Chapter 1
Luda was born in the old fading village of Vychugan. Parents were collective farmers. The father was a drunkard, and the mother, fearing that the child would be born a fool, tried to conceive him at a rare time due to her husband’s drunkenness. But the girl was born lethargic, unhealthy and tearful. Soon the father died, and it was as if both of them could breathe more freely.
Mother then had men who drank, sang, spent the night and left. And only one tractor driver from the timber industry enterprise, after having lunch, plowing the garden, and spending the night, remained to live. He helped Lyuda’s mother with the housework, even multiplying it. The girl was afraid of him, although there was no reason.
When Lyudochka finished 10th grade, her mother told her to go to the city, since there was nothing to do in the village. She arrived there by train and spent the first night at the station. In the morning I went to the hairdresser, got myself in order: painted my nails, got a perm. She wanted to dye it, but the hairdresser refused to spoil her soft hair. So she spent the whole day there running errands: dispensing soap, handing out a napkin, sweeping up someone’s hair. And in the evening she asked to become a student of the old woman Gavrilovna, who advised against wearing makeup. She agreed and even took Lyudochka with her until she learned how to cut hair, and then she would go to the hostel. The old woman had bitter experience in dealing with residents and made a rare exception for her new friend. The heroine was not spoiled by the city, she was obedient, and in her old age Gavrilovna needed someone who would bring water and help with the housework.
Teaching was not easy for the girl, and Lyudochka could only become a cleaner. But she did not give up and continued to master the business: she did shaped haircuts for girls from discos at home and did not charge for it. Sensing the weakness of the guest’s character, Gavrilovna asked her to do all the housework. Even smear your feet. For this, the old woman promised Lyudochka a residence permit, and then completely transferred her house to her.
Summary
The analysis of Astafiev’s “Lyudochka” will be useful to those who have to deal with this work as part of a university course, as well as to all thoughtful and inquisitive readers.
The story begins with the author admitting that he himself heard this story many years ago, but could not forget it. The main character was born in the village of Vychugan. Her parents were collective farmers. Over time, my father became an alcoholic. Lyudochka grew up lethargic and was often sick. When their father disappeared from their lives, they lived freer and more cheerful. Soon the mother had a boyfriend who stayed with them.
Chapter 2
Luda constantly walked past the disfigured park, through which a pipe passed, destroying the local ecology with its influence. A hot, muddy liquid flowed out of it and filled the park. Sick and stunted poplars grew there, and other trees completely withered. After steam locomotives were replaced by diesel locomotives, the pipe became clogged, and everything around was overgrown with bad woods. The park began to look as if it had been bombed. The local punks, led by Artemka (nickname - Soap), lived and rampaged there. He came to Luda for a haircut: as soon as her hands were occupied by scissors, he started touching the girl everywhere until he got hit on the head with the clipper until it bled. He stopped the harassment himself, but told his comrades not to touch the girl.
Now Lyuda could walk through the park at any time, answering the punks’ greeting with her smile. After a while, Artemka invited her to dance in the pen that stood in the park. The girl immediately hid in a corner; madness reigned in the pen. Lyudochka never found her beau, and then she ran away completely, somehow fighting off some impudent person. Gavrilovna said that there is no need to rush into this, because the girl has a good future, and she needs a worthy gentleman. Dancing is a beastly sport, and many girls have been spoiled there, so you shouldn’t go there anymore. The student agreed. During this time, Gavrilovna gained respect for her, because the guest constantly kept the house clean, and, despite her severe weakness, she only thought that if she got married, she would be able to do everything.
Lyudochka - a brief retelling of the story by V.P. Astafieva
The author in the story describes the main character of the story, Lyudochka, as a modest, hardworking, but withdrawn girl, and thus it becomes difficult for Lyudochka to enter ordinary society.
