Bradbury holiday main characters. Holidays

Title of the work: Holidays

Year of writing: 1963

Genre: story

Main characters: boy, his mother And father.

Plot

The father of the family, tormented by the constant circulation of people around him, dreams of arranging the longest vacation for his family. He wants to be alone with his wife and son and take a break from work, society and endless stupid communication. He carelessly expresses his wish, and it unexpectedly comes true. The next morning, the family wakes up and finds no one nearby: neither neighbors, nor acquaintances, nor even a single person in their village. Then the family, having collected a basket of food, sets off on the longest journey of their lives along a narrow-gauge railway on a small “trolley”. They stop in those places that somehow attract their attention, rest and hit the road again. But there is no trace of a person anywhere. And the boy asks his father:

“Were there other people on earth before?”

Both the man and the woman regret that their wish came true; they are afraid that people disappeared due to their fault. And the boy writes his cherished wish on paper, puts this note in a bottle and throws it into the sea.

Conclusion (my opinion)

We don't always think about what will happen if our wish suddenly comes true. For the people in the story, it came true, but they did not become happy, now they are afraid of the future, they do not know what happened to people on earth, but they feel guilty for their disappearance. And the boy now blames his parents for their common misfortune.

"HolidaysVnowhere"

Dubovtseva Yulia Vasilievna

You can read Ray Bradbury endlessly, this is my subjective opinion. Every word is a shot, every thought is an arrow, and everything undoubtedly reaches its goal. It stirs the reader's heart. It’s as if he’s telling you: “Stop. Look around. Think about it." The author wrote, as he himself said, without waiting for inspiration; it itself “pushed” him in the side. And it turned out wonderful!

For me, every work of R. Bradbury is not only a pleasant interaction with a book, but also a vigorous work of the brain, causing a huge number of disputes with myself. My Bradbury is able to create a palette of different feelings and emotions: delight and indignation, smile and fear... His mystery taught me to read between the lines, to see the unusual in ordinary things. With him, I acquired my own “time machine”, reading “Dandelion Wine”, I was able to see the world without literature, without books and thoughts in the dystopia “Fahrenheit 451”.

The story “Vacation” was written in 1963 and is considered one of the writer’s most mysterious stories. After reading, you can feel some kind of vagueness of thought, understatement. After all, we don’t know how the heroes’ second wish came true, whether it came true again, just as we don’t know what the boy wrote on a piece of paper. There are many mysteries in the works of Ray Bradbury, this attracts and never ceases to attract the reader to his work.

The author poetically paints a picture of the world around him at the beginning of the story. Quiet, good morning. Everything is subject to a unique rhythm - this is the law of the universe. Nature, the life of society, the beating of the human heart have a special rhythm. Each rhythm is unique. When the rhythm of the human heartbeat is disrupted, a person dies - this is the law. Bradbury’s nature continues to live in a unique rhythm, but the rhythm of human life in “Vacation” is disrupted, it simply does not exist. The author skillfully contrasts the harmonious world of nature with the disappeared world of people.

The heroes of the story are short-sighted egoists. Dreaming of the disappearance of people, all of them except the three of them, they did not think for a minute about how they would fill the void that had formed in their lives; they probably forgot that the family is the unit of society, its part, the most important link! Selfishness, envy, ambition - these are the “dashing” trio that took them on a “vacation to nowhere.” Selfish adults wanted to get freedom from all the hustle and bustle, from work and other troubles, they wanted to go on an eternal rest, filled with happiness, not realizing that rest is only good when it is not eternal. After all, overcoming difficulties, achieving set goals, accumulating experience from mistakes made, a person is spiritually renewed. Isn't this what happiness lies in? A person loves weekends, holidays and vacations because they bring some variety to everyday life and give time to transform their feelings, and a person undoubtedly needs this. However, too much rest becomes boring, daily variety ceases to be varied, and a person needs new difficulties, new achievements. This is what happened to the heroes of the story, they need new transformations of the soul, but they have no soil for these transformations, they have absolutely nowhere to strive, they have no difficulties, and, as a result, no happiness! Having felt and realized the terrible consequences of their absurd desire, the heroes want to return what they did not value - all the absurdities, noise and din, hatred, all the horrors, all the nightmares, evil people and stupid children, all this chaos, pettiness, vanity, all hopes , aspirations and love. Adults are punished - empty, silent streets and the unknown ahead...

What awaits their child? What did he do to deserve the silent silence, the gray, aimless everyday life? Why does Bradbury deprive the boy of the right to choose? Because his parents decided for him! Why didn't they want to stay alone? After all, they don’t need other children, and this child, in their opinion, should be the last. Cruel! If they wanted to stay in peace with the child they love so much, then why don’t they think about how he will exist, because there is no other way to call such a life when they are gone.

The boy's personality is a mystery to me; his behavior is very strange, but can be explained by the child's complete loneliness. Vacations... What a wonderful word! A cloudless childhood, sun, river, friends, and a lot of warm memories are associated with him. They definitely must be! But not for thirty years?! And here, at the selfish desire of his parents, the boy was left completely alone, he has no peers, he has no one to talk to, no one to play with - he is unhappy. What did the parents want to achieve with their desire? Run away from problems? Maybe!

