The boiler was quickly emptied. The most agile have already begun to get thick and pieces of meat from the bottom. It was at that moment that something happened that ruined Shchukar's cooking career forever... Lyubishkin pulled out a piece of meat, carried it to his mouth, but suddenly recoiled and turned pale.
What is this? he asked Shchukar ominously, picking up a piece of white boiled meat with his fingertips.
- It must be a winglet, - grandfather Shchukar calmly answered.
Lyubishkin's face slowly filled with a bluish blush of terrible anger.
- Roo-lush-ko? .. Well, look here, porridge-she-varrrr! he growled.
- Oh, my darlings! gasped one of the women. - Yes, she has claws on her! ..
- You got it, damn it! - fell on the woman Shchukar. - Where are the claws on the wing from? Look for them under your skirt!
He threw a spoon on the spread row, peered: in Lyubishkin's trembling hand a fragile bone dangled, feathered at the end with membranes and tiny claws ...
- Brothers! exclaimed the shocked Akim Beskhlebnov. - And we ate a frog! ..
It was then that the confusion of feelings began: one of the squeamish little women jumped up with a groan and, covering her mouth with her palms, disappeared behind the field booth.
Kondrat Maidannikov, looking at Grandfather Shchukar's eyes that had popped out in the greatest amazement, fell on his back, rolling with laughter, shouted out forcibly: "Oh, butterflies! You have been disgraced!" The Cossacks, who were less squeamish, supported him: "You will not see communion now!" Kuzhenkov shouted in mock horror. But Akim Beskhlebnov, indignant at the laughter, yelled ferociously: "What kind of laughter can there be?! To beat the Pike breed! .."
- Otkel could the frog get into the cauldron? Lyubishkin inquired.
- Yes, he scooped up water in the pond, which means he didn’t see it.
- Son of a bitch! Gray-haired nutrets! .. What did you feed us ?! squealed Aniska, the Donetskovs' daughter-in-law, and wailed with a howl:
- I'm in trouble right now! And if I’ll throw it off through you, you little one? ..
Yes, with how he will hit grandfather Shchukar with porridge from his bowl!
There was a great noise. The women unanimously reached out with their hands to Shchukar's beard, despite the fact that the confused and frightened Shchukar stubbornly shouted:
- Chill the crumbs! It's not a frog! True Christ, not a frog!
– What is it? - pressed Aniska Donetskova, terrible in her anger.
- This is one visibility for you! This is your vision! - tried to cheat Shchukar.
But he categorically refused to gnaw at the "appearance" bone offered to him by Lyubishkin. Perhaps that would have been the end of the matter if Shchukar, who was completely angry with the women, had not shouted:
- Wettails! Satans in skirts! You stretch to the muzzle, but you don’t understand that this is not a simple frog, but an oyster!
– Who-o-o-o?! - the women were amazed.
- Wustritsa, I speak Russian! The frog is scum, and the noble blood in the oyster! My dear godfather, under the old pressure of General Filimonov himself, served as batmen and said that the general even swallowed hundreds of them on an empty stomach! Ate right on the root! Wustritsa isho will not hatch from a shell, and he is already calling her hotel with a fork. It will pierce through and - yours are gone! She pishshit plaintively, and he, you know, pushes her down the neck. And how do you know, maybe she, this damn thing, is an oyster breed? The generals approved, and I, perhaps on purpose, for the benefit of you fools, put it down, for the sake of it ...
- Generals? For profit! .. I am a red partisan, and you feed me like a frog, like some kind of ... general ... feed?!
It seemed to Shchukar that Lyubishkin had a knife in his hands, and he rushed to run as fast as he could, without looking back ...
