AT late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, the realistic method prevails in literature. One of the representatives of this style is the largest writer of the 20th century, an outstanding master of the word Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. He rightfully occupies one of the first places in the art of Russian realism. Although, unlike other writers of this trend, Bunin stood somewhat apart from active social and political life.
Bunin is a realist, but in his works realism is painted in romantic tones, he writes with longing. Almost all of his poems are imbued with sadness:
And the wind, and the rain, and the haze
Above the cold desert water.
Until spring, the gardens are empty.
I am alone in the house. I'm dark
Behind the easel, and blowing through the window.
("Loneliness", 1903)
Bunin always - from the first to the last poems and stories - was faithful to the truth of life, remaining a true artist. In truth, his soul was exposed, at first glance, as if hidden behind a kind of veil. Adherence to truth was inseparable from his love for everything pure and good in the world, from love for nature, for his native land, for man. He could not stand works in which faith in the power of reason is destroyed, “vulgarity, artificiality and invariably false tone” spill over the sea.
He himself wrote his own, simple - what he lived, what entered his flesh and blood. Starting with poems, he did not lose interest in them all his life. And next to them was prose - natural and wise, musical and pictorial in language, full of deep psychologism. His stories " Antonov apples”,“ The Gentleman from San Francisco ”,“ The Village ”, a book of short stories“ Dark alleys”, the novel “The Life of Arsenev” and many other works are a significant phenomenon in Russian and world literature, one of their unattainable artistic peaks.
Consider the story "The Gentleman from San Francisco". In the pre-revolutionary years, the idea of the futility and sinfulness of civilization is strengthened in the writer's work. Bunin condemns people for their craving for pleasure, for the unfair organization of social life.
With the smallest details, so naturally combined in this story with strangeness and excitement, Bunin describes the world, he does not spare colors on the image of the external, material world in which this society exists the mighty of the world this. He contemptuously enumerates every little thing, all those portions of steamboat, hotel and other luxury, which are true life in the understanding of these "gentlemen from San Francisco." However, their feelings and sensations have already died, so nothing can bring them pleasure. He almost does not endow the hero of his story with external signs, and does not give his name at all, because he is not worthy to be called a man.
Using the example of the fate of a gentleman from San Francisco, I. Bunin talks about a life lived aimlessly - in profit, exploitation, and the greedy pursuit of money. How eager the gentleman from San Francisco was to enjoy the culture, how he believed that his life would be eternal! This very life with cooks, with seductive and accessible women, with lackeys and guides. How cheerful was this gentleman himself, “dry, short, not well-tailored, but firmly sewn.” There is nothing spiritual about this man. Literally every step he takes is haunted by the author's irony, until, having obeyed the general law, he no longer becomes a "gentleman" from San Francisco, but simply a dead old man, whose proximity irritates other merry gentlemen with an inappropriate reminder of death.
But the story does not end with the death of a rich gentleman. Having passed away, the rich American continues to be his main character. The departure of the hero takes place on the same ship, but now not in a luxury cabin, but in the iron cellars of the ship. The sweet and vulgar music of the eternal festival of salons does not reach here. Bunin vividly shows the contrast between the life and death of a gentleman from San Francisco. This contrast emphasizes the meaninglessness of life in a society corroded by social contradictions.
The ending of the story matters a lot. No one in the halls of Atlantis, which radiated light and joy, knew that "deep below them stood the coffin of the master." The coffin in the hold is a kind of verdict on the mindlessly rejoicing society. Ballroom music again thunders "among the furious blizzard that swept over the ocean, humming like a funeral mass." Warnings are also conveyed by the figure of the Devil watching the frivolous "Atlantis".
Maybe the Devil is the main character of the story? Maybe with his blessing civilization is rampant? Who knows the answers to these questions? With the story "The Gentleman from San Francisco," Bunin predicts the end of the current world.
We know that Bunin was forced to leave his homeland. He left Russia, but forever remained in the literature of Russia as one of her sons.
The writing
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. For everyone, he is 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 care 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" comes down 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 interested not only in the appearance of the hero, but also in 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, "suddenly ... fell upon" 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 after death, as a faint hint: “And slowly, slowly, in front of 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 a 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 repetitive 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 of the Last Judgment, 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 the triumph of good and not the victory of evil, but only the triumph of the eternal and inexorable course of life, where everyone will certainly be rewarded according to his deeds. And only wind, darkness, blizzard fall on the share of the mortal remains of the gentleman from San Francisco ...
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The protagonist of the work is faceless, since he does not have a first and last name. He is deprived of this because he is absolutely no different from other elderly rich people, this person has not done anything useful for other people, but has made his fortune all his life. The master believed that he was engaged in hard work, working from morning to night, but all the work was done for him by hired workers discharged from other countries. At this rate, by old age he had earned enough to pass for a moneybag.
