Retelling plan
1. Gingerbread “horse” is the dream of all village kids.
2. The life of the family of Uncle Levontius and Aunt Vasenya.
3. The children go to pick strawberries.
4. Fight between the Levontiev brothers.
5. The boy and the Levontiev children eat strawberries.
6. Games on the Malaya River.
7. Deception. Theft of rolls.
8. A group of guys goes fishing.
9. Pangs of conscience.
10. Return of Grandma.
11. The boy, not wanting to return home, goes to his cousin Keshka.
12. Aunt Fenya takes the hero home and talks to his grandmother.
13. Night in the pantry.
14. Return of the grandfather. The grandmother forgives her grandson and gives him the treasured gingerbread.
Retelling
The hero of the work is an orphan, he lives with his grandparents. We learn that a horse with a pink mane is an extraordinary gingerbread, the dream of all village children. The hero’s grandmother promises to buy this gingerbread by selling the strawberries that the boy has to pick. This simple task becomes a real test for him, since he has to go with the neighboring children, the children of Uncle Levontius and Aunt Vasenya.
Uncle Levontius's family lives poorly, but brightly. When he receives his salary, not only they, but also all the neighbors are seized by some kind of “restlessness, fever.” Aunt Vasenya quickly pays off debts, and one day everyone is walking recklessly, and after a few days they have to borrow again. Their attitude towards
life is shown through the attitude towards the house, in which “there were only children and nothing else.” Their windows are glazed somehow (they are knocked out quite often by a drunken father), and in the middle of the hut there is a stove that has become “lost.” These details emphasize that Uncle Levontius’s family lives as they have to, without hesitation.
The hero of the story, being close to the Levontiev children, falls under their influence. He witnesses a fight between brothers. The elder is dissatisfied that the younger ones do not so much pick strawberries as eat them. As a result, everything collected is eaten. They bully, saying that the narrator is afraid of his grandmother and is greedy. Wanting to prove the opposite, the boy gives them all the collected berries. This is a turning point in his behavior, since then he does everything as they do, becoming one of the “Levontiev horde.” He is already stealing rolls for them, ruining someone else’s garden, deceiving them: on Sanka’s advice, he fills the roll with grass, and sprinkles strawberries on top of the grass.
Fear of punishment and pangs of conscience do not allow him to sleep. The boy does not tell the truth, and the grandmother leaves to sell berries. The pangs of conscience are becoming more and more strong, nothing pleases the hero anymore: neither the fishing trip he went on with the Levontievskys, nor the new ways to get out of the situation proposed by Sanka. It turns out that peace and tranquility in the soul are the best blessings in the world. The boy, who does not know how to make amends for his guilt, on the advice of his grandfather, asks his grandmother for forgiveness. And suddenly the very same gingerbread appears in front of him, which he had never hoped to receive: “How many years have passed since then! How many events have passed! And I still can’t forget my grandmother’s gingerbread - that marvelous horse with a pink mane.”
The boy receives a gift because his grandmother wishes him well, loves him, wants to support him, seeing his mental suffering. You cannot teach a person to be kind without giving him your kindness.
The many-wise Litrecon suggests brief retelling works by V. Astafiev “The Horse with a Pink Mane”, which will help you get acquainted with the plot in an abbreviated form. The main events from the book are conveyed accurately but concisely. A summary can be useful in selecting arguments for reasoning in literature lessons or in writing an essay.
(845 words) Grandmother told Vita to go pick up strawberries with the neighbor’s “Levontief” kids. As a reward, the grandmother promised her grandson to bring him a gingerbread in the shape of a horse from the city. Vitya was delighted - a white horse with a pink mane was the dream of all the neighboring children.
The story goes on to tell about the family of Levontius, a neighbor who was harvesting wood for badogi for a lime factory. When Levontii received his salary, his wife Vasenya immediately went to the neighbors to pay off debts, but she never counted the money, she could give an extra ruble or three. Levontius's house was poor and unsettled, with many ragged, always hungry children.
“He stood by himself in the open space and nothing stopped him from looking at the white light through the somehow glazed windows.”
Levontius often drank, did nothing at home, and loved to sing a song about a sailor, since he had once been a sailor. All the residents in the village had their own favorite soulful song.
