I. A. Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco” was written during the First World War, when entire states were involved in a senseless and merciless massacre. Fate individual person began to seem like a grain of sand in the whirlpool of history, even if this man was surrounded by wealth and fame. However, in Bunin’s story there is not a word about the war and its victims. He describes only the usual journey of wealthy tourists across the Atlantic Ocean on a huge, comfortable steamship. The ship "Atlantis", trying to overcome "darkness, ocean and blizzard" and finding itself in the power of the Devil, becomes a symbol of modern technocratic civilization. It is no coincidence that the ship is named after the once sunken mythological continent. The motif of Atlantis' doom, its death and destruction, is associated in the text with the image of death and the Apocalypse. There are figurative parallels “the captain is a pagan idol”, “passengers are idolaters”, “the hotel is a temple”. Modern era is depicted by Bunin as the dominance of a new “paganism”: people are obsessed with empty and vain passions and vices. The author describes the activities and daily routine of the passengers of the Atlantis ship with angry irony: “... life on it was very measured: they got up early... putting on flannel pajamas, drinking coffee, chocolate, cocoa; then they sat in the baths, did gymnastics, stimulating appetite and good health, performed daily toilets and went to the first breakfast; until eleven o’clock they were supposed to walk cheerfully along the decks, breathing in the cold freshness of the ocean, or play sheffleboard or other games to whet their appetite again...” At the same time, a terrible ocean is raging around the ship, the watchmen are freezing on their towers, the stokers are drenched in dirty sweat near the gigantic furnaces, the ominous siren constantly howls with hellish gloom, reminding of the danger. The reality of this danger is also reminded by the fact that Bunin’s story was written three years after the sinking of the famous Titanic.
In Naples, the life of wealthy tourists follows a routine pattern: visiting churches and museums, endless dinners and entertainment. Representatives of modern civilized America are not interested in European cultural values. Tourists lazily explore the sights, wincing at the sight of shacks and rags: compassion and love for their neighbors are alien to them. Of the many passengers on the Atlantis, Bunin singles out a gentleman from San Francisco traveling with his wife and daughter. None of them are named, which further emphasizes the typicality of the main character and his family. We see that the splendor and luxury of life do not bring them even the most ordinary human happiness. The death that unexpectedly befell the head of the family in Capri is described by Bunin in emphatically physiological terms. There is no place here for mention of an immortal soul, because there was nothing spiritual in the earthly existence of the hero of the story.
Bunin emphasizes that the death of the gentleman from San Francisco causes only a short-lived commotion among the guests of the luxury hotel. None of them sympathize with the widow and daughter, no one feels sorry for the deceased. He was a member of their clan, the clan of the rich and all-powerful, but at the same time, as a human being, he remained a stranger to everyone. And if misfortune had happened to anyone else, the gentleman from San Francisco would have behaved exactly the same. Modern civilization levels personality, divides and hardens people, Bunin tells us. If we see indifference on the part of the rich, then the hotel servants, in the person of the efficient Luigi, allow themselves to openly make fun of the one whose orders they had recently strictly and reverently carried out. Bunin contrasts them ordinary people- masons, fishermen, shepherds who did not lose touch with nature, retained a naive and simple faith in God, spiritual beauty.
The boat with the body of the gentleman from San Francisco leaves Capri. At this point in the story, Bunin draws a parallel between modern capitalists and the Roman tyrant Tiberius: “... humanity has forever remembered him, and those who, in their entirety, are as incomprehensible and, in essence, as cruel as he, now rule the world, people come from all over the world to look at the remains of the stone house where he lived on one of the steepest slopes of the island.” Comparing ancient and modern “masters of life,” Bunin again reminds the reader of the inevitability of death modern civilization, killing everything human in a person. In the final part of the story, the writer shows the path of a huge multi-tiered ship across the Atlantic. Also in the lower part of the ship, workers work until they sweat blood, and in the ballrooms, elegant women shine, and a couple of hired lovers feign their feelings in front of a jaded crowd. Everything here is scary, everything is ugly, everything is sold for money. But in the lowest hold there is a heavy coffin with the body of a gentleman from San Francisco - as the embodiment of the fragility of the human shell, the ephemerality of power and wealth. The writer seems to be passing judgment on the lack of spirituality of civilization, which kills the souls of both masters and slaves, taking away the joy of existence and the fullness of feelings.
The story “The Gentleman from San Francisco” was written by I. A. Bunin in 1915. The story is based on the author's general impression of his journey and seems to hint at social collapse throughout the world. Bunin specifically does not name the main character, presenting us with a generalized image. Initially, the title of the story was “Death on Capri,” but in the process of working on the work, Bunin abandoned the title containing the word “death.”
