Everyone who read the fables of Aesop, IAKrylov, and then immediately picked up a volume of Leo Tolstoy, probably wondering himself, but what is unusual about Tolstoy's fables? Our article will try to answer this question.
First of all, it is necessary to answer the question why Lev Nikolaevich translated and composed fables.
It is unlikely that readers will believe that IA.Krylov, Aesop, or Lafontaine had some special task. They wrote fables, because they did it, and their works were liked by others. But Tolstoy is not like that; he composed his fables with intent, or rather, he had a specific task: to sow "kind and bright" in the souls of children. One answer to the question, what is unusual about Tolstoy's fables, is that they are peculiar because they pursued a certain goal - to teach the child to do the right thing. And the fables are special, because they are oriented towards a certain age group - children.
To fully understand the problem of Tolstoy,compare his fables and fables of the ancient Greek - Aesop. The Greek all the fables are equipped with a morality "not to grow up," that is, in the works of Aesop, in the capacious form, people's wisdom is fixed. For example, the fable "Eagle, jackdaw and shepherd" says that you can not compete with those who surpass you with natural data. The famous fable "Fox and Grapes" ridicules people's inclination to self-justification. And there are lots of such examples.
What is unusual about Tolstoy's fables?The fact that they have a morality "to grow". For example, the fable "The Dog and its Shadow" teaches children (or adults) that it is necessary to compete only with oneself and not look at others, even if the neighbor has a "piece of meat fatter" than you. The fable "The Liar" tells of a boy who, without any reason, shouted: "Wolves! Wolves! ", And when the predators came and ate with the whole herd, the shepherdess did not help, because he deceived more than once. The fable "Two Companions" teaches children mutual help and the fact that one should not throw a person in a difficult moment.
In other words, Tolstoy's fables are endowed with easethey are extremely close to our children, because when Leo Nikolayevich translated Aesop's fables or composed his own, he tried to make them understandable for the Russian people.
Moral children can be taught in different ways.You can single out every day, for example 2 hours, and teach the mind, but there is a possibility that the child will run away from home soon after such systematic notations and hate his parents. And you can read fables to a child and, together with him, analyze their moral sense, thereby verifying how well the son (or daughter) has learned the simplest rules of behavior in society. Fables are "injections of morality with a pleasant aftertaste", and they, among other things, accustom the child to reading.
The works of Leo Tolstoy are studied by children in general schools. Therefore, the question of what the unusualness of Tolstoy's fables is, the 4th grade (his students) is already able to answer independently.
But there was one more layer of Tolstoy's fables, whichnot able to recognize and see the child, namely: the philosophical content of LN Tolstoy's fables. Of course, rare are those fables in which philosophical content is not invented, but really embedded in them. For example, already quoted here the fable "The Dog and Its Shadow" contains not only everyday, psychological, but also profoundly philosophical meaning: a man should only work on himself. His mind should not be confused by either anger or envy. He must leave behind all the seven deadly sins, and most of the anxieties must remain there.
What is unusual about Tolstoy's fables, if in themallegory is present as a necessary component? Is it only a people's or worldly property? Of course, no. The allegorical nature of Tolstoy's fables brings not only to folk and worldly wisdom, but also to the truths of world religions.
