Andrey Platonovich Platonov

"Iron old woman"

In 1951, Platonov wrote the story "The Iron Old Woman". The main character here is a child. Yegor is interested in many questions that he asks his mother, the iron old woman, the bug and the worm, the wind. He asks them who they are, why they live, whether they feel good or not. Perhaps Platonov asks these full of philosophy questions to readers, but only does it through the mouth of the boy Egor. The story prompts you to think about many life issues. The reader should not only think, but at the same time feel everything. This is the way the author writes. Every line, every word requires careful and meaningful reading. In his works, Platonov, as it were, equalizes the beginning of two worlds: the spiritual and the material. This is where matter and existence come together. The writer sees the world from the inside, and not from the outside, as others do. He loves all living things, understands the thoughts and feelings of a bug and a worm, hears the whisper of a leaf, a flower.

He feels compassion not only for a person, but for all living things. A. Platonov has an unusual form of narration. Already the first lines of the story set the reader on an unusual atmosphere, which is inherent in Plato's works. As in fairy tales, the story begins with the noise of leaves on the trees, with the songs of the wind going through the world. In his story, everything around has its own life. Nature lives like people.

A child lives inside Platonov. An event for the author is every meeting with the world, and in the phenomena he finds discoveries that he makes together with his hero. A young child, sitting under a tree, listens to him and conducts a dialogue with nature. Egor wants to understand the world, but at the same time he wants to kill the "iron old woman". In all the questions that a child asks everyone he meets, there is one thing: to understand who a person is in this world. This is not about fate and death. Platonov looks deeper. He shows that it is not natural for a person to be alone, he does not want this at all. This is evidenced by the meeting of Yegorka with a bug. The author unusually describes an insect to which he gives human features. It suddenly flew away with a small, motionless face, kind eyes, with legs and arms, and the boy became bored. A feeling of loneliness overwhelmed him. This episode with the insect can say a lot. This boredom makes you think about the meaning of life, gives you the desire to merge with wildlife in order to get rid of boredom and loneliness.

The hero of the story feels equal with the outside world. The world for Yegorka is dear and alive. Common burdock saved the boy from night terrors. The kid often thinks about the plants of the ravine and hopes that they will always be there. The child in Plato's story looks at life differently than adults who live in a bustle and do not notice anything around. The boy often goes out into the yard at night to explore the world. The road in the story symbolizes the aspirations of Yegor, who wants to know everything. And the image of the old woman in this story serves as a connecting link between existence and non-existence, life and death.

The symbolic image of death, in the form of an "iron old woman", acts as the destroyer of all life. For the boy, she is very real, that's why he wants to kill her. However, having heard dull sounds in the ravine, reminiscent of the crunch of dried bones, Yegor understands that only the inanimate can fight an inanimate creature. Egor does not want to become an iron old man at all. He just wants to scare the old woman and continue to be a boy in order to live with his mother.

The leaves rustled on the tree; they sang the wind going through the world. Young Yegor sat under a tree and listened to the voice of the leaves, their meek mumbling words.

Yegor wanted to know what these words of the wind mean, what they tell him, and he asked, turning his face to the wind:

- Who are you? What are you telling me?

The wind was silent, as if it were. he himself listened to the boy at this time, and then slowly muttered again, moving the leaves and repeating the previous words.

- Who are you? Yegor asked again, not seeing anyone.

No one answered him anymore; the wind has gone and the leaves have fallen asleep. Yegor waited to see what would happen now, and saw that evening was already coming. The yellow light of the late sun illuminated the old autumn tree and life became more boring. I had to go home, have dinner, sleep in the dark. Yegor did not like to sleep, he loved to live without interruption in order to see everything that lives without him, and he regretted that at night he had to close his eyes, and then the stars would burn in the sky alone, without his participation.

He picked up the beetle that was crawling along the grass home for the night, and looked into its small, motionless face, into its kind black eyes, which looked at Yegor and at the whole world at the same time.

