Indifference and responsiveness towards animals. The problem of indifferent, cruel attitude towards animals Poor attitude towards animals in literature

Writers talk so much about human sorrows and joys, but they pay so little attention to our smaller brothers. This selection consists of literary examples that show the role of humans in the lives of animals and vice versa. We hope that these arguments will be able to assist you and enrich your “suitcase” of literary knowledge.

1. Leonid Andreev - “Biter”. Once you start getting acquainted with this work, you immediately begin to be indignant at how cruel people can be towards animals. In the story, the author talks about the difficult life of Kusaka, a dog whose life was overshadowed by loneliness and indifference on the part of its owners. But one day, a small and surprisingly generous girl Lela manages to color the dog’s life with the colors of love, care and attention. The heroine helped Kusaka feel needed, realize that she can serve people and be useful to them. The dog blossomed with all his soul, although sometimes he was still afraid of sudden touches. The wounds in my soul from my recent life were too deep. Only Lela managed to “fall” the exhausted Kusaka in love with herself. But, unfortunately, the dog's happy life ended as quickly as it began. The coming autumn took away the hope for peace and happiness. Lelya left. Once again the animal was faced with the hardships of its previous existence. And in order to somehow quench the newly flared feeling of melancholy and loneliness, the dog howled loudly and protractedly. This example shows that animals experience resentment just as acutely as people.
2. Chekhov - “Kashtanka”. From the first pages of the story, the author draws the image of Kashtanka - a small dog wandering in search of its owner. When the dog realizes that his efforts are in vain, he lies down and falls asleep at some entrance, but soon wakes up from the blow of a door opened by some person. This is how Kashtanka meets her new owner. And, it seems, he completely forgets about the past. Once in another apartment, the dog realizes that he has acquired not only a new home, but also friends: a goose, a cat and a pig. They live by learning various circus acts, because their owner himself works as a clown in a circus. During one of the performances, Kashtanka howls to the tune of a singer, and suddenly someone is heard gasping in the hall, and then someone calls Kashtanka. It turned out that it was her previous owner. The dog immediately runs up to him, enjoying the familiar smell of glue. This is what true devotion means! Despite the fact that Kashtanka now had everything she needed for a good life, she could not forget her former owner, his attention and love for her. And she even saw the circus, friends and a room with dirty wallpaper as a difficult and untrue dream. So great was her affection for Luka Alexandrovich. This example shows that sometimes an animal can be nobler than a person.

Cruelty to animals

1. Turgenev - “Moo-moo.” Surely everyone is familiar with this incredibly sad and heartbreaking story. The life of the main character of the story, Gerasim, is not so simple, considering that he is deaf and mute, that he devoted many years of his life to working for his lady, that his feelings for the woman he liked were spoiled by her in order to marry someone else. Among these hardships there must have been something in which he could see joy. Mumu is a ray of hope and joy in Gerasim’s life. The puppy he once saved turns into an obedient and affectionate pet of the hero. Everyone liked Mumu, even the lady, but soon she changed her mind about the dog and ordered to get rid of it. Gerasim tried to sell the dog, but it still came back. Then he takes a boat, sails out to the middle of the river and drowns his only friend. The one who was ready to devote himself to Gerasim disappeared from his life forever. Thus, we saw how the reluctance to understand and sympathize with other people leads to a series of events that not only have a negative impact on their participants, but also make victims of completely innocent and defenseless creatures of nature. In this work, the victims are both the dog, who died at the hands of the owner, and Gerasim, who, due to his position, simply was unable to resist the order of the domineering and selfish lady. Thus, cruelty to animals turned into a personal tragedy for a person.
2. Troepolsky - “White Bim Black Ear.” Bim, as the author himself writes, was born a “rejected” puppy, not suitable for sale. The breeder wanted to get rid of the puppy, but the writer Ivan Ivanovich, one of the main characters of the story, without thinking, took Bim for himself. The dog quickly got used to the hero, always subtly sensed his mood and tried to do everything to put a smile on the face of his beloved owner. Years passed, Ivan Ivanovich’s long-standing injury made itself felt, and he was taken to the hospital. Since then, a long period of wandering and searching for the owner began in the dog’s life. Some of the people who knew the dog tried to help him, wanted to return him home, and some characters, for example, Gray beat the dog with a stick, then Bim bit a person for the first time in his life, although no one could have expected such behavior before. I also remember another character - neighbor Klim, who hit the dog in the chest because of his reluctance to strangle a hare wounded during a hunt. Bim more than once had to face manifestations of human cruelty, from which he tried to somehow protect himself. And even though there were more kind people who were able to help, the traces of rude attitude were forever left in the memory. From the behavior and fate of the heroes, we see that violence towards animals turns into a deterioration of character and degradation of the soul for them.