Despite this, the feeling of imminent death appears from the very first words of the epigraph.
The story tells about last days the life of a wealthy American gentleman who decided to start living at the age of 58. Just to start, because he worked all this time, trying to provide himself with a decent old age. He believed that life was about relaxation and pleasure, which he deserved. Therefore, he carefully planned the route of the trip, which in turn is already stupid to adhere to the schedule.
And everything almost immediately goes wrong main character. And besides, there was something artificial in its existence, where not only every movement of passengers was planned,
but also their emotions. This is where the dissonance between the opinions of the main character and the author is clearly shown. Such an existence cannot be called a full life. The hero lives only for a moment, and then fighting death.
The further picture is predictable. If at the beginning the hero himself has fun, talking with people of the highest circle and watching false lovers, then even after the death of the master, this same upper circle continues to waste its life, now without the main character, whose body rests deep under them.
“The Lord of San Francisco” is full of symbolism. The coffin in the hold is a message to those who are having fun, meaning that all people are equal before death, and their money cannot help them in their last painful minutes. Their happiness is in fact not happiness at all; their worldview cannot compare with the vision of the world of ordinary poor mountaineers.
The idea of the work is not just a story about the death of a rich man. The money he had accumulated and his rank no longer mattered. That's what's important. Bunin reveals in his story his own vision of the meaning of life, and this meaning clearly does not lie in the acquisition of wealth and fame.
The hero is called a master because this is his essence. At least that’s what he thinks, and that’s why he revels in his position. He represents the society that destroys all living things in humanity, forcing them to invent a schedule for themselves, blindly follow it and smile coyly in feigned pleasure. There is nothing spiritual in such a society; its goal is to be rich and enjoy this wealth. But this has never made anyone truly happy.
“Atlantis” is a ship carrying this society to new pleasures; The ocean on which the ship sails is an element beyond the control of even the richest people, capable of instantly destroying the plans of a “dead society” and sending it to the bottom. And at the bottom the society will be waiting for a gentleman from San Francisco. “Atlantis”, in fact, is going nowhere, carrying with it a blind society of callous people.
The main problem of the story “Mr. from San Francisco” is dead society, capable only of boasting in front of all his money and living according to a schedule drawn up by the same insensitive inanimate person. In his diary, Bunin wrote the following: “I cried while writing the end.”
What was he crying over? Over the sad fate of a gentleman who had just begun to live: Over his family, now left without a breadwinner? After all, now they will have to look for a groom so that the master’s daughter can continue her boring life, as the schedule dictates. I think that the author was saddened by the fate of the “dead” society, their way of life and impartiality to the grief of others; their callousness and insensitivity. That's the problem modern society, just like many years ago.
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"Mr. from San Francisco"
(essay preparation lesson)
Stage 1. Topic analysis.
Understanding each word of the topic
meaning - meaning, essence, essence, inner content, depth.
Name - title, title, title, topic, idea.
problematic – a set of problems, a range of issues.
work - story, short story, narration.
Bunin – remarkable Russian writer of the early twentieth century, author, novelist.
Keyword highlighting
Meaning of the name
problems
I.A.Bunin
"Mr. from San Francisco"
Formulating the topic in other words
The meaning of the title and the range of questions of I. A. Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco.”
The depth of the name and the totality of problems in I.A. Bunin’s story “Mr. from San Francisco.”
Stage 2. Search for a task contained in a topic.
What is the meaning of the title and what are the problems of I. A. Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco”?
Why did I.A. Bunin call his story “Mr. from San Francisco”?
Is I. A. Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco” instructive?
Is she wealthy? human claim for dominance?
Stage 3. Formulating a thesis.
IN name story I.A.Bunina"Mr. from San Francisco" complete summarized his content. AND "mister", And members his families remain nameless, while minor characters – Lorenzo, Luigi– endowed proper names . Elements living life Bunin contrasts venality bourgeoisie, hostility to natural life, lack of compassion. In the story, hard work and idleness, decency and depravity, sincerity and deceit collide in irreconcilable conflict. Problems addressed author in his story, this is « eternal themes» literature.
Stage 4. Structuring an essay.
Highlighting keywords.
Combining key concepts into semantic “nests”.
I.A.Bunin, “Mr. from San Francisco”, conflict.
The gentleman and his family, nameless, faceless; not life, but existence, business, corruption, idle life, attitude towards nature, natural life, disintegration of human connections, lack of compassion, hostility to natural life, idleness, depravity, deceit.
Minor characters: Lorenzo, Luigi, proper names, the elements of living, natural life, individuality, unique personality, hard work, decency, sincerity.