- Who are you? Yegor asked the beetle.

The beetle did not answer anything, but Yegor understood that the beetle knew something that Yegor himself did not know, but only he pretended to be small, he became a beetle on purpose and was silent, and he was not a beetle, but someone else - no one knows who.

- You're lying! - Yegor said and turned the beetle upside down to see who he was.

The beetle was silent; he moved his stiff legs with evil force, protecting life from man and not recognizing him. Egor was surprised by the persistent courage of the beetle, he fell in love with him and was even more convinced that this was not a beetle, but someone more important and smart.

“You are lying that you are a beetle,” Yegor said in a whisper in the very face of the beetle, examining it with enthusiasm. Don't pretend, I'll find out who you are anyway. Better open up now.

The beetle swung at Yegor with all his legs and arms at once. Then Yegor did not argue with him anymore.

“When I get to you, I won’t say anything either. And he sent the beetle into the air to fly away on his business.

The beetle first flew, and then sat on the ground and went on foot. And Egor suddenly became bored without the beetle. He realized that he would never see him again, and if he did, he would not recognize him, because there were many other beetles in the village. And this beetle will live somewhere, and then it will die, and everyone will forget it, only Egor will remember this unknown beetle.

A dead leaf fell from the tree. He once grew up on a tree from the earth, looked at the sky for a long time and now again returned from heaven to earth, as if he were home from long road. A raw worm crawled onto the leaf, emaciated and pale.

“Who is this? - Egor was puzzled in front of the worm. “He has no eyes and no head, what is he thinking about?” Yegor took the worm and carried it to his home.

Already quite svecherelo; fires were lit in the huts, all the people gathered from the fields to live together, because it became dark everywhere.

At home, his mother gave Yegor supper, then ordered him to go to bed and covered him with a blanket over his head for the night so that he would not be afraid to sleep and would not hear the terrible sounds that sometimes come from fields, forests and ravines in the middle of the night. Yegor hid under the covers and unclenched left hand where he kept the worm all the time.

End of introductory segment.

Text provided by LitRes LLC.

You can safely pay for the book bank card Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, from account mobile phone, from a payment terminal, in the MTS or Svyaznoy salon, via PayPal, WebMoney, Yandex.Money, QIWI Wallet, bonus cards or in another way convenient for you.

"Who are you? Why do you live? Is it good for you or not?" Such questions are asked by the boy Yegor, the hero of Platonov's story "The Iron Old Woman", written in 1951. Are these not the questions that Platonov himself poses to us? At first glance, the story seems childish, but in fact, using the image of a child, Platonov poses important, deep philosophical questions before us. What kind of writer is this who makes you think and feel at the same time while reading, stopping at every line, even every word?

Perhaps the point is that everything in the writer's world is made of the "substance of existence." It is no coincidence that two completely incompatible concepts - "substance" (matter) and "existence" (process) are combined by the author, turning into an oxymoron. But for Platonov, this is natural; he, as it were, equalizes the material and spiritual principles of the world. When you read Platonov's works, one gets the impression that the writer looks at the world not from the outside, but from within it: through the eyes of a flower, mote, leaf, beetle, worm; he knows their thoughts and feelings.

"Unknown Flower" The flower works day and night not to die, it overcomes its pain from "hunger and fatigue" with patience. This can only be said about a living, intelligent being. Probably, the fact is that Platonov sympathized with all living things that are in the world: a leaf, an animal, a person. And if for an ordinary person the world can only appear personified, then with Platonov everything around lives its own life, like a person.

I discovered Platonov when I read the short stories "The Unknown Flower" and "The Iron Old Woman". Then there were "Kotlovan" and "Potudan River", "Fro", "Chevegur". But I would like to talk about the Iron Old Woman. From the very first lines of the story, you feel the special Platonic atmosphere of the story. Here is the first sentence: "The leaves on the tree rustled; the wind that went through the world sang in them." It looks like this is the beginning fairy tale, after all, "the wind blowing through the world" sings, a faint whisper of foliage seems to be (perhaps due to sound recording).

