Plot - summary:
- A kind nameless cow is bored and grieving for her sick calf.
- The boy Vasya Rubtsov goes to the cow, consoles her as best he can, sympathizes with her.
- Vasya himself, without his father, helps the driver of a passing train, who has stalled on a hill.
- The father returns home and says that he sold the calf.
- The cow is completely sad, runs away from the barn, but returns home.
- The cow runs away again and falls under the wheels of the train.
- The driver of the train that hit the cow turns out to be the same driver whom Vasya helped; he promises to help Vasya’s parents buy a new cow.
- Vasya writes an essay about how the cow gave everything to his family, her whole life, and he will never forget her.
Analysis 2
The exact date of writing the story “Cow” is unknown. In 1943, the author submitted it for publication, but then changed his mind, because there was a war going on, and the story was about peaceful life. He tried to do this a second time in 1946, but it was not published due to persecution by the authorities. And only in 1962, after the author’s death, the story was published.
This work, like many others of those years, traces the author’s pain from the tragedy that happened to his son, who was unjustly arrested in 1938, returned three years later and died of tuberculosis. Platonov was very worried about this tragedy and believed in the connection between the living and the dead.
The main character of the work is a cow. She does not have a name, probably by this the author wanted to emphasize that all animals are the same in their essence, they are all equal before tests. When a calf gets sick, the owner sells it for meat. He feels very sorry for both the calf and the cow, but the owner has no other choice. The cow takes grief very hard. She doesn’t eat, moans pitifully, doesn’t accept any sweets from the boy Vasya, who pitied her so much, and lies inconsolable in the barn. But at the same time, she submits to the will of the owners - she plows hard, being in the yoke. Without surviving her grief, the cow dies under the wheels of a train. Her death is incredible, because she dies at night, when she should be in the barn. She seems to commit suicide, despairing over the loss of the calf and losing the will to live.
This death of the cow leaves a deep wound in the heart of Vasya, another hero of the work. Vasya is shown by the author as an inquisitive boy who wants to figure everything out. He is a hard worker, helps his father with sending trains, helps the driver and gives him advice. Vasya loves to study, he has a broad outlook. Vasya also has a very kind soul. He is very worried about the cow and consoles her. He even writes an essay about a cow.
In the image of Vasya, Platonov depicted the future. It is in such a sensitive younger generation that the future of our Motherland lies.
The author masterfully depicts the images of Vasya’s father and the nameless driver. They understand the child and experience what happened with him. They are kind people. The driver gives money for the downed cow. But Vasya’s father is more adapted to life. He sells the carcass of a dead cow to get money to buy a new one, without which it is difficult to live on the farm.
The story is realistic, imbued with the idea of life, the theme of man's struggle with death. The author is sure that a person can fight death, which an animal cannot do. Another problem raised by the author is the attitude of people towards animals, mercy, anxiety for the future.
Other works: ← Analysis of the story Nikita ↑ Platonov Analysis of the story In a Beautiful and Furious World →
Proverbs for the work:
The world is not without good people.
He who has his face to everyone, does not have people’s back to him.
Life is given for good deeds.
A man is not glorious in words, but in deeds.
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The meaning of Platonov's story "Cow"
Platonov created his story “Cow” in the 30-40s of the last century and touched upon an extremely complex and painful topic - the struggle of life and death, this eternal conflict in which each side has the right to win. Moreover, this struggle is shown in the example of the living world - unlike a person, an animal cannot resist death. People have been given much more strength and opportunity to fight death.
There is information that the writing of the story was influenced by the death of the writer’s son, who was sick with tuberculosis - he was arrested and released only three years later. During this time, he fell ill and was unable to overcome his illness.
The plot makes you think: the cow cannot survive the death of her calf, she is very sick, does not eat, does not drink, refuses to walk across the field and graze, and as a result she dies when she is hit by a train. It seems that she deliberately walked onto the railway track, as if committing suicide. Such affection and love for his calf left an imprint on the boy Vasya’s mind, and he writes about it in a school essay.
What is the meaning of this story? In fact, under the image of a cow lies the image of a person who cannot cope with his misfortune on his own - he needs help to survive his grief, he needs a kind word and moral support. A cow in the animal kingdom cannot count on support because animals are not able to support each other the way humans can. A person can choose words, take on someone else’s grief and feel it to the very depths, if this person is not a stranger to him.
Any person needs acceptance and understanding of his problems, he needs support and a friend who will not betray, but will listen and give good advice. A friend will help you get out of this pit of misunderstanding and misfortune, give you strength to live, support and listen to your painful problems. Therefore, it is important not to be left alone with your misfortune, otherwise this is all fraught with poor morale, illness and loss of sanity.
The writer positions the death of a cow and her calf as a sacrifice in the name of the Motherland, but we should not forget that such themes and sentiments were mandatory for the time relevant to the writer. Writing about love for the Motherland was mandatory, because how else to raise a generation that will work for the good of the country, and not develop themselves and not achieve their goals? If you look at the story through the prism of modernity, then its meaning is slightly different: a person needs a person to not only help in trouble and support in difficult moments, but also to rejoice for him in bright times.
