Radii Pogodin’s Story The Toad as Representation of Open and Latent Conflict in the Literature for the Young

Abstract

In the story The Toad, which concludes Radii Pogodin’s cycle, Where the Clouds Come From, the author is challenging the common notion that a child’s development occurs within the framework of playing (Lev Vygotsky). Pogodin insists on the importance of thinking as part of a child’s developmental stage. Pogodin’s statement that “thinking is a difficult thing” creates an inevitable conflict between the author and the reader, requiring the reconsideration of basic postulates on the life of a child. Although the very structure of the collection of stories is aimed at a child-reader, the open conflict between the old woman and the boy, the beautiful and the useful, and the latent conflict of two concepts of human development transfers this narrative into the philosophical realm of a grown-up discussion. The article by Zinaida Gritsenko.    Keywords: open and latent conflict, a concept of childhood, usefulness, beauty, ability to think