We read further - what a coincidence: "Young Yegor sat under a tree and listened to their meek, muttering words." Plato's words are amazing: rough, in general, some kind of childish and at the same time wise. It is wonderful that the writer, being an adult, remains a child. This means that each meeting with the world is an event for him, and each phenomenon is a discovery. And Platonov makes these discoveries together with his hero.

"iron old woman" (fate? death?). It seems that the intention of the story is quite clear, but this is only a first impression. Therefore, it is imperative to figure out why the boy asks everyone: the beetle, the worm, the wind, the mother, himself, the “iron old woman”: “Who are you?”, “Why do you live?”. In these questions, the main idea of ​​the story is revealed: a person wants to understand who he is in the world. Platonov brings us to the idea that a person does not want to be alone in the world, and the episode with the beetle is symbolic here.

"small motionless face", "kind eyes", "legs and hands". It is no coincidence that Yegor "became bored" when the beetle flew away. The boy intuitively feels that he is alone in the world, but he does not want to be "bored" and tries to penetrate the cycle of life, to feel his dependence on the wind, stars, burdock, beetle. Surprisingly, a tiny episode that tells about the meeting of a boy with a taciturn beetle, more reminiscent of a person than an insect, reveals so much in the story.

And now about "boredom". Boredom in Platonov is a special motive. This is not just a beacon from doing nothing. Boredom-longing is a search for a higher meaning, a desire to merge with all living things. To overcome boredom means to overcome loneliness. The motive of boredom sounded as one of the most important in "The Foundation Pit". Main character In the story, Voshchev is looking for the "substance of existence" in order to feel the fullness of his life. The "substance of existence" needs to be developed in order to give it to children, such as Nastya. But Nastya is dying from loneliness, from "boredom" that sucks the life out of her, from the inability to connect with the world.

... The boy Egor from "The Iron Old Woman" is very close to Voshchev in terms of his worldview. People like Yegor, Voshchev think that the world is organized according to the same laws as they themselves, therefore they communicate with the world as equals to themselves. In other words, for Platonov, the main thing is that his heroes feel themselves part of a huge whole, consider everything equal to themselves in "body" and "spirit", no matter what their eyes fall on.

in the courtyard. The boy thinks about the herbs that live in the ravine: "...nothing, because they all live here and are not afraid, and he will be with them." The attitude of the child in the story makes much more sense than it seems at first glance.

After all, adults are busy, they have no time to look back, stop, think. They simply live their lives, "wasting time sleeping." This position is unacceptable for a boy. Therefore, Yegor, when everyone is sleeping, goes "outside" to get to know the world: "I don't want to sleep, I want to live."

"Know everything." “Before everything” must be understood in the literal sense, because everything is interesting to him, everything is important: “Who is this?”, “Mom, and who are you?”, “Mom, and who is the old woman?”.

Indeed, it is time to talk about the old woman, whose name the story is named. The image of the old woman is represented as a link between life and death, existence and non-existence. Before us, probably symbolic image death that destroys all life. Conventionally, death is presented in the form of an "iron old woman", but Yegor sees it as quite real, existing precisely as a result of his special perception of the world. Therefore, hiding at night in a ravine, guarding the old woman, Yegor hears a "dull sound", "the crunch of dried bones".

"sigh of all the dead" - a sigh of longing for life. Egor is sorry for the dead, and he wants to kill the old woman. But even little hero Platonova understands that only the inanimate can fight the inanimate. The boy needs to become an "iron old man." Here he acts as little George the Victorious, ready to accomplish a feat for the sake of people. But for Yegor, this is a big sacrifice, and he says: “I’ll be iron on purpose to scare the old woman, let her die. And then I won’t be iron - I don’t want to, I’ll be a boy with my mother.”