- “Eternal themes” of literature: close attention to nature, “internal” course human life.
Establishing internal connections between “nests” of keywords.
Determining the optimal number of parts of an essay.
I.A.Bunin I
"Mr. from San Francisco"
Mister and his family II
have no name
lifestyle reasons
Tragedy
Proper names of people living natural lives
Problems
"Eternal themes" of literature
Lining up structural elements essays in logical order.
Stage 5. Introduction to the essay.
Define keywords topics.
Meaning– this is a subjective meaning, the attitude of a person (the author) to what he is talking about, arguing about.
Name – main idea, put by the author in the title.
Issues- this is what worries the writer, questions that make him think about.
Bunin- a brilliant representative of twentieth-century prose.
Construct a judgment that reflects the connections between key concepts. I.A.Bunin is a brilliant representative of twentieth-century prose. In his story “Mr. from San Francisco,” the writer talks about man’s place in the world and believes that man is not the center of the Universe, but a grain of sand in a huge world, that the universe is not subject to man’s control. The story is based on the story of a nameless gentleman.
Construct a judgment about the topic of the essay, including its formulation in other words.
The meaning of the title and the range of questions of I. A. Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco.”
Formulate the task that the topic poses to the writer.
Why did I.A. Bunin call his story “Mr. from San Francisco”? Why didn’t you give a name to your hero? How do the heroes of the work live? moral qualities does the writer endow them?
Construct a judgment showing the connection between the introduction and the main part of the essay.
Let's try to find the answer to this question by understanding how the heroes of the story live.
Combine these judgments.
I.A.Bunin is a brilliant representative of twentieth-century prose. His work is characterized by an interest in ordinary life, the ability to reveal the tragedy of life. In his story “Mr. from San Francisco,” the writer talks about man’s place in the world and believes that man is not the center of the Universe, but a grain of sand in a huge world, that the universe is not under the control of man. The story is based on the story of a nameless gentleman. Why did I.A. Bunin call his story “Mr. from San Francisco”? Why didn't you give your hero a name? Perhaps we will find answers to these questions by understanding how and how the heroes of the story live, what moral qualities does the writer endow with them?
Stage 6. Design of the main part.
The gentleman from San Francisco is the personification of a man of bourgeois civilization.
Lack of spirituality.
Bunin's rejection of high society's hostility to nature, to natural life.
The world of natural people.
The collapse of human connections and lack of compassion are the worst things for Bunin.
I.A.Bunin is a brilliant representative of twentieth-century prose.
The problems and meaning of the title of I. A. Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco.”
Bunin's appeal to the “eternal themes” of literature.
Stage 7. Writing an essay.
I.A.Bunin is a brilliant representative of twentieth-century prose. His work is characterized by an interest in ordinary life and the ability to reveal the tragedy of life. In his story “Mr. from San Francisco,” the writer talks about man’s place in the world and believes that man is not the center of the Universe, but a grain of sand in a huge world, that the universe is not under the control of man. The story is based on the story of a nameless gentleman. Why did I.A. Bunin call his story “Mr. from San Francisco”? Why didn't you give your hero a name? Perhaps we will find answers to these questions by understanding how and how the characters in the story live, and what moral qualities the writer endows them with.
The gentleman from San Francisco is the personification of a man of bourgeois civilization. The hero is simply called “master” because that is his essence. He considers himself a master and revels in his position. He can afford “solely for the sake of entertainment”” to go with his family “to the Old World for two whole years”, he can enjoy all the benefits guaranteed by his status, he believes “in the care of all those who fed and watered him, from morning to evening served him, preventing his slightest desire,” can contemptuously throw at the “ragamuffins” through clenched teeth: “Get out!” The gentleman from San Francisco is valuable to others not as a person, but as a master. While he is rich and full of strength, the owner of the hotel “politely and elegantly” bows to his family, and the head waiter makes it clear that “there is and cannot be any doubt about the correctness of the master’s desires.”
Describing the gentleman’s appearance, I.A. Bunin uses epithets that emphasize his wealth and his unnaturalness: “silver mustache”, “golden fillings” of teeth, “strong bald head” is compared to “old ivory”. There is nothing spiritual about the gentleman, his goal is to become rich and reap the fruits of this wealth: “... he has almost become equal to those whom he once took as a model...” The desire came true, but this did not make him any happier. The description of the gentleman from San Francisco is constantly accompanied by the author's irony. The human element begins to appear in the master only at death: “It was no longer the gentleman from San Francisco who was wheezing - he was no longer there - but someone else.” Death makes him human: “his features began to become thinner and brighter...”. And the author now calls his hero “deceased”, “deceased”, “dead”. The attitude of those around him also changes sharply: the corpse must be removed from the hotel so as not to spoil the mood of other guests, they cannot provide a coffin - only a soda box, the servants, who were in awe of the living master, mockingly laughs at the dead, the hotel owner speaks with his wife “without any courtesy”, and places the deceased in the cheapest room, firmly stating the need for urgent removal of the body. The master's attitude towards people is transferred to himself. At the end of the story the author says that the body “ dead old man from San Francisco returns “home, to the grave, to the shores of the New World” in a black hold: the power of the “master” turns out to be illusory.
