Problems of the story Mr. from San Francisco. “Philosophical problems in the works of I. A. Bunin (based on the story “The Gentleman from San Francisco”)

Composition

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is a world-famous writer and Nobel laureate. In his works he touches eternal themes: love, nature and death. The theme of death, as is known, touches on the philosophical problems of human existence.

| Philosophical problems, which Bunin raises in his works, were most fully revealed in the story “The Gentleman from San Francisco.” In this story, death is presented as one of the important events that determine the true value of an individual. Philosophical problems of the meaning of life, true and imaginary values ​​are the main ones in this work. The writer reflects not only on fate individual person, but also about the fate of humanity, which, in his opinion, stands on the brink of destruction. The story was written in 1915, when the First world war and there was a crisis of civilization. It is symbolic in the story that the ship on which he travels main character, called "Atlantis". Atlantis is the legendary sunken island that could not withstand the raging elements and became a symbol lost civilization.

Associations also arise with the Titanic, which perished in 1912. “The ocean that walked behind the walls” of the steamship is a symbol of the elements, nature, opposing civilization. But the people sailing on the ship do not notice the hidden threat posed by the elements, they do not hear the howl of the wind, which is drowned out by the music. They firmly believe in their idol - the captain. The ship is a model of Western bourgeois civilization. Its holds and decks are the layers of this society. The upper floors resemble “a huge hotel with all the amenities”; here are people at the top of the social ladder, people who have achieved complete well-being. Bunin draws attention to the regularity of this life, where everything is subject to a strict routine. The author emphasizes that these people, the masters of life, have already lost their individuality. All they do while traveling is have fun and wait for lunch or dinner. From the outside it looks unnatural and unnatural. There is no place for sincere feelings here. Even a couple in love ends up being hired by Lloyd to “play love for good money.” It is an artificial paradise filled with light, warmth and music. But there is also hell. This hell is the “underwater womb” of the ship, which Bunin compares to the underworld. Ordinary people work there, on whom the well-being of those at the top, leading a carefree and serene life, depends.

A prominent representative of bourgeois civilization in the story is the gentleman from San Francisco. The hero is simply called a master, because his essence is in his mouth. At least he considers himself a master and revels in his position. He achieved everything he strived for: wealth, power. Now he can afford to go to the Old World “solely for fun” and can enjoy all the benefits of life. Describing the gentleman’s appearance, Bunin uses epithets that emphasize his wealth and unnaturalness: “silver mustache”, “golden fillings” of teeth, a strong bald head is compared to “old ivory”. There is nothing spiritual about the gentleman, his goal - to become rich and reap the fruits of this wealth - was realized, but he did not become happier because of it. ) But then comes the climax of the story, the gentleman from San Francisco dies. It is unlikely that this master of life expected to leave the sinful earth so soon. His death looks “illogical”, out of step with the general orderly order of things, but for it there are no social or material differences.

And the worst thing is that humanity begins to manifest itself in him only before 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.” Death dramatically changes the attitude of those around him: the corpse must be urgently removed from the hotel so as not to spoil the mood of other guests, they cannot even provide a coffin - only a soda box, and the servants, who were in awe of the living, laugh at the dead. Thus, the master’s power turned out to be imaginary, illusory. In pursuit of material assets he forgot about true, spiritual values, and therefore he was forgotten immediately after death. This is what is called retribution according to deserts. The gentleman from San Francisco deserved only oblivion.

An unexpected departure into oblivion is perceived as the highest moment, when everything falls into place, when illusions disappear, and the truth remains, when nature “roughly” proves its omnipotence. But people continue their carefree, thoughtless existence, quickly returning to “peace and quiet.” Their souls cannot be awakened to life by the example of one of them. The problem of the story goes beyond the individual case. Its ending is connected with reflections on the fate of not just one hero, but all people, past and future passengers of the ship under the mythical and tragic name “Atlantis”. People are forced to overcome the “hard” path of “darkness, ocean, blizzard.” Only to the naive, simple, how accessible is the joy of joining “the eternal and blissful abodes”, to the highest spiritual values. The bearers of true values ​​are the Abruzzese highlanders and old Lorenzo. Lorenzo is a boatman, "a carefree reveler and a handsome man." He is probably the same age as the gentleman from San Francisco, only a few lines are dedicated to him, but unlike the gentleman, he has a sonorous name. Lorenzo is famous throughout Italy; he has served as a model for many painters more than once. He looks around with a regal air, rejoicing in life, showing off with his rags. The picturesque poor man Lorenzo remains to live forever on the canvases of artists, but the rich old man from San Francisco was erased from life as soon as he died.

The Abruzzese highlanders, like Lorenzo, personify the naturalness and joy of being. They live in harmony, in harmony with the world, with nature. The mountaineers give praise to the sun, morning, Our Lady and Christ. According to Bunin, this is true values life.

Other works on this work

The problem of man and civilization in the story by I.A. Bunin "Mr. from San Francisco".