"Iron Old Woman", I would like to say that this tiny story focuses the main features of Plato's prose, "absorbs" its most important motives and images: compassion for all living things, the search for the "substance of existence", a sense of the integrity of the world, motives of boredom, roads as attempts to comprehend the world and Finally, the idea of ​​saving the dead, which Platonov learned from the teachings of I. F. Fedorov. This makes the story "The Iron Old Woman" one of the best works writer.

The leaves rustled on the tree; they sang the wind going through the world. Young Yegor sat under a tree and listened to the voice of the leaves, their meek mumbling words.

Yegor wanted to know what these words of the wind mean, what they tell him, and he asked, turning his face to the wind:

Who are you? What are you telling me?

The wind was silent, as if it were. he himself listened to the boy at this time, and then slowly muttered again, moving the leaves and repeating the previous words.

Who are you? Yegor asked again, not seeing anyone.

No one answered him anymore; the wind has gone and the leaves have fallen asleep. Yegor waited to see what would happen now, and saw that evening was already coming. The yellow light of the late sun illuminated the old autumn tree, and life became more boring. I had to go home, have dinner, sleep in the dark. Yegor did not like to sleep, he loved to live without interruption in order to see everything that lives without him, and he regretted that at night he had to close his eyes, and then the stars would burn in the sky alone, without his participation.

He picked up the beetle that was crawling along the grass home for the night, and looked into its small, motionless face, into its kind black eyes, which looked at Yegor and at the whole world at the same time.

Who are you? Yegor asked the beetle.

The beetle did not answer anything, but Yegor understood that the beetle knew something that Yegor himself did not know, but only he pretended to be small, he became a beetle on purpose and was silent, and he was not a beetle, but someone else - no one knows who.

You're lying! - Yegor said and turned the beetle upside down to see who he was.

The beetle was silent; he moved his stiff legs with evil force, protecting life from man and not recognizing him. Egor was surprised by the persistent courage of the beetle, he fell in love with him and was even more convinced that this was not a beetle, but someone more important and smart.

You lie that you are a beetle, - Yegor said in a whisper in the very face of the beetle, examining it with enthusiasm. - Don't pretend - I'll find out who you are anyway. Better open up now.

The beetle swung at Yegor with all his legs and arms at once. Then Yegor did not argue with him anymore.

When I get to you, I won't say anything either. - And he let the beetle into the air so that he flew away on his business.

The beetle first flew, and then sat on the ground and went on foot. And Egor suddenly became bored without the beetle. He realized that he would never see him again, and if he did, he would not recognize him, because there were many other beetles in the village. And this beetle will live somewhere, and then it will die, and everyone will forget it, only Egor will remember this unknown beetle.

A dead leaf fell from the tree. He once grew up on a tree from the earth, looked at the sky for a long time, and now he was returning from heaven to earth again, as if he had come home from a long journey. A raw worm crawled onto the leaf, emaciated and pale.

“Who is this? - Yegor was puzzled before the worm. “He has no eyes and no head, what is he thinking about?” - Yegor took the worm and carried it to his home.

Already quite svecherelo; fires were lit in the huts, all the people gathered from the fields to live together, because it became dark everywhere.

At home, his mother gave Yegor supper, then ordered him to go to bed and covered him with a blanket over his head for the night so that he would not be afraid to sleep and would not hear the terrible sounds that sometimes come from fields, forests and ravines in the middle of the night. Egor hid under the covers and unclenched his left hand, where he always had a worm.

Who are you? Yegor asked, bringing the worm closer to his face.

The worm dozed, he did not move in his unclenched hand. He smelled of the river, fresh earth and grass; he was small, clean, and meek—probably still a cub, or perhaps already a thin little old man.

Why are you living? Yegor said. - Are you good or not?

The worm curled up in his palm, sensing the night and wishing for peace. But Egor did not want to sleep; he wanted to live still, to play with someone, he wanted the morning to be right outside the window and he could get out of bed. But the night stood in the yard - just begun, long, you can’t sleep through it all; and if you fall asleep, you will still wake up before dawn, at that terrible time when everyone is sleeping, both people and grasses, and the awakened person is alone in the world - no one sees or remembers him.