Vitya loved to visit Levontius’s house. When the owner received his salary, he always generously treated Vitya, because he was an orphan. The family began to sing, the owners poured everything they had onto the table, and the feast began. And at night, after such a feast, Levontius became rowdy, breaking glass and furniture in the house. The next morning he somehow repaired everything, and a few days later his wife Vasenya again asked for a loan from the neighbors.
While picking strawberries, the Levontiev children quarreled because the younger children were eating the berries. Two brothers got into a fight and crushed all the strawberries. Then the guys went swimming and invited Vitya with them, but he refused because he had not yet filled his container with strawberries. The most harmful of the guys, Sanka, began to tease Vitya, saying that he was a coward and a greedy person. Vitya took this as a challenge and, having poured out all the berries from the tuesk, invited the guys to eat them, while boasting that he would steal the kalach from his grandmother.
The guys played and had fun for a long time, ran into a dark cave to see who would run farthest. Sanka ran the furthest and boasted that he was not afraid of snakes and brownies. Everyone became scared from his stories, and the children began to run home. Then Vitya remembered that he didn’t have strawberries, and he felt uneasy, and Sanka also teased him, asking how he would show himself to Grandma Petrovna. Vitya was completely upset, then Sanka advised him to push grass into the jar and put berries on top to deceive his grandmother.
The Levontiev children ran home, and Vitya did as Sanka advised - he filled the container with grass, picked some berries and covered the grass with them. The grandmother did not notice anything and praised her grandson.
“God help you, God!” I’ll buy you a gingerbread, the biggest one. And I won’t pour your berries into mine, I’ll take them right away in this little bag.”
After dinner, Vitya went outside again and told Sanka how cleverly he had deceived his grandmother. Sanka began to tease him again and threatened to give Vitya away to his grandmother if he did not bring the kalach from home. Vitya snuck into the pantry and stole the kalach, and then took several more until Sanka was full. At night, Vitya could not sleep for a long time, he kept worrying about his bad deeds, and decided to tell everything to his grandmother, but he himself did not notice how he fell asleep.
The next morning, Vitya thought that it would be nice to go to his grandfather’s farm, which was five kilometers from the village “at the mouth of the Mana River,” where oats and buckwheat were planted. But taking over his grandfather was too far for Vitya. He decided to go to the Levontiev children again. They were going fishing and lost their hook. Sanka suggested that Vitya bring his hook, promising to take Vitya fishing. Vitya agreed.
While Sanka was sitting on the river with fishing rods, the rest of the guys were collecting wild sorrel, garlic and other greens. Sanka caught a fish, the guys lit a fire on the shore and baked the fish. Then the guys played on the shore and also fished. Vitya thought that his grandmother would soon come from the city, and regretted that everything had turned out this way. Sanka advised him to hide and not come out until his grandmother starts crying and wailing. But Vitya didn’t want to do that. Suddenly he saw a boat on the river with his grandmother in it and started running. He ran to the edge of the village and went to visit his relatives. Until evening, Vita played there with the guys and had dinner with his relatives, and then Aunt Fenya took him home.
While grandmother and Aunt Fenya were talking, Vitya went to bed in the closet and kept waiting for his grandmother to come to him. But she didn't come. Until Vitya fell asleep, he remembered what they told him - how his grandmother grieved when his mother drowned, how his grandmother did not leave the shore for six days, and then lay on the floor of the hut, unconscious.
In the morning, Vitya woke up and heard his grandmother telling someone about the berries he was picking. Vitya saw that his grandfather had arrived - his sheepskin coat was hanging. That morning many neighbors came to visit the grandmother, and she complained to everyone about her grandson, how he had deceived her with the berries. Vitya pretended to be asleep until his grandfather told him to ask his grandmother for forgiveness.
The boy went to his grandmother with repentance and listened to all her accusations at breakfast. And then his grandmother gave him a gingerbread - a white horse with a pink mane. Vitya remembered this for the rest of his life.
“My grandfather is no longer alive, my grandmother is no longer alive, and my life is coming to an end, but I still can’t forget my grandmother’s gingerbread - that marvelous horse with a pink mane.”