The writer does not give a name not only to the main character. The passengers of the ship represent the nameless “cream” of society, of which the gentleman from San Francisco so wanted to become a member: “Among this brilliant crowd there was a certain great rich man, ... there was a famous Spanish writer, there was a beauty all over the world, there was an elegant couple in love...” Their life is monotonous and empty: “they got up early,...drank coffee, chocolate, cocoa,...sat in baths, did gymnastics, stimulating appetite and good health, performed daily toilets and went to the first breakfast...” This is the impersonality, lack of individuality of those who consider themselves masters of life . This is an artificial paradise, because even the “elegant couple in love” only pretended to be in love: she was “hired by Lloyd to play at love for good money.” Life on a ship is illusory. It is “huge”, but around it there is a “water desert” of the ocean and a “cloudy sky”. And in the “underwater womb of the steamer,” similar to the “gloomy and sultry depths of the underworld,” people worked naked to the waist, “crimson in the flames,” “drenched in acrid, dirty sweat.” The social gap between rich and poor is nothing compared to the abyss that separates man from nature and natural life from non-existence. And, of course, Bunin does not accept the hostility of high society towards nature, towards natural life.
In contrast to “artificial” life, Bunin shows the world of natural people. One of them is Lorenzo - “a tall old boatman, a carefree reveler and a handsome man,” probably the same age as the gentleman from San Francisco. Only a few lines are dedicated to him, but he is given a sonorous name, unlike the title character. Both Lorenzo and the Abruzzese highlanders personify the naturalness and joy of being. They live in harmony, in harmony with the world, with nature: “They walked - and the 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 floated, and the shining morning vapors over the sea to the east, under the dazzling sun...” The goat-skin bagpipes and the wooden foregrip of the highlanders are contrasted with the “beautiful orchestra” of the steamship. With their lively, artless music, the mountaineers give praise to the sun, the morning, “the immaculate intercessor of all those who suffer in this evil and wonderful world, and to him who was born from her womb in the cave of Bethlehem..." This is true values life, in contrast to the brilliant, expensive, but artificial, imaginary values of the “masters”.
Thus, the theme of the end of the existing world order, the inevitability of the death of a soulless and spiritual civilization gradually grows in the story. The writer considers the most terrible thing to be the disintegration of human connections and the lack of compassion. And this is exactly what we see in the story “Mr. from San Francisco.” For Bunin, nature is important, however, in his opinion, the highest judge of man is human memory. The picturesque poor man, old Lorenzo, will live forever on the canvases of artists, but the rich old man from San Francisco was erased from life and forgotten before he could die. And, therefore, the title of the story was not chosen by chance. It provides an impetus for understanding the meaning and meaning of the story, which makes you think about the eternal problems of life, death, love, beauty.
The title of I. A. Bunin’s story “Mr. from San Francisco” fully summarizes its content. Both the "master" and his family members remain nameless, while minor characters– Lorenzo, Luigi – endowed with their own names. Bunin contrasts the elements of living life with the corruption of the bourgeoisie, hostility to natural life, and lack of compassion. In the story, hard work and idleness, decency and depravity, sincerity and deceit collide in irreconcilable conflict. The problems that the author addresses in his story are the “eternal themes” of literature.
Path... This word has many meanings. This includes travel, the distance between destinations, the direction of any activity, and the most important path in a person’s life. What significance does the choice of life path have on people’s lives? And is it so important to consciously approach this problem? Writers and poets from time immemorial have been concerned with the question of the true choice of spiritual and moral path. They have repeatedly raised this problem in their work. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was no exception. He speaks about this in the work “Mr. from San Francisco.”
