In his work I.A. Bunin tells about the journey to Europe of a certain gentleman from San Francisco with his wife and daughter. The family is sailing on a steamer with the symbolic name "Atlantis". Everything is planned, there is no room for accidents. At first glance, it may seem that the plot is based on the journey of the main characters, but this is not so. The main idea of the story, which the author wanted to convey to the reader, is the role of a person in society and the real meaning of wealth, power, in such a fragile and eternal life each person.
Main character works - a gentleman from San Francisco, a man of fifty-eight, a wealthy man. He does not have a name because the character personifies all representatives of the stratum of society to which he belongs. People seeking to buy happiness with money, they deceive themselves by surrounding them with luxury goods. One example of such deception in the work is a pair of actors hired to portray true love. Lies - that's what reigns on the ship.
In the image of the gentleman from San Francisco, we can see not only negative features. Our hero is a stubborn person, he understands the importance of work and does not refuse it. He devoted himself to work and achieved significant results. I believe that the desire for a better life, cannot be condemned, so what the gentleman from San Francisco did deserves praise. All his life he worked, for himself, for his family and deserved a break.
But despite all the positive human qualities, the character embodies the features of the society to which he belongs. He is selfish, greedy for power, arrogant, cynical. Considering his opinion to be truly correct, he is not shy and openly declares his superiority. The hero puts himself above others and this applies not only to people who are not equal to him in position, but also to other peoples. Enjoying life, the main character forgets about its transience. And sudden, illogical death, which is emphasized by the adverb "suddenly", overtakes the gentleman from San Francisco. He dies and all that feigned importance, power and authority, die with him.
Sailing to the Old World, a respected and respected master, he returns to the New World in a dark, damp hold, forgotten and abandoned by everyone. Only his family shed tears for him, but I think they were fake to some extent. Perhaps they were crying from the knowledge that without the master from San Francisco, the society of rich and noble people would reject them. By his own example, the main character showed what all wealth means, power after death. Nothing. After the death of the protagonist of the work, the writer does not stop the story, he continues to write. This is what makes the reader understand that the gentleman from San Francisco is just a part of the constantly moving life stream. And his death becomes so insignificant for the whole outside world and for all the people around him.
Summing up, I want to say that after death everyone is equal. Therefore, one cannot destroy the person in oneself and succumb to base temptations. Life is short, which means you need to appreciate every moment and not put material wealth in the first place.
Essay about the gentleman from san francisco
Bunin described the representative of the world of money. The gentleman had made a great fortune through the Chinese labor force and decided to take a relaxing round-the-world cruise along a detailed itinerary. On the steamer Atlantis, which he chose for a comfortable journey, enjoyment and relaxation, the upper deck elite daily diligently work up an appetite, after heavy meals they take baths and other procedures, struggling with digestive problems from overeating, then take a walk again to restore their appetite.
With special care, passengers prepare for evening entertainment with delicious dishes and expensive drinks. Every day proceeds according to a strictly established order. The life of first class passengers is carefree and easy. They are surrounded by luxury. And the master spends his time just like the people of his circle. Only something false is felt in this "harmony", as in love, which is portrayed by a dancing couple for money.
The appearance of a respectable gentleman from San Francisco corresponds to his essence: gold fillings in his teeth, a mustache like silver, ivory skin, the remains of pearl-colored hair. Outwardly, he shows his cost and solvency. Only the face is like a mask, because there is no description of the eyes. The character does not have a name, because he is impersonal, like people from his environment, whose life is unspiritual and primitive. These individuals determine the values of life exclusively in terms of money. But nature does not give in to the power of money and spoils the rest bought for big money.
The sea is stormy, tormented by seasickness. The master is disappointed with the journey. Such an expensive vacation does not bring pleasure. He is annoyed by seemingly monotonous sights and museums, because he is not able to appreciate the beautiful. Awareness of the horror of his existence comes to him only a moment before his sudden death. But it was only at the age of 58 that he decided to live in pleasure.
Fate ruined his plans. And the body of the dead old man does not return home first class, he is shamefully hidden in the hold in a box from under the water, so as not to overshadow the rest of the others. Everyone forgets about him, as if he never existed. At the end of the story, the lights on the rocks of Gibraltar resemble the eyes of the Devil, who follow the sailing ship with the name of the lost civilization. This is symbolic, because the world of capital, devoid of spirituality, leads people along the path of self-destruction.
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In the work of A. S. Pushkin “The Stationmaster”, the main action takes place at the station ***, where Samson Vyrin, a local stationmaster, told the young man, on whose behalf the story is being told, about the fate of Dunya’s daughter.
Module 1
Ways and main trends in the development of Russian literature at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries.
Answer the questions of a heuristic conversation based on I. Bunin's story "The Gentleman from San Francisco".
Heuristic conversation on
I. Bunin's story "The Gentleman from San Francisco"
Initially, this work had an epigraph, which the writer then removed, perhaps in order to keep the reader in suspense to the end, not to give him a ready answer.
After analyzing the story, we will have to guess what thought I. Bunin prefaced his story. To do this, we need to formulate main idea story.
Now let's turn to the text.
The story of I.A. Bunin is written in the best traditions of Russian classical literature, and therefore imbued with an ironic note literally from the first lines:
- “He was firmly convinced that he had every right to rest, to pleasure, to travel in every way excellent. For such confidence, he had the argument that, firstly, he was rich, and secondly, he had just embarked on life, despite his fifty-eight years ”;
- “The ocean that went beyond the walls was terrible, but they didn’t think about it, firmly believing in the power of the commander, a red-haired man of monstrous size and weight ...”;
- “... on the tank, the siren was constantly screaming with hellish gloominess and screeching with furious malice, but few of the diners heard the siren - it was drowned out by the sounds of a beautiful string orchestra, exquisitely and tirelessly playing in a two-light hall, festively flooded with lights, overflowing with low-cut ladies and men in tailcoats and tuxedos…”;
- "... a daughter, tall, thin, with magnificent hair, charmingly tucked away, with aromatic breath from violet cakes and with the most delicate pink pimples near her lips and between her shoulder blades, a little powdered ..."
- “Naples grew and approached; the musicians, shining with the brass of the wind instruments, had already crowded on the deck and suddenly deafened everyone with the triumphant sounds of the march, the giant commander, in dress uniform, appeared on his bridges and, like a gracious pagan god, waved his hand to the passengers in greeting. And when the Atlantis finally entered the harbor, rolled up to the embankment with its multi-storey bulk dotted with people, and the gangway rumbled - how many porters and their assistants in caps with gold galloons, how many all kinds of commission agents, whistling boys and hefty ragamuffins with packs of colored postcards in hands rushed to meet him with an offer of services!
Imperceptibly, irony is replaced by satire and reveals the inherent egoism of a person - directly and openly.
2. On what principle does the hero choose the route?
“A gentleman from San Francisco - no one remembered his name either in Naples or Capri - went to the Old World for two whole years, with his wife and daughter, solely for the sake of entertainment.
…The people to whom he belonged used to start enjoying life with a trip to Europe, to India, to Egypt. He set out to do the same."
Which of the pleasures ahead of the hero alarm the reader?
“The route was developed by a gentleman from San Francisco extensive.
