Essays on literary works - 2023

The image of a little man by N.V. Gogol (“Overcoat”) and by Akutagawa R. (“Sweet Potato Porridge”)
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

The image of a little man has been known for a long time - thanks, for example, to such mastodons as Nikolai Gogol or Fyodor Sologub - and is inexhaustible, in my opinion, despite the fact that in most cases it threatens its carrier with a fatal outcome. And this almost obligatory restriction gives rise to a completely legitimate interest: is it really obligatory, and can there not be a variant in nature that at least leaves hope for a more desirable path of development of events for this little man, who causes pity even among his cruel environment, - should call it also from the authors.

And in 1916, almost three quarters of a century after Gogol's "The Overcoat", not as well known in our domestic literary circles as A. Chekhov (also a master of developing the characters of "little people"), but no less talented, then still twenty-four years old the author of several stories Akutagawa Ryunosuke makes an attempt - almost skalking the first half of the "Overcoat" - to fundamentally change its second, decisive part. And in distant Tokyo, the "little man" sees a ray of light - a hint of the possibility of complete liberation. Needless to say, the young Japanese Dragon's attempt was extraordinarily successful.

The person who owns the controlling stake in my love, respect and admiration, the undisputed authority in this matter - Arkady Natanovich Strugatsky, in this case acting as a translator from Japanese into Russian precisely "Batatovoy porridge", testifies that such an experience was neither the first nor , especially, the only one on the creative path of Akutagawa. This was also the first work that brought him fame - "Rashomon Gate", he used the same techniques in the short stories "Garden", "Young Lady Rokunomiya" and others. Early realizing that it is possible to exaggerate the hero's inner world only with the help of an event, he directed his thought to his search - to the past. An event, he says, can be anything: from a universal catastrophe - to a vile little thing in life - for example, the acquisition of a new overcoat. Moreover, Akutagawa does not claim to be the author of ideas - his conscious role is to discover new meaning in old plots. Strugatsky notes that the story "Sweet Potato Porridge" is of particular interest in this regard. It is based on an ancient anecdote about a poor samurai who dreamed all his life of "getting drunk" on sweet potato porridge, and how he overate it when the powers that be gave him such an opportunity. However, Akutagawa built on this unpretentious anecdote a frank paraphrase of Gogol's "Overcoat", which is confirmed by many transparent moments that undoubtedly point to the original source. Mikhail Iosifovich Weller certifies this technique as a "literary denial": "Akutagawa in" Sweet Potato Porridge "offered a reverse version of Gogol's Overcoat:

. The first thing we see when we open both works is a message about an indefinitely old time in which the action takes place; here it is also said about the unimportance of the date for its description. Further, we are talking about the place of work of the protagonist - also not important. The first confusion begins with the name: if Gogol, the great mocker, bestows a wonderfully stupid name on his guinea pig - Akaky Akakievich and even Bashmachkin, thereby warning the reader about the beginning of fun, then Akutagawa, who is already prone to detailed and stingy realism due to the entourage in writing out the characters, deprives Akutagawa his character of some proper name, and, if necessary, characterizes him according to the insignificant position occupied by him - the goyim. As for the appearance of the characters, there are small unprincipled differences that leave no room to talk about it otherwise, than about a small one: short stature, an ugly nose, a dull expression ... Both heroes can boast of their bad luck: Bashmachkin has a special charisma "walking down the street, keep up under the window at the very time when all sorts of rubbish was thrown out of it, and therefore he always carried watermelon and melon peels and such nonsense on his hat. The goyi is unlucky with the desired porridge - in the case of big holidays for which it was prepared, it was enough for him "very little, just to grease the throat." The unfortunates also dress haphazardly: colleagues call Bashmachkin's shabby overcoat a bonnet, old clothes and a peeling sword of the goyim also do not add to his popularity. In general, there is no such person in the chronotope of these short stories who would not take the opportunity to offend a little person - here, by the way, everything coincides: we look at Gogol: " understanding at this infrequent complaint the whole horror of their helpless situation and ashamed of her actions and stopping them in the future - but this happens sporadically ... Even the drunkard tailor Petrovich finds it pleasant to mock Bashmachkin, frightening him with the astronomical price of an overcoat. Goi is frightened by the samurai Toshihito, who is taking him to his place for sweet potato porridge, refusing to say exactly where the destination of their journey through unsafe provinces is located.

The first hobby of both losers also coincides - this is service, although Bashmachkin has learned to love his work (rewriting), and the goyim, it seems, are just looking for salvation from their environment - from life, if you like. Gogol writes: "It is not enough to say: he served zealously, no, he served with love. [...] Outside of this rewriting, it seemed that nothing existed for him." Akaki Akakievich takes work home and rewrites papers for his own pleasure. "Having written to his heart's content, he went to bed, smiling in advance at the thought of tomorrow: God will send something to rewrite tomorrow." Of the nameless goyim, it is only reported that he prefers to work than to watch the "entertainment" of his colleagues, of whom he was a victim; it must be, therefore, and not from a natural inclination "...

