Parental love
Aleksin is the creator of a huge number of stories and novellas for children and teenagers. “Crazy Evdokia,” a summary of which is presented below, is a story about how immeasurable love turned a teenage girl into a selfish person. Her name was Olya, and she had madly loving parents. She treated her so attentively and kindly that sometimes they forgot about each other. Her actions did not entail childish consequences. The story begins with the memories of her father.
Olya's father is also a storyteller. This man's life revolved around his beloved daughter. The same can be said about Olya’s mother, the woman whose first meeting the narrator recalls at the beginning of the work. In his story, Aleksin provided the ideal image of parents. “Mad Evdokia,” the summary of which suggests that this work is very tragic, creates the impression that in order to raise a kind and decent person from your child, it is not enough to love him immensely.
Main characters
The story has several main and minor characters. Each of them has its own character and role in the work. Main characters:
- Olga;
- Nadezhda, the girl's mother;
- father, who is also the narrator;
- Evdokia Savelyevna, teacher;
- Katunina Lyusya, Olya’s friend;
- Antokhin Boris, classmate;
- Mitya Kalyagin, dump truck driver.
The main character Olya is in ninth grade. This is a very talented girl, but she is quite selfish and arrogant. The story is told by her father, the head of the family , a kind and loving person. The girl's mother, Nadezhda, sacrificed her interests for the sake of her daughter's happiness. A woman suffers from a heart defect. And Evdokia Savelyevna is Olya’s class teacher. She is a very responsible, emotional, but uncompromising teacher.
The rest of the characters in “Mad Evdokia” are secondary. Lyusya Katunina is the girl’s best friend. She is very modest, but treats everyone mercifully. Antokhin Boris is considered the most handsome boy in school, he has many fans. But the young man is in love with Olga. Evdokia Savelyevna calls Kalyagin Mitya, who was a dump truck driver during the war years, her best student and her pride.
Lights of the past
The main character indulges in memories. The reader does not yet know what happened to his family. But from the first lines it is clear that something irreparable has happened.
He met his wife Nadya at the design bureau where they once worked. She was sweet and spontaneous. And it was impossible not to fall in love with her. However, there was one problem that Nadezhda, openly, mentioned after the first date. She had, as she herself put it, a dowry: heart failure and the inability to have children. This is what Anatoly Aleksin writes about. “Mad Evdokia” - a summary of this story - can tell about love and self-sacrifice. About feelings that, perhaps, only a mother is capable of.
A little time passed and they got married. They had a daughter, who was named Olga. Nadya conveniently forgot about the doctors’ ban, as did her husband. Parental happiness was too great to be distracted by such trifles. Nadya’s husband recalled all this when returning home. Aleksin will tell where he came from only in the last chapter. “Mad Evdokia” is a story with a sad and unexpected ending.
The beginning of the drama
The story begins with the memories of the narrator, Olya's father. He talks about his past and tries to find the moment in it that led to the tragic ending of the story. He conducts an internal dialogue with his wife Nadezhda, trying not to go crazy.
My father worked as a draftsman in a design bureau, where he met his future wife. The guy invited Nadya to the concert, the girl captivated him with her childish spontaneity, openness and honesty. He proposed to her almost immediately. Nadezhda agreed, but talked about her “dowry”: she has a heart defect, and doctors forbade her to give birth.
The young couple were so happy that they forgot about the doctors' orders. They dreamed of becoming parents, and soon a daughter, Olenka, appeared in the family. 16 years have passed, but Nadezhda remains the same. As before, the spouses treated each other with respect and love. They adored their only daughter immensely.
But one day Evdokia Savelyevna knocked on their door, who came with two of Olya’s classmates - Borey and Lyusya. It turned out that the girl disappeared last night during a camping trip.
The class teacher dressed ridiculously and decided for herself that age and appearance were not the main thing. But at the same time, the woman tried to instill in her students a sense of beauty. Because of her hot temper, Olya nicknamed her “mad Evdokia” (hence the title of the story).
The woman tried to highlight inconspicuous children, and Nadezhda’s daughter remembered only when the girl missed something or entered into conflicts. Olya studied at an art school and studied Italian in order to read the classics in the original. Because of this, she often missed meetings that Evdokia held after school.