This is a nickname. Shchukar got it as a child after trying to bite off a hook from a fisherman's rod, he himself fell for the bait. I will quote in full. Grandfather Shchukar himself tells: “... I was in my tenth year, and then I was naturally caught on a hook ... - On which hook? - Davydov was surprised, listening to Shchukarev's story not without attention. - On the ordinary, how fish are caught. We had a deaf and dilapidated grandfather in Gremyachy at that time, nicknamed Kupyr. In winter, he caught partridges with Hungarians and covered them with a tent, and in summer he disappeared in the river, fishing with fishing rods. Our river was deeper then, and even Lapshinov's mill stood on it about one post at that time. Under the dam there were sazaniki and huge pikes; here is the grandfather, who used to be, and he sits near the tall bush with fishing rods. He will lay out seven pieces of them - on which one he catches for a worm, for which one for dough, and even for a live bait he waits for a pike. Here we are, kids, and got used to biting off his hooks. Grandfather is deaf as a stone, urinate in his ear, all the same he will not hear. We will gather on the river, spread out near our grandfather behind a bush, and one of us will slowly get down into the water so as not to let the waves go, dive under grandfather's fishing rods, grab the last fishing line, bite it with her teeth, have a bite and emerge back under the bush. And the grandfather will pull out the rod, the buzzer will tremble all over, shamchit: “Did you bite off again, damn it? Oh, mother of God!” - he thinks about the pike and, naturally, is angry that he lost the hook. He has lavosh hooks, but we used to have nothing to buy them for, so we hunt around grandfather. At one such moment, I got a hook and asked the other to bite off. I see that my grandfather was busy with the nozzle, and I dived. Just quietly nashshupal fishing line and put his mouth to it, and grandfather ka-ak closes the rod up! The fishing line was snatched in my hand, and the hook blew through my upper lip. Then I scream, and water pours into my mouth. Grandfather pulls the rod, strives to play me. Of course, from great pain I dangle my legs, drag myself on a hook, and I already feel how my grandfather slips a scoop in the water under me ... Well, then I, naturally, surfaced and roared in a bad voice. Grandfather froze, he wants to make the sign of the cross, but he can’t, at the very muzzle it has become blacker than cast iron from fear. And how could he not be afraid? He pulled the pike, and pulled the boy. He stood, he stood, yes, oh, how he would hit the run! I arrived home with this hook in my lip. My father cut out the hook, and then he whipped me until I lost consciousness. And you ask, what's the point? The lip grew back together, but since then they call me Shchukar. This stupid nickname has dried up on me ...».
By the way, in Rostov-on-Don, a monument was erected to grandfather Shchukar.
Humor and the comic beginning in general in the novel by M. Sholokhov play a special role. Undoubtedly witty both as a person and as a writer, the author spares no comical traits, describing characters that he likes.
The funny scenes of the novel not only entertain the reader, making the reading process more interesting and entertaining, but also allow you to penetrate deeper into the inner world of its characters. It can be said that the key word for understanding the characters' characters is the very word "odd" that was used in Davydov's conversation with the driver Ivan Arzhanov.
Ivan then showed Davydov a whip, which he carved from a branch of a cherry tree. A tree grew, slender and beautiful, a man came and made a whip out of it - that is, a stick, straight, naked and unbending. So is the man himself: if there is a weirdo in him, then he is a living tree, but there is no weirdo, then he is not a man at all, but a dead stick.
Of course, the image of grandfather Shchukar contains the greatest share of the comic. He now and then gets into funny situations, which he later talks about with pleasure; on occasion (and there is almost always an opportunity for grandfather), Shchukar engages in very clever, in his opinion, arguments on a wide variety of topics. All this causes a smile and laughter not only in the other characters of the novel, but, of course, in the reader as well.
The very life of grandfather Shchukar began with an unfortunate misunderstanding: the midwife predicted that he would become a general. Shchukar waited and waited for his “generalship” for many years, but he never did. He not only did not get into the generals, but they did not even take him to military service as a simple Cossack. And all because he undermined his health in infancy: after the drunken priest and deacon baptized the baby in boiling water, he screamed so much that he acquired a “bite”, that is, a hernia.
Schukar received his nickname in childhood. Together with other boys, he got into the habit of biting off the hooks of an old fisherman, deaf as a stump, under water with his teeth. Once he got hooked, like a pike, after which he became a Shchukar for the rest of his life.
Further more. For what - it is not known, but all the surrounding dogs, and other animals, disliked Shchukar. And bulls attacked him, and pigs, and ferrets, and snakes bit him ... - in general, Shchukar got to know the animal world of his native land thoroughly.
There was not a person in the Gremyachy Log, from young to old, who would not laugh at grandfather Shchukar - fortunately, there was always or almost always a reason. Yes, people laugh at him, but at the same time they feel undeniable sympathy for him. When Shchukar voluntarily or involuntarily begins to "entertain" the Cossacks who have gathered, for example, at a collective farm meeting, perhaps only Makar Nagulnov makes attempts to stop the flows of eloquence that the grandfather rains down on the heads of his grateful listeners.