In December and January, he hoped to enjoy the sun of southern Italy, the monuments of antiquity, the tarantella, the serenades of itinerant singers and what people at his age feel especially thin - love of young Neapolitan women , even if not entirely disinterested; - it is not the romance of the ancient country that attracts the hero, but ordinary sensual passions, and the desire for them is based not so much on one’s own desire, but on the position “it is customary”, on public opinion (“and here is public opinion, the spring of honor, our idol, and this is what the world revolves on! - A. Pushkin);
- « he thought of holding a carnival in Nice, in Monte Carlo, where at this time flocks the most select society , where some enthusiastically indulge in car and sailing races, others in roulette, still others in what is commonly called flirting, and fourth in shooting pigeons, which soar very beautifully from cages over an emerald lawn, against the backdrop of a sea of \u200b\u200bthe color of forget-me-nots, and immediately knock on white lumps on the ground; " - in principle, a rather aimless pastime, again for the sake of society, and not to himself (probably, the hero does not really realize his complete psychological dependence on the “spring of honor”, the desire to “break out into people” absorbed him as a person ...
Are there any inconsistencies?
- "he wanted to dedicate the beginning of March to Florence", - people usually come to this city to enjoy the magnificent architecture, sculpture, frescoes, paintings, learn more about Lorenzo the magnificent, at whose court the opera was born, Musical Theatre…
- “to come to Rome to the passions of the Lord, to listen to Miserere there; 1" - from the pleasures of a secular, worldly person, the hero "draws" to cult religious and Christian values;
- "Venice, and Paris, and a bullfight in Seville, and swimming in the English Isles, and Athens, and Constantinople, and Palestine, and Egypt, were included in his plans," - again a set of pleasures of a person who has not decided on his addictions, but goes to one place or another, because it is customary to see something there;
- "and even Japan - of course, already on the way back..." - here is already undisguised hyperbole, reinforcing the satirical tone of the story.
Or maybe some phrase could be rearranged? Then the logic of the story would change.
Perhaps, if not for the following sentence ("And everything went great at first" ) , the story would not have been invective, but comical.
3. Why don't the main characters of the story have names? Which one is the most individual?
The literature of critical realism, in the tradition of which I. Bunin writes, strove for typification, generalization, which is presented in this story.
However, perhaps unbelievably, Bunin's typical heroes have their own, hidden history, somewhere similar to people, like a temperament, age, somewhere more individual. Everything is manifested in the light strokes with which Bunin depicts his characters.
So, for example, a portrait of the gentleman from San Francisco ("Dry, short, awkwardly tailored, but firmly sewn, he sat ... " ) gives enough scope to imagine how exactly this person earned his fortune. And what about the fleeting phrase about the man in the bowler hat? The image of the protagonist is certainly typified, but at the same time, his story may not be so common.
The same can be said about other characters.
It is quite easy to “read” the story of the daughter of the protagonist, who guesses a lot:“And the daughter, in some kind of vague awkwardness, tried not to notice him.” (father who “He kept looking at the famous beauty standing next to him, a tall, amazingly built blonde with eyes painted in the latest Parisian fashion, holding a tiny, bent, mangy dog on a silver chain and talking to her all the time ...”) Many details make it possible to understand that the girl is sensual, attentive, yet naive, that, perhaps, her fate will be very difficult:“... her heart was suddenly squeezed by melancholy, a feeling of terrible loneliness on this strange, dark island ...” The attitude of the owner of the hotel towards the wife and daughter of the deceased master changes dramatically. Why? Does the hero's money evaporate with the death of a hero? But the daughter anticipates her future "terrible loneliness...
An elegant couple in love”, about which only one commander knew that she was hired ... What circumstances forced these people to constantly wander around the world, pretending that they were in love? Even peacefully inclined towards each other (the author does not say anything about the love of these heroes), the gentleman and lady from San Francisco began to quarrel, tired of swimming. And this couple?
And the "crown prince" is probably a typical gigolo? What an unusually vivid portrait accompanies this image:"a small man, all wood, broad-faced, narrow-eyed, wearing golden glasses, slightly unpleasant - in that large his mustache showed through like a dead man , in general, cute, simple and modest " !..
You can also build the image of the owner of the hotel (what makes him show cruelty towards the relatives of the deceased, why does he explain the importance of the reputation of his apartment in rude forms?) ...
Less individual, perhaps, is the image of the master's wife. Her image is most of all, in my opinion, typified, universal.
4. How is the ship depicted? What did he look like?
Of course, the image of the ship is an allegory. The ship is a world of people whose thoughts are occupied with entertainment - the same as on solid ground: “There were many passengers, the steamer - the famous "Atlantis" - looked like a huge hotel with all amenities , - with a night bar, with oriental baths, with its own newspaper ... every minute on the tank howled with hellish gloominess and screeched with furious anger, a siren, but few of the diners heard the siren - it was drowned out by the sounds of a beautiful string orchestra, exquisitely and tirelessly playing in the two-light hall , festively flooded with lights, crowded with low-cut ladies and men in tailcoats and tuxedos, slender footmen and respectful head waiters, among which one, the one who took orders only for wine, even walked with a chain around his neck, like a lord mayor.
Let's turn to the daily routine on the ship. How can you describe in three or four words what the passengers were doing?
The passengers of the ship passed their time (strongly rested):“... life on it was very measured: they got up early, ... put on flannel pajamas, drank coffee, chocolate, cocoa; then they sat in the baths, did gymnastics, stimulating the appetite and feeling good, made daily toilets and went to the first breakfast; up to eleven o'clock it was supposed to walk briskly on the decks, breathing the cold freshness of the ocean, or play sheflboard and other games to re-stimulate the appetite, and at eleven to refresh themselves with broth sandwiches; having refreshed themselves, they read the newspaper with pleasure and calmly waited for the second breakfast, even more nutritious and varied than the first; the next two hours were devoted to rest; all the decks were then filled with long reed chairs, on which the travelers lay, covered with rugs, looking at the cloudy sky and at the foamy hillocks flashing overboard, or dozing sweetly; at five o'clock they, refreshed and cheerful, were given strong fragrant tea with biscuits; at seven they announced with trumpet signals about what was the main goal of this entire existence, its crown ... "- dinner, similar to a soiree (or ball).
5. What episodes and details show that the main character is a purely material person, selfish, with a sleeping soul, somewhat immoral, just like the other passengers of Atlantis?
Bunin uses the antithesis, portraying the rich passengers of the ship, who by all means do not want to think about the terrible, boundless ocean, not to think and not notice people who provide passengers with not just comfort, but chic comfort.
“The dinner lasted more than an hour, and after dinner dances opened in the ballroom, during which men - including, of course, the gentleman from San Francisco - with their legs up, their faces crimson red, smoked Havana cigars and drank liquors in the bar , where Negroes served in red camisoles, with squirrels that looked like peeled hard-boiled eggs. The ocean roared behind the wall in black mountains, the blizzard whistled strongly in the heavy gear, the steamer trembled all over, overcoming both it and these mountains, - as if with a plow, tearing apart their unsteady, now and then boiling up and high foamy tails huge masses, the siren, choked with mist, groaned in mortal anguish, the watchmen on their tower froze from the cold and went crazy from the unbearable strain of attention, to the gloomy and sultry bowels of the underworld, its last, ninth circle was like the underwater womb of a steamboat, - the one where the gigantic fireboxes, devouring with their red-hot mouths of heaps of coal, with a roar thrown into them, drenched in acrid, dirty sweat and waist-deep naked people, crimson from the flames; and here, in the bar, they carelessly threw their legs on the arms of their chairs, sipped cognac and liqueurs, floated in waves of spicy smoke, everything in the dance hall shone and poured out light, warmth and joy, couples either spun in waltzes, then bent into tango - and the music insistently, in sweet, shameless sadness, she prayed all about one thing, all about the same ... "
6. Why are the 9 circles of hell mentioned? To which work does the author refer us? Can we talk about duplication?
The story does not just mention the 9 circles of hell ("her(underworld) the last, ninth circle was like the underwater womb of a steamer" ) - this comparison more clearly illustrates the monotonous (albeit filled with many sounds, colors, movements) world and strengthens the antithesis, opposing careless passengers (who "carelessly threw their legs on the arms of their chairs, sipped cognac and liqueurs, swam in waves of spicy smoke ..”) And " waist-deep naked people, purple from the flames" furnaces.