Little is known about the appearance of the gentleman “dry, short, awkwardly tailored, but tightly sewn ...” - it becomes clear that he is completely ugly, but on the contrary, has an unpleasant appearance, the author describes his appearance as something rude, like a bag of money.
The main character has a wife and an adult daughter. They are also nameless and voiceless, like living statues.
Having earned enough money, the master decides to reward himself for his “hard” work and sets off on a journey with his wife and daughter.
The protagonist tried to dress fashionably and elegantly, as befits a rich man. During the trip, he allowed himself to "smear" money, dining in expensive restaurants, smoking strong cigars and leaving generous tips to waiters. The gentleman ate, drank and had fun in every possible way, but at the same time he did not read books, did not attend cultural events. He did not devote time at all to the development of the brain and morality. His moral component is dead, it was crushed by material security. That's why the protagonist does not experience any pleasure from traveling, as he does not see the beauty of nature. His happiness is only his wealth and recognition in the circle of wealthy aristocrats.
The whole life of the protagonist is presented as a program to achieve wealth. But the goal was achieved, but he did not become happier. Chasing finances, the gentleman completely forgot that he has a family, that he needs friends, because he is an ordinary person who needs love and support.
The protagonist had absolutely no respect for people of low social status, considered them his servants and treated them very rudely. By such behavior, he showed his arrogance and selfishness, because only his own comfort was important to him, and feelings ordinary people he does not care.
The denouement of the work is the death of the protagonist. In this episode, the attitude of other rich people towards the master is clearly expressed. His death brought a lot of trouble to those around him and his family, no one regretted his death, everyone forgot about him, despite his great fortune. Rich life provided a person with a poor and lonely death, as if he had never existed in the world. They buried the gentleman like some kind of animal, in a box of soda water.
Thus, in the work "The Gentleman from San Francisco", the main character appears before the readers as a living bag full of money. He has no emotions and feelings, his whole life consists of entertainment. The arrogant and selfish master thought that by earning a fortune, he would receive the love and recognition of a wealthy society and become a member of it. But death put everything in its place, the master died and everyone forgot about him. Therefore, it is necessary to remember that life is fleeting, you should not chase after something, you need to appreciate every moment of it and remember that the main thing in life is not money at all.
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Reading is one of the ways of understanding the world around us. The absorption of experience, reasoning, thoughts, aspirations of many authors allows the reader to live through situations
The story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" was written by Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, a great Russian poet and Nobel Prize winner.
The history of the creation of this literary masterpiece also originates in 1915. The author himself recalls that he was inspired to write the story by Thomas Mann's book The Death of Venice.
For the first time, Bunin saw this book in a bookstore on Kuznetsky Most, but for some reason did not buy it.
According to the plot, the book describes the sudden death of a resident of the United States of America who came to the island of Capri.
At first it was called "Death on Capri". But then the author decided to change the title to The Gentleman from San Francisco.
Interesting Facts:
- The story was written by the author in Vasilevsky village in the Oryol province.
- The author claims that only 4 days were enough for him to write the story.
Important! This was the first work, the writing of which the author paid special attention to.
According to his reviews, the story turned out to be incredible, because he thought through every detail to the smallest detail and very emotionally endured all the events he wrote.
Summary
The plot of the text is divided into 2 parts:
- The first part describes the events during the life of an elderly and wealthy entrepreneur who decided to go on a trip with his family to Capri.
- The second part highlights the death of Mr. from a seizure and the main problems of the administration of the staff regarding the concealment of this tragedy from other guests.
Description of characters
The story turned out to be very moral and philosophical. It reminds a person that everything he has conceived can collapse at any moment.
Note! This work very clearly conveys the character and mood of the main characters, which are described in great detail by the author in the text.
Character characteristics table:
| Character | Short description |
| Mister or mister from San Francisco | The author made the image of the main character very restrained, but temperamental. This character is stripped of a name due to his ambition to buy the unsellable. He appreciates false values loves work. It is work that helps Mr. to become rich and independent in material terms. The hero is 58 years old. His appearance is described very restrainedly. According to the description, the main character is a short and bald man. The personal characteristic consists of the fact that the author shows that the character likes to be content with money, he spends it with pleasure in restaurants. It is very difficult to understand his character. During the entire period of travel on the ship, he does not show emotion. |
| Mrs (Mrs) wife | The wife of the protagonist also has no name. She acts as his faceless shadow. Throughout the story, she rarely expresses emotion. They can be observed in the text only after the death of her husband. |
| Mrs daughter | A shy, sweet, kind girl, nothing like her relatives |
In addition to the above characters in the story, there are many episodic characters, which indicate in detail the goals and aspirations in life.
The image of the main character
Quotes from the story indicate the constant discontent of a person, even when he is in a premium environment.