Woe to you, Babylon, strong city! Apocalypse Ivan Alekseevich Bunin - writer of fine psychological characteristics, who knows how to sculpt a character or environment in detail. With a simple plot, one is struck by the wealth of thoughts, images and symbolism that are inherent in the artist. In his narration, Bunin is unfussy and thorough. It seems that the whole world around him fits into his small piece . This happens thanks to the wonderful and clear style of the writer, the details and details that he includes in his work. The story “Mr. from San Francisco” is no exception; in it the writer tries to answer the questions that interest him: what is a person’s happiness, his purpose on earth? With hidden irony and sarcasm, Bunin describes the main character - a gentleman from San Francisco, without even honoring him with a name (he didn’t deserve it). The gentleman himself is full of snobbery and complacency. All his life he strived for wealth, creating idols for himself, trying to achieve the same well-being as them. Finally, it seems to him that the set goal is close, it’s time to relax, live for his own pleasure, he is the “master” of the situation, but that’s not the case. Money is a powerful force, but it cannot buy happiness, prosperity, life... When planning to travel to the Old World, a gentleman from San Francisco carefully plans a route; “the people to whom he belonged had the custom of beginning the enjoyment of life with a trip to Europe, India, Egypt... The route was worked out by the gentleman from San Francisco and was extensive. In December and January he hoped to enjoy the sun in Southern Italy, the ancient monuments, the tarantella. He thought of holding the carnival in Nice, then Monte Carlo, Rome, Venice, Paris and even Japan.” It seems that everything has been taken into account and verified. But the weather lets us down. It is beyond the control of a mere mortal. For money you can try to ignore her inconveniences, but not always, and moving to Capri was a terrible ordeal. The fragile steamer could barely cope with the elements that befell it. The gentleman from San Francisco believed that everything around him was created only to please his person; he firmly believed in the power of the “golden calf.” “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 cleanliness and peace, carried his things, called porters for him, delivered his chests to hotels. It was like this everywhere, it was like this in sailing, it should have been like this in Naples.” Yes, the wealth of the American tourist, like a magic key, opened many doors, but not all. It could not prolong his life, it did not protect him even after death. How much servility and admiration this man saw during his life, the same amount of humiliation his mortal body experienced after death. Bunin shows how illusory the power of money is in this world. And the person who bets on them is pathetic. Having created idols for himself, he strives to achieve the same well-being. It seems that the goal has been achieved, he is at the top, for which he worked tirelessly for many years. What did you do that you left for your descendants? Nobody even remembered his name. What to remember? Thousands of such gentlemen travel annually along standard routes, claiming exclusivity, but they are only likenesses of each other, imagining themselves as masters of life. And their turn comes, and they leave without a trace, causing neither regret nor bitterness. In the story “Mr. from San Francisco,” Bunin showed the illusory and disastrous nature of such a path for a person. True creative personality they try to realize themselves, to bring maximum benefit to the Fatherland, to the people living nearby, so their names remain for centuries, like the name of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin himself - a wonderful creator and artist of the word.

Those who have them own everything. They can buy love, loyalty, devotion and friendship. They have the right to enjoy the beauty of Italian nature, ancient monuments, and listen to the serenades of wandering singers. They can do anything. A certain gentleman from San Francisco believed in this for so long, whose problem began in his youth, when the love of money took over his entire being so much that his life was interrupted before it even began. He never knew in what naive delusion he lived for fifty-eight years.

Faceless Mr.

He has neither a name nor appearance. The author does not endow him with any characteristic features in behavior and does not put words into his mouth. The story “Mr. from San Francisco” is a symbolic parable about the frailty of life. It even serves as a symbol main character. This gentleman is nothing more than the personification of money-grubbing and greed.

Little has been said about him. But it is known that he is rich. For many years he worked, earned and saved so that one day he could start living. A gentleman from San Francisco owns everything you need for entertainment, relaxation and long trips. The only problem is that while he was striving for the heights of prosperity, he forgot how to relax and have fun.

The hero of Bunin's novel goes on a long voyage. His plans include visiting Italian cities, all kinds of entertainment and the services of corrupt women. He is not aware of why he needs all this, but he knows exactly how it needs to be done. A rich American will drink expensive wine, dance, eat delicacies, and then enjoy the beauty of the Capriana landscape. All rich Americans do this. And also Germans, French, Italians. In short, everyone who has money.

"Atlantis"

On the famous comfortable steamer goes to fabulous trip gentleman from San Francisco. The problem with Atlantis, and the mentioned steamship is named after it, is that it sank. This mythical state was swallowed up by the sea in a matter of hours. And, descending into the hold of the ship, Bunin’s character seems to descend into the underworld. The name of the ship was not chosen by chance by the author. It symbolizes imminent and sudden death.

Hired actors

There is pretense and hypocrisy all around. The rich gentleman has lived in a world of lies for so long that he has forgotten what the truth looks like. He sincerely believes in the kindness towards him on the part of all those faceless characters who feed him, carry his numerous suitcases and try in every possible way to please. The gentleman from San Francisco cannot help but admire the sight of a happy couple in love on the deck of a ship. The problem with these people is that they are just hired actors trying their best to earn their money and create the right mood. Hardly any of the passengers know how long they have been sailing on this ship, and how tired they are of playing this role. In the story “Mr. from San Francisco,” these characters are included as a symbol of feigned insincere joy, pretense, and props.