The girl only communicated well with Lyusya, who considered Olya her best friend and sister. She also painted, but her parents could not afford art school. Lucy had to develop her talent only within the school wall newspaper.
Is Olya at home?
Years have passed. Olya has grown up. The story takes place at a time when she is already fifteen. She is a very bright student and has extraordinary artistic talent. She also knows how to make fun of people. For example, she gave her class teacher a nickname - crazy Evdokia. The summary of the story should be continued with a description of the event that was the culmination here.
One day, the teacher, whose activity irritated Olya extremely, organized a trip for the whole class. The girl failed to miss this event, despite all her efforts. Her parents were waiting for her to return the next day. And suddenly the doorbell rang. Two of her classmates and Evdokia Savelvna stood on the threshold. And the question was asked: “Is Olya at home?” She was neither at home nor at school gatherings for more than a day.
History of creation
Aleksin had a friend Nina Borovskaya in his youth. She worked as the head of the personnel department of the joint venture of the Soviet Union. The woman had a teenage daughter, a very troubled girl, Olga. Anatoly pulled her out of unpleasant situations more than once.
One day Olya went on a hiking trip with her classmates, but did not return with them. Borovskaya invited a friend to her place, they called hospitals, police stations and morgues. The girl returned home only two days later. She didn't even think about the fact that her mother could be so worried.
This story greatly influenced Aleksin. It formed the basis of the dramatic story “Mad Evdokia”. Initially it had a different name - “Olenka”. The work was published for the first time in 1976 in the magazine “Youth”. The story was republished about forty times. And two years later she was awarded the USSR State Prize.
Not a single work of Aleksin has ever caused such controversy among the public. There were many reviews from critics in favor of the main character and her class teacher. But there were even more opinions condemning the behavior of the characters. The story has been translated into more than 15 languages.
Evdokia Savelyevna
In this story, Aleksin created very vivid images. Crazy Evdokia is the class teacher. This lady always liked everyone to be together. Together to the theater, together on an excursion. She also loved spontaneity. But Olya was different. Her works were displayed at exhibitions. Teachers at the art school predicted a great future for her. And Evdokia Savelyevna didn’t like it terribly. My parents had this idea about the teacher. It was created, however, mostly from the words of their daughter.
Lucy
The daughter, adored by her parents, had a friend. Her name was Lucy. But Olya preferred to call her in the French manner. Lucy was an incredibly loyal friend. She carried the talented Olya with her numerous folders with drawings, admired her gift and adored her. Lucy herself had a difficult fate. Her mother was seriously ill, and her father, although he had long loved another woman, remained in the family solely out of a sense of duty. No one knew about this: neither the mother, nor the acquaintances, nor the neighbors, nor the crazy Evdokia. The summary of the story should be continued with the memories of the father, who knew the bitter secret of Lucy’s family from the words of his daughter. She was the only one the girl trusted.
Unrequited love
The work written by Anatoly Aleksin is “Mad Evdokia” - a story about how loving people are able not to see, not to notice shortcomings. Mad Evdokia once quoted a Russian poet about this: “Face to face, you can’t see the face,” hinting that the parents do not know their daughter well. The father disagreed. After all, Yesenin had in mind exclusively temporary distances. But then, on that ill-fated day, he realized the truth of the teacher’s words.
At that moment there were three people standing at the door: crazy Evdokia, Lyusya and Borya. The latter also belonged to those who madly loved Olya. But she didn’t notice this because she couldn’t see anything at all except herself and her talent.
Tragedy in the work
Although Aleksin decided to write a story based on real events, he made the ending tragic. This prompts the reader to think about the meaning of creating a family and the characteristics of communication with a child. Good parents must have a division of responsibilities, personal life and social role.
The author touched on several topics in the story “Mad Evdokia”:
- the problem of fathers and children;
- the destructive power of excessive love;
- misunderstanding between students and teachers.