The worm lay in Yegor's hand.

Let me be you and you be me! Yegor said to the worm. - Then I will know who you are, and you will become like me, you will be a man, you will be better off.

The worm did not agree; he was probably already asleep, without thinking about who Yegor was.

I'm tired of being all Yegor and Yegor, - the boy said alone. - I want to be something else. Wake up, worm. Let's talk to you - you think about me, and I'll be about you ...

The mother heard her son's conversation and approached him. She had not yet slept, she walked around the hut and finished the last business with which she had not managed during the day.

Why don’t you sleep there, you mumble, what a joker, ”she said and tucked the blanket under Yegor’s feet. - Sleep. And then the iron old woman walks in the field in the dark, she is looking for those who do not sleep, and takes them away with her.

Mom, who is she? - asked Yegor.

She is iron, she is not visible, she lives in darkness, she frightens with fear, and people's hearts are taken away ...

And who is she?

Who knows, son. Sleep, said the mother. - Don't be afraid of her, she may be nobody, some poor old woman.

Where does she live? Yegor recognized.

She walks through the ravines, looks for grass, gnaws dry bones, and when someone dies, she is glad, she wants to be left alone in the world, and everything lives, everything lives, everything wants to wait until everyone dies and she will walk alone, an iron old woman. Well, sleep now, she doesn’t go around the yards, I’ll lock the door ...

The mother left her son. Egor hid the worm under the pillow so that he would sleep there warmly and not be afraid of anything.

Mom, who are you? - he asked.

But his mother didn't answer him. She decided that Yegor would talk a little more and talk and fall asleep, he was obviously dozing.

"And who am I? - Yegor thought and did not know. - Someone I have too. It doesn't happen that I'm nobody."

It became quiet in the hut. Mother went to bed, father had already slept for a long time. Yegor listened. In the yard, the wattle fence occasionally creaked, it was swayed by a maple growing near the wattle fence. Yegor noticed that even in the calmest weather the maple swayed a little, as if it was stretching somewhere, wanting to grow faster or move away and leave, and the fence constantly creaks from it, complaining of anxiety. It must be boring to be a tree, it lives in one place.

Mom, - Yegor called quietly, sticking his head out from under the blanket. - What is maple?

But the mother fell asleep, no one answered Yegor. He peered into the gloom; the window overlooking the millet field shone with the vague light of the night, as if beyond the window there was a depth of still water. Yegor got up in bed, thinking about what was happening in the dark field and who was going there alone with a knapsack of bread on a long journey. Probably, someone walks along an empty road and is not afraid of anything. Who is he?

From afar, someone sighed, then groaned and fell silent. Egor stared out the window; the former light of the dark earth illuminated the glass, but the dull, groaning sound was repeated again - whether it was a cart driving in the distance or an iron old woman walking along a ravine and languishing that people live and are born, but she can’t wait until she is alone in the world. “I’ll go and find out everything,” Yegor decided. - What is there at night, who is the old woman?

He put on his pants and walked out barefoot.

The maple was moving its branches, about to move on, the burdocks were rubbing against the wattle fence, and the cow was chewing in the barn. Nobody slept in the yard.

Clear stars shone in the sky; there were so many of them that they seemed close - so at night under the stars it was just as not scary as during the day among the wildflowers.

Egor passed the millet, passed the dormant, whispering sunflowers, and along the abandoned, forgotten road, headed for the ravine.

The ravine was old, it was not washed away more water, and it is overgrown with weeds and shrubs. The old men and women stocked up rods here and in winter time in the huts they wove baskets from them.

When Yegor passed through thickets of weeds and bushes and found himself at the bottom of the ravine, he saw that it was quieter and darker here than at the top of the earth - not a blade of grass, not a leaf moved here - and he became afraid.

Stars, look at me, - Yegor whispered. - And then I'm afraid of one.

