| Abstract [eng] |
It is accepted to represent the most striking, memorable periods of human age in literature, that is childhood and old age. The images of a child and an old man are often met in the 1st half of the 20th century in lithuanian small prose. In the thesis using the descriptive method the stories by Žemaitė, Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė, Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas, Šatrijos Ragana, Jonas Biliūnas, Antanas Vienuolis ir Petras Cvirka are analysed, in which childhood and old age are represented, the characters of a child or an old man are created. Childhood, a child is analysed on the ground of childhood’s conception by Alfred Adler, in which the most important aspect is community. The feeling of community gives an opportunity to spread children’s creativity. With the help of games and toys children learn, prepare for the future, dream, break away from hard country children’s mode of life and existence. In the thesis are actualized the ways and means of creating a child’s portrait which help to create suggestive characters giving a meaning of childhood. Old age, an old person is represented analyzing the conception of Simone de Beauvoir. In the original and exhaustive study “The Coming of Age” an old man is considered as other. The concept other includes person’s biological changes, the category of strange, regrettable, lonely person of a productive society, showing the fear of old age and disrespect to an old person. The old man in a small prose is represented as outwardly unhealthy-looking, unaesthetic, sorrowful, having white hair, not coordinated movements, tired eyes, very often with a stick in hand, but spiritually rich, having an authentic memory presented with wisdom. An old man represented in the stories very often in his thoughts goes back to his childhood, because it is not inseparable from the universal problem of old age, that is the motive of death, which is called “biological fate” by de Beauvoir. Childhood and old age in the thesis are understood as the principle of opposition, finding the difference and similarities creating the characters of a child and an old man, trying to single out the main aspects of childhood and old age. A child in the 1st half of the 20th century in a small prose is often represented as hard working, hungry, losing relatives, communicating with children, family members, playing games, rarely learning. An old man is often represented as not loved, suffering, strange, begging, going back to his childhood, sharing his wisdom with children and waiting for death. |