The arrival of a child in a family is always a responsible step. Parents sometimes don't understand how important it is not to do absolutely everything for their children. A child should treat his mother and father with gratitude and not be selfish. But often, due to excessive love, children become arrogant and spoiled. They cannot even imagine how their parents worry about them. In real life, such offspring are only interested in property or their own desires.
The author used interesting arguments in his text. Thanks to this story, you can see the destructive power of excessive love and self-sacrifice for the sake of children. There are many people like Olya in the real world. You can describe her character briefly - spoiled, narcissistic, ungrateful. Although the girl is talented, she is not generous.
A brief analysis of Aleksin’s work “Mad Evdokia” will be needed to compile a reader’s diary. You can read the story in full or in abbreviation both in paper form and online.
Mitya Kalyagin
The class teacher loved to set her best students as an example for the children. The most extraordinary of them was Mitya Kalyagin. He did not have a career, was not a great artist or musician. He was just a man who accomplished a feat during the war. Mitya brought the doctor the tools that were necessary to save the Russian soldiers.
The purpose of the event, from which Olya did not return, was to find the very route along which Mitya made his way to the doctor’s house during the war and saved the lives of the Red Army soldiers. This should have been the shortest route.
Aleksin portrayed multifaceted and complex images. “Mad Evdokia,” the analysis of which involves a comparison of such human qualities as humanity and talent, is a story about how deceiving an opinion about a person can be and how much parental love blinds one’s eyes.
Denouement
Olya is not missing. She just wanted to cover the path faster than everyone else. The girl is used to being the best in everything. But she had not developed the ability to think about others, even about her parents. Evdokia Savelyevna called all the hospitals and contacted the police. At that moment, when Olya was returning from a successful hike, the phone rang. Nadya picked up the phone and heard the words: “Come, we need to identify.”
Olya's mother had a heart defect, but she survived. My soul couldn't stand it. After a terrible call, I had to call a psychiatrist.
The narrator remembers all this when all the participants in these events return from a psychiatric hospital, from which Nadya may never return. And also, in a conversation with the crazy Evdokia, who turned out to be not so crazy, he learns a lot that allows him to look at his daughter with different eyes. About how Olya betrayed her friend, about how she didn’t see anything or anyone around her. And that her teacher was never against talent. She just wanted some humanity attached to it.
Evdokia Savelvna reproached herself for everything that happened and promised that she would support Olya, since the feeling of guilt could be unbearable for her. Father didn't blame anyone. He tried to remember when and at what point in raising his daughter he and Nadya made a mistake.
“Mad Evdokia” is a story for children and parents. In it, both an adult and a child can find something close to them, and perhaps, with the help of this work, they will be able to avoid a mistake that can be made even because of great love.
Final part
At school, Borya Antokhin was considered the most handsome boy. But he did not pay attention to the crowds of fans, instead he studied diligently. The teenager wrote essays well and coped with mathematical problems. Secretly, the young man loved Olya, but the girl saw in him only a computer.
Once a teacher decided to take the ninth grade to the places of military activity of her best student. He was Mitya Kalyagin; during the war with the Nazis, the young man drove a dump truck and proved himself to be a real hero.
On Saturday the guys reached the station, settling there for the night. And a few hours later Olya was no longer with them; the girl left the main road. When Evdokia told all this to her student’s father, he became suspicious. It seemed to him that the trio had somehow offended his daughter, so she left. The teacher called hospitals and police stations, but no one saw the girl.
Her mother blamed herself for her disappearance, because it was she who sent Olya on this trip. Then the police called and asked the parents to come and identify someone. Nadezhda felt bad, but at that moment her daughter appeared on the threshold of the apartment with a large bouquet. It turned out that Olga was leaving the camp to look for a shortcut and was the first to find a village path. Nadezhda experienced severe stress and was sent to a psychiatric clinic.
The father learned from the teacher that his daughter behaves selfishly at school. She shows vanity, laughs at the boy who is in love with her, and reveals the secrets of her best friend. Evdokia was just trying to reach Olga, but it didn’t work out. Then the narrator realized that he could not devote himself entirely to children. He and Nadezhda stopped dissolving into each other and focused all their attention on their daughter. As a result, the girl grew up selfish.
