Characteristics of the main characters of the story by M.A. Sholokhov "The Fate of Man"

History of creation

The work is based on real events, which is why it arouses such interest and is even included in the school literature curriculum for study. It is known that the heroes of Sholokhov’s “The Fate of Man” have prototypes.

It is believed that Mikhail Alexandrovich himself first met the prototype of Andrei Sokolov while hunting. This happened in the first post-war year. In early spring, the writer went to the steppe estuary formed from melt water, which was located not far from the Mokhovsky farm. There were many wild geese and geese on the estuary, which were not afraid of humans.

Sitting down to rest, Mikhail Sholokhov noticed a man walking towards the river crossing, leading a boy by the hand. They approached the writer and sat down next to him to rest. It was then that Andrei told Mikhail Alexandrovich the story of his difficult life. But Sholokhov himself did not admit who he really was, and the tired travelers thought that he was also a driver.

At that moment the writer’s wife arrived, and the man found out who was in front of him. Out of surprise, the man tried to say goodbye and leave, so Sholokhov never had time to find out what his name was.

The writer returned from the hunt excited and, being impressed, decided that he would definitely write a story that would describe the life of an unknown driver and a boy. The idea of ​​a new novel interested him.

But he returned to the idea of ​​his story only 10 years later. Mikhail got to work and did not leave his desk for 7 days. The work was intense , nothing could distract the writer from writing. And on the eighth day a wonderful work, “The Fate of Man,” appeared, questions about which can often even be found in crossword puzzles.

After the publication of Sholokhov’s “The Fate of Man,” the main characters became popular. But the story received a lot of critical feedback from the reader. This work was also read on the radio, so a huge flow of letters came not only to the author himself, but also to the radio station. Most often they were written by people who themselves were captured, as well as those who lost their relatives in this war.

Letters also came from workers, scientists, teachers, and even from other writers. Boris Polevoy, Nikolai Zadornov, Ernest Hemingway and Erich Maria Remarque wrote to him. The flow of letters was so huge that neither the author of the story nor his entourage could answer everything.

Summary

The narrator accidentally meets a man near a river crossing who talks about his life. He suffered a lot of grief and suffering. Andrei Sokolov was born into a peasant family, but at the age of 22 he was left an orphan. The Sholokhov character also took part in the Civil War. And then he got married and had two children. Andrey loved his family very much. He worked as a driver. The family lived happily for 10 years, and then suddenly the war began.

Andrei immediately went to the front. In battles and battles, he proved himself to be a courageous and courageous soldier and was wounded several times. And then he was also captured by the Germans. But he managed to escape from there too. After escaping, Sokolov ends up in a hospital , where he receives terrible news about the death of his entire family. In 1942, a bomb hit the house where the daughter and wife were, and they died. But the son remained alive, since he followed his father to the front.

After the hospital, Andrei returns to the front again, and lives only with the hope of meeting his son. But on Victory Day his son dies. So he remains completely alone. He leaves his native Voronezh, where everything reminds him of the death of his family, to Uryupinsk and works as a driver. That's when he meets the little orphan Vanyusha. Having learned that his parents died, Andrei tells the boy that he is his father.

The boy believed the front-line soldier, and from then on they began to live together. Andrey raises Vanya as his own son and does not offend him in any way. In the story “The Fate of a Man,” the main characters, Andrei and Vanya, experience grief from the loss of loved ones, it unites them.

Despite the fact that Sholokhov’s work is small in volume - no more than ten pages, the list of heroes consists of 9 characters. But the main character, of course, is Andrei Sokolov. The boy Vanyusha also plays an important role in this story, since it is impossible to consider the front-line soldier and the boy without each other, it is impossible to separate them, so he can also be classified as one of the main characters.

Meet the Hero

It was the first year after the end of hostilities, spring came early, so the snow quickly melted and instantly turned into water. It was during this period that the narrator tried to move by chaise to the village of Bukanovskaya. Despite the fact that the road was short, only a few kilometers, the sticky mud made the journey quite long and difficult. The river, narrow and shallow in the summer months, became very deep and difficult to cross.

While the narrator and his guide were thinking about how to cross to the opposite bank, an unfamiliar driver appeared nearby, and a wooden boat appeared, on which people cross the river. The driver said that he would return in a couple of hours and take the man to his desired destination. He sat down and took out a cigarette, but it turned out to be wet, so he sat all alone and bored until a stranger approached him with a small child.

He started a conversation with the narrator and offered him his own cigarettes. The man turned out to be a driver, who thought that the author also worked in this profession. The interlocutor began a story, which the narrator listened to very carefully, but was ashamed of his lies, trying to talk less about himself.

The stranger introduced himself as Andrei Sokolov and began the conversation with stories from his childhood . The man was born in 1901 in a village near Voronezh. Not only did he have parents, but he also had a younger sister. During the revolution and the change of leadership, a terrible famine broke out throughout the state, so the young man went to work.

Afterwards he learned that all his relatives died from lack of food back in 1922. Andrey was left a complete orphan. At first, Sokolov worked as a carpenter in a workshop, and then as a mechanic at an enterprise. Then the man married Irina.

His wife was always kind and very calm. She wanted to please the man in everything, gave him her whole soul and was not angry when Sokolov came after work in a bad mood. The main character was ashamed of his own behavior, and he constantly apologized to his wife. The family lived quite amicably and soon they had a boy and two girls. After many years of quiet life, the Patriotic War came.

Andrei voluntarily went to the front, where he began to serve as a driver. He carried the wounded, food, ammunition and was wounded several times.

The tragic fate of Andrei Sokolov

The main character, on whose behalf the story is told, is Andrei Sokolov. This is a man with a real Russian character who cannot be broken or conquered. But how many troubles and torments he had to endure! The hero himself says how difficult and tragic his life is from the very beginning of his story, where, turning to life, he asks why she crippled him so much.