But only three stars were visible from the ravine, and they faintly twinkled on a distant, drifting height, as if they were receding and fading there in the darkness.

Egor touched the grass, saw a pebble, then shook the burdock, the same as in his yard, and recovered from fear: nothing, they all live here and are not afraid, and he will be with them. Soon he noticed a small cave, dug in the side of a ravine, in order to extract clay from there, and climbed into it. He now wanted to take a nap a little - he was worn out for a day to live and walk.

“And as soon as the iron old woman passes by, I’ll call her,” Yegor said to himself and, shrinking in the ground from the night coolness, closed his eyes.

It became completely quiet, and everything became numb, all the stars were hidden by the heavenly pillowcase, and the grass drooped, as if dead.

A dull sound resounded in this lowland of the earth, like a sigh of regret for all the dead people. Egor immediately opened his eyes, hearing this agonizing sound in his sleep. Above him stood the dark body of a man, large and dim from the surrounding black night, ready to be and ready to disappear.

Who are you? - asked Yegor. - Are you an old woman?

The old woman, said the old woman.

Are you made of iron?.. I need an iron one.

Why do you need me? - asked the iron old woman.

I want to see you - who are you, why are you? Yegor said.

You will die, then I will tell you, - the voice of the old woman answered.

Tell me, I'll die, - Yegor agreed and took a lump of clay in his hand to close up the old woman's eyes and overpower her.

Come to me, I'll tell you in your ear. - And the old woman stirred for the first time, and again there was a familiar dull sound of rustling iron or the crunch of dried bones. - Come to me, I'll tell you everything, and then you'll die. Otherwise, you are small, you still have a lot to live, and I have to wait a long time for your death. Have pity on me, I'm old.

And who are you, tell me, - Yegor recognized. - Don't be afraid of me, I'm not afraid of you.

The old woman leaned towards Yegor and began to approach him. The boy pressed his back to the ground in his cave and peered with open eyes at the iron old woman leaning towards him. When she bent down and approached him and there was little darkness left between them, Yegor shouted:

I know, I know you. I don't need you, I'll kill you! He threw a handful of clay into her face and froze himself and crouched down on the ground.

But even dying, lying face down, Yegor once again heard the voice of the iron old woman:

You don't know me, you didn't see me. But all your life I will wait for your death and destroy you, because you are not afraid of me.

“I'm a little afraid, then I'll get used to it and stop,” Yegor thought and forgot.

He woke up from the familiar warmth, he was carried by soft big hands, and he asked:

Who are you? Are you not old?

And who are you? his mother asked.

Egor opened his eyes and closed them again: the light of the sun illuminated the whole village, the maple in their yard and the whole earth. Egor opened his eyes again and saw the neck of his mother, who rested his head.

Why did you run into the ravine? asked the mother. - We were looking for you early in the morning, my father left to work in the field all in doubt.

Egor said that he fought in a ravine with an iron old woman, but only did not have time to see her face, because he threw clay at her.

Mother thought, then she lowered Yegor to the ground and looked at him as if he were a stranger.

Walk with your feet, wrestler... You dreamed it.

No, I really saw her, - said Yegor. - There are iron old women.

Or maybe they do, - said the mother and took her son home.

Mom, who is she?

But I don’t know, I heard, I didn’t see her myself. People say that fate, or something, or our grief walks. Grow up, you'll know.

Fate, - Yegor said, not knowing what it meant. - I will grow up a little more and catch an iron old woman ...

Catch, catch her, son, - said the mother. - I'll peel the potatoes for you and fry them.

Come on, - agreed Yegor. - I wanted to eat, there are strong old women. I'm tired of her.

They entered the vestibule of the hut. In the hallway, a familiar worm was crawling along the floor, returning from Yegor's bed to his home in the ground. "Crawl, mute! Yegor was angry. - Look you. Who he is, he did not say. After all, I'll find out. And I will find out about the old woman - I myself will become an iron old man.