Awareness of what happened always happens - it's just a matter of time. The main characters realized it, and it becomes especially terrible and painful when suddenly, in the middle of a conversation, a child appears. His accusatory screams, like a sharp knife, pierce the hearts of parents and disrupt the unique rhythm of natural silence.

The story is very instructive and a must read. After all, it says that you need to appreciate what you have, you need to cherish every moment of life. The author encourages us not to be afraid of difficulties and not to run away from them, since any difficulties can be overcome, receiving a decent and happy life as a reward.

R. Bradbury is no longer around, but his stories should undoubtedly be read and reread. He wrote easily, but he wrote about very complex things. He made the complex understandable and accessible. The writer is still moving you forward and does not allow our heads to go on vacation - “a vacation to nowhere.”

The main characters of Ray Bradbury's story "Holiday" are a father, mother and their son Jim. One evening, the head of the family, sitting on the terrace, dreamed out loud that there would be no more people on Earth in an instant. He considered people cruel and insatiable, capable of destroying the world in which they live with their aggressiveness.

The next morning it turned out that his wish had somehow come true. There was not a single person left in the town where this family lived. The man tried to call different cities by phone, but no one answered him. Then it became clear that there were really only three of them left on Earth.

The delighted man said that now he doesn’t have to go to work, and his son doesn’t have to go to school. He also promised that they would gather supplies and go on a long journey across the country.

On an old trolley equipped with a gasoline engine, the family went on a trip by rail. They traveled for many days, stopping to rest and have a snack. And then one day, during such a vacation, sitting on the seashore, the man began to tell his wife in detail about what cities they could still visit during the trip. But at the end of the story, the woman noticed a tear rolling down her husband’s cheek.

And then her husband told her that in fact he dreams of people returning to this world again, returning, despite all their shortcomings. The wife agreed with her husband. She also wanted life to return to normal.

Their son, Jim, approached them. He understood what his parents were talking about. The boy was also bored in the empty world; he had no one to play with. Jim ran to the seashore and wrote a note on a piece of paper. He put it in the bottle, closed the neck tightly, and threw the bottle into the sea.

The mother realized that her son had written some kind of wish. Later the boy asked that if you make a wish, will it come true? The father replied that sometimes wishes come true, and sometimes they come true too much.

The family loaded onto the trolley and hit the road again.

This is the summary of the story.

The main idea of ​​Bradbury's story "Vacation" is that it is important to calculate the possible consequences of your actions and even desires. The head of the family wished out loud that the Earth would be freed from people whom he considered bad. His wish unexpectedly came true. However, the eternal holidays that came into the family’s life did not bring happiness to anyone. The heroes of the story realized that life without other people is boring and monotonous.

The story teaches you not to rush into words and calculate the consequences of your desires and actions.

The main idea of ​​Bradbury's story "Vacation" is this: don't focus on shortcomings. Know how to see the main thing. The main thing in life is people, human communication. What about the disadvantages? Yes, they exist in the world. But be able to see people behind their flaws.

What proverbs fit Bradbury's story "The Holiday"?

The word is silver, and silence is gold.
Trouble rolls out of your head.
Be afraid of your desires, for they will come true.

A man wants to give his family the longest vacation in history and wants every person on Earth to disappear. The wish comes true, the world becomes empty, but his little son dreams of people returning.

Three people are traveling along the railway on a handcar, a man, a woman and a boy - a family. Gasoline runs out, the road needs to be repaired, and travelers are forced to stop.

During a rest stop, the boy asks his parents if there were people in the world. Several months have passed, but he barely remembers them. The son asks his father where they went, to which he sincerely replies that he doesn’t know. One fine morning the family woke up and the world was empty. And the day before, the father of the family wished everyone to disappear. The man decided to give his family a vacation, the longest in history, during which they would travel around the world. The woman feels guilty for the disappearance of other people, but her husband reassures her, saying that the people were not burned or tortured - they simply disappeared.

Having repaired the railway tracks, the man begins to leaf through the atlas and draw up a route. A tear rolls down the husband's cheek, the woman takes his hand and wishes that people would return to this world. The boy hears this desire. He runs to the sea and cries. Still sobbing, he writes something on paper, puts the note in a bottle and throws it into the sea. He wrote his wish and really wants it to come true. His parents don't know about his wishes.

The travelers continue their journey through a completely deserted world.

On the eve of the holidays, the school curriculum is studying the story of the great science fiction writer Ray Bradbury "Vacation".
The writer has always delighted science fiction fans - the colorful images of his works are always complemented by deep meaning. With each story, Bradbury's boundless imagination opens up previously unknown worlds, colorful and fantastic.

Questions and tasks

1. Bradbury's story "Vacation" is quite complex. Read it carefully and think about what, combining fantasy and reality, the author wants to tell us, what to warn us about?

