(332 words) Nature is an important hero in the novel by M. Sholokhov "Quiet Don". It is she who reflects the feelings and intentions of the characters, she is also an indicator of mood in a particular chapter. In order to better understand the purpose of the book, it is necessary to analyze what is happening on its pages in the surrounding world, where the natural laws of being reign.
The landscape tells the reader about the customs of the Cossacks. The nature of the steppe is just as rampant and strong; it, the steppe, of Soviet power was just as difficult to conquer as its inhabitants. The Don is overflowing with power and full flow, as is the character of the Cossack, whom it is impossible to drive into some narrow framework. So Don breaks from the coast in the spring. All seasons in the steppe are taken to extremes: winter is cold and snowy, summer is scorching and sultry, autumn is rainy and windy, and spring is full of water and warm. Also, the Cossacks themselves were brought to the limit: if they love, then to unconsciousness, if they hate, then to the end.
It is nature that accompanies the love affair of Gregory with Aksinya. They became close during the storm, when the neighbors went to fish. Thunder and lightning frightened people, rain sprayed the waves, Don himself foamed from the wind. The feeling in Grigory and Aksinya’s chest fluttered in the same thunderstorm, their love was just as rebellious, it frightened their environment and made everyone suffer. So, nature is endowed with the function of psychologism in the novel.
Residents of Don villages are so close to the world that they are sensitive to every change in their mood. So, when Natalya cursed her children’s father for treason and wished him to die on the battlefield, a fine day turned sharply into thunder and wind, nature rebelled against this unnatural curse, in which the desperate woman repented herself, feeling the murmur of nature itself, in which Natalya saw God's will.
Finally, it was in the surrounding world that the Cossacks saw the peace and happiness that they were so eager for. Grigory Melekhov seeks tranquility and oblivion in the earth after the death of his wife. Seeing the uncultivated fields, the Cossacks were sad and grumbled for war, as if in interaction with nature they found the meaning of life.
Thus, the theme of nature in the novel was revealed from several angles: nature is the mother harboring her children, nature is the friend and comforter, nature is the animated being, loving and hating.