Viktor Petrovich Astafiev
Horse with a pink mane
Grandma returned from the neighbors and told me that the Levontiev children were going to the strawberry harvest, and told me to go with them.
You'll get some trouble. I will take my berries to the city, I will also sell yours and buy you gingerbread.
A horse, grandma?
Horse, horse.
Gingerbread horse! This is the dream of all village kids. He is white, white, this horse. And his mane is pink, his tail is pink, his eyes are pink, his hooves are also pink. Grandmother never allowed us to carry around with pieces of bread. Eat at the table, otherwise it will be bad. But gingerbread is a completely different matter. You can stick the gingerbread under your shirt, run around and hear the horse kicking its hooves on its bare belly. Cold with horror - lost, - grab your shirt and be convinced with happiness - here he is, here is the horse-fire!
With such a horse, I immediately appreciate how much attention! The Levontief guys fawn over you this way and that, and let you hit the first one in the siskin, and shoot with a slingshot, so that only they are then allowed to bite off the horse or lick it. When you give Levontyev’s Sanka or Tanka a bite, you must hold with your fingers the place where you are supposed to bite, and hold it tightly, otherwise Tanka or Sanka will bite so hard that the horse’s tail and mane will remain.
Levontiy, our neighbor, worked on the badogs together with Mishka Korshukov. Levontii harvested timber for badogi, sawed it, chopped it and delivered it to the lime plant, which was opposite the village, on the other side of the Yenisei. Once every ten days, or maybe fifteen, I don’t remember exactly, Levontius received money, and then in the next house, where there were only children and nothing else, a feast began. Some kind of restlessness, a fever, or something, gripped not only the Levontiev house, but also all the neighbors. Early in the morning, Aunt Vasenya, Uncle Levontiy’s wife, ran into grandma’s, out of breath, exhausted, with rubles clutched in her fist.
Stop, you freak! - her grandmother called out to her. - You have to count.
Aunt Vasenya obediently returned, and while grandma was counting the money, she walked with her bare feet, like a hot horse, ready to take off as soon as the reins were let go.
Grandmother counted carefully and for a long time, smoothing out each ruble. As far as I remember, my grandmother never gave Levontikha more than seven or ten rubles from her “reserve” for a rainy day, because this entire “reserve” consisted, it seems, of ten. But even with such a small amount, the alarmed Vasenya managed to shortchange by a ruble, sometimes even by a whole triple.
How do you handle money, you eyeless scarecrow! the grandmother attacked the neighbor. - A ruble for me, a ruble for another! What will happen? But Vasenya again threw up a whirlwind with her skirt and rolled away.
She did!
For a long time my grandmother reviled Levontiikha, Levontii himself, who, in her opinion, was not worth bread, but ate wine, beat herself on the thighs with her hands, spat, I sat down by the window and looked longingly at the neighbor’s house.
He stood by himself, in the open space, and nothing prevented him from looking at the white light through the somehow glazed windows - no fence, no gate, no frames, no shutters. Uncle Levontius didn’t even have a bathhouse, and they, the Levont’evites, washed in their neighbors, most often with us, after fetching water and ferrying firewood from the lime factory.
One good day, perhaps evening, Uncle Levontius rocked a ripple and, having forgotten himself, began to sing the song of sea wanderers, heard on voyages - he was once a sailor.
Sailed along the Akiyan
Sailor from Africa
Little licker
He brought it in a box...
The family fell silent, listening to the voice of the parent, absorbing a very coherent and pitiful song. Our village, in addition to the streets, towns and alleys, was also structured and composed in song - every family, every surname had “its own”, signature song, which deeper and more fully expressed the feelings of this and no other relatives. To this day, whenever I remember the song “The Monk Fell in Love with a Beauty,” I still see Bobrovsky Lane and all the Bobrovskys, and goosebumps spread across my skin from shock. My heart trembles and contracts from the song of the “Chess Knee”: “I was sitting by the window, my God, and the rain was dripping on me.” And how can we forget Fokine’s, soul-tearing: “In vain I broke the bars, in vain I escaped from prison, my dear, dear little wife is lying on another’s chest,” or my beloved uncle: “Once upon a time in a cozy room,” or in memory of my late mother , which is still sung: “Tell me, sister...” But where can you remember everything and everyone? The village was large, the people were vocal, daring, and the family was deep and wide.