After finishing ten classes, Lyudochka goes to live in the village, where she meets Gavrilovna, a local hairdresser. At the same moment, Gavrilovna invites the girl to rent a room from her and work at a local hairdresser. Gavrilovna’s kindness is explained by the fact that the woman, unspoiled by life, saw in Lyudochka that same unspoiled and naive village girl who would unquestioningly cope with all household chores, and Gavrilovna herself would not be so lonely in her old age. The main actions of the story take place in the almost abandoned Locomotive Depot Park. The cluttering of this park with garbage, sewage waste, and the peculiarly pungent smell from them have a detrimental effect on the trees and all other vegetation, and therefore the park looked gloomy. Lyudochka often walked through this park, not afraid of anything at all and not thinking about the dangers that could happen to her. In the evening, the park came to life for a short time, there were dances, local guys played cards, drank, and had fun with the girls. Lyudochka did not like all this. Devastation, drunkenness, degradation of society, everything is also why Lyudochka left her village. But it was there that Lyudochka met another hero of this story, the leader of a local group of guys - Artyom, who promises the girl his protection. One day, when Lyudochka once again walks home through the park, disaster happens. Lyudochka was abused by the next main character, Strekach, who had recently been released from prison. This man acts very meanly towards the girl; the rape occurs more because of the bandit’s boredom and desire to show superiority over the other guys. And, it would seem, why couldn’t Artyom stand up for Lyudochka? He could, but he chickened out and gave in to a more influential person. The heroine is having a hard time experiencing what happened. And she decides to tell Gavrilovna about everything, counting on her support, but, realizing what it could cost her, Gavrilovna invites the girl to move into the hostel and not drag her into this story. And, in principle, she does not provide Lyudochka with the expected support, saying that nothing terrible happened, it doesn’t happen to anyone, a woman is born for this. Then Lyudochka is going to return to the village to her mother. But Lyudochka’s cry for help only receives the indifference of her loved ones. At this moment, Lyudochka understands and remembers the guy who died in the hospital, that she did not help him, betrayed him, conscience and guilt in front of the guy do not give Lyudochka peace. The thoughts that there is a lot of betrayal around, about uselessness, about the loss of further meaning in life, push Lyudochka to commit a terrible sin - suicide. This tragedy affected all the characters in the story. Mother and Gavrilovna felt the need and need for Lyudochka, and blamed themselves for what they had done. The inconspicuous hero of the story is the stepfather of the main character; he was a quiet and calm man, but had a tempered character. He did not show particularly kindred feelings towards Lyudochka. But it is the stepfather who, after his stepdaughter’s funeral, punishes the offender and the culprit in her death – Strekach. The local press and the head of the police department do not publicize this tragedy. Life in the village remains the same. Other stories by Astafiev briefly Brief biography of Astafiev V.P. Summary of works by other authors
Chapter 3
At that time, a man nicknamed Strekach returned from prison. He really had an external and internal resemblance to an insect: he smiled with a grin, his teeth were damaged, and instead of a mustache there was a “dirty mark” on his face. He was a criminal since childhood: he walked around with a knife and forced local children to give him everything they had. Already as a teenager, he received his first sentence for numerous offenses: arson, robbery, threats, etc. Since then, I came back from the camps “as if on vacation.”
Returning home, he sat with the punks in the park and demanded that they find him a woman. But the first person he saw was Lyudochka. Artemka-soap tried to push the leader away from the girl, but Strekach did not listen. He raped the victim and only stopped when she vomited on him. In order not to be the only culprit, he also forced the others to “get dirty.” Having reached the house, she fell on the steps and lost consciousness. The girl woke up already on the bed and asked to go to her mother. Gavrilovna tried to convince her that what happened was the norm, and all women are born for this.
Baba needs to take care of her heart, everything else about her doesn’t wear out...
Reader's diary based on the story “Lyudochka” by Astafiev
Plot
A dying village, modest, hard-working Lyudochka lives with her mother and stepfather. After graduating from school, her mother sends her to look for a place in life in the city. Lyudochka is taken under the wing of an old hairdresser. The girl lives with her, cleans, cooks, and learns to cut hair. Local punks, led by the convicted Strekach, stop her in the park on the way home and rape her.
The girl seeks sympathy from her mother, Gavrilovna, rethinks life, recalls incidents from her life. It turns out that a person in trouble is often alone, not everyone, like his stepfather, can withstand and survive (he himself was exiled from a young age). When they try to abuse the girl again, she cunningly asks to go home. He takes a rope and hangs himself in the park. After the funeral, the stepfather kills Strekach. Together with his pregnant wife, he returns to the village.