Like N. Gogol, who conceived a poem about Chichikov in 3 volumes, and then M. Bulgakov in the novel "The Master and Margarita", I. Bunin refers to the "Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri, where the lyrical hero, wanting to see the deceased beloved again, first descends into the underworld, having passed all 9 (as it is represented in Christian mythology) circles of hell.
Both Gogol and Bunin, and then Bulgakov, do not use duplication, but a kind of reference to a medieval text. Thus, the space of the story expands, becoming not a single episode, but a universal, typification. In addition, this comparison expresses the author's attitude.
7. In these pictures, only sounds social theme Or philosophical too? In what episodes does the social theme still sound in the story?
Of course, the description of the pastime of the passengers of the Atlantis (where the name of the ship is symbolic) and the people who provide this voyage are both social and philosophical pictures: everyone lives as it is destined for him, and also because of the choice that he himself commits ("in love" dancing couple).
When passengers go ashore, in Italy - a country of romance, antiquity, beauty - the same atmosphere reigns, however, as on board the Atlantis:“So it was everywhere, so it was in navigation, so it should have been in Naples.
Life in Naples immediately flowed according to routine : early in the morning - breakfast in a gloomy dining room, cloudy, little promising sky and crowd of guides at the lobby door ; then the first smiles of the warm pinkish sun, the view from the high-hanging balcony of Vesuvius, shrouded to the foot in radiant morning vapors, of the silver-pearl ripples of the bay and the delicate outline of Capri on the horizon, of those running below, along the embankment, tiny donkeys in gigs and on detachments of small soldiers walking somewhere with cheerful and defiant music; then - exit to the car and slow traffic along crowded narrow and damp corridors of streets , among the tall, many-windowed houses, a look at the deadly clean and evenly, pleasantly, but boringly, like snow, lit museums or cold, wax-scented churches in which everywhere the same thing: a majestic entrance, covered with a heavy leather curtain, and inside - a huge emptiness, silence , quiet lights of the menorah, reddening in the depths on the throne, adorned with lace, lonely old woman among dark wooden desks , slippery tombstones underfoot and someone's "Descent from the Cross", certainly famous; at one o'clock - second breakfast on Mount San Martino, where he arrives at noon many people of the first class and where one day the daughter of a gentleman from San Francisco almost became ill: it seemed to her that the prince was sitting in the hall, although she already knew from the newspapers that he was in Rome; at five, tea in the hotel, in a smart salon, where it is so warm from the carpets and blazing fireplaces; and there again preparations for dinner - again a powerful, imperious rumble of a gong on all floors, strings again rustling on the stairs with silks and reflected in the mirrors of low-cut ladies , again wide and hospitably open dining room , and red jackets of musicians on the stage, and a black crowd of lackeys near the head waiter , with extraordinary skill, pouring thick pink soup on plates ... "
8. Why are the ocean, waves, wind, siren described in such detail? What does he want to say about modern man Bunin? Does he approve?
Nature (ocean, waves, wind…) is not in harmony with the people who are on "Atlantis":“It was the end of November, until Gibraltar I had to sail either in the icy haze, or in the midst of a storm with sleet ... The ocean that walked behind the walls was terrible ... The ocean with a rumble walked behind the wall with black mountains, the blizzard whistled hard in heavy gear, the ship was shaking all over , overcoming both her and these mountains, - like a plow breaking their unsteady, now and then boiling up and high-lifting foamy tails to the sides, - a siren choked by fog wailed in mortal anguish ... ”, as if warning people to remember the main thing (maybe about God, about duty, their destiny ...) But the passengers did not hear the sirens, intoxicated with all kinds of entertainment; but watchmen, in order to stay alive, to save the ship, it is necessary to overcome the force of the elements (“froze from the cold and went crazy from the unbearable strain of attention watchmen on their tower ”), and then follows a comparison with the underworld ...
And in the behavior of passengers,
And in behavior "all those who fed and watered him (gentlemen from San Francisco), from morning to evening served him, preventing his slightest desire, guarded his cleanliness and peace, dragged his things, called porters for him, delivered his chests to hotels, as well as the belongings of other wealthy passengers.
And the last lines of the story confirm this."And again painfully writhed and sometimes convulsively faced among this crowd, among the brilliance of lights, silks, diamonds and naked female shoulders, a thin and flexible pair of hired lovers: sinfully modest girl with lowered eyelashes, with an innocent haircut, and a tall young man with black, as if glued on hair, pale from powder, in the most elegant patent leather shoes, in a narrow tailcoat with long tails - a handsome man who looks like a huge leech . And no one knew either that already got bored a long time ago this couple pretend to suffer with their blissful torment to shamelessly sad music, nor what stands deep, deep below them, at the bottom of the dark hold, next to the gloomy and sultry bowels of the ship, heavily overcome darkness, ocean, blizzard ... "
9. What descriptions and episodes of the story foreshadow the death of the protagonist? Does God or fate give him signs that he needs to prepare for the most important thing?
1. “On the day of departure - very memorable for a family from San Francisco! - even in the morning there was no sun . Heavy fog Vesuvius hid to its very foundation, low gray above the leaden swell of the sea. The island of Capri was not visible at all - as if it never really existed ».
2. " And a little boat... so rolled from side to side, that the family from San Francisco was lying on the sofas in the miserable mess of this steamer, wrapping their legs in blankets and closing their eyes from nausea ... Mister, lying on his back, in a wide coat and a large cap, did not open his jaws all the way ; his face became dark, his mustache white, his head ached severely: the last days, thanks to bad weather, he drank too much in the evenings and admired the “living pictures” too much in some brothels.
3. At the stops, at Castellammare, at Sorrento, it was a little easier; but even here it waved terribly, the coast with all its cliffs, gardens, pines, pink and white hotels, and smoky, curly-green mountains flew up and down outside the window, as on a swing ... And a gentleman from San Francisco, feeling as he should - a very old man - I was already thinking with longing and anger about all these greedy, garlic-stinking little people called Italians ... "
4. “Politely and elegantly bowed master, remarkably elegant young man, met them, for a moment struck the master from San Francisco: he suddenly remembered that this night, among other confusion that besieged him in a dream, he saw this particular gentleman , exactly the same as this one, in the same business card and with the same mirror-combed head. Surprised, he almost stopped. But since not even the mustard seed of any so-called mystical feelings remained in his soul for a long time, his surprise immediately faded: he jokingly told his wife and daughter about this strange coincidence of dream and reality, walking along the corridor of the hotel. His daughter, however, looked at him with alarm at that moment: her heart was suddenly gripped by melancholy , a feeling of terrible loneliness on this alien, dark island ... "
5. " And after a pause, after thinking something, but without saying anything, the gentleman from San Francisco dismissed him with a nod of his head.