We can say that in almost every human team there is such a grandfather Shchukar, who is a little ridiculous, funny, but still sympathetic to everyone. In the days of collectivization, when there were no special occasions for fun in the life of ordinary people, the melancholy of the Gremyachny Cossacks was driven away by the gentle tales of a resilient grandfather.
Particularly interesting and noteworthy are the relations between grandfather Shchukar and the “knight of the world revolution” Makar Nagulnov. In public, Nagulnov always tried to remain serious and shouted at grandfather Shchukar for, and often without, a reason. Indeed, what kind of laughter is there when, not today or tomorrow, the world revolution should break out.
But the same gloomy and unsmiling Makar at night, together with his grandfather Shchukar, listens to the harmonious chorus of Gremyachny roosters. Nagulnov is studying English, and Grandfather Shchukar perched next to him and reads the dictionary "on a hunch" - he sees without glasses only words printed in large print, and he only "guesses" what is printed in smaller print. Such "peaceful coexistence" at night Nagulnov and Shchukar is not only comical, but also touching.
It is also noteworthy that they hear and perceive the same cock choir in different ways: at the same time, the pious grandfather Shchukar recalls the singing in the bishops' cathedral, and the dashing grunt Nagulnov sighs dreamily: “Like in the horse ranks!”
Despite the fact that Nagulnov, at every opportunity, “spokes” grandfather Shchukar, the old man, nevertheless, calls him nothing more than “Makarushka”. It seems that Shchukar, whom God deprived of children, loves Nagulnov like. native son.
It is interesting that a more careful and thoughtful reading of the novel reveals the following detail: under the mask of a joker and "empty", which grandfather Shchukar wears all his life on his face, there is a wise, sober-minded person and, most importantly, not afraid to express seditious thoughts.
It is Grandfather Shchukar, as if by the way, who says that under the Soviet regime fools, of course, "died out", but ... new ones were born and, moreover, in huge numbers! And these new ones, just like the old ones, “do not sow, do not reap”, but they themselves grow.
And what about Shchukar's remark, which he addresses to Nagulnov, when he once again interrupts him during the meeting. Grandfather reminds Makar that when he talked for half a day on the May Day holidays about the world revolution, he always said the same thing, and it was boring to the point of impossibility. Shchukar even admits that during Nagulnov's speech, he did not listen to him, but found a more comfortable place on the bench, curled up, and fell asleep.
Anyone other than grandfather Shchukar would most likely not have gotten away with such statements. For such speeches in those days it was quite possible to fall under the article on "counter-revolutionary agitation." So grandfather Shchukar is not as simple as it is commonly believed ...
And then one day the old man stopped joking and joking forever. This happened after Davydov and Nagulnov were killed. It was their death that thus influenced the previously resilient Shchukar. This means that someone else's grief can hurt him much more than his own. But despite the fact that Shchukar himself found himself on the verge of death so many times in his long life, the danger and misfortune that threatened him personally could not shake his life-affirming optimism.
Without any exaggeration and excessive pathos, we can rightly assert that grandfather Shchukar is a truly folk image, which is why his name became a household name.
Of course, the comic in the novel is connected not only with the image of Shchukar's grandfather. Most of the protagonists of the work have their own “eccentricity”. The same Semyon Davydov, a man of uneasy fate, whom the party sent to the Cossack region by no means in order to “joke jokes,” quite often reveals a love for a joke, for a sharp word, and even his own ability to joke.
Already on the first pages of the novel, when the Cossacks joke about the visitor's chipped teeth, Davydov does not hesitate to make fun of himself, which immediately wins the sympathy of the locals.
When a riot breaks out in the farm and women, demanding the keys to the collective farm barns from Davydov, begin to really beat him, Semyon chooses for himself the only means of protection - a joke. He never stopped joking even when he was out of breath from the pain.
It seems that if it were not for the natural sense of humor, then Davydov would not have been able to rally around himself and his fellow communists, the rest of the Cossacks and organize a collective farm, as they say, with little blood.
Davydov's natural sense of humor looks especially touching and humane when he communicates with children - for example, with the boy Fedotka. Davydov has a special talent: he knows how to communicate with children on an equal footing, and in fact most adults lose this ability over time. Suffice it to recall how Davydov and Fedot-ka laugh at each other's chipped teeth and find out who's teeth will eventually grow, eh. who doesn't. And then it becomes clear: after all, Davydov is essentially a “big child”. That is why, perhaps, he is so timid in dealing with women - either with Lushka, or with Varyukha the Goryuha ...