It is also important to remember that the best support in certain situations is yourself. Only you understand what is happening inside you, what hurts and what brings internal pain. Only you understand how to get out of this situation, what you need to think about so as not to go crazy, how to set priorities correctly and achieve your dream. But very often it happens that a person cannot cope with a problem - it is too difficult to understand and accept to overcome it without the participation of other people. At such moments, it is important not to forget that there should be a person nearby who can help and accept you for who you are. Or if there is no such person, then you can contact a psychologist. A specialist will look at your problem from a psychological point of view and help you find a way out, using various methods to relieve moral and emotional pain.
In any situation, it is easier for a person than for a cow in a story, because he can talk about what worries him. Who he will tell about this and who can help him is a completely different story. But every person deserves happiness and peace of mind.
Analysis of the work “Cow” by A.P. Platonov
Most recently, I became acquainted with a story by Andrei Platonovich Platonov called “Cow,” which was written in nineteen thirty-eight.
The main character of the work is a young man named Vasya Rubtsov, the son of a station guard on the railway. On the farm of this family there was one single cow, which had recently given birth to a calf. The father of the family told his household that he had taken him to the veterinarian. A whole day passed, and the man still didn’t show up at home. Vasya comes to a lonely cow and sees how sad she has become and bowed her head. The mother told the boy to go to the station to meet his father.
Approaching the tracks, Vasya sees how the assistant driver alone pours sand with a shovel in front of the train so that it moves easier. Rubtsov helps him, and in gratitude receives two apples. It turns out from the driver himself that the train has problems with the brakes. After some time, Vasya’s father arrives at the station. The son asks him where the heifer is, it turns out that the man sold it for slaughter, coveting a tidy sum of money. After that, the hero notices that the cow is in trouble. She loses her appetite and begins to leave home more and more often. After some time, Vasya, returning from school, sees the composition of that same driver. Are you enrolling in 2021? Our team will help you save your time and nerves: we will select directions and universities (according to your preferences and expert recommendations); we will fill out applications (all you have to do is sign); we will submit applications to Russian universities (online, by e-mail, by courier); we will monitor competition lists ( we will automate the tracking and analysis of your positions); we will tell you when and where to submit the original (we will evaluate the chances and determine the best option). Entrust the routine to professionals - more details.
And watches as he tries to remove a cow that has just been hit from the rails. That same lonely cow. Vasya’s father had already agreed with someone to sell the carcass, and the driver, who hit the animal due to faulty brakes, also offered money for the cow to a greedy and disgusting man, Rubtsov Sr. But Vasya truly grieves and even writes a whole essay at school about this amazing cow.
This is a story about human callousness, greed and cruelty. It evokes mixed feelings in the reader's soul. At the same time I feel sorry for the boy and absolutely disgusting to read about his father and the actions of an adult man. In his father’s pursuit of “profit” for selling the heifer as a lifeless piece of meat, his son loses the animal to which he has become deeply attached. It’s very disgusting that an adult man treats a living creature haphazardly, like a flayer and a finished person. Moreover, deceiving their loved ones. This work is difficult to read, but worth it to know about what cruel and unpleasant people exist in our world.
Useful material on the topic:
- “Return” by A.P. Platonov
- “Yushka” Platonov A.P.
- "Nikita" A.P. Platonov
- “The Hidden Man” by A. P. Platonov
- The story “Return” by Platonov A.P.
The theme of labor in A.P. Platonov’s story “Cow”
“Labor is the first basic condition of all human life. You must put your life in such conditions that work is necessary. Without work there cannot be a pure and joyful life.”
A.P. Chekhov.
In A.P. Platonov’s story, “Cow,” we meet the boy Vasya Rubtsov, the son of a track guard. Vasya was a kind boy. He was in fourth grade and went to school five kilometers from home. But he loved going to school “because, listening to the teacher and reading books, he imagined in his mind a whole world that he did not yet know. It seemed to him that all countries and people had been waiting for a long time for him to grow up and come to them.” Vasya always sought to learn more about the subject that interested him. “He was tormented if he saw any object or substance and did not understand why they live inside themselves and act.”
One day, a mother asked her son to meet a night train. Vasya immediately realized that something was wrong with the locomotive: the car was slipping. The boy himself offered to help. Vasya began to scoop up a handful of sand and pour it onto the rails: “The coal smoke and moisture from the cooled steam fell from above on Vasya, but he was interested in working, he felt more important than the locomotive, because the locomotive itself followed him and only thanks to him did not skid and didn't stop." The driver really liked the hardworking boy. “He’s already been a full person since childhood, and he still has everything ahead of him,” thought the driver.
Vasya loved his cow very much, he often caressed and stroked her, watered her himself, gave her food himself and cleaned her in the barn. The cow was a hard worker. She had “a big, thin body, which was like that because the cow did not collect her strength for herself in fat and meat, but gave it to milk and work.” The father often plowed the land on her, “the cow knew how to plow and was accustomed and patient to walk in a yoke.”
When the cow's calf was taken away, she became sullen and incomprehensible. Although the cow continued to work, her milk disappeared. One day she was hit by a train. Vasya was very sad and even wrote about her in an essay: “The cow gave us everything, that is, milk, son, meat, skin, entrails and bones, she was kind.”
Vasya was also kind. He worked not because he was forced, but because he enjoyed the work. It’s not for nothing that they say that work ennobles a person. Therefore, he wrote this in his essay about the future life: “I want all the people of our Motherland to benefit from me and do well, but let me have less.”
I liked the story by A.P. Platonov. It evokes good feelings and makes you care about its characters.