And then he again began to prepare for the wedding : he turned on electricity everywhere, filled all the mirrors with a reflection of light and brilliance, furniture and open chests, began to shave, wash and call every minute, while along the entire corridor rushed and interrupted his other impatient calls - from the rooms of his wife and daughter ... The floor was still rocking under him, his fingertips were very painful, the cufflink sometimes bit hard flabby skin in the recess under the Adam's apple, but he was persistent and finally, with eyes shining with tension, all gray from the overly tight collar that squeezed his throat , did finish the job - and in exhaustion sat down in front of the dressing table, all reflected in it and repeated in other mirrors.
- not trying to understand, not thinking what exactly is terrible ».
Of course, fate warns the hero:
Heavy fog hides the island, as if it does not exist (so the hero will go into oblivion),
On the steamboat, the gentleman was very sick, he feels old, weak (this is an occasion to think about life and death once again!),
The heart of the master's daughter, probably a sensual and emotional girl, was suddenly compressed by melancholy when her father told her and his wife that he had seen the owner of the hotel in which they stayed in a dream the day before (an extremely unpleasant sign!),
When the gentleman dresses for dinner, the objects surrounding him (floor, cufflink, collar) do not seem to obey the person ...
And what does it mean to prepare for death?
« What did the gentleman from San Francisco feel and think on this so significant evening for him ?
He, like anyone who has experienced pitching, only really wanted to eat, dreamed with pleasure of the first spoonful of soup, the first sip of wine and did the usual business of the toilet, even in some excitement, leaving no time for feelings and reflections .
Having shaved, washed, properly inserted a few teeth, standing in front of the mirrors, he moistened and cleaned with brushes in a silver frame the remnants of pearl hair around a swarthy-yellow skull, pulled on a strong senile body with a waist plump from increased nutrition, and on dry legs with flat feet - black silk socks and ballroom shoes, crouching, he put in order the black trousers and the snow-white shirt with a protruding chest, which were highly pulled up with silk straps, set the cufflinks in the shiny cuffs and began to suffer with catching under the hard collar of the cufflinks of the neck.
But then loudly, as if in a pagan temple, the second gong hummed throughout the house ... "
Starting “on the contrary”, it can be noted that the author thinks about the approach of death: it is necessary to devote some time “for feelings and reflections” and, of course, not to worry about food and costume at this moment.
10. Does he catch the signs of fate, does he think about death, about God? At least a second of insight was?
Unfortunately, the gentleman from San Francisco does not see the signs of fate, does not notice, and frankly ignores them. Seeing the owner of the hotel in which the hero was destined to die, "surprised, he almost stopped. But as in his soul for a long time not even the mustard seed of any so-called mystical feelings remained, his surprise immediately faded: he jokingly said about this strange coincidence of dream and reality to his wife and daughter, walking along the corridor of the hotel " .
Perhaps a spark of insight ran through the mind of the hero when, dressed for dinner, he looked at himself in the mirror: “... The floor was still swaying under him, his fingertips were very painful, the cufflink sometimes bit hard on the flabby skin in the recess under the Adam's apple, but he was persistent and finally, with eyes shining from tension, all gray from the excessively tight collar that squeezed his throat, he finished the job - and in exhaustion sat down in front of the dressing table, all reflected in it and repeated in other mirrors.
- Oh, it's terrible! he muttered, lowering his strong bald head and not trying to understand, not thinking what it was that was terrible…”
11. How did he spend the last, as it turned out, 2 hours before his death? Did you sin, as usual, or become thoughtful, sad? Does the attitude of the reader change? At what point?
The last, as it turned out, 2 hours before his death, the gentleman from San Francisco spent the same way as many other hours on this trip - dressing up for dinner. Of course, he did not commit mortal sins while dressing in front of a mirror, nor did he feel sad, although more than once he suddenly felt old and tired, but he tried to drive away these thoughts and feelings as unnecessary, false. But in vain.
As I said, the story begins with lines riddled with irony, sometimes sarcasm. But Russian writers are unique in that they are unusually humane. Just as Bazarov “deceived” Turgenev’s plan, so Bunin, denouncing an indifferent “well-fed” person, does not dare to mock Death and denounces the callousness and indifference of those who do not console the widow and daughter, but as if on purpose make everything more painful for them, in the worst conditions sending the body of the gentleman from San Francisco home to America ...
Death is always unsightly and terrible. Describing the last hours and minutes of his hero's life, Bunin presents us no longer a master, but simply a man.
12. How does the last 2 minutes of his life characterize him?
“... hastily getting up from his seat, the gentleman from San Francisco pulled his collar even more with a tie, and his stomach with an open waistcoat, put on a tuxedo, straightened his cuffs, looked at himself again in the mirror ... cheerfully leaving his room and walking across the carpet to the next one, wife, loudly asked if they were soon?
- In five minutes! - a girl's voice answered loudly and already cheerfully from behind the door.
- Great, said the gentleman from San Francisco.
And he slowly walked down the corridors and stairs, covered with red carpets, down, looking for a reading room.
- Oncoming servants huddled against him against the wall, and he walked, as if not noticing them.
- An old woman late for dinner, already stooped, with milky hair, but low-cut, in a light gray silk dress, hurried ahead of him with all her might, but funny, like a chicken, and he easily overtook her.
- Near the glass doors of the dining room, where everyone was already assembled and began to eat, he stopped in front of a table cluttered with boxes of cigars and Egyptian cigarettes, took a large manilla and threw three lira on the table;
- on the winter veranda he casually glanced out the open window: from the darkness a gentle air blew on him, he imagined the top of an old palm tree, spreading its fronds across the stars, which seemed gigantic, the distant steady sound of the sea came ... "
As soon as we get to know the hero, we learn that he recovers on his journey, being“I am firmly convinced that he has every right to rest, to enjoy, to travel in all respects excellent.
For such confidence, he had the argument that, firstly, he was rich, and secondly, he had just embarked on life, despite his fifty-eight years. Until that time, he had not lived, but only existed, though not badly, but still pinning all his hopes on the future. He worked tirelessly - the Chinese, whom he ordered to work for him by the thousands, knew well what this meant! - and finally he saw that a lot had already been done, that he had almost caught up with those whom he had once taken as a model, and decided to take a break ».
These lines present us with a person who has achieved wealth with great difficulty (which, in principle, cannot but cause at least some respect for him). Probably, the road up was (as is usually the case) not easy, I often had to hide my true feelings, and even more so the pain. The hero quite "cheerfully" went into the fatal room for him, behaving (or pretending?) at ease: I think that this is a strong character, quite stubborn, stubborn. You can hardly call him stupid, but an entangled "idol" (as Pushkin calls public opinion) - certainly.
13. Prove that social and philosophical themes are intertwined in the scene of the master's death. Death loved one shows the true relationship in the family. What can you say about it?
“Wife, daughter, doctor, servants stood and looked at him. Suddenly, what they expected and feared happened - the wheezing stopped. And slowly, slowly, in front of everyone, pallor flowed down the face of the deceased, and his features began to thin, brighten ... "- Moreover, in the previous sentence, Bunin wrote that“It was no longer the gentleman from San Francisco, he was no longer there, but someone else.” So from the ironic image the author moves to the philosophical, vital, wise experience of the years lived, personal losses ...