So what path does his nameless hero take? Even in his youth, he sets an example for himself successful person, who has achieved everything that people usually want. Exhausted, the gentleman, sacrificing everything, goes towards his goal, dreaming of living just as luxuriously in his old age. We see a person who places spiritual and moral development lower than his material condition. The entire society that surrounds him has no values of his own except money. They have neither their own opinion nor personal views, seeking only to indulge society. In the pursuit of wealth, they lose themselves, I lose all those features that could make them real people, and not puppets controlled by fortune. This society does not even notice the work of others for the sake of their entertainment. People with lower incomes seem to not exist in their world at all. In a carefree life, in revelry, they try to find themselves, hiding behind deceitful masks. Once you find yourself in such a society, you become like that yourself. The gentleman from San Francisco was no exception. But what is the life worth of people who have long been dead inside? Nothing. After the master leaves, people either feel disgusted or continue to have fun in the same way as before. He left no noticeable mark on the souls of others. Such people cannot do it.
I. A. Bunin wants to show us that human life is too fragile and perishable; without true feelings and true values it is disgusting. It seems to me that the author is absolutely right about this. After all, looking at another hero of this work - Lorenzo, we immediately see how colossally different people are who live to enjoy every day and who live to make their own fortune, postponing everything for later. The boatman lives in harmony with his surroundings, feels part of the whole world, and enthusiastically admires the beauties of nature. He succumbs to the measured flow of life, without trying to subjugate it to himself. And this is his happiness. People from Atlantis are not able to understand this. They have one desire: to be the power over everything. With such people life can play out very cruel joke, to forever subject to oblivion all their, as it seems to them, great achievements.
It is also worth paying attention to the fact that almost all the characters do not have names. Why does Bunin come to such a peculiarity of writing? No one is in a hurry to remember such rotten people inside, to leave them in their souls. In the company of the gentleman from San Francisco, all that matters is social status. Otherwise, people are not attractive in any way. Moreover, they are the same, both morally and spiritually.
Could the master have a different fate? Certainly. After all, everyone is the creator of their own life. If someone could open this man’s eyes and give him some parting words, I’m sure he would make a choice that would give him a bright name.
Thus, life path- the most important path that every person has to go through. Each of us is now also on the threshold, it seems to me, of the very first significant choice. The main thing now is to do it correctly, to earn a name for yourself with your good deeds, to be worthy of memory.
Bunin's story "Mr. from San Francisco" has a highly social orientation, but the meaning of these stories is not limited to criticism of capitalism and colonialism. Social problems capitalist society are only a background that allows Bunin to show the aggravation of the “eternal” problems of humanity in the development of civilization.
In the 1900s, Bunin traveled around Europe and the East, observing the life and order of capitalist society in Europe and the colonial countries of Asia. Bunin realizes the immorality of the orders that reign in imperialist society, where everyone works only to enrich the monopolies. Rich capitalists are not ashamed of any means to increase their capital.
This story reflects all the features of Bunin’s poetics, and at the same time it is unusual for him, its meaning is too prosaic.
The story has almost no plot. People travel, fall in love, make money Finance, that is, they create the appearance of activity, but the plot can be told in two words: “A man has died.” Bunin generalizes the image of the gentleman from San Francisco to such an extent that he does not even give him any specific name. We don't know much about his spiritual life. Actually, this life did not exist; it was lost behind thousands of everyday details, which Bunin lists down to the smallest detail. Already at the very beginning we see the contrast between cheerful and easy life in the cabins of the ship and the horror that reigns in its bowels: “The siren constantly cried out with hellish gloom and squealed with frantic anger, but few of the inhabitants heard the siren - it was drowned out by the sounds of a beautiful string orchestra:”
A description of life on the ship is given in a contrasting image of the upper deck and the hold of the ship: “The gigantic furnaces rumbled dully, devouring piles of hot coal, with a roar thrown into them by people drenched in caustic, dirty sweat and naked to the waist, crimson from the flames; and here, in the bar , carefreely threw their feet on the arms of the chairs, smoked,
They drank cognac and liqueurs: “With this sharp transition, Bunin emphasizes that the luxury of the upper decks, that is, the highest capitalist society, was achieved only through the exploitation and enslavement of people who continuously work in hellish conditions in the hold of the ship. And their pleasure is empty and false, symbolic meaning plays in the story a couple hired by Lloyd "to play at love for good money."
Using the example of the fate of the gentleman from San Francisco himself, Bunin Announces about the aimlessness, emptiness, worthlessness of life of a typical representative of capitalist society. The thought of death, repentance, sins, and God never occurred to the gentleman from San Francisco. All his life he sought to be compared with those “whom he once took as a model.” By old age there was nothing human left in him. He began to look like an expensive thing made of gold and ivory, one of those that always surrounded him: “his large teeth shone with gold fillings, his strong bald head shone with old ivory.”
Bunin's thought is clear. He talks about the eternal problems of humanity. About the meaning of life, about the spirituality of life, about man’s relationship to God.
