The all-knowing Literaguru brings to your attention the shortest retelling of the story "Wolves" V.M. Have a nice enlightenment!
Short retelling
One day, in the early morning, Ivana was awakened by his father-in-law, whose name was Naum, and began to call him to chop wood into the forest. Ivan began to gather, albeit reluctantly, but all because he and Naum could not stand each other, the relationship between the men was very strained.
Naum had two carts, they fastened their horses and went into the forest. One wagon was driven by Naum, the other Ivan. The men went quite far and after a while met a flock of hungry embittered wolves. Ivan, along with his wagon and horse, hesitated, stepping over the ogloblin, the wagons went uphill and it took time to turn around. Naum, meanwhile, was seriously scared and abruptly turned his horse, taking to flight. With a cry of "Robbery!" father-in-law began to lash the horse, increasing its speed, and soon Ivan lost sight of him altogether. Meanwhile, the wolves were getting closer and closer to Ivan and his horse. He was seriously scared and had already decided that it was time for him to say goodbye to life.
Degtyarev drove his horse with all his might, but the wolves still did not lag behind, and now he almost caught up with Naum and began to shout to him to throw an ax and slow down, then they would have the opportunity to fight off the pack of wolves together. But Naum did not stop, but Ivan's request reached him and he threw an ax to the ground. Ivan managed to pick him up; he began to make attempts to scare predators and fight them off alone, but he didn’t succeed, he had to leave them a horse to eat and run away himself.
When the evil and tired Ivan came out of the thicket of the forest, he saw that Naum was waiting for him on the outskirts. Ivan was just furious, he thought that he would teach a lesson to his father-in-law for such an act. He rushed to him to beat this pathetic coward and let off steam. After the fight, Ivan would not have told anyone about the incident in the forest, but Naum again got scared, got on the wagon and ran away from him towards the village. Degtyarev goes home on foot. When Ivan gets to the house, he drains a glass of vodka and goes to the house to Naum to find him and "continue the conversation." But in the house of his father-in-law, Degtyarev not only finds him, but also his wife, mother-in-law and a policeman, who are specially waiting for him to prevent a fight and its possible results. The policeman offers Ivan to spend the night in a local jail, in order to calm his ardor a bit and calm down overnight, although he is very angry, he agrees.
Feedback
The date of writing the story is 1966. The plot of this story describes the struggle of different types of men, completely opposite in character. The first, Ivan is a very lazy man who likes to drink, and the second is Naum, Ivan's father-in-law is a cunning, cowardly, agile old man. Men mutually dislike each other and each of them accuses the other of some shortcomings, while not noticing their own. The author also tells us that Naum tolerates Ivan only because his daughter protects and loves him. But in one family, two of these characters get along badly and there are constant conflicts between them. In addition, various incidents and unexpected dangers occur in the family, as in the case of wolves, and then we see how these characters react to each case in their own way.
I think the main theme of “Wolves” is the topic of mutual support of people in extreme conditions. Maybe Naum and Ivan cannot stand each other in ordinary life, but when the wolves attacked, leaving the son-in-law was not permissible for Naum. We see how the reaction to danger differs in these two men - how frightened and panicked Naum is, how he escaped without looking back at his son-in-law and completely losing control of himself. His cry of "Rob!" gives out a complete loss of self-control and an absolute inability to cope with their emotions. Degtyarev behaves somewhat differently - he shows courage and makes attempts to drive away hungry animals on his own. In this case, the author shows us the cowardly and treacherous character of Naum and, in contrast, the courageous and collected character of Ivan, who, although he sacrificed the horse, coped with the trouble and returned home alive.
However, the situation in the village is turned upside down - here, completely baffled, angry, furious Ivan, with the clear intention to beat a man, rushes at his father-in-law. He clearly does not control himself. It turns out that it’s not the animal chasing the person, but the person after the person. Degtyarev dreams of taking revenge on Naum for cowardice at all costs. And if not for the police, everything could have ended very badly. The outcome of the whole story is as follows: in any situation, you need to be human and not slide into animal reactions. You need to keep your mind and will above your senses.
After reading the story and reflecting on it, we understand that the title of the work - “Wolves” - has a double meaning. The author clearly had in mind not only predators from the forest when he gave his work this name. Absolutely wolf behavior, being in a state of hostile, aggressive forces the two heroes of the story to lose all morality in the eyes of the reader, to turn into animals.
Let's summarize: what does Shukshin want to teach? I think the author wants to show us how important it is not to give in to emotions and to remain in a sober mind under any circumstances. Each of the readers of this story involuntarily thinks to himself: how would I behave in the place of the heroes, what would happen if the same thing happened to me? Could there be some other ending to this story? Perhaps, help Naum Ivan to drive out the wolves and show courage in this situation, their long-term family hostility could end and the men reconcile? May be. Such for me was the story of Shukshin “Wolves”. I also note that this story helped me think about difficult issues that relate to family relationships. Perhaps these thoughts will become the very key that will help me build relationships in my future or real families.