“The owner came in. "Gia e morto" the doctor whispered to him. host with impassive face shrugged. Mrs., with tears quietly rolling down her cheeks, went up to him and timidly said that now it is necessary to transfer the deceased to his room.
- Oh no, madam - hastily, correctly, but already without any courtesy and not in English, but in French objected the owner, who was not at all interested in those trifles that those who came from San Francisco could now leave in his cashier. “It is absolutely impossible, madam,” he said, and added in explanation that he greatly appreciated these apartments, that if he granted her desire, then all of Capri would know about it and tourists would begin to avoid them.
Miss , who had been looking at him strangely all the time, sat down on a chair and, covering her mouth with a handkerchief, she sobbed . Mrs.'s tears immediately dried up, her face flushed . She raised her tone, began to demand, speaking in her own language and still not believing that respect for them was finally lost.
The highlighted expressions illustrate those social aspects when sincere human feelings are manifested:
Callousness, greed, fear for the reputation of the institution - on the part of the owner,
Pain, compassion, experience - from relatives, as well as the strength of the character of Mrs., offended by the fact, "that respect for them (to her living a few years ago! to her husband, to herself, to her daughter)completely lost."
14. In condemning the world of the rich, does the author idealize the world of the poor? Prove it.
Condemning the world of the rich, Bunin does not idealize the world of the poor.
Perhaps the writer relies on the opinion of Pushkin, who, reflecting on the correct, accurate words to "Anchar", left the lines in the final version: "But human person sent to the Anchar by the powerful look, And he obediently flowed on the way and returned in the morning with poison. He brought mortal resin and a branch with withered leaves, and sweat rolled down his pale brow in cold streams. brought , and weakened, and lay down under the arch of the hut on the bast, and died poor slave at the feet of the invincible lords …»
So and " simple people” Bunin’s works are not endowed with those qualities that make us admire them and be proud of them.
- «… when the Atlantis finally entered the harbor, rolled up to the embankment with its multi-storey bulk, dotted with people, and the gangway rumbled, - how many porters and their assistants in caps with gold galloons, how many all kinds of commission agents, whistling boys and hefty ragamuffins with bundles of colored postcards in hand rushed to meet him with an offer of services! »
- “The dead man remained in the dark, blue stars looked at him from the sky, a cricket sang with sad carelessness on the wall ... In the dimly lit corridor, two maids were sitting on the windowsill, mending something. Luigi entered with a bunch of dresses on his arm, in shoes.
- Pronto? (Ready?) - he asked anxiously in a ringing whisper, pointing with his eyes at the terrible door at the end of the corridor. He waved his free hand lightly in that direction. - Partenza! - he shouted in a whisper, as if seeing off the train, what is usually shouted in Italy at the stations when trains depart, - and maids, choking on silent laughter dropped their heads on each other's shoulders. .
Although, of course, not all people are like that. Bunin presents us and them, living carefree, at ease, with reverence for God and his Mother.
But the writer idealizes not the world of people, but the image of the Mother of God - inanimate, molded by human hands and illuminated by the Creator: “...all illuminated by the sun, all in its warmth and brilliance, she stood in snow-white plaster clothes and in a royal crown, golden-rusty from bad weather ... "
15. Are there any characters in the story who, from the author's point of view, live righteously, correctly, or at least naturally (in some ways they relate more correctly to life and death, sin and God)?
Yes, and such images - sincere and natural - are presented by Bunin in his short story.
« Only the market on a small square traded in fish and herbs, and there were only ordinary people among whom, as always, without any business, stood Lorenzo, a tall old boatman, a carefree reveler and a handsome man , famous throughout Italy, who more than once served as a model for many painters: he brought and already sold for a pittance two lobsters he caught at night, rustling in the apron of the cook of the very hotel where the family from San Francisco spent the night, and now he could calmly stand even until the evening , glancing around with regal habit, showing off with his rags, a clay pipe and a red woolen beret lowered over one ear.
And along the cliffs of Monte Solaro, along the ancient Phoenician road carved into the rocks, along its stone steps, descended from Anacapri two Abruzzi highlanders . One, under a leather cloak, had a bagpipe - a large goat fur with two pipes, the other - something like a wooden tong. They went and whole country, joyful, beautiful, sunny, stretched under them: and the rocky humps of the island, which lay almost entirely at their feet, and that fabulous blue in which he swam, and the shining morning vapors over the sea to the east, under the dazzling sun, which is already hot warm, rising higher and higher, and misty-azure, still in the morning unsteady massifs of Italy, its near and distant mountains, the beauty of which is powerless to express a human word.
Halfway they slowed down: over the road, in the grotto of the rocky wall of Monte Solaro, all illuminated by the sun, all in its warmth and brilliance, stood in snow-white plaster clothes and in a royal crown, golden-rusty from bad weather, mother of God, meek and merciful, with eyes raised to heaven, to the eternal and blessed abodes of her thrice-blessed son . They bared their heads - and naive and humbly joyful praises poured out to their sun, morning, to her, the immaculate intercessor of all those who suffer in this evil and beautiful world, and who was born from her womb in the cave of Bethlehem, in a poor shepherd's shelter, in the distant land of Judah ... "
16. Why do you think the ship is called "Atlantis" and why the gentleman from San Francisco was there again?
The ship is called "Atlantis" not by chance:
Firstly, written in 1915, a huge ship, of course, its name echoes the tragically famous Titanic;
And secondly, ancient Atlantis is a legendary island where an ancient civilization reached incredible heights of technical and terrible human sins, for which it was punished by the gods and wiped off the face of the earth.
Everything in life makes its circle and returns to its origins - so the master (more precisely, what was before him) returns to his homeland. This is first. And secondly, what is the contrast without a description of a living millionaire who went with incredible comfort to Europe, and a description of a miserable coffin with his body on the way back?!
Does the ship only look like a hotel?
Basically, the answer to this question already given: the ship is an allegory secular society, satiated with pleasures, all sorts of options for a prosperous - FAT - life, where people do not think about what surrounds them, and are even afraid to think about it. "The ocean that went beyond the walls was terrible, but they did not think about it, firmly believing in the power of the commander over it, ... few of the diners heard the siren - it was drowned out by the sounds of a beautiful string orchestra, exquisitely and tirelessly playing in the two-light hall ... "
As mentioned above, the ironic intonation of the story is replaced by a deep philosophical understanding.
The bright, dazzling atmosphere of the dining room on the ship is represented by cheerful, joyful faces: “...in the dance hall
everything shone and poured out light, warmth and joy,
the couples now whirled in waltzes, then bent in tango - and the music insistently, in sweetly shameless sadness, begged all for one thing, all for the same ...
Was among this brilliant crowd some great rich man, shaved, long, in an old-fashioned tailcoat,
was famous spanish writer,
was universal beauty ,
there was an elegant couple in love, whom everyone watched with curiosity and who did not hide their happiness: he danced only with her, and everything came out of them so subtly, charmingly ... " A series of vivid enumerations ends with a description of a couple in love. And the following remark is more dissonant with this false joy: “...only one commander knew that this couple was hired by Lloyd to play love for good money and had been sailing on one ship or another for a long time.
When the tone of the story changes from ironic to philosophical, when the body of the gentleman from San Francisco returns in a completely different way on this brilliant ship, the author’s bitter remark reinforces the main idea of the work: “And no one knew either what this couple had long been bored with pretending to suffer their blissful torment to shamelessly sad music, nor what stands deep, deep under them, at the bottom of the dark hold, in the vicinity of the gloomy and sultry bowels of the ship, hard overcome darkness, ocean, blizzard... »
What can you say about Bunin's concept of love?