Animals as victims of human hands

1. Bulgakov - “Heart of a Dog”. Man, in pursuit of innovations in life, has always sought to discover or create something new that would greatly simplify his existence. The elixir of eternal youth, immortality, superpowers - all this is just a small part of what the “King of Nature” would like to own. But does the desire to go against the laws of the universe always give good results? In the story “Heart of a Dog,” Bulgakov clearly demonstrated what can await someone who wants to make his name in the history of science at the cost of life on Earth. In the center of the work is the affectionate and obedient dog Sharik, who, after an operation performed on him, turns into Polygraph Sharikov with the habits of a drunkard and a thief (from whom the pituitary gland was borrowed for the operation). The effect was not long in coming, and as a result, the doctors got another poorly educated and problematic person, but in a new guise. Without thinking twice, they decide to perform a second operation and return the dog to normal life. The problematic of this work, of course, lies in man’s desire to “move mountains” of science, but is it worth achieving progress in this way? After all, animals that are not capable of self-defense often become experimental subjects. The dog Sharik, unfortunately, became one of them. By showing his fate, the author wants to warn the “King of Nature” against cruel and ethically unjustified experiments.
2. Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Edgeron. The fate of the little mouse Algeron was sad and tragic, which we learn about from Keyes’ story. His life becomes closely interconnected with the central character of the story - Charlie Gordon, who, like Algeron, undergoes an operation to increase the level of intellectual abilities. At first, in both cases, rapid mental development is observed, but as soon as it reaches its apogee, the heroes rapidly begin to regress, returning to the original level of their abilities. In this work, we can say that both Charlie Gordon and Algeron are the victim. But if Charlie did this voluntarily, expecting any outcome, then Algeron became simply material in the hands of people, because he simply could not realize and analyze his situation due to the fact that he was an animal. And there will be many more such Algerons, taken for various experiments, but only as long as nature tolerates all human attempts to change its laws.

1. Chingiz Aitmanov “The Scaffold”. The work shows how a person destroys the world around him with his own hands. People abuse saigas; wolf cubs die due to man-made fires. Not knowing where to direct her maternal love, the she-wolf becomes attached to the human child. People, not realizing this, shoot at her, but one of them ends up killing his own son. The death of a child can be blamed not on the she-wolf, but on the people who barbarously invaded her territory, exterminated her children, and therefore took up arms against nature. The work “The Scaffold” shows the consequences of such an attitude towards the living.

2. The problem of indifference to animals is often revealed on the pages of works of literature. For example, in the story L. Andreeva “Bite” tells about the unfortunate fate of a dog. Life taught her to defend herself and not trust people. But with the onset of spring, summer residents appeared, warmed and caressed the dog, and her heart thawed. Kusaka (that’s the nickname she was given) sincerely became attached to them and began to consider them her masters. And with the onset of autumn, the summer residents left for the city, leaving the unfortunate dog to the mercy of fate. And again her faith in people was destroyed.

Date of publication: 12/18/2016

The problem of ruthless treatment of animals - ready-made arguments for writing the Unified State Examination

Possible theses:

People can make animals suffer for their own benefit.

Sometimes people torture animals for fun

People often kill animals unnecessarily

People don't realize that animals have feelings and make them suffer

Sometimes people unknowingly hurt animals

Chingiz Aitmanov's novel "The Scaffold"

In Aitmanov’s novel “The Scaffold,” people mercilessly exterminated saigas on the territory of the reserve in order to fulfill the meat delivery plan. They were indifferent to the fact that, through their fault, predators would also suffer and be left without food. And the man who tried to stop the poachers was killed by them.

In Aitmanov's novel The Scaffold, Bazarbai, a selfish and immoral man, stole wolf cubs while they were hunting in order to sell them. The predators took the loss of their offspring hard, but the man didn’t care, he didn’t even think about it. Personal gain for Bazarbai turned out to be more important.

Sergei Yesenin poem “Song of the Dog”

The heartbreaking poem “Song of the Dog” shows the inhumane treatment of animals. A man mercilessly killed his pet's newborn children. The puppies were drowned in front of the dog; she could not protect her offspring. It seemed that the owner did not understand that animals also have maternal feelings.

B. L. Vasiliev novel “Don’t shoot white swans”

Vasiliev’s novel “Don’t Shoot White Swans” describes many examples of ruthless treatment of animals. Drunk tourists on the territory of the reserve, without hesitation, burned an anthill that was preventing them from resting, stifled fish and shot beautiful white birds. And Vovka, the forester’s son, turned out to be a real flayer and wanted to torture the puppy to death.