Davydov feels at home among the kids, Nagulnov, with bated breath, listens to the roosters, Razmetnov literally falls in love with pigeons ... Here she is, the very “odd thing” that makes them real people.
"Virgin Soil Upturned" by M. A. Sholokhov is a novel that reproduces true historical facts. It gives a visual representation of the fate of the Russian peasantry in the 30s of the twentieth century. The village of that time is primarily private property and ...
Semyon Davydov, a former sailor and mechanic at the Putilov factory, arrives at the Gremyachiy Log farm to organize a collective farm. The task before him is not an easy one, because the Cossacks have long considered themselves a privileged estate, humility is not at all characteristic of them, as, ...
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The name of M.A. Sholokhov is known to all mankind. Its outstanding role in the world literature of the 20th century cannot be denied even by the opponents of socialism. Sholokhov's works are likened to epoch-making frescoes, and "Quiet Flows the Don" by the power of artistic generalization...
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For a long time, M. Sholokhov's novel "Virgin Soil Upturned" was considered a classic, textbook work about collectivization, where the author showed great skill in depicting the world of human feelings. The fact that he was...
In the autumn of 1981 (later, but there is no exact date) in Rostov-on-Don Was installed monument to grandfather Shchukar(the character of the work “Virgin Soil Upturned” is M.A. Sholokhov). The author of the monument is N.V. Mozhaev, and the architect of the monument - V.I. Voloshin (co-author - E.M. Mozhaeva). The monument is made of bronze.
The idea of creating sculptural compositions arose in 1980 after Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov was awarded the title of twice Hero of Socialist Labor.
But if you suddenly forgot who grandfather Shchukar is, then here is an excerpt from the work (although it is good as a separate part):
“... I was in my tenth year, and then I was naturally caught on a hook ... - On which hook? - Davydov was surprised, listening to Shchukarev's story not without attention. - On an ordinary one, with which they catch fish. We had a deaf and dilapidated grandfather in Gremyachy at that time, nicknamed Kupyr. In winter, he caught partridges with Hungarians and covered them with a tent, and in summer he disappeared in the river, fishing with fishing rods. Our river was deeper then, and even Lapshinov's mill stood on it about one post at that time. Under the dam there were sazaniki and huge pikes; here is the grandfather, who used to be, and he sits near the tall bush with fishing rods. He will lay out seven pieces of them - on which one he catches for a worm, for which one for dough, and even for a live bait he waits for a pike. Here we are, kids, and got used to biting off his hooks. Grandfather is deaf as a stone, urinate in his ear, all the same he will not hear. We will gather on the river, spread ourselves near grandfather behind a bush, and one of us will slowly climb into the water so as not to let the waves go, dive under grandfather's fishing rods, grab the last fishing line - bite it with his teeth, have a bite and emerge back under the bush. And the grandfather will pull out the rod, the buzzer will tremble all over, shamchit: “Did you bite off again, damn it? Oh, mother of God!” - he thinks about the pike and, naturally, is angry that he lost the hook. He has lavosh hooks, but we used to have nothing to buy them for, so we hunt around grandfather. At one such moment, I got a hook and asked the other to bite off. I see that my grandfather was busy with the nozzle, and I dived. Just quietly nashshupal fishing line and put his mouth to it, and grandfather ka-ak closes the rod up! The fishing line was snatched in my hand, and the hook blew through my upper lip. Then I scream, and water pours into my mouth. Grandfather pulls the rod, strives to play me. Of course, from great pain I dangle my legs, drag myself on a hook, and I already feel how my grandfather slips a scoop in the water under me ... Well, then I, naturally, surfaced and roared in a bad voice. Grandfather froze, he wants to make the sign of the cross, but he can’t, at the very muzzle it has become blacker than cast iron from fear. And how could he not be afraid? He pulled the pike, and pulled the boy. He stood, he stood, yes, oh, how he would hit the run! I arrived home with this hook in my lip. My father cut out the hook, and then he whipped me until I lost consciousness. And you ask, what's the point? The lip grew back together, but since then they call me Shchukar. This stupid nickname has dried up on me ... "