Bunin's concept of love is tragic. Moments of love, according to Bunin, become the pinnacle of a person's life.
Only by falling in love can a person truly feel another person, only a feeling justifies high demands on himself and his neighbor, only a lover is able to overcome his egoism. The state of love is not fruitless for Bunin's heroes, it elevates souls.
In the story “The Gentleman from San Francisco”, the theme of love is not the leading one, but some points can be noted in dotted lines:
Does the protagonist's wife love her husband?
What is further fate hero's daughter?
What kind of love does the writer praise?
Considering the image of the wife of a Mr. from San Francisco, at first you perceive this woman in the same way as the other images sarcastically presented in the story: she does not go to Europe of her own desire, personal aspiration, hobby, but because “it is customary in society”, “so the daughter will find a worthy match”, perhaps also because “the husband said so”. But death takes the master, takes the man - and the image of this heroine becomes "warmer", more humane: we feel sorry for the woman who has lost a loved one (how often men climb to the top of the hierarchical ladder, leaning on the shoulders of a faithful wife!), who is unexpectedly insulted, humiliated her husband's ashes...Mrs.'s tears immediately dried up, her face flushed. She raised her voice, began to demand, speaking her own language and still not believing that respect for them was completely lost. The owner, with polite dignity, rebuked her: if Madame does not like the order of the hotel, he does not dare to detain her; and firmly stated that the body should be taken out this very day at dawn, that the police had already been given to know that their representative would immediately appear and carry out the necessary formalities ... Can even a simple ready-made coffin be obtained in Capri, Madame asks? Unfortunately, no, in no case, and no one will have time to do it. We'll have to do something else... Soda English water, for example, he gets in large and long boxes... the partitions from such a box can be removed..."
I have already spoken about the daughter of the hero: it seems to me that she could have had a very difficult fate (for example, if the girl had connected her life with the “crown prince”), perhaps the girl will have many trials now. The lines of L.N. Tolstoy, with which his novel “Anna Karenina” begins, became an aphorism: “All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
But in the story there is still the sound of love: for the beautiful past - magnificent Italy, for the incomprehensible and majestic Nature, for God and the Virgin Mary.
“After ten minutes, the family from San Francisco got into a large barge, after fifteen they stepped on the stones of the embankment, and then got into a bright trailer and buzzed up the slope, among the stakes in the vineyards, dilapidated stone fences and wet, clumsy, covered in some places straw canopies of orange trees, with a brilliance of orange fruits and thick glossy foliage, gliding downhill, past the open windows of the trailer ... The land in Italy smells sweet after rain, and each of its islands has its own special smell!
- “And at dawn, when it turned white outside the window of number forty-three and the damp wind rustled the torn banana leaves, when the blue morning sky rose and stretched over the island of Capri and turned golden against the sun rising behind the distant blue mountains of Italy, the clean and clear peak of Monte Solaro ... But the morning was fresh, in such air, in the middle of the sea, under the morning sky, the hop soon disappears and carelessness soon returns to the person ... The steamboat, lying far below like a beetle, on the gentle and bright blue, which the Gulf of Naples is so densely and full of, already gave the last beeps - and they cheerfully responded throughout the island, each bend of which, each ridge, each stone was so clearly visible from everywhere, as if there was no air at all.
- “They walked - and a whole country, joyful, beautiful, sunny, stretched under them: and the rocky humps of the island, which almost all lay at their feet, and that fabulous blue in which he swam, and the shining morning vapors over the sea to the east, under the dazzling sun, which was already warming hot, rising higher and higher, and the misty azure, unsteady massifs of Italy, its near and distant mountains, the beauty of which is powerless to express the human word. Halfway they slowed down: over the road, in the grotto of the rocky wall of Monte Solaro, all illuminated by the sun, all in its warmth and brilliance, stood in snow-white plaster robes and in a royal crown, golden-rusty from bad weather, the Mother of God, meek and merciful , with eyes raised to heaven, to the eternal and blessed abodes of her thrice-blessed son. They bared their heads - and naive and humbly joyful praises poured out to their sun, morning, to her, the immaculate intercessor of all those who suffer in this evil and beautiful world, and who was born from her womb in the cave of Bethlehem, in a poor shepherd's shelter, in the distant land of Judah .. ."
17. Why is the raging ocean again depicted in detail? Why is the devil watching the ship from the rocks? Why does the ship seem to be winking at him?
Bunin's story is designed for a thoughtful, attentive reader who knows how to compare the images presented by the writer with the main questions of mankind: why do we live, what do we do wrong, since troubles and misfortunes do not lag behind a person (what to do? Who is to blame? Does God exist?) Ocean - this is the personification of existence, the element of life, sometimes merciless and evil, sometimes incredibly beautiful and full of freedom ...
In this story, the ocean is raging: nature does not accept the crazy fun of the passengers of the Atlantis, which is opposed to Nature.“And again, again the ship went on its distant sea route. At night he sailed past the island of Capri, and his lights, slowly hiding in the dark sea, were sad for him who looked at them from the island. But there, on the ship, in the bright halls shining with chandeliers, there was, as usual, a crowded ball that night. Therefore, it is logical that the devil is watching the ship from the rocks, counting how many souls will soon go to hell...
The expression "people's ball" is perceived in a negative sense, in some way, perhaps, associative with a satanic ball. And then Bunin draws a parallel between the image of the Devil and the ship: “The Devil was as huge as a cliff, but so was the ship, many-tiered, many-trumpeted, created by the pride of a New Man with an old heart.” And so they, created by pride, wink at each other.
18. Remember when the story was written? What were the moods in the society?
The story was written in 1915, following the tragic years of 1912 and 1914.
The wreck of the Titanic - maritime disaster that occurred on the night of 14 to 15 Aprilwhen the Filipino crashed
To understand the causes of the First World War, one must remember the balance of power in Europe, where the three major world powers - the Russian Empire, Great Britain and England - are XIX century already divided spheres of influence among themselves.
Having strengthened economically and militarily at the end of the 19th century, Germany began to urgently need a new living space for a growing population and markets for its goods. Colonies were needed, which Germany did not have. To achieve this, it was necessary to start a new redistribution of the world by defeating the allied bloc of three powers - England, Russia and France. In response to the German threat, the Entente alliance was created, consisting of Russia, France and England that joined them.
In addition to the desire of Germany to win back its living space and colonies, there were other reasons for the First World War. This question is so complex that there is still no single point of view on this matter.
Another reason for the war is the choice of the path of development of society. Could the war have been avoided? - this question was asked by everyone, probably, in these difficult years.
All sources unanimously say that it is possible if the leadership of the countries participating in the conflict would really want it. Germany was most interested in the war, for which she was fully prepared, and made every effort to start it.
And every thoughtful writer sought to explain the causes of the war not only by political and economic reasons, but by moral and spiritual ones.
In principle, the word "criticism" does not have a negative meaning (it is a literal translation of the word "judgment"), but the definition of literature (both Russian and world) is 2nd half of XIX century - this is the literature of critical - accusatory - realism. And Bunin in the story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" continues the tradition of exposing the moral character of a person, vividly represented in the works of critical realism.
Also along with the word "Armageddon " is used in the senseor catastrophes on a planetary scale.
