then, while suffering from pain, find words of consolation for others. This is exactly what Akulina Ivanovna was, who played a decisive role in Alyosha’s life, which Maxim Gorky emphasizes more than once. “Childhood” (the characterization of the grandmother confirms this) is a work about how spiritual generosity and love can resist anger and hatred, preventing the germs of goodness and goodness, originally inherent in a person’s character, from dying.
New home
The Kashirins nevertheless split. Alyosha and his grandparents moved to a stone house with a garden. The rooms, except one, were rented out. My grandfather left it for himself and his guests. Akulina Ivanovna and her grandson settled in the attic. Grandma was again at the center of all events: the tenants constantly turned to her for advice, and she found a kind word for everyone. Her grandson was constantly next to her, as if rooted to her. Sometimes the mother appeared, but she quickly disappeared, not leaving even memories of herself.
Once my grandmother told Alyosha about her life. She was born from a crippled lacemaker girl who jumped out of a window when her master scared her. Together they walked around the world until they settled in Balakhna. Akulina learned to weave lace, and then her grandfather spotted her. He was a noble man at that time. And he chose a beggar girl as his wife and decided that she would be submissive all her life.
And the grandfather also decided to teach Alyosha letters. Seeing his grandson's intelligence, he began to flog him less often and looked at him more and more attentively, sometimes telling tales from own life. This is how Maxim Gorky spent his childhood.
And again enmity
The Kashirins' misfortunes were not over. One day Yakov came running and said that Mikhail was going to kill his grandfather. Similar scenes began to be repeated often. And again the main burden fell on the grandmother. One evening she stuck her hand out the window, hoping to reason with her son, and Mikhail broke it with a stake. Watching all this, Alyosha began to think more and more often about his mother. The fact that she refused to live in such a family noticeably elevated her in the eyes of her son. And he imagined Varvara either in the camp of robbers, or in the image of the prince-lady Engalycheva, about whom his grandmother told him. And sometimes the boy’s chest seemed to fill with lead, and he felt stuffy and cramped in this room, reminiscent of a coffin. As Maxim Gorky shows, childhood evoked bitter thoughts and feelings in the hero. Their analysis leaves the same heaviness on the reader’s soul.
Injustice
There is another hero in the work, whom Alyosha met immediately upon his arrival in Novgorod. This is Grigory Ivanovich, a master who worked for his grandfather. He was old and blind, and the boys, like his uncles, often mocked him. For example, they could place a red-hot thimble under their hand. When the Kashirins split up and the grandfather moved to Polevaya Street, the masters were simply kicked out onto the street. It was painfully embarrassing: to see how Grigory was begging, so Alyosha avoided meeting him and hid every time he appeared, recalls Maxim Gorky. “Childhood,” whose heroes are people of different social strata, shows how dissatisfaction with the life he saw gradually matured in the boy. And the merit of the writer is that he made it clear: a person does not always go with the flow. Many find the strength to resist evil, thereby gradually changing the world for the better.
As for Gregory, his grandmother often called him to her and tried to somehow diminish the troubles that befell the one who gave his whole life to her family. One day she told Alyosha that God would severely punish them for this man. Years later, when Akulina Ivanovna was no longer there, the grandfather himself went to beg, repeating the fate of his master.
Good Deed
And again Vasily Vasilyevich changed his place of residence, Gorky continues the story “Childhood”. On Kanatnaya Street, where the Kashirins now settled, fate brought Alyosha together with another amazing person. Good Deed - this is how the tenant was nicknamed for the words that he invariably used in his speech - was considered a freeloader and was constantly conducting some kind of experiments in his room, which displeased his grandfather. One evening, according to tradition, everyone gathered at grandma’s, and she started a story about Ivan the Warrior. This story made an extraordinary impression on Good Deed. He suddenly jumped up and shouted that this must be written down. And later he gave advice to Alyosha: be sure to study. And also - write down everything that Akulina Ivanovna says. This may have been the beginning of the writer’s love for literature.
