The “fathers and children” theme in Ivan Shmelyov’s story

The article examines how Ivan Shmelyov develops the “fathers and children” theme in the process of creating the story The Man from the Restaurant. The main research method is comparative textual analysis. The material for the study was the surviving handwritten and printed draft versions of the story. The topicality of the research is determined by the need for a more detailed study of Shmelyov’s early works in order to clarify the origins of the author’s method, which was defined as “spiritual realism” and which genetically goes back to neorealism. The novelty of the research lies in the analysis of the draft materials that have never published and have not been completely deciphered, which makes it possible to reconstruct the history of the text in general and the formation stages of the “fathers and children” theme in particular. As a result of the study, it was revealed that the “fathers and children” theme plays an important plot-forming role from the very beginning of the work on the story. The “little man" Yakov Skorokhodov appears not only in the role of a waiter, but also in the role of the father of the family; all the hardships of the “serving” labor, which he endures for many years, are for the sake of providing his wife and children with shelter and food. Conflicts with children, especially with his son Nikolai, become an impetus for the character to make sense of his life. Draft materials contain several versions of conflict scenes, which can be used to trace the evolution of the character of Skorokhodov Sr: in early versions, he is often harsh with his son, giving way to paternal frustration; in subsequent editions, Shmelyov leads the father and the son to reconciliation, which is more emotional rather than ideological. Skorokhodov analyzes his past and reconsiders the present in order to find the reasons for the ever-growing generation gap. The desire to find mutual understanding with his son awakens a true paternal feeling in the character, and through this feeling he finds the spiritual meaning of life. Working on the text, Shmelyov does away with the vast amount of social and everyday details and with the straightforward allusions to the religious context. Thus, Shmelyov subtly weaves references to the archetypal plot about the prodigal son, genetically related to the “fathers and children” theme, into the figurative plot of the story, while cutting out the scene of Skorokhodov Sr’s prayer-appeal to God on the night before his son’s execution, functionally replacing it with the image of an old man selling mittens and felt snow boots, the one who saved Kolyushka that escaped from prison. The history of the text shows how a social understanding of reality in the spirit of classical realism evolves into a symbolically generalized plot. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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