A letter from our contemporary to Evgeny Bazarov. What is dear to us in Bazarov and what we cannot agree with him What do you agree with Bazarov

What is dear to us in Bazarov and what we cannot agree with him on.
I. S. Turgenev is one of the most popular writers of his time. Each of his new works, which touched on current issues, caused heated debate; awakened the thought. More than one generation of writers and revolutionary figures was brought up on the works of Turgenev. But none of the works of I. S. Turgenev caused as much fierce controversy as “Fathers and Sons.” And, indeed, Turgenev, as a great thinker and artist, objectively revealed the political

The meaning of the ideological struggle of very specific social and class forces in Russia in the sixties.

The novel very clearly reveals the clash between “fathers” and “sons”, the clash of the old, outgoing noble culture with new, democratic demands, a clash that reflected the struggle between noble liberalism, which played its relatively progressive role in the forties, and new people, democrats, who became the leaders of the advanced social movement. This conflict is clearly shown in the novel. Turgenev understood that the democrat was taking over the aristocrat and that the people of the past

Generations like Pavel Petrovich must leave and are leaving the stage, and people like Nikolai Petrovich and Arkady - soft, weak-willed - cannot lead life.
The democrat camp in the novel “Fathers and Sons” is represented essentially by one hero - Yevgeny Bazarov. It is absolutely clear that Bazarov, in his political and philosophical views, in his behavior, in his entire appearance, is the only representative of the “children” in the novel.

In the first half of the novel, Bazarov emerges victorious from all his clashes (with Pavel Petrovich, Nikolai Petrovich, Arkady, Sitnikov, Kukshina). He laughs at the “old romantics”, at Pavel Petrovich: “In my room there is an English washstand, but the door doesn’t lock. Still, this should be encouraged by English washstands, that is, progress!” And we feel that he is right. Bazarov teaches Arkady wisdom, puts the words in one row: romanticism, art, nonsense, rot; laughs at the “mysterious relationship between a man and a woman.”

The main thing that characterizes Bazarov is the complete denial of everything that preceded. Throughout his character, Bazarov is an active person, striving for business. He is tireless in his experiments. With great feeling, Turgenev showed in his hero that unity of word and deed, that willpower, determination, strength of character, which the “fathers” sorely lacked. Bazarov, according to Pisarev, is not a mechanically constructed hero, but life itself with its original, often ugly features.

But there is something in Bazarov that we cannot agree with him on. This is a denial of poetry, nature, music. Bazarov is inclined to view nature as a “workshop”, and man as a “worker in it”. He laughs at Nikolai Petrovich, who loved Pushkin and played the cello. To a certain extent, Turgenev himself was to blame for this, undoubtedly, having exaggerated his colors when depicting Bazarov’s nihilism.

Bazarov's nihilism was born in an era of breakdown in public consciousness. It is associated with the development of science and natural history. The desire to take nothing for granted, but to test everything experimentally, was fruitful. And although Turgenev did not believe in the prospects of the Bazarovs’ case, he perfectly understood the superiority of the democrats - “children” over the liberals - “fathers”.
“Sensitive to all the aspirations of the younger generation, Turgenev portrayed in Bazarov the type of young man who believes exclusively in science...” noted I. Mechnikov.
Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons” reflected an entire stage of the Russian social movement. He shook up society from its most progressive strata to the reactionary kamaria of Katkov and Pobedonostsev.

Critics, even at that time, believed that the novel was not only a remarkable phenomenon of Russian literature, but also of all public life.
V. Vorovsky wrote: “...Bazarov was an early representative of the common intelligentsia of that period when, fully armed with thought and will, they were ready, by the power of knowledge, to create new worlds from the nebula of the masses.” A. V. Lunacharsky defined the significance of Turgenev’s novel for our days: “And now, despite the fact that we are not like the people of that time, “Fathers and Sons” is still a living novel, and all the disputes that were waged around it, find a certain response in our souls.”