But all our songs flew glidingly over the roof of the settler Uncle Levontius - not one of them could disturb the petrified soul of the fighting family, and here on you, Levontiev’s eagles trembled, there must have been a drop or two of sailor, vagabond blood tangled in the veins of the children, and it - their resilience was washed away, and when the children were well-fed, did not fight and did not destroy anything, one could hear a friendly chorus spilling out through the broken windows and open doors:
She sits, sad
All night long
And such a song
He sings about his homeland:
"In the warm, warm south,
In my homeland,
Friends live and grow
And there are no people at all..."
Uncle Levontiy drilled the song with his bass, added rumble to it, and therefore the song, and the guys, and he himself seemed to change in appearance, became more beautiful and more united, and then the river of life in this house flowed in a calm, even bed. Aunt Vasenya, a person of unbearable sensitivity, wetted her face and chest with tears, howled into her old burnt apron, spoke out about human irresponsibility - some drunken lout grabbed a piece of shit, dragged it away from his homeland for who knows why and why? And here she is, poor thing, sitting and yearning all night long... And, jumping up, she suddenly fixed her wet eyes on her husband - but wasn’t it he, wandering around the world, who did this dirty deed?! Wasn't he the one who whistled the monkey? He's drunk and doesn't know what he's doing!
Uncle Levontius, repentantly accepting all the sins that can be pinned on a drunken person, wrinkled his brow, trying to understand: when and why did he take a monkey from Africa? And if he took away and abducted the animal, where did it subsequently go?
In the spring, the Levontiev family picked up the ground around the house a little, erected a fence from poles, twigs, and old boards. But in winter, all this gradually disappeared in the womb of the Russian stove, which lay open in the middle of the hut.
In this article we will talk about the story “The Horse with the Pink Mane.” Astafiev Viktor Petrovich, the author of the work, has long been included in the school curriculum. The writer often turned to the village theme. The one we are considering is one of these stories. In the article we will take a closer look at the images of the main characters of the work and their summary.
Structure and brief description of the story
The story is narrated in the first person. Using colloquial speech, Astafiev reproduces the unique Siberian dialect. “The Horse with a Pink Mane,” whose main characters are distinguished by their original speech, full of dialectisms, is also rich in figurative descriptions of nature: the habits of animals and birds, rustles and sounds of the forest, river landscapes.
Now let's talk about the structure of the work:
- The beginning - the narrator with other children goes to the forest to pick up strawberries.
- Climax - main character steals rolls and deceives his grandmother.
- Denouement - the narrator is forgiven and rewarded with a carrot “horse”.
Astafiev, “A Horse with a Pink Mane”: a summary
The grandmother sends the narrator with the neighboring children to the ridge to buy strawberries. If the hero collects a hollow tuesk, then she will buy him a reward - “carrot with a horse.” This gingerbread, made in the shape of a horse with a tail, mane and hooves in pink icing, was the cherished dream of all village boys and promised them honor and respect.
The narrator goes for strawberries with the children of Levontius, their neighbor, who worked as a logger. Depicts village inhabitants of different levels of life and wealth, Astafiev (“Horse with a Pink Mane”). The main characters and his family are very different from Levontiev's. So, every 15 days, when Levontius received his salary, a real feast began in their family, where there was usually nothing. And Vasena, Levontius’s wife, ran around distributing debts. At such a time, the narrator tried to get into the neighbor's house at any cost. There he was pitied as an orphan and treated to goodies. But the grandmother did not let her grandson in, she does not want him to communicate with the Levontievskys. However, the money quickly ran out, and after a couple of days Vasena was again running around the village, already borrowing.
The Levontiev family lived poorly, they didn’t even have their own bathhouse. And the tyn, built every spring, was dismantled for kindling in the fall.