Chapter 4
Arriving in the village of Vychugan, Lyudochka saw that there were only two houses left where there was life. The house of her mother and the old woman Vychuganikha. The rest of the houses had long been abandoned, as evidenced by the poplar and bird cherry trees growing right in the middle of the huts and the windows boarded up with boards. When Lyudochka just finished school, the old apple tree produced a large harvest of red apples, which alerted Vychuganikha. She forbade touching these apples, anticipating evil. One night the branch could not bear the weight of the fruit and broke off. The bare and flat trunk, like a cross, remained standing behind the houses, personifying the death of another Russian village. Soon the old woman died, the tractor drivers took her to the cemetery, and Lyudochka’s mother collected what she had on the table to remember.
Already pregnant from her stepfather, the heroine’s mother, with her feminine instinct, immediately understood what had happened to her daughter, but did not console her, because
But that misfortune is not a misfortune, rather an inevitability; all women must go through it sooner or later. And every woman goes through it alone and is obliged to cope with the misfortune herself, because the birch tree bends at the first wind, but does not break.
Over the years of living with her drunkard husband, she became bitter and thought that everyone should cope with their own misfortune. She communicated coldly and distantly with her daughter, all the time turning the topic to her plans with her new husband.
Until Lyudochka's stepfather returned from work, her mother sent her to milk the cow and bring firewood, and she herself went to prepare the stew. She offered to drink, but her daughter said that she had never learned to drink or cut a haircut. “But it’s not the Gods who burn the pots,” the mother simply answered.
While milking, Luda remembered how ridiculously her stepfather bathed. When she arrived, she told her mother about this, and then she learned that the man had been in the camps all his life, but the mother passionately justified her choice, because her stepfather was a “decent man.” Remembering this, the girl thought that he could console her, but she could not overcome her embarrassment and tell the man about her misfortune. Moreover, he was very reserved. As a result, she decided to leave early in the morning, to which her mother did not object.
Chapter 5
But Gavrilovna was not expecting her so early. The girl explained that even without her, her parents were busy with the hassle of moving. In her heart she justified her mother, because she remembered how hard life was for her with a drunkard and in poverty. She put her foot through the loop and rocked the cradle while she did her household chores. Remembering this, the heroine cried - she felt sorry for her mother. And the old woman complained that there was no one to feel sorry for her.
Gavrilovna said that Artemka-soap was taken to the police and told him to remain silent about his accomplices, otherwise they would kill him. Strekach told her that if Lyudochka said too much, she would be nailed to a post, and the old woman’s hut would be burned down. And this is her last corner. Gavrilovna suggested that Lyudochka live in the hostel for a while, and when Strekach was sent to prison again, she would call the girl back.
The old woman said that she got a hut through hard work, lied, went to prisons, got sick with frequency and lichen, and now she feels sorry for her corner.
Chapter 6
Luda then remembered how she was in the hospital with pneumonia. There she saw a guy who was dying due to the fault of doctors, alone in the corridor. The doctors did not recognize the trouble in his case, but meanwhile a boil ripened on his head, and pus broke into the brain. Then she herself consoled the guy in the last minutes of his life. All night she read poems and prayers to him. The next morning he turned away, realizing that she had to live, but he no longer had to live. He cried, realizing that everyone wanted him dead so as not to suffer themselves. Now, when she was inconsolable and in grief, all the rejection of a dying person was especially acutely felt.
She had the misfortune of learning the crafty human sympathy herself. But she didn’t understand why she pretended to feel sorry for him then; a feeling of shame overwhelmed her. After all, if she were ready to stay with him, to take away all his pain and torment, as before, perhaps frantic forces would appear in him that could lift a person from his knees at death. But, even if this miracle had not happened, the realization that she was “ready to give him all of herself, until her last breath,” would have given her new strength. She betrayed not only the young lumberjack, but also herself. Lyudochka thought about her stepfather, he must be one of those strong ones. Then I thought, is it even possible to judge people for indifference to oneself? In trouble and loneliness, everyone is equal, and there is nothing to shame or despise anyone.
Chapter 7
There were still no places in the hostel, so Lyudochka lived with Gavrilovna. The old woman tried to teach the girl to return home by other means, so that none of the punks would know about her living in the village. Contrary to Gavrilovna’s persuasion, she walked through the park, where the guys grabbed her. The heroine realized that her offender was not among them. She was sorry, because she carried a razor in her pocket in case of a meeting. I wanted to cut off the weapon of his crime. To gain time, she said that she would go change clothes, otherwise she was sorry for the dress that the rapists had already ruined that time. The guys believed her and ridiculed her on her way.