Psychological portrait of the main character:
- Indifference to morality, lack of spirituality. The main character cannot be called cruel, but he does not accept the requests and problems of strangers.
He exists in his rich world, beyond which he is very afraid to go.
- Limitation. Rubber stamp. Wealth imposed its stereotypes of life on him, which are difficult not to obey.
Important! Main feature the hero is self-love.
Analysis and problem
Text analysis:
- The main idea of the story is that a person can lose his life at one moment, even having fabulous wealth.
- Initially, it is very difficult to determine the genre of writing a work.
But at the end of the story, we can conclude that this instructive story, indicating that fate is unpredictable and it is worth preparing for the most unforeseen situations.
- The plan of the story can be indirectly divided into 2 parts: before and after the death of Mr.
The first part is dominated by the features of indifference and waywardness of the protagonist, who does not take society into account. He is not loved, but respected for many achievements in life.
In the second part, the hero dies, and respect for his person disappears.
Death occurs in a hotel, so the hotel manager immediately finds arguments and grounds for hiding the tragic incident from the public.
After death, other characters show fear for their position in society, neglecting the feelings and emotions of the widow.
From the epigraphs of the characters, one can understand that the author wanted to highlight and highlight such problems:
- The true value of money.
- The purpose of man in the world.
Today the story is very popular. He enters school curriculum so it is not forgotten.
On the basis of the work, schoolchildren write summaries, retellings, notes, put on theatrical performances.
Many people think that the book is not well received by teenagers, but it is not. The work teaches to cherish and be grateful for what you have.
Reading this story causes a desire to rethink one's actions, to become a more noble and kind person.
Today, based on this work, films are being made. This is a very instructive story that could help many people.
Thanks to technological progress, the work has appeared in the audiobook format, which allows you to listen to it, not read it.
Many literary critics it is recommended to read the full edition, not summary story to feel its full meaning and understand the images of the main characters.
The idea of the work symbolizes the desire for respect and neglect of life values for the sake of earning money and personal pleasure.
Useful video
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is known throughout the world as an outstanding poet and writer, who in his works, continuing the traditions of Russian literature, raises important questions, showing the tragedy of human existence. In his short story "The Gentleman from San Francisco", the famous writer shows the decline of the bourgeois world.
History of the creation of the story
The story of the great famous writer I.A. Bunina "The Gentleman from San Francisco" was first published in the popular collection "The Word". This event took place in 1915. The writer himself told the story of writing this work in one of his essays. In the summer of the same year, he was walking around Moscow and, passing along the Kuznetsky bridge, stopped near Gauthier's bookstore to carefully examine its showcase, where sellers usually exhibited new or popular books. Ivan Alekseevich's gaze lingered on one of the exhibited brochures. It was a book foreign writer Thomas Mann "Death in Venice"Bunin noticed that this work had already been translated into Russian. But, after standing for several minutes and carefully examining the book, the writer did not go into the bookstore and did not buy it. He will later regret it many times.
Working on a story
The story was written by the writer quickly, in just four days. Bunin himself describes this time as follows, when he wrote calmly and slowly:“I’ll pee a little, get dressed, take a loaded double-barreled shotgun, and walk through the garden to the threshing floor.” Bunin wrote: "I got excited and wrote even through enthusiastic tears only the place where the zaponyars go and glorify the Madonna."
The writer changed the title of the story as soon as he wrote the first line of his work. So the name "The Gentleman from San Francisco" appeared. Initially, Ivan Alekseevich took the epigraph from the Apocalypse. It sounds like this: “Woe to you, Babylon, strong city!”. But already during the first reprint, this epigraph was removed by the writer himself.
Bunin himself claimed in his essay "The Origin of My Stories" that all the events of his work are fictitious. Researchers of Bunin's work claim that the writer did hard work, as he tried to get rid of the pages of the story, where there were edifying or journalistic elements, and also got rid of epithets and foreign words. This is clearly seen from the manuscript, which has survived to this day.
A certain wealthy gentleman from San Francisco spent his whole life trying to achieve a certain position in society. And he could achieve this only when he became rich. All his life he earned money in different ways, and finally, at the age of 58, he was able to indulge himself and his family in nothing. Therefore, he decided to go on a long journey.
A gentleman from San Francisco, whose name no one knew, is sent with his family to the Old World for 2 years. His route was planned in advance by him:
✔ December and January is a visit to Italy;
✔ he will meet the carnival in Nice, and also in Monte Carlo;
✔ early March - visit to Florence;
✔ the passion of the Lord is a visit to Rome.
And on the way back, he was going to visit other countries and states: Venice, Paris, Seville, Egypt, Japan and others. But these plans do not come true. First, on the huge ship "Atlantis", among the fun and constant celebration, the master's family sails to the shores of Italy, where they continue to enjoy everything that they could not afford before.