In this work, no doubt, the word is used in the latter sense. All the more, this strengthens the comparison of the ship with the Devil, the comparison of the boilers of the steamer with fiery hell, and the actions of the passengers with satanic reckless revelry.
"- Blizzard fought in his (ship) rigging and wide-mouthed pipes, white with snow, but he was steadfast, firm, majestic and terrible .
- On the uppermost roof of it, those cozy, dimly lit chambers rose lonely among the snowy whirlwinds, where, immersed in a sensitive and anxious drowsiness, he sat above the whole ship overweight driver (commander of the ship, a red-haired man of monstrous size and weight),like a pagan idol. He heard heavy howls and furious squeals of a siren choked by a storm, but reassured himself with the proximity of that, ultimately for him the most incomprehensible, what was behind his wall: that armored cabin, which was constantly filled with a mysterious rumble, trembling and dry crackling. blue lights flashing and bursting around a pale-faced telegraph operator with a metal half-hoop on his head. - At the bottom, in the underwater womb of Atlantis, dimly shone with steel, the thousand-pound bulks of boilers sizzled with steam and oozed boiling water and oil and all sorts of other machines, that kitchen, heated from the bottom by infernal furnaces, in which the movement of the ship was cooked, - forces terrible in their concentration bubbled, transmitted to its very keel, to an infinitely long dungeon, to a round tunnel, weakly illuminated by electricity, Where slowly, with overwhelming human soul rigorously, the gigantic shaft revolved in its oily bed, like a living monster, stretching in this tunnel, like a vent.
- And the middle of "Atlantis", dining and ballrooms she poured out light and joy, buzzed with the talk of the smart crowd , fragrant with fresh flowers, sang with a string orchestra.
This ship-underworld parallel opens the narrative and completes it, as if placing the image of a person in the circle of this lexical paradigm.
20. Formulate the main idea of the story. How does this idea resonate with the epigraph to the story, which was later filmed by the author?
The original title of the story was "Death on Capri". As an epigraph, the author took the lines from the Apocalypse: “Woe to you, Babylon, strong city!” The meaning of the statement is revealed if we recall the sad fate of Babylon, which turned out to be far from being as strong as it seemed. So, nothing lasts forever on earth. Especially a person whose life is a moment compared to eternity.
In the process of working on the work, the author abandoned the title, which contained the word "death". Despite this, the feeling of catastrophe, indicated in the first version of the title and epigraph, permeates the entire content of The Gentleman from San Francisco. I. A. Bunin, with the help of symbolic images, speaks of the inevitability of the death of the kingdom of gain and lust.
Only in the very last edition, shortly before his death, Bunin removed a significant epigraph. He removed it, perhaps because these words, taken from the Apocalysis, seemed to him too frankly expressing his attitude to what was described. But he left the name of the steamer on which the American rich man sails with his wife and daughter to Europe - "Atlantis", as if wanting to once again remind readers of the doom of existence, the main content of which was the passion for pleasure.
The protagonist of Bunin's story lived his life in anticipation of rest and enjoyment, until a certain time he worked, but did not live, but existed. All his intentions to live were postponed to the future. Expensive outfits, treats, spectacles - everything that is supposed to be for people with a high income accompanies the master, but does not bring him any impressions or pleasure. The main characters of "The Gentleman from San Francisco" endure all the joys of a rich life calmly and indifferently, this is the same necessity as following fashion for the sake of convenience.
Characteristics of the characters "Mr. from San Francisco"
Main characters
gentleman from san francisco |
A short, bald, thin, strong, not distinguished by a good figure man. His face had a yellowish tinge that gave it a Mongolian look. The author mentions large teeth with gold fillings in the description of the hero several times in the work. The name of the protagonist is not mentioned anywhere, the author explains this by the fact that in none of the countries, "he was not remembered." At the age of 58, the main character decided to reward himself for his work by going on a trip with his family. He takes luxury for granted. It is impossible to surprise the master with anything, he is fed up with everything in life. |
master's wife |
A large, broad woman with a calm character. Dress according to age. The author speaks of her as a person who cannot be called impressionable. The only time she shows her emotions is after the death of her husband, when the owner of the hotel refuses her request to place the deceased in their luxurious apartments. Her image is faceless, there is no character, no soul in it. None negative traits it doesn't. |
Master's daughter |
A tall, slender girl with beautiful hair. Expensive outfits, elegant hairstyles, slight soreness - this is all that is known about the master's daughter. She, like her mother, is voiceless and faceless. |
Minor characters
Prince of one Asian state |
In the list of passengers of "Atlantis", on which the family of the protagonist travels, there is a certain Asian prince. Small, broad-faced, with narrow eyes, swarthy, like a boy. He is ugly, strange, wears simple European clothes. For the master's daughter, he is the embodiment of a dream, apparently because he is infinitely rich. |
The hotel owner |
This character is characterized by his act. When a gentleman from San Francisco becomes ill, instead of helping, the hotel owner rushes to the fleeing visitors, calming the audience, as if justifying himself for the indecent behavior of the dying man. The owner of the hotel coldly refuses the widow's request to move the deceased to his expensive room, so as not to spoil the reputation of the hotel. Offers a coffin-like wooden soda box to transport the corpse. |
Graceful couple in love |
Two young people hired for money: beautiful woman and a man. They dance, kiss, portray love and passion, creating a peculiar flavor on the ship. The couple "works" causing admiration and envy of others. |
In the story, Bunin touches on the theme of the meaning of human life, the price of money and human happiness. A sharp contrast is created by the description of the journey before and after the death of the protagonist. At the end of The Gentleman from San Francisco, the characters mourn more about a ruined journey, about a lost status, than about the death of a loved one. An analysis of the pictures of nature and the life of those who continue on their way, despite the death of a person, suggests the indifference of everything around him to his tragedy. The truth is cruel: for a man hanging in the hold in a wooden box for a week, money and position do not play any role.
Thematically, the prose of I. A. Bunin is quite extensive. In his stories, he raises the theme of love and death, the theme of Russia and the bourgeois world. All of them are closely intertwined. Russia is associated in the writer's work with love and passion, and the bourgeois world is inseparable from the motive of death. An example of the last property of Bunin's prose is the story "The Gentleman from San Francisco", in which the protagonist enjoys the benefits of a large fortune, and then suddenly dies.
The story is full of symbols, from the gentleman in San Francisco to the ship and the ocean.
The bulk of the ship with the symbolic name "Atlantis", on which the family of an unnamed millionaire from San Francisco travels, is modern Babylon, the death of which is inevitable. The bustle of the saloons is but an imitation of life, a ghostly game of life as deceitful as the game of love of a young couple hired by the shipping company to entertain bored passengers. But this game is insignificant and worthless in the face of death - "return to eternity." This is the central idea of this story.
The hero is called simply "master" because that is his essence. At least he considers himself a master and revels in his position. The author reveals the meaninglessness of his philosophy of life, according to which the hero decides to "start life" at fifty-eight. And before that, the gentleman was only busy enriching himself: “He worked tirelessly ... and finally saw that a lot had already been done, that he was almost equal to those whom he had once taken as a model.” The hero can afford to go “to the Old World for two whole years only for the sake of entertainment”, he can enjoy all the benefits guaranteed by his status. This is the background of the gentleman from San Francisco. It is no coincidence that the author does not report other facts of his biography. This emphasizes the idea that there was nothing else in the life of the hero, only a dull craving for wealth.