Yuri Yakovlev story “He killed my dog”

Yakovlev’s story “He Killed My Dog” describes the story of a boy who turned out to be much more humane than adults. He found an abandoned animal and decided to become its friend. The little hero brought the dog into the house, but his father was against it and demanded to get rid of the new pet. The boy did not listen. When his son was not at home, the man called the trusting animal and shot the dog in the ear.

N. A. Nekrasov poem “Grandfather Mazai and the Hares”

The problem of cruelty to animals is reflected in Nekrasov’s work “Grandfather Mazai and the Hares.” The old man, talking about how he saved long-eared animals from a flood, mentions the cruelty of other people. They were amused by the drowning hares; no one felt sorry for the poor animals. For more fun, the men beat the obliques with hooks, leaving them no chance of salvation.

Different qualities live in people: kindness and anger, cruelty and mercy, intelligence and stupidity, love and hatred, indifference and responsiveness. Not everyone can be the same in our world. But it is indifference, I think, that is the cause of many troubles. An indifferent person is a person with a callous or empty heart. It is callous because it is covered with a hard crust, through which goodness and love do not penetrate the soul. Empty - because there is no life in it, the people around it, nature, beauty are not interesting. An indifferent person will pass by someone else's misfortune, protecting his empty heart from misfortune. On the contrary, a person whose soul always feels both someone else’s pain and someone else’s joy is called responsive. This kind of person will always come to the rescue, warm you with words, and support you with deeds.

People show indifference and responsiveness not only towards their own kind, but also towards “our smaller brothers” - animals. This theme is also reflected in works of fiction. Let's look at some examples.

G. Troepolsky’s story “White Bim Black Ear” tells the story of a dog that lost its owner. Poor Bim meets different people on his way. People like Auntie, who chases the poor dog out of the yard, and then calls the dog walkers, who take Bim away. Like Tolik’s father, who takes Bim to the forest at night and ties him to a tree there, dooming him to death. Like Gray: he takes the dog from the boys in order to remove its collar, and beats it. In the same series, Klim, who called himself a hunter, mutilated the poor animal and abandoned it in the forest, and some other characters in the story. Indifference gave rise to anger and cruelty in them. The world does not become a better place from such people. But on Bim’s path he also meets kind, sympathetic people: the girl Dasha, who helped the unfortunate dog as best she could, Khrisan Andreevich and Alyosha took Bim to their place, warmed him up and fed him, the boys who tried to help him, Matryona and Mikhei, the travellers, shared food , left to spend the night in a warm hut. In Troepolsky's story there is almost the same number of indifferent and responsive people. The author wants to say that what the readers themselves become will determine whether there will be more or fewer good people on earth.

L. Andreev’s story “Biteer” also talks about a dog. And the people seem to be described as responsive: they warmed up a stray animal, fed Kusaka, children played with her. For the first time in her life, a dog felt what affection was, became attached to people, and gave them her heart. But summer is over, and why is a mongrel, homeless animal needed in the city? There's so much trouble with him. The summer residents leave, leaving Kusaka to his fate. So does responsiveness live in such people? No, they are indifferent to everything that can interfere with their comfort, they think only about their well-being. Exupery wrote that “you are always responsible for those you have tamed.” But the answer is only those who are responsive to someone else’s misfortune, who will not pass by someone who needs love and support. This does not include the characters in the story.

Indifference to people, to “our smaller brothers,” to the natural world around us does not make people better, but, on the contrary, impoverishes their soul. Responsiveness, mercy, kindness make the world brighter and a person happier.

• Category: Arguments for the Unified State Exam essay

• A.P. Chekhov's story "Kashtanka". Chekhov tells us about a dog's attachment to its first owner. Having gotten lost and finding herself in good home conditions with a trainer, Kashtanka remembers the carpenter Luka Alexandrych and his son Fedyushka, despite the fact that the latter often mocked her. And, noticing them already during the circus performance, Kashtanka joyfully rushes towards them. And then they take their dog.
• S.A. Yesenin - poems “Herd”, “Son of a Bitch”, “Swan”. We feel love for all living things in the poet’s poems about “our little brothers.” Yesenin’s fauna is a part of nature that is very close to humans. His animals are not personifications of human vices and virtues, but our faithful friends with their worries, sorrows and joys. They are endowed with living feelings, capable of sincere love and affection. Their stories are sometimes dramatic. Thus, the swan dies under the sharp claws of an eagle, having managed to save her cubs. The poet communicates with them almost as equals, as with close friends. So, in the poem “Give me a paw, Jim, for luck...” he opens his soul to a big, good-natured dog, tells him about his beloved. In another poem (“Son of a Bitch”), a young dog, the son of an old dog, awakens in the poet’s heart memories of youth and past love. And the poet is grateful to him: “Do you want me to kiss you, dog, for May awakened in your heart?”