Bradbury tries to convey to the reader the main idea - “Any action entails certain consequences.” Weaving reality and fantasy, he reinforces and exaggerates the idea of ​​the complexity of life choices. When all the people around disappeared, the main characters of the story realized that they could not be happy without “this petty human vanity.”
He also tries to warn that every desire should be carefully considered. A dream cannot be momentary, born over a cup of tea on a Saturday evening, like the heroes of Bradbury’s science fiction story “Vacation.”

2. Read the story out loud. Why was there such strange silence around: “The sea was restless, and the sea was silent”?

With the help of such paradoxical phrases, Bradbury tries to prepare the reader: to create tension, and at the same time, to show that nothing is happening. The further development of the plot is fully consistent with this idea: There are no more people on the whole planet, that’s why it’s so quiet around. However, life goes on as usual, everything else (plants, animals, fish and birds) continues to develop. It seems that nature did not even notice that it had lost a whole part of itself.

Why was the railway made of rust?

Throughout Bradbury's story "Vacation" the development of the main idea can be traced - what is created by human hands exists as long as man himself exists. Who needs “tedious work” besides the worker, who will read books except the reader, what will happen to the railway if it is not repaired? Rust is a symbol of abandonment. The main characters of the story realized that they could not live in a world without people.

Why was the path finally destroyed?

Bradbury's story "Vacation" tells that the main characters, after several months of travel, were no longer happy on the road. Each stop was for them a way to remind themselves, at least for a short time, of their past life - with minor worries, unnecessary tasks and small joys. Therefore, every broken section of the tracks foreshadowed relief for tired travelers.

3. Bradbury paints a picture of a world from which people left a few months ago. What made them leave?

The writer makes it possible to imagine the distant future - when there will be no more people on the planet. The main characters of the story thought about this seriously, and their wish came true in one night - they were left alone on the entire globe.

What happens to the rest? Is it possible to be happy without people and without usual activities?

Those who remain go traveling, spending their time carefree, stopping where their hearts dictate. A few months later, during the next stop, the husband tells his wife how good it would be if everything returned: all the absurdities, the noise and din, evil people and stupid children, hopes, aspirations and love... As it turned out, human happiness is unthinkable without these components.

Ray Bradbury wants to tell the reader about this. “Holidays” is his little warning to people.

4. What kind of world do the father and mother of this small family dream of? How do they make their life plans? Why did the husband cry and wish to take everything back?

Before people disappear, the main characters dream of a world without violence, cruelty, overeating, and meaningless activities. They also want to take a 30-year vacation for themselves - to travel anywhere, not compete with more successful colleagues, not have to fill up the car and not get stuck in traffic jams.
Finding themselves in a world without people, the main characters plan only a couple of things - where they will go and how they will spend their time. All the usual worries are gone, and now the only people on the planet don’t know what to do. They only think about cities where it will be easier to survive.
The husband cried from hopelessness - he wanted to return everything back, but did not know how. Most likely, over several months of such a life, he had already thought about it more than once, not daring to speak out.

To most fully understand the meaning of what is happening to the main characters, it is worth reading “Vacation” (summary).

5. What do you think the boy wrote in the note? Why was the mother afraid that her son’s note was not their dream?

I think the boy just wanted to bring people back. He had no one to play with. The mother was afraid that her son would wish that she and his father would die like the others. She did not want to disappear like the rest of humanity - forever, just as quietly and without a trace.

6. How do you determine the meaning of the story, its title? What worries the writer and what do his works warn people against?

The meaning of Bradbury's story "Vacation" lies in a simple idea - you need to think through the consequences of your desires and actions in advance. Human life is not so simple that if you get rid of one factor, it will become happy. "Vacation" is the perfect title for a story. It fully reflects the essence of the work - prolonged idleness.
The writer is concerned that people often do not attach importance to important aspects of their lives, do not see the main thing, do not understand that without these very aspects life will become unbearable. Bradbury warns his readers against mistakes that cannot be corrected later.

Bradbury "Vacation": Summary

Deserted beach, sunny and carefree nature of the sandy shore. Bees are noisy, swarming, flowers are bending to the ground, the sea is raging. Rusty rails disturb the peace with their trembling - a two-cylinder railcar appears from behind a hillock. A family of husband, wife and son travels on it. They stop for a rest - they have run out of gas and need to fill it up from a spare canister. They unfold the tablecloth, sit down to eat, and remember the past.
A few months ago, one warm evening, a husband and wife were thinking about how nice it would be if all people disappeared. They didn't die, they just disappeared, as if they didn't exist. The next morning they wake up in complete silence - their wish has come true. Then they begin to travel - along the way, stock up in abandoned stores, spend the winter in large cities.
But at this halt. on the seashore, something is changing. The husband cries, arguing that he would like to return everything. The wife agrees. The son, angry with his parents, also cries, writes some wish on a piece of paper and, capping it in a bottle, throws it into the sea. A few hours later they hit the road again.

Bradbury's "Vacation" is distinguished by its subtlety and thoughtfulness. Analysis of the story allows you to understand what the writer wanted to say.

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