When I started reading the novel “Fathers and Sons,” I never expected that it would make such a strong impression on me. The novel touched me to the core. I completely agree with Pisarev, who argued that the novel is also remarkable because it “stirs the mind, makes you think...” It will, without a doubt, be remembered for a lifetime. And now before my eyes is a drawing from the cover of the book, which depicts the dying Bazarov, and next to him is Anna Sergeevna Odintsova. The old parents also remained in the memory, bending in inconsolable grief over the grave of their son, they
“...they look long and carefully at the silent stone under which their son lies; they exchange a short word, brush the dust off the stone and straighten the tree branch, and pray again, and cannot leave this place, from where they seem to be closer to their son, to the memories of him... Are their prayers, their tears, fruitless? Isn’t love, holy, devoted love, omnipotent?” When reading these lines, I had the feeling that I had lost someone close to me, and tears involuntarily came to my eyes.
The novel is interesting and clearly written, and, as one foreign writer said, clarity is the politeness of a writer. In “Fathers and Sons,” Turgenev selected the most significant events and moments in Bazarov’s life. Before I met Odintsova, I didn’t like Bazarov, I didn’t understand him. He seemed unnatural to me and evoked a feeling of hostility. His judgments are cynical, insincere in conversations with Odintsova and Arkady. In the subsequent narrative, Bazarov seems more natural. He fell in love with Anna Sergeevna deeply and passionately. This deep feeling cannot but arouse admiration.
When Bazarov leaves Odintsova to go to his parents, realizing the impossibility of happiness with her, I feel sorry for him. But the strength of his character commands respect. In the farewell scene before leaving Nikolskoye, Evgeniy behaves courageously and does not want to be pitied. When he dies saying goodbye to Anna Sergeevna, he is poetic, romantic, and also great as a human being.
When reading the novel, one gets the impression that everything really happened, as if I was a participant in the disputes between Bazarov and Pavel Petrovich, was present at the ball where Bazarov saw Odintsova for the first time, parted with a devoted friend, and the words “we say goodbye forever” cut me in the heart " It was very sad and difficult to read the chapters where Bazarov’s illness and death were described. Even such a great artist of words as A.P. Chekhov was shocked by the way this scene was written: “Bazarov’s illness was made so strong that I became weak, and it felt as if I had become infected from him. And the end of Bazarov? What about the old people? God knows how it was done, it’s simply brilliant.”
In my opinion, the conflict itself between “fathers” and “children” is modern; this always happens when a new generation replaces the old generation. Time passes, life, the situation, the environment, people change, and the causes of the conflict also change. The problem of “fathers” and “children” is an eternal problem of life, and therefore of art. It has become especially acute in our time, and the book “Fathers and Sons” left a deep mark on my reading biography, and I agree with the critic N.N. Strakhov, who claimed that I.S. Turgenev is “an admirer of eternal truth, eternal beauty, he had the proud goal of pointing out the eternal in time and wrote a novel... eternal.”
Maybe that’s why the novel is so close to us, modern readers.

I don’t agree with you, Bazarov...
(based on the novel by I.S. Turgenev “Fathers and Sons”)
I.S. Turgenev gave the world an eternally young work - the novel “Fathers and Sons”. In it, the writer told us about a non-standard person who denies all principles and strives for something new and non-standard. Yes, Bazarov is a person who has his own opinion and looks confidently into the future. And I agree that we need to move forward, that we need to change something in our lives. But Bazarov does this too harshly and rudely. Yes, of course, the main character of the novel is a man of progress and high intelligence, but I do not agree with his views on life. And on every page of the novel I really want to argue with him.
I believe that a person’s life should burn with a bright torch, and not smolder with dull brands. For a complete and illuminated life, a person needs art, and Bazarov denies it. He denies principles, foundations and orders. But this is wrong! After all, all people have lived and live all their lives according to certain principles, something in this world is good and something is bad, and if you live, as Bazarov says, without principles, you will get some kind of anarchy. Everyone will do whatever they want, because there will be no certain principles of morality. Of course, Evgeniy Vasilyevich can object to me that these rules of morality are not written down anywhere, but each of us should have them in our souls, then people will not do bad things.
Bazarov does not recognize literature. But how can you live without Pushkin, Lermontov, Shakespeare? These are great writers, their works are admired by the whole world, and he, some unknown doctor, not only does not recognize the great and immortal, but even mocks them. In addition to ordinary food, we also need spiritual food, but where will we get it if there is no art, there will be no Raphael and Pushkin. Then, indeed, we will become similar to each other, like birches in the forest, like the frogs that you love to dissect.
Why, Bazarov, do you impose your point of view on us and consider it the only correct one? I completely agree with you that a person should do something. But by what right do you consider only your practice of medicine to be your business? By what right do you dare to accuse great artists? You, a literate person, have forgotten why ancient Sparta perished? They were also too sensible: they paid attention to health, business, and even threw the frail from a cliff. And these weak ones could write poetry, compose music. Pragmatic calculation destroyed the ancient Spartans. Sorry, but each of us is an individual, and this individuality must be respected. We have had enough of leaders with their individual projects for the destruction of the nation!
You, Bazarov, do not respect anyone, vulgarity and disdain for people are evident in all your conversations. You don’t even have basic respect for your elders, we observed this in your conversations with Kirsanov. It is better not to talk about your attitude towards your own parents at all. After all, parents are the most faithful and closest people to us, and I believe we are obliged to love them, if only for the fact that they gave us life. And the hero of the novel does not show any feelings towards them at all, as if they are not people, as if they do not exist. He agreed to stay in his own home on the condition that no one bothered him or caught his eye. Not a drop of love for my parents...
And about love in general...I believe that a person cannot exist without love, and Bazarov categorically denies love. Op says that this is an unnecessary feeling, but I believe that love gives us the strength to live and is the main incentive in life. What then will remain in our heart if love is taken away from it?
All his life, Bazarov denied high, sincere feelings, principles, and literature, but we are convinced that his entire theory collapsed: he fell in love with Odintsova. He is the same person as everyone else. Beneath his arrogant and impenetrable shell beat a large, kind and romantic heart.
I was overcome with deep pity for this man when I finished reading the novel to the end.