Yegor stopped in the entryway and thought: “I’ll be made of iron on purpose to scare the old woman, let her die. And then I won’t be iron, - I don’t want to, I will again be a boy with my mother.

From the early age the child hears fairy tales that adults read to him. Good and evil characters, fantastic and quite real, act in them. As a rule, everything that a child does not understand in life, he tries to explain with fabulous images and vice versa, he connects everything fabulous and incomprehensible with the real.

It is not surprising that often adults, in order to quickly calm the baby, tell him about all kinds of horrors, as happens in the story "The Iron Old Woman".

Considering that many of Platonov's works are autobiographical, it is quite possible to assume that the events of The Iron Old Woman are real.

The beginning of the story is very reminiscent of the above works. Egor, like many of Platonov's characters, speaks to inanimate objects as if they were animate. It can be assumed that most likely this comes from the loneliness of the child and his mental organization: he needs communication and seeks to find his equals in this world. He is not at all afraid of small creatures. Egor sees in the beetle and the worm people with arms and legs and even the feelings of a real person: “When I get to you, I won’t say anything either!” - the boy says to the beetle. It is noteworthy that the baby is not afraid of all these insects: he calmly picks up a slippery worm, lies down with him in bed, brings him to his face, without feeling any disgust.

Children do not feel tired: they are eager to learn as soon as possible about life as much as possible. As with a beetle, so with a worm, Yegor is ready to switch bodies to find out their condition, their feelings. It is surprising that Yegor does not torture insects, showing his physical superiority, but, on the contrary, treats them as equals.

But against the background of harmony, the image of the Iron Old Woman suddenly appears. The second part of the story, as it were, introduces disharmony into the life of the child. Frightened by his mother's words about a certain Iron Old Woman who will take him away if he does not sleep, he first of all thinks not of himself, but of a small defenseless worm. He hides it under his pillow, thus trying to protect him.

The house is an image of a closed space “At home, mother gave Yegor dinner, then ordered him to go to bed and covered him with a blanket with his head for the night so that he would not be afraid to sleep and would not hear terrible sounds. which are sometimes heard in the middle of the night from fields, forests and ravines "The author wants to convey to the reader that loving people, especially parents, try to protect their children from danger, problems in this world. However, all their attempts remain in vain: life will force everyone to go their own way anyway. The narrative begins with "home" and ends with "home" Indeed, human life begins with a narrow space, with the parental home, and ends with a narrow space - before death, it will also be needed only by a small circle of people, the closest and dearest.

Space - an image of open space - “world” “He put on his pants and went out barefoot ... Clear stars shone in the sky; there were so many. That they seemed close ..”, Yegor turns his gaze to the sky. This is no coincidence. The sky in Russian literature is a symbol of the high, the unknown. At the decisive, turning points of their lives, the favorite heroes of the authors literary works turned their eyes to the sky, looking for an answer to the question, what is the meaning of life and who is the “I” in this life (Remember Andrei Bolkonsky on the Austerlitz field) Platonov continues the traditions of the Russian classic: in order to comprehend the meaning of life, you need to go out into the world, since living within the same walls, you will not know it. The author of his hero forces to expand the scope of his being, “brings him into the“ world ”, with the aim of knowing this very world. “Egor noticed that even in the calmest weather, the maple sways a little. as if he is reaching out somewhere, wants to grow up as soon as possible or move away and leave. It must be boring to be a tree: it lives in one place

The threshold is the boundary between the house and space. In this text, the word threshold replaces the word window, which separates the hero from the world. “He peered into the darkness. The window overlooking the millet floor shone with the dim light of the night. As if outside the window was the depth of still water. Yegor got up in bed, thinking about who was walking alone with a bag of bread on a long journey ... Who is he? I'll go and find out everything." "Window - long road". The image of the road is also traditional. A road that lasts a lifetime.

Exit from a closed space Big world always involves overcoming a certain barrier, not everyone can and wants to cross this barrier - a lot depends on the person himself. Egor is small, but the desire to comprehend life is great, the author showed this well through the organization of space.