Meanwhile, the main characters went berry picking. Astafiev (“The Horse with a Pink Mane” is a very indicative work in this regard) depicts not only social differences between families, but also moral ones. When the narrator had already picked an almost full basket of strawberries, the Levontievskys started a quarrel because the younger children were eating the berries instead of picking them. A fight broke out, and all the strawberries were poured out of the bowl, and then eaten. After that, the guys went to the Fokinskaya River. And then it turned out that our hero still had the whole berry. Then Sanka, the eldest Levontiev boy, encouraged the narrator to eat it, taking it “weakly.”
Only in the evening did the narrator remember that his closet was empty. He was afraid to return home empty-handed. Then Sanka “suggested” what to do - put herbs in the bowl and sprinkle it with berries.
The deception has been revealed
So, now we can answer the question of who are the main characters of the story. V.P. Astafiev, as it is not difficult to notice, focuses attention not only on the narrator. Therefore, we can also count Sanka and grandmother among the main characters.
But let's get back to the story. The grandmother praised her grandson for the rich booty and decided not to pour too many strawberries - just take them to sell. On the street, Sanka was waiting for the narrator, who demanded payment for his silence - rolls. The narrator had to steal them from the pantry until the neighbor's boy had eaten enough. At night, his conscience did not let the hero sleep, and he decided to tell everything to his grandmother in the morning.
But the grandmother left before the main character of the story “The Horse with the Pink Mane” woke up. Vitya went fishing with Sanka. There, from the shore, they saw a boat on which a grandmother was sailing, shaking her fist at her grandson.
The narrator returned home late in the evening and went to the pantry to sleep. The next morning the grandfather returned from borrowing, who ordered to ask for forgiveness from the grandmother. Having scolded the hero, Katerina Petrovna sat him down to have breakfast. And she brought him a gingerbread, the same “horse”, the memory of which remained with the hero for many years.
The main character of the story “The Horse with a Pink Mane”
The main character of the work is Vitya. This boy lost his mother and now lives in a Siberian village with his grandparents. Despite the difficult times for the family, he was always shod, clothed, fed and well-groomed, because both his grandparents took care of him. Vitya was friends with the Levontiev children, which Katerina Petrovna did not like, since the latter were poorly educated and hooligans.
All the main characters turned out to be very expressive. Astafiev (“Horse with a Pink Mane”) depicted them with his own unique features. Therefore, the reader immediately sees how different Vitya is from the Levontiev children. Unlike them, he thinks not only about himself, he knows what responsibility and conscience are. Vitya is well aware that he is doing wrong, and this torments him. While Sanka is simply taking advantage of the situation to fill his belly.
Therefore, the incident with the gingerbread shocked the boy so much that he remembered it for the rest of his life.
Grandma's image
So, who are the other main characters in the story? V. P. Astafiev, of course, pays great importance the image of Katerina Petrovna, Vitya’s grandmother. She is a representative of the previous generation, very sociable and talkative, thorough and reasonable, and thrifty. When Vasena tries to give back more money than she borrowed, her grandmother reprimands her, saying that she can’t handle money like that.
Katerina Petrovna loves her grandson very much, but she raises him strictly, is often demanding, and scolds Vitya. But all this is because she is worried and worried about his fate.
Grandma is the head of the house, she always commands everything, so her remarks usually sound like orders. However, Katerina Petrovna can also be delicate, which is evident in her conversation with the strawberry buyer.
Sanka
The Levontiev children are also the main characters in the story. Astafiev (“The Horse with a Pink Mane”) singles out the eldest among them, Sanka. This is a reckless, greedy, evil and unprincipled boy. It is Sanka who forces Vitya to first eat the berry, then lie to his grandmother, and to top it off, steal rolls of bread from the house. He lives by the principle “if everything is bad for me, then it should be the same for everyone.” He does not have the same respect for elders that Vitya has.
Uncle Levontius
Little is said about Uncle Levontius; he is described only at the beginning of the work. a man, a former sailor, who retained a love of freedom and the sea. He treats Vita very kindly and feels sorry for him - “he’s an orphan.” But Levontius has one negative trait that prevents him from living well - drunkenness. There is no wealth in their family because there is no owner. Levontii lets everything take its course.
These are the main characters in the story. Astafiev (“The Horse with a Pink Mane” is an autobiographical story) put a lot into the characters and into the story from his childhood. This is probably why all the characters turned out to be so alive and original.