After staying in Italy, they cross over to the island of Capri, where they settle in an expensive hotel. The maids and servants were ready to serve them every minute, clean up after them and fulfill their every desire. Every time they get a good tip for it. On the same evening, the gentleman sees a poster in which there is an advertisement for a beautiful dancer. Having learned from the servant that her partner is the brother of the beauty, he decides to take care of her a little. Therefore, she dresses up in front of the mirror for a long time. But the tie was so tight on his throat that he could hardly breathe. Learning that his wife and daughter were not yet ready, he decided to wait for them downstairs, reading the newspaper or spending this time in pleasant conversation.
The composition of the story is divided into two parts. The first part shows all the charms of the bourgeois world, and the second part is the result of the life that is led by people who decide to go through and experience all the sins. Therefore, the second compositional part begins from the moment when the gentleman without a name goes downstairs and takes to read the newspaper. But at the same moment, he falls to the floor and, wheezing, begins to die.
The servants and the innkeeper tried to give him a little help, but most of all they were afraid for their reputation, so they hurried to console their living clients. And the half-dead gentleman was transferred to the poorest room. This room was dirty and dark. But the owner of the hotel refused to the demands of his daughter and wife to transfer the gentleman to his apartment, because then he would not be able to rent this room to anyone, and the rich tenants, having learned about such a neighborhood, would simply scatter.
This is how a wealthy man without a name from San Francisco died in a poor and miserable environment. And neither the doctor nor his relatives - no one could help him at that moment. Only his adult daughter was crying, as some kind of loneliness set in in her soul. Soon the wheezing of the protagonist subsided, and the owner immediately asked the relatives to take out the body before the morning, otherwise the reputation of their institution could suffer greatly. The wife started talking about the coffin, but no one on the island could make it so quickly. Therefore, it was decided to take out the body in a long box in which soda water was transported and remove partitions from it.
Both the coffin and the master's family, which were no longer treated with the same respect as before, were transported on a small steamer to Italy, and already there they were loaded into the dark and damp hold of the Atlantis steamer, on which the journey of the gentleman without a name and his family began. . Having experienced many humiliations, the body of the old man returned to his homeland, and the fun continued on the upper decks, and no one cared at all that there, below, was a small coffin with the body of a gentleman from San Francisco. A person's life also ends quickly, leaving either memories or emptiness in people's hearts.
Characteristics of a gentleman from San Francisco
The writer specifically does not indicate the name of the protagonist, since his character is a fictional person. But still, you can learn a lot about him from the whole story:Elderly American;
he is 58 years old;
rich;
he has a wife;
the hero also has an adult daughter.
Gives Bunin gives a description of him appearance: "Dry, short, awkwardly cut, but tightly sewn, cleared to a gloss and moderately lively." But the writer then moves on to more detailed description hero: “There was something Mongolian in his yellowish face with trimmed silver mustaches, his large teeth shone with gold fillings, his strong bald head was old ivory.”
The gentleman with no name from San Francisco was a hardworking man and quite purposeful, as he once set himself the goal of becoming rich and worked hard all these years until he achieved his goal. It turns out that he did not even live, but existed, thinking only about work. But in his dreams, he always imagined how he would go on vacation and enjoy all the benefits, having prosperity.
And when he achieved everything, he went on a trip with his family. And here he began to drink and eat a lot, but also visits brothels. He stays only in the best hotels and distributes such tips that the servants are surrounded by attention and care. But he dies without realizing his dream. A rich gentleman without a name is sent back to his homeland, but already in a coffin and in a dark hold, where he is no longer given any honors.
Story analysis
The power of Bunin's story, of course, is contained not in the plot, but in the images that he painted. Frequent images are symbols that occur in the story:
★ The raging sea is like a wide field.
★ The image of the captain as an idol.
★ A dancing couple of lovers who are hired to act like love. They symbolize the falsity and rottenness of this bourgeois world.
★ The ship on which the rich gentleman without a name sails from San Francisco on an exciting journey, then carries his body back. So this ship is a symbol human life. This ship symbolizes human sins, which most often accompany rich people.
But as soon as the life of such a person ends, these people become completely indifferent to someone else's misfortune.
The external figurativeness that Bunin uses in his work makes the plot denser and richer.
Criticism about the story of I.A. Bunin
This work was highly appreciated by writers and critics. So, Maxim Gorky said that he read the new work of his favorite writer with great trepidation. He hastened to report this in a letter to Bunin in 1916.
Thomas Mann wrote in his diary that "in its moral power and strict plasticity, it can be placed next to some of Tolstoy's most significant works - with Polikushka, with The Death of Ivan Ilyich."
Criticism noted this story by the writer Bunin as his most outstanding work. It was said that this story helped the writer achieve highest point of its development.