But both of these characters have another, secret dream that unites them, and from which serious differences begin in the plot of the stories in question. By the way, both works are called exactly desires, which become the second nature of the heroes and the driving force behind their destinies. Gogol endows his hero with a desire conditioned by necessity: the overcoat, which for many years protected Akaky Akakievich from the evil frosts of St. Petersburg, over time turned into a rag incapable of warming anyone; whether he wanted it or not, he still had to buy a new overcoat. And only when he did not easily come to terms with this need, Mr. Bashmachkin realized what happiness this acquisition could be for him. From that moment on, Bashmachkin disappeared; forced to starve in favor of new clothes "... he ate spiritually, carrying in his thoughts the eternal idea of a future overcoat.

The situation is somewhat different with Akutagawa's goi. His dream is desire in its purest form; desire as such. It would seem that food is also sweet ... Such desires arise only in children. Children - and those who are deprived of everything - even elementary self-respect. However, such a trifle as sweet porridge took too much possession of the nature of the goyim. We read: "For several years now, he had an extraordinary devotion to sweet potato porridge [...] And to eat to satiety of sweet potato porridge was an old and cherished dream of our goy. [...] ... he himself, probably, is not quite clear realized that his whole life was permeated with this desire. And yet we can safely say that he lived precisely for this. "

Further, both little people go their own ways; firstly, Bashmachkin receives his overcoat. And what does it turn out? it changes his character a lot. Even during the waiting period, "He became somehow more alive, even firmer in character ..." The new passion even supplants the old one: "Once, while copying the paper, he almost even made a mistake, so he almost cried out loud:" wow! and crossed himself." The overcoat makes him a more significant figure in the service: they talk to him, ask him questions, and in the end he is invited to visit! But, in fact, it is the overcoat that kills him: it is unlikely that without it there would be a need to leave the house in the evening - however, without it, nothing would have been taken away from Bashmachkin. Further, seeking justice for the missing overcoat, he probably raises his voice for the first time in his life and demands something. Besides, it's the first time he doesn't show up for work. I will say more: it is the overcoat that is to blame for the fact that after death Bashmachkin changes places with those who offended him, intimidates and terrorizes the entire city, turning into an avenging ghost looking for his overcoat.

Sweet potato porridge, for the time being, has a rather limited influence on the goyim - it gives him courage: he is very afraid to go so far with Toshihito: "If the hope of sweet potato porridge had not aroused his courage, he probably would have immediately left Toshihito and turned back to Kyoto."

By the way, it should be noted that both authors of high skill achieved the method of describing through detail: Gogol colors the tailor Petrovich with a crooked eye and "pockmarks all over his face", paying much attention to his big toe "with some kind of mutilated nail, thick and strong like a turtle's skull." In Akutagawa, such things are found at every turn: a boil on the right cheek of a servant in the Rashomon Gate, a severed finger in Doubt, a goy sneezing into a silver bowler in Sweet Potato Porridge.

