Andrei Platonov, "Yushka": a summary

Good books about sincere people, ready for self-sacrifice, touch the soul, teach decency and compassion. This is also the story of AP Platonov's "Yushka". A brief narrative of the little story will introduce readers to this extraordinary creation.

The main character of the story

Andrei Platonovich Platonov wrote this amazing story in 1935. The author leads the narration from the first person, so the reader seems to know that he knew the protagonist of the work well.

His name was Yefim, but everyone called him Yushka. In appearance, this man was old. In his hands, there was already little power, and his vision failed - the man could not see well. He worked in the smithy on the big road, stretching towards Moscow - he was doing all possible tasks. Yefim wore coal, water, sand, fanned his bugle with furs. He had other duties in the smithy. That's how Yushka worked.

The summary of the story goes on to describe the appearance of this person. He was short and thin. On the spot beard and mustache grew only gray, rare hair. The eyes of the elderly man were white, like a blind man.

He lived with the owner of the smithy in the apartment. Early in the morning went to work, and returned late in the evening. For the good performance of his duties, his master fed porridge, soup, bread. Tea, sugar, clothes Yushka had to buy for his salary, which was 7 rubles 60 kopecks.

How to dress an assistant blacksmith

He did not allow himself to spend money. Why? You will learn about this at the very end of the story "Yushka". The brief content of the work gives an opportunity to better consider the depth of the soul of this person. The elderly man instead of sweet tea drank water. He constantly refused to buy new clothes, so he always went the same way. In the summer, his poor wardrobe consisted of a blouse and trousers, which over time were heavily soothed and burned by sparks. The hero did not have a summer shoe, so in the warm season he always walked barefoot.

The winter wardrobe was the same, but only on top of the shirt the assistant blacksmith was wearing an old coat that he had gotten from his father, a sheepskin coat. On his feet were felt boots, which from time to time also perforated. But every autumn they were sewn by the tireless Yushka.

The summary of the story tells about how cruel people can be, regardless of age. It is these heroes that we find in this story of AP Platonov.

Bullying a resigned person

Perhaps, only the smith and his daughter treated Yefim in a kind way. The rest of the inhabitants of the town took out on their magnanimous man all their accumulated anger. Children were also unkind, out of boredom or because they were learning this from adults. Such scenes are described in his work by Andrei Platonov ("Yushka"). The summary of the story, namely the episodes presented below, draw the reader's attention to this bleak moment.

When Yefim passed by the children and adolescents to work or back, they ran up to him and started throwing earth, sticks, and pebbles at a middle-aged man. They were surprised that he never scolded them for what he had done, so they tried hard to get Yuushka out of himself.

The old man was silent. When people hurt him, he spoke kindly to them, calling them "dear ones" and "relatives." He was sure that they love him, they need him, since they attract attention in this way. Yefim thought that children simply do not know how to express their love in another way, that's what they do.

Adults who met Yushka on the street, called him blessed, often beat for anything. He fell to the ground and for a long time could not get up. After some time, the daughter of the blacksmith came to Yefim to help her get up and take her home. Here, with a hero who makes compassion and revise his views on life, the reader can become acquainted with the story "Yushka" (Platonov). The summary of the work goes to pleasant episodes of the life of this innocuous person.

Yefim and nature

To understand how sincere, sincere, able to love the living was the protagonist of the work, the next part of the story helps.

Efim walked for a long time, through forests, rivers and fields. When he found himself in nature, he was transformed. After all, Yushka was sick with tuberculosis (tuberculosis), so he was so skinny and exhausted. But, napping on the stump in the shade of the trees, he woke up rested. It seemed to him that the disease had receded, and this man was walking along in already vigorous steps.

It turns out that Efim was only 40 years old, so badly he looked because of illness. Once a year, he was vacationed, so in July or August he took a bag of bread and left somewhere for a month, saying that he was going to his family in a distant village or sent to Moscow itself.

The story of "Yushka" tells how a man can relently treat all life. Brief contents, namely, some of the most striking episodes of the work acquaint readers with this rare for today phenomenon.

Knowing that no one sees him, Yefim knelt to the ground and kissed her, breathing in a full breast unique flavor of flowers. He picked up insects that did not move, looked at them and mourned that they were lifeless.

But the forests and fields were full of sounds. Insects were chirping, birds were singing. It was so good that the man stopped grieving and walked on. It should be noted that such touching moments compel the reader to deeper understand the broad soul of such an unusual person as Yushka.

Platonov (the summary of the story, too, will not fail to mention this) decides to end his work with a rather tragic moment that makes many of us rethink their entire life.

They killed Yushka

A month later Yefim returned to the city, continued to work. One evening he went home. He met a man who began to molest with stupid conversations. Probably, for the first time in his life, the blacksmith's assistant decided to answer the stranger. But the interlocutor did not like his words, although they were harmless, and the passer-by hit Yushka in the chest, and he went home to drink tea.

A fallen man has never risen. A worker of a furniture workshop walked past, bent over Yushka and realized that he had died.

The master of the smithy and his daughter buried Yefim dignifiedly, in a Christian way.

Named daughter

That's how Yushka died. The very short content of the story continues with an unexpected visit to the forge of the girl. She came in the autumn and asked to call Yefim Dmitrievich. The smith did not immediately realize that she was talking about Yushka. He told the girl what had happened. I asked what she had to do with this man.

The girl answered that she was an orphan, and Yefim Dmitrievich was not related to her. He cared for the girl from the very childhood, once a year brought her accumulated money for living and studying.

Thanks to him, she graduated from university, became a doctor. And now she came to cure her dear man, but it was too late.

However, the girl did not leave the city, she began working here in the tubercular hospital, she came to the house for free for all who need it, treated them.

Even when she was old, she did not stop helping people. In the city she was dubbed the daughter of a good Yushka, too late realizing what an unusual and pure soul was the person whom they had destroyed.