Andrei tells a random person the story of his life, that he had to endure a lot of grief:

1. Hunger.
2. Captivity.
3. Loss of family.
4. Death of a son.

But he was able to withstand, endure and survive everything, since he has enormous willpower and strong character. But it was precisely this Russian character that did not give him the opportunity to surrender to the enemy, submit to them, or simply wait indifferently for his death. Andrei Sokolov fought for his life, as he had to return to his family, to his hometown, which needed his protection.

Despite all the cruelty that he saw in the war, despite the hardships that he experienced, his heart did not harden, human feelings were not killed in him. And when he met an orphan, seeing the little man’s loneliness, he decided to become his father.

The Don writer was very accurately able to show the character of a Russian man who is ready to give his life not for some benefit, but for the Motherland. Andrei Sokolov is the image of a persistent and strong Russian soldier. His characteristics are perfectly revealed through his speech, thoughts, and actions. Having gone through a difficult path, the main character remained a kind and sympathetic person, which is why he helps Vanyusha. The most important thing is that, despite the war, captivity and trials, this Sholokhov character was able to remain human.

"The Fate of Man" main characters

Sholokhov “The Fate of Man” the main characters live in times of war, lose what is most precious, but find the strength to live on.

M. Sholokhov “The Fate of Man” main characters and their characteristics

• Andrey Sokolov
• Vanyushka
• Irina, Andrey's wife
• Ivan Timofeevich, neighbor of the Sokolovs
• Müller, camp commandant
• Soviet colonel
• captured military doctor
• Kyryzhnev is a traitor
• Peter, friend of Andrei Sokolov
• landlady
• Anatoly Sokolov is the son of Andrei and Irina. He went to the front during the war. Becomes battery commander. Anatoly died on Victory Day, he was killed by a German sniper.
• Nastenka and Olyushka – Sokolov’s daughters

Andrei Sokolov is the main character of the story “The Fate of a Man”, a front-line driver, a man who went through the whole war.

Andrei Sokolov is the main character of the story “The Fate of Man” by Sholokhov. His character is truly Russian. How many troubles he experienced, what torments he endured, only he himself knows. The hero speaks about this on the pages of the story: “Why did you, life, cripple me like that? Why did you distort it like that?” He slowly tells his life from beginning to end to a fellow traveler with whom he sat down to have a cigarette by the road.

Sokolov had to endure a lot: hunger, captivity, the loss of his family, and the death of his son on the day the war ended. But he endured everything, survived everything, because he had a strong character and iron fortitude. “That’s why you’re a man, that’s why you’re a soldier, to endure everything, to endure everything, if need calls for it,” Andrei Sokolov himself said. His Russian character did not allow him to break down, retreat in the face of difficulties, or surrender to the enemy. He snatched life from death itself. All the hardships and cruelties of the war that Andrei Sokolov endured did not kill his human feelings or harden his heart. When he met little Vanyusha, just as lonely as he was, just as unhappy and unwanted, he realized that he could become his family. Sokolov told him that he was his father and took him in for upbringing.

Vanyushka is an orphan boy of five or six years old. The author describes him as follows: “fair-haired curly head”, “pink cold little hand”, “eyes as bright as the sky”. Vanyushka is trusting, inquisitive and kind. This child has already experienced a lot; he is an orphan. Vanyushka’s mother died during the evacuation, was killed by a bomb on a train, and her father died at the front.

Andrei Sokolov told him that he was his father, which Vanya immediately believed and was incredibly happy about. He knew how to sincerely enjoy even the little things. He compares the beauty of the starry sky to a swarm of bees. This child, dispossessed by the war, early developed a courageous and compassionate character. At the same time, the author emphasizes that he is just a small, vulnerable child, who, after the death of his parents, spends the night anywhere, lying around covered in dust and dirt (“he lay quietly on the ground, dozing under the angular matting”). His sincere joy indicates that he yearned for human warmth.

Orphan Vanyusha

Two loneliness meet in the story “The Fate of a Man”: Andrei Sokolov, whose family was taken away by the war, and little Vanyusha, left without parents. The boy himself does not know where his home is. His parents died:

• Mom was killed by a bomb while she and Vanya were traveling on the train.
• The boy's father died at the front.

When Andrei meets the orphan, the boy was no more than six years old. He walked around in dirty and tattered clothes, and ate what people served him. Vanyusha immediately reached out to the front-line soldier and felt a kindred spirit. The boy was very happy when he found out that the front-line driver was his father and for a long time could not tear himself away from him, afraid of losing him again. The only thing the boy remembered about his father was his leather cloak. And Andrei has to deceive the boy, saying that he was lost in the war.

These two heroes cannot be considered separately, since their fates are intertwined. They are now one family that lives according to conscience and honor. And the author is confident that they can all survive and survive. And it’s hard for the reader to disagree with this.

Main characters

Minor characters of the work

In addition to Andrey and Vanyusha, the author also uses minor characters to reveal his plot. These include the following heroes:

1. Wife Irina.
2. Daughters Olya and Nastya.
3. Son Anatoly.
4. Traitor Kryzhnev.
5. Company commander.
6. Dark-haired German.
7. Lagerführer Müller.
8. Military doctor.

They don’t say anything in Sholokhov’s story, but this doesn’t matter, since even invisible ones help to reveal the character of a Russian person, to see how he manifests himself in war. Many episodic persons have neither a last name nor a first name, but they appear in the life of the main character. The author himself turns out to be real in the work, listening to Andrei’s life story. So he enters into a conversation with him, and then tells the fate of the Russian hero.