Истребление живого как зеркало человеческой души (на материале произведений Валентина Распутина)
Attitude towards Animal Slaughter as the Reflection of Human Personality Portrayed in Valentine Rasputin’s Works

Summary/Abstract: In this article, the focus in placed on the works of Valentine Rasputin in which the attitude that the characters have towards animal slaughter, of which they are both witnesses and executers, constitutes to some extent the determiner of their human quality. Above all, Selling Bear’s Skin and Live and Remember are analyzed. The former deals, on the one hand, with the humanization of an animal that seeks revenge and its consistent pursuit while following the hunter. On the other hand, the evolution of the main character’s attitudes from thoughtless animal slaughter for the sake of material profiteering to the holistic perception of the world and nature, in which every being has the right to live, is observable. The latter work, in turn, depicts just the reverse process, mainly the moral degradation of the human being, evidenced by unwarranted slaughter of a defenseless animal. In the context of the perspective on the sacred dimension of nature, the attitude of the main character might be interpreted as an antireligious mode of human behavior.

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