So, the goyi whom Toshihito brought to Tsuruga to see how much sweet potato porridge he can overcome, on the one hand, goes to heaven: as many as two kimono lined with cotton wool made of shiny silk, sake, the promised desired porridge, sweet potatoes for which already at the stage of collection by nimble servants; and on the other hand, horror seizes the goyim: far from home, with foreign powerful people who have the power to mock him, as they like - he no longer wants this porridge, but only for everything to end. Akutagawa assures: “With even greater force than before, he felt how he wanted to delay the treat of sweet potato porridge as much as possible, and this feeling ominously strengthened in his mind. [...] And the more he thought, the more dreary he became. " Here everything is mirrored: if Akaki Akakievich was at first filled with joyful anticipation of happiness, which turned into tragedy, then the goyim, on the contrary, was seized with horror, from which he escaped thanks to the intervention of fate. And what would have happened to Akaky Akakievich, asks Arkady Strugatsky, if his overcoat had not been taken away from him, but, on the contrary, if they had presented him with a dozen overcoats, a hundred overcoats, would they have filled him with overcoats? What happens in the psyche of a little person when her little dreams come true with a Homeric surplus? It was this experiment that Akutagawa set up in his story. The poor fellow was horrified by the amount of desired porridge. He barely got over the little bowler hat. When he met with the prospect of complete satisfaction, his dream turned into panic fear, and fear into hopeless regret about the lost dream. But eventually the regret disappeared. It is much easier and easier for a small person to live without any desires. from which he escaped thanks to the intervention of fate. And what would have happened to Akaky Akakievich, asks Arkady Strugatsky, if his overcoat had not been taken away from him, but, on the contrary, if they had presented him with a dozen overcoats, a hundred overcoats, would they have filled him with overcoats? What happens in the psyche of a little person when her little dreams come true with a Homeric surplus? It was this experiment that Akutagawa set up in his story. The poor fellow was horrified by the amount of desired porridge. He barely got over the little bowler hat. When he met with the prospect of complete satisfaction, his dream turned into panic fear, and fear into hopeless regret about the lost dream. But eventually the regret disappeared. It is much easier and easier for a small person to live without any desires. from which he escaped thanks to the intervention of fate. And what would have happened to Akaky Akakievich, asks Arkady Strugatsky, if his overcoat had not been taken away from him, but, on the contrary, if they had presented him with a dozen overcoats, a hundred overcoats, would they have filled him with overcoats? What happens in the psyche of a little person when her little dreams come true with a Homeric surplus? It was this experiment that Akutagawa set up in his story. The poor fellow was horrified by the amount of desired porridge. He barely got over the little bowler hat. When he met with the prospect of complete satisfaction, his dream turned into panic fear, and fear into hopeless regret about the lost dream. But eventually the regret disappeared. It is much easier and easier for a small person to live without any desires. would they give him a dozen overcoats, a hundred overcoats, would they overwhelm him with overcoats? What happens in the psyche of a little person when her little dreams come true with a Homeric surplus? It was this experiment that Akutagawa set up in his story. The poor fellow was horrified by the amount of desired porridge. He barely got over the little bowler hat. When he met with the prospect of complete satisfaction, his dream turned into panic fear, and fear into hopeless regret about the lost dream. But eventually the regret disappeared. It is much easier and easier for a small person to live without any desires. would they give him a dozen overcoats, a hundred overcoats, would they overwhelm him with overcoats? What happens in the psyche of a little person when her little dreams come true with a Homeric surplus? It was this experiment that Akutagawa set up in his story. The poor fellow was horrified by the amount of desired porridge. He barely got over the little bowler hat. When he met with the prospect of complete satisfaction, his dream turned into panic fear, and fear into hopeless regret about the lost dream. But eventually the regret disappeared. It is much easier and easier for a small person to live without any desires. The poor fellow was horrified by the amount of desired porridge. He barely got over the little bowler hat. When he met with the prospect of complete satisfaction, his dream turned into panic fear, and fear into hopeless regret about the lost dream. But eventually the regret disappeared. It is much easier and easier for a small person to live without any desires. The poor fellow was horrified by the amount of desired porridge. He barely got over the little bowler hat. When he met with the prospect of complete satisfaction, his dream turned into panic fear, and fear into hopeless regret about the lost dream. But eventually the regret disappeared. It is much easier and easier for a small person to live without any desires.

I must burn in hell, but I do not agree with Arkady Natanovich, who, as I understand it, perceived the incident with the inability of the goyim to overcome more than one pot of sweet potato porridge and his hatred for this object of his dreams, as his symbolic death as a person. But for some reason I see it in a completely different way - as a symbolic liberation of the goyim, as an unexpected spiritual freedom for him: there is such an expression that when someone loses everything, he has nothing to lose. I do not want to present everything in such a gloomy light; I would rather say that he has nothing to fear, and this is the best way to liberation. After sweet potato porridge, how else can you intimidate the goyim? what else can you take away from him? As Weller said about the profession of a janitor: "... they won't demote you - nowhere, they won't fire you - the streets themselves will have to take revenge ..."

Finally, I want to dwell on a fundamentally new technique introduced by Akutagawa Ryunosuke: an element of fabulousness (not to be confused with mysticism). Everyone knows the Slavic fairy tale about a cunning peasant who sold an ordinary hare for big money to his master, after pretending to send him home with an order to his wife to meet and feed them. The samurai Toshihito resorts to the same technique, wishing in this way to properly frighten the already frightened goi with his greatness: he allegedly sends the fox to his servants with similar messages. Perhaps Akutagawa used this episode to slightly straighten out the accents, showing Toshihito's vain boasting and the successful non-intervention policy chosen by the all-understanding goyim.

It's about fabulousness.

As for mysticism, the ghost of Bashmachkin, stealing Gogol's greatcoats, is balanced by Akutagawa's werewolf in the form of a kitsune fox, a character of Japanese folklore, which incarnates as Toshihito's wife and in this form notifies the court of his will, and not in his own person, as it would be we have. The same fox appears at the end in the image of fate, saving his chosen one - the goyim from the desired sweet potato porridge, which has become hated by him.

Thus, Akutagawa Ryunosuke proved that even such a limited image as the image of a small person should not necessarily be nullified by the set of qualities and desires inherent in it, and most importantly, that he generally thought about the fact that a medal can have two sides, and the problem has at least two solutions.