What is his portrait? “Dry, short, awkwardly tailored, but tightly sewn, he sat in the golden radiance of this hall.” Again, a symbolic description. The author deliberately speaks of a living person as a costume. This reification of the protagonist indicates not only his reliability, but also his inner emptiness. It's not a person, but a shell. It is no coincidence, therefore, that the author's remark that "up to this time he did not live, but only existed." And it seems that he never learned to live.
Even here, in this lazy environment, in the middle of the ocean, the gentleman decides to turn one more business: to marry his only daughter: “Here sometimes you sit at the table and look at the frescoes next to the billionaire.”
The author also gives one more characteristic of the appearance of the gentleman from San Francisco: “There was something Mongolian in his yellowish face with a trimmed silver mustache, his large teeth shone with gold fillings, his strong bald head was old ivory. And again, this is not a person, but a statue, but very expensive. It is no coincidence that Bunin uses such an interesting color scheme: gold, silver, ivory. These are noble materials, but, as it turns out, there is nothing noble in the hero, only appearance. On an ocean liner, he is generous to those who feed and water him. But when fate brings his family to a small steamboat and seasickness torments mercilessly, mister: "... already with anguish and anger I thought about all these greedy, stinking garlic people." Now he feels like an old man, "as befitted him."
His time, and that of all vacationers, is occupied only with food, liquors, dancing and cigar smoke. They are like puppets who only think they are acting on their own. Here is how Bunin, the great master of the word, describes it in one sentence: “At the fifth hour, refreshed and cheerful, they were given strong fragrant tea with cookies.”
Only once the hero thinks about what is happening and understands that "this is terrible": "Oh, this is terrible!" he muttered, lowering his strong bald head and not trying to understand what exactly is terrible. But the insight did not last long. After a few minutes, he will already say: "Great." The author specifically uses this paradoxical opposition of words.
And now, when, it would seem, the master's dreams of an idle, carefree life began to come true, he is overtaken by an accidental, absurd death. It comes as a retribution for self-interest, a passion for momentary pleasures, an inability to comprehend the pettiness of one's aspirations in the face of non-existence.
How unlike the sudden death of the gentleman in the midst of a beautiful evening is the death of a peasant from the story "The Village", which he perceives as a well-deserved liberation from earthly burdens and anxieties, as eternal rest. The master struggles with death, which has suddenly fallen on him, but loses.
The hero had no concept of spirituality, the goal of his life was wealth. He achieved it, but did not have time to reap the fruits of his labors. The human begins to manifest itself in him only at death: "His features began to become thinner, brighter."
Summing up a person's life, death emphasizes the insignificance and ephemeral nature of material aspirations, the transience of life and therefore its inexpressible charm.
Composition
The plot of the story by I. A. Bunin "Mr. from San Francisco" is based on the fate of the protagonist - " gentleman from San Francisco". He goes on a journey to the Old World and dies unexpectedly on Capri. The writer deprives the San Francisco gentleman of his name, emphasizing that he is one of many whose life is wasted (his wife and daughter are also not named). Bunin emphasizes that none of the people surrounding the hero (neither wealthy tourists, nor servants) became interested in this person at least enough to find out his name and history. To everyone, he's just "the gentleman from San Francisco." The word "lord" is used as the only name of the hero and evokes associations with the words "lord", "ruler", "master". “He was firmly convinced that he had every right to rest, to pleasure ... He was quite generous on the way and therefore fully believed in the caring of all those who fed and watered him, served him from morning to evening, preventing his slightest desire, guarded his purity and peace…” Actually, the story of his rise is simple: at first he was chasing profit, ruthlessly forcing others to work for him, and then unrestrainedly enjoying himself, amusing his own flesh, not thinking about the soul. The fate of the hero does not contain any individual traits and is evaluated as "existence", opposed to "living life". The appearance of the "gentleman from San Francisco" is reduced to a few bright details that emphasize the most material, material, valuable in him: "... his large teeth shone with gold fillings, his bald head was old ivory." The writer is not only interested in appearance hero, but also his inner essence, and the impression he makes on others. Already in portrait characteristic the hero has a negative author's assessment. A bald head, a gray mustache is completely incompatible with Bunin's sarcastic definition of "cleared to a gloss." The story does not have an expanded speech characteristics hero, his inner life is not shown. The word “soul” appears only once in the descriptions, but it is used rather to deny the complexity of the hero’s spiritual life: “... in his soul for a long time even the mustard seed of any so-called mystical feelings did not remain ...” The hero of the story is equally far from the world of nature and the world of art. His assessments are either emphatically utilitarian or self-centered (the opinions and feelings of other people do not interest him). It acts and reacts like an automaton. The soul of the gentleman from San Francisco is dead, and existence seems to be the fulfillment of a certain role. Bunin portrays the "new man" of modern civilization, deprived of inner freedom.
The hero of the story perceives as property not only material, but also spiritual values. But the illusory nature of power and wealth is revealed in the face of death, which in the story metaphorically comes close to brute force, "unexpectedly ... falling on" a person. Only a spiritual person can overcome death. But the gentleman from San Francisco was not, so his death is depicted in the story only as the death of the body. Signs of a lost soul appear already after death, as a faint hint: “And slowly, slowly, before everyone’s eyes, pallor flowed down the face of the deceased, and his features began to thin, brighten ...” Death erased the harshness from his face and for a moment revealed his true appearance - the way he could have been if he had lived his life differently. It turns out that the hero's life was a state of his spiritual death, and only physical death carries the possibility of awakening the lost soul. The description of the deceased takes on a symbolic character: “The dead man remained in the dark, blue stars looked at him from the sky, a cricket sang on the wall with sad carelessness ...” The image of the “fires of heaven” is a symbol of the soul and the search for the spirit.
The next part of the story is the journey of the gentleman's body from San Francisco. The theme of power is replaced by the theme of inattention and indifference of the living to the dead. Death is assessed by them as an "accident", "nuisance". Money and honor turn out to be fiction. It is no coincidence that the bellboy Luigi plays a kind of performance in front of the maids, parodying the pompous manner of the “master” and playing up his death. Unworthy revenge of a man who is accustomed to bend his back by virtue of his profession. But what can you do - the great mystery of death is replaced by a farce in the theater of life. And the hero, imperceptibly for the reader, ceases to be the master. The author, speaking about him, uses the phrases “dead old man”, “some one”. This is the path of a hero from a person who placed all hopes on the future, to complete non-existence.
Bunin shows that the gentleman from San Francisco is part of a dying, doomed world, and he is destined to disappear with him. The image of the master carries a generalizing meaning. And this generalization is emphasized by the ring composition: the description of the voyage on the Atlantis is given at the beginning and at the end of the story. And among the recurring images, the image of the ocean stands out as a symbol of life and death, the image of a ship's siren as a symbol doomsday, as well as the image of a ship's firebox as a symbol of hellfire. At the same time, social conflict becomes a manifestation of a more general conflict - the eternal struggle between good and evil. And if the world's evil is embodied in the story in the image of the Devil watching "Atlantis", then the personification of goodness is the Mother of God, blessing the inhabitants of Monte Solaro from the depths of a rocky grotto. The death of the protagonist is not a triumph of good and not a victory of evil, but only a triumph of the eternal and inexorable course of life, where everyone is certainly rewarded according to his deeds. And only wind, darkness, blizzard fall on the share of the mortal remains of the gentleman from San Francisco ...