Island of Capri

Ivan Bunin puts the emotions of the main character and his thoughts into such a dry and laconic form that the reader has doubts as to whether this American gentleman is a living person. His plans for the upcoming vacation are presented somehow detachedly and more like a clear scheme of actions. So literary device the writer conveys the poor spiritual world of the protagonist, for whom life has become something unknown, and simple human joys are inaccessible. The landscape is described in a completely different style. It is colorful and bright. The author spares no comparisons and metaphors. After all, the landscape in Bunin’s story is life in all its colors and diversity.

The system of artistic and philosophical symbols is represented by the short story “Mr. from San Francisco.” Its content is a contrast between greed, love of money and the beauty of the surrounding world, everything that a person can see if he so desires. But none of the characters are associated with the beautiful aspects of human existence. This is evidenced by the events that follow the death of the main character.

Death

It overtakes the hero suddenly. And everything that surrounded him during his life - respect, honor, ingratiation - disappears. In return, irritation, annoyance and even rudeness appear.

Bunin's story "Mr. from San Francisco" is a work of philosophical and symbolic prose. The idea that underlies it was, is and will always be relevant.

In his works, Bunin often speaks with cold contempt about the meaninglessness of the world and human dreams, about the illusory and deceitful nature of the goals to which a person strives and to which he devotes his existence. The writer notes with bitterness that life is separated from death by a very weak partition. This is what the story “Mr. from San Francisco” is about.

Bunin does not give his hero a name. This is not necessary. He is the same as thousands of other rich and self-satisfied people. His image is typical. The hero is fifty-eight years old, but he is just beginning to live, because for many years“only existed”, doing only one thing - increasing his own capital. He worked tirelessly, and this was the only meaning of his life. Now he is firmly confident in his right to rest, the right to finally begin to enjoy life, look around, and reward himself for his years of work. Appearance the Atlantis passenger and the environment around him speak eloquently about his social status: tuxedo, starched linen, bottle of wine, glasses made of the finest glass, bouquet of hyacinths. The service staff is ready from morning to evening to anticipate the slightest desires of this respectable, and also generous, gentleman. They “guarded his cleanliness and peace, carried his things, called porters for him, delivered his chests to hotels. It was like this everywhere,” the author notes. When they rushed to the gentleman with an offer of services, he only grinned arrogantly and calmly said through his teeth: “Get out!” On the island of Capri, a wealthy traveler is given a special welcome important person. Everyone is fussing around him, everything around him comes to life, is filled with movement and even delight. Glitter and chic - this is the atmosphere surrounding the visitor from San Francisco at this stage of his journey.

But something terrible happens: the hero dies. Like mere mortals, she came to him unexpectedly and suddenly, regardless of his financial condition, prospects for the future, dreams and plans. The author again gives a portrait of his hero. But this is no longer the same person who just recently amazed those around him with his external polish. Bunin provides the reader with a merciless picture of death: “his neck tensed, his eyes bulged, his pince-nez flew off.”nose.....the lower jaw fell off....the head fell overover his shoulder and wrapped around him, the chest of his shirt stuck out like a box - and his whole body, writhing, lifting up the carpet with his heels, crawled to the floor... He shook his head, wheezed as if he had been stabbed to death, rolled his eyes like a drunk.”

A. T. Tvardovsky wonderfully revealed the meaning of this episode: “In the face of love and death, according to Bunin, the social, class, and property lines that separate people are erased by themselves—everyone is equal before them... Nameless gentleman from San Francisco dies, having just got ready to have a good lunch in the restaurant of a first-class hotel on the warm sea coast. But death is equally terrible in its inevitability.”

Death is cruel to the hero. What about people? Those who not long ago sought to please the Lord’s every whim? They take his body “to the smallest, worst, dampest and coldest” room and place him on a cheap iron bed. For them, the guest from San Francisco is no longer interesting, his tragic death is not a grief, but a nuisance that they are ready to eliminate by any means for the sake of gentlemen who are just like him recently, capricious and demanding respect. And where did their recent courtesy, with which they looked into the hero’s eyes just a few minutes ago, go? They try to get rid of the body as quickly as possible and at any cost, and instead of a coffin, large long soda boxes are used for it. The gentleman is no longer traveling back as a first-class passenger, but as a burdensome cargo, carelessly thrown in a black hold, into which he ended up only after spending a week “from one barn to another,” “having experienced a lot of humiliation, a lot of human inattention.” During this time, no one thought that someone’s life was cut short, that the person lived for something, loved someone, rejoiced at something, strived for something. The power of the gentleman from San Francisco, as A. T. Tvardovsky argued, turns out to be ephemeral in the face of the same mortal outcome for everyone.

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. The fate of an individual began to seem like a grain of sand in the whirlpool of history, even if that person 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 portrayed 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 an emphatically physiological way. 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 on the part of the rich we see indifference, 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 the 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.