At home, she changed into an old village dress, took a rope, wrote a farewell letter, went out and went to the poplar that had been noticed for a long time. On the way, I saw an advertisement for employment in forestry, I thought about leaving, but I remembered:
There, in the forest, there is a strekach on a strekach, and everyone has a mustache.
Having reached the place, she deftly fitted a noose. This quiet girl could do a lot. Her last thoughts were about forgiveness: she asked God and her family to forgive her. Then I thought about God:
If you exist, forgive me, I lost my Komsomol badge anyway, no one asked about the badge. No one asked about anything - no one cared about me...
Lyudochka - a summary of the story by V.P. Astafieva
One day the author was sitting in a company and heard a story, this was about 15 years old. And these fifteen years this story lives in his heart, he himself does not understand why this happened. The heroine's name was Lyudochka, the parents were ordinary people, but the father became drunk from terrible work, and the mother was still worried about the future. The girl grew up in a negative atmosphere, as her father constantly drank. She rarely smiled, she enjoyed life, she studied satisfactorily, nothing made her happy. One day, the father completely disappeared from the family’s life, but they lived better this way. There were no troubles, no drunken performances. When Lyudochka finished school, she wanted to go to the city. But she didn’t have any money, but she made up her mind, she spent the first night at the station. She decided to spend all her savings on herself, she went to a reputable hairdresser, sat down in a chair and said that they would do her hair and color it, but the old hairdresser said that she shouldn’t, since her hair was very thin and would look even worse. then she demanded to give her a manicure. Having said thank you, she left the hairdresser. She decided to watch this old hairdresser and asked to become her student. The hairdresser examined her, asked for documents, and went to get her a job. She invited Lyudochka to live with her, but she set some conditions: not to drink, not to smoke, not to bring boys around, to come home at 11 and listen to the hostess in everything. Lyudochka obeyed her mistress in everything, but the work was very difficult for her, she cut men's hair with a clipper, and she was very good at it. Somehow the boy Artyomka kept coming to her, no matter how she tried to style Artyomka’s curls, everything was useless, but he didn’t come to her for the curls. Then one day the well-known Strekach arrived, saw Lyudochka and let’s pester her, but she got scared and let’s run headlong, ran to the house, fell and lost consciousness. Lyudochka came to her senses and decided to go home to her mother. I helped my mother and stepfather there and back to the city. The girl remembered one story that she didn’t help one person and now she blames herself for everything. Lyudochka was afraid to walk through the park, because the incident when the streaker and the boys waylaid her haunts her, she has a razor with her just in case. Something happened and she went to the poplar, tied a rope, and said goodbye to her family. The boys were already scolding her, one went to investigate and saw Lyudochka’s trembling body. I ran to tell my friends everything, they disappeared.
Chapter 9
Lyudochka was buried in the city cemetery. The mother either restrained herself, serving those who came, swallowing salty tears, or cried out. Gavrilovna did not hold back at all. She cried as if she had lost her own daughter, not hiding how accustomed she was to Lyudochka. After drinking a glass of vodka, the man “went to smoke” and went to the park. There I came across Strekach’s expanding company.
He saw him, at first he spoke calmly, then he became rude in prison slang, and, of course, Strekach reached for a knife. But the stepfather knocked out the Finn along with a piece of fabric. As a result, a strong man, seasoned by work, quickly overpowered the criminal and threw him into the boiling mess of the river under the pipe. The criminal howled and was scalded. His punks began to pick up foreign buttons that had fallen out of the leader’s pocket. Having blocked their stepfather’s path, they suddenly went limp and let him pass, sensing a real “godfather” in him. He did not bend his back in front of his superiors, he was a real authority, and in his restrained anger one could feel real wild power.
He left and on the way chopped off the twig where Lyuda hanged herself. Arriving at Gavrilovna’s house, he drank a little vodka, but restrained himself and did not drink more. He and his wife went to the train. She could barely keep up with him, but he did everything to make her comfortable: he carried her bag, then found a seat on the train, and then sat down so that it was comfortable for her to lean on. Along the way, the mother prayed and asked God for forgiveness for not saving Lyuda. She also asked that the child be born alive.