But soon Good Deed left home, and Gorky wrote about this in the story: this is how the friendship with the first (best) person from “an endless series of strangers in his native ... country” ended.
Meeting with mother
Varvara appeared at the Kashirins' house unexpectedly. Alyosha immediately noticed that she had changed, but still did not look like her brothers and father. And again I thought: he won’t live here long. The mother began to teach her son to read and even decided to start raising him. But during the time spent away from each other, they ceased to understand each other. The boy was also depressed by the constant quarrels between his grandfather and mother, especially since Varvara was not going to change to please anyone. And yet she broke Kashirin. After refusing to marry the old watchmaker, whom her grandfather looked after, Varvara practically became the mistress of the house, continues Maxim Gorky’s “Childhood”. The chapters dedicated to the hero’s mother introduce how she, against her father’s will, married Maxim, who was completely different from her family. How the young people came to bow to the old man Kashirin, but refused to live in his house, which caused a new anger of the old man. How the sisters Mikhail and Yakov disliked their husband, dreaming of snatching her share of the inheritance. How, finally, the Peshkovs left for Astrakhan, where they lived amicably and happily.
And although his mother always evoked only warm feelings in Alyosha, she never became for her son the person who helped him overcome the first hardships of life and withstand the blows of fate.
Changes again
Meanwhile, Varvara became increasingly prettier and visited her son less and less. Then she got married again and moved out. Now life in the house has become even more difficult, Maxim Gorky makes clear. Childhood (analysis of the work leads to this idea) was gradually ending for the hero. Alyosha increasingly spent time alone and became unsociable. He dug himself a hole in the garden and made a cozy seat there. The grandfather often came here, tinkering with the plants, but his grandson’s stories were no longer interesting. And Vasily Vasilyevich himself became embittered after his daughter’s departure, often swore and kicked his grandmother out of the house. He became even greedier than before. At the same time, he lectured his grandson: “We are not a bar. We need to achieve everything ourselves.” And in the fall he sold the house completely, telling Akulina Ivanovna that she should now feed herself. The next two years, according to the author, passed in terrible shaking, which he felt from the moment he sat in the cart while moving to the basement.
"Lead Abominations of Life"
This definition appears in the story “Childhood” by Maxim Gorky after the story of how Alyosha almost stabbed his stepfather to death. A mother with a small son and husband appeared in the Kashirins’ basement shortly after they moved there. She said that the house burned down, but it was clear to everyone that Maksimov had lost everything. The hero's brother turned out to be a sick boy, Varvara herself noticeably looked worse and was pregnant again. Her relationship with her young husband did not work out, and one day Alyosha witnessed their quarrel: Maksimov was heading to his mistress, and his mother was screaming heart-rendingly. The hero grabbed a knife and rushed at his stepfather, but luckily he only cut his uniform and slightly caught his skin. These memories, along with all the others described above, made the author think about whether it is necessary to talk about these abominations? And he confidently answers: yes. Firstly, this is the only way to root out evil “from memory, from a person’s soul, from our entire life, heavy and shameful” (quote from Gorky’s work). Secondly, such baseness shows (this has already been noted in the article) that the Russian person is still “so healthy and young at heart that he can and will overcome them.” And this “bright, healthy and creative”, embodied in the story in the images of the grandmother, the Gypsy, the Good Deed, gives hope that the revival of humanity is possible.
In people
After the incident with his stepfather, Alyosha again ended up with his grandfather. Vasily Vasilyevich insisted that he and his grandmother cook dinners in turns, and each with his own money. At the same time, he always saved. The hero had to earn money himself: after school he went to collect rags and sold them cheap. He gave what he earned to his grandmother and one day he saw her crying over his nickels.
Things were tough at school. Here Alyosha was called a rag picker, and no one wanted to sit with him. But he still passed the third grade exams, for which he received a certificate of merit and several books as a reward. The boy took the last ones to the shop when Akulina Ivanovna fell ill and there was nothing to live on.
Another memorable event in the life of the hero of the story “Childhood” by Maxim Gorky is the death of his mother. Varvara returned to the Kashirins completely ill, withered, and soon died of consumption. A few days after her funeral, the grandfather sent Alexei “to the people” so that he could earn his own bread. From this moment childhood ends, and the second story of Gorky’s autobiographical trilogy begins.
Epilogue
The ability for spiritual self-development in conditions of tragic reality is, perhaps, the main thing that Maxim Gorky wants to draw the reader’s attention to. Childhood (the theme of the work, stated in the title, emphasizes this) is the main time in a person’s life. A child usually remembers forever what made a great impression on him. And it’s good that during this period Alyosha witnessed not only inhumanity and cruelty, but also met people who were infinitely kind and open to others. This helped him resist " lead abominations"and grow up to be a bright person who does not put up with evil, which can become an example for everyone else.
The little hero of M. Gorky’s story “Childhood”, after the death of his father, ends up in the family of his grandfather. He was a stern man who spent his whole life “saving a penny.”
Grandfather Kashirin was engaged in trade. He had a fairly large family - two sons and a daughter - Lenka's mother. The sons fought over their father's inheritance and were very afraid that their sister would get something. Grandfather was even afraid that they would do the worst thing - “they would harass Varvara.”
Lenka ends up in her grandfather’s family when things are still going well for Kashirin. The family lives in prosperity, and the grandfather is happy with everything so far. This is how Lenka describes him at that time: “He was all folded, chiseled, sharp. His satin, silk-embroidered waistcoat was old and worn out, his cotton shirt was wrinkled, there were large patches on the knees of his pants, and yet he seemed dressed cleaner and more beautiful than his sons...”
The grandfather is very worried about the behavior of his sons; he sees that they will stop at nothing in pursuit of money.
Kashirin singled out Lenka from all his grandchildren; for some reason he liked him more than all the others. But he didn’t let the boy go free, he also flogged him for his offenses. Moreover, sometimes the grandfather was very cruel to Lenka.
This man was hot-tempered and angry. Having dispersed, he could have screwed his grandson until he lost consciousness. And this happened when the grandmother and mother stood up for the boy. Kashirin did not tolerate being contradicted, especially in his house.
It is Lenka who tells the grandfather the story of his life. In his youth, Kashirin was a barge hauler: “with his strength he pulled barges against the Volga.” He tells his grandson how difficult it is. The person is exhausted with all his strength, literally bleeding with sweat and blood. But there’s nowhere to go - we have to drag it out: “This is how we lived before the eyes of God, before the eyes of the merciful Lord Jesus Christ!..”
Kashirin says that he measured the Volga three times back and forth - many thousands of miles. But there were also pleasant moments in this life, when on vacation the whole team sang a barge hauler song. Kashirin says that he “got a chill on his skin, and it was as if the Volga would go faster, and it would just rear up like a horse, right up to the clouds.”
Gradually, the Kashirin family goes bankrupt. Grandfather is getting old. At the end of the story we already see that this is a sick and decrepit man. My grandfather’s financial situation deteriorated significantly. It got to the point that my grandmother went to beg for alms. My grandfather, who was so afraid of losing money, at the end of his life turned into an almost beggar.
We see how he has changed: “the grandfather has shrunk even more, wrinkled, his red hair has turned grey, the calm importance of his movements has been replaced by hot fussiness, his green eyes look suspicious.”
The lack of money really depresses Kashirin. He even separates from his wife so as not to have an extra mouth to feed: “Even the oil for the icon lamp before each one bought his own - this is after fifty years of joint work!” He reproaches his grandmother and Lenka: “You get me drunk, you eat me to the bone, oh, you…” And this is despite the fact that the grandson practically lived on the street.
At the end of the story, the grandfather kicks Lenka out into the street. The boy’s mother dies, and his grandfather tells him: “Well, Lexey, you are not a medal, there’s no place for you on my neck, but go join the people...
And I went among the people.”
The fate of grandfather Kashirin is difficult and ambiguous. From a successful merchant he turned into a poor and lonely old man. It is important that he “dispersed” his relatives himself: he quarreled with his sons, separated from his wife, kicked out his grandson, dooming him to independent survival.
