The writer displayed in this story the problems of his time, when concerns about acquiring capital and increasing it became paramount in society. Bunin painted with hard strokes the characteristic features of capitalism that he saw in reality. The foreign bourgeois world is portrayed by the writer without iridescent colors and sentimentality, which corresponded to the onslaught of growing capitalism. The display of social problems has become a kind of background against which the struggle of eternal, true values with imaginary, false ideals becomes more vivid and intensifies.
The main character, to whom the author does not give a name, is shown at that period of his life when he had already achieved everything. The absence of a name here is symbolic: this technique allows you to generalize a typical representative of bourgeois society. This is an ordinary capitalist who achieved great wealth through incredible efforts, when for a long time he had to deny himself a lot: “He worked tirelessly - the Chinese, whom he signed out to work for him by the thousands, knew well what that meant!” The main thing for him was to get as much income as possible through cheap labor. Inability for mercy or pity, complete disregard for human rights and justice in relation to those who created capital for him, monstrous greed - all these are the personality traits of the "exemplary capitalist". These conclusions are also confirmed by the complete contempt of the master for the poor, impoverished, destitute people whom he sees during the journey, leaving in the cities where the steamer stopped. This is reflected with the help of the author's remarks: the master either does not notice the poor, or grins, looking arrogantly and contemptuously, or drives the beggars away, saying “away!” through his teeth.
Man reduced the meaning of life to gain, the accumulation of wealth, but he did not have time to enjoy the fruits of his many years of “labor”. And his life turned out to be meaningless: money and luxury did not bring joy. Death came quickly, suddenly, crossing out those values that the master considered a priority. He surrounded himself with expensive things and at the same time lost his humanity, becoming both internally and externally some kind of soulless idol with gold teeth and expensive rings. The creation of such an image emphasizes the author's position in relation to the capitalist gentlemen who lose their human appearance due to the passion for profit.
Further, the author shows how death equates the rich man with those who had neither gold nor jewelry - with the workers in the hold. Using the technique of contrast, antitheses, Bunin tells how in the dirty hold of the comfortable steamer Atlantis, when money turned out to be useless (they did not provide a separate luxurious cabin for the dead), the gentleman “travels” further, since it was in the hold that the coffin with his body was placed. The rich man wanted to satisfy his vanity by allowing himself idle rest in luxurious cabins and sumptuous feasts in the restaurants of the Atlantis. But quite unexpectedly, he lost power, and no amount of money will help the deceased to demand submission from the workers or respect from the attendants to his person. Life has put everything in its place, separating the true values from the imaginary ones. The wealth that he was able to accumulate, he will not need "in the next world." He did not leave a good memory of himself (he did not help anyone, and he did not build hospitals or roads), and the heirs will quickly squander the money.
The school course of knowledge in the discipline "Literature" cannot cover all the issues of literary criticism relevant to the student. Optional courses offered by the school are more aimed at acquiring expressive reading skills and developing stage talent. However, schoolchildren and students need knowledge of literary terms, since the exam is ahead of them, and it is very difficult to do without certain knowledge. I offer material that will help students to consolidate literary and linguistic terms on the example of I.A. Bunin (based on the story "The Gentleman from San Francisco").
“The study of literary and linguistic terms on the example of I.A. Bunin (according to the story"Sir from San Francisco").
In modern non-governmental and secondary vocational schools there is not enough time in the Russian language and literature classes to study literary and linguistic terms, although students come from general education schools with certain knowledge and skills in literary criticism. The school course of knowledge in the discipline "Literature" cannot cover all the issues of literary criticism relevant to the student. Optional courses offered by the school are more aimed at acquiring expressive reading skills and developing stage talent. However, schoolchildren and students need knowledge of literary terms, since the exam is ahead of them, and it is very difficult to do without certain knowledge.
In my opinion, the teacher is obliged to find time in the classroom to give his students the opportunity to consolidate their knowledge and complete the USE tasks, if necessary. I propose to consider a way in which you can recall the basic terms of literary criticism and linguistics, consolidate knowledge by studying the story of I.A. Bunin "The Gentleman from San Francisco". We will be mainly interested in the terms of literary criticism and linguistics, which were used by I.A. Bunin in this story. To begin with, let's briefly recall the history of the creation of the story and move on to the main issue of the article.
The story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" belongs to the most famous works of I.A. Bunin and is regarded by many critics as the pinnacle of his pre-October creativity. Published in 1915, the story was created during the First World War, when the motives of the catastrophic nature of life, the unnaturalness and doom of technocratic civilization noticeably increased in the writer's work.
Story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" is filled with a huge number of artistic tropes and stylistic figures. Let's try to find the most famous of them.Syntactic parallelism is actively used. PARALLELISM ( from Greek - walking side by side) - an identical or similar arrangement of speech elements in adjacent parts of the text, creating a single poetic image.
(He ran quickly... He rushed forward... He persistently fought death... He shook his head...)
Anaphoras mostly of service words. ANAPHORA (Greek anaphora - pronouncement) - repetition of initial words, lines, stanzas or phrases.
(And again she wriggled painfully and sometimes convulsively collided among this crowd, and no one knew anything that had long been bored ...)
On the other hand, “The Gentleman from San Francisco” is perhaps the only work by Bunin in which such unpretentious artistic tropes as epithets, comparisons and metaphors are often found.
EPITHET (Greek attached) - this is one of the tropes, which is an artistic, figurative definition.
Adjectives are used as epithets:emerald lawn, icy haze and so on.
COMPARISON - a word or expression containing the likening of one object to another, one situation to another. (“In the Mediterranean Sea there was a large and flowery wave, like a peacock’s tail”, “the commander, like a merciful pagan god” ...).
METAPHOR (Greek transfer) - a type of so-called complex trope, speech turnover, in which the properties of one phenomenon (object, concept) are transferred to another. Metaphor contains a hidden comparison, a figurative likening of phenomena using the figurative meaning of words, what the object is compared with is only implied by the author. No wonder Aristotle said that "to compose good metaphors means to notice similarities."
(The gigantic fireboxes, devouring with their red-hot mouths, heaps of coal, rumbled dully.) (Through the binoculars Naples was already visible in lumps of sugar at the foot of something gray).
In the story of I.A. Bunin, we find personifications that decorate the text, make it more dynamic.
PERSONALIZATION (prosopopoeia, personification) - a kind of metaphor; transferring the properties of animate objects to inanimate ones (the sun pleased, the floors gaped) .
The plot is based on the fate of the protagonist - "The Gentleman from San Francisco", who goes on a trip to the Old World and unexpectedly dies in Capri, so there are many sentences with inversion in the story.
INVERSION (lat. - permutation) - a stylistic figure, consisting in a violation of the generally accepted grammatical sequence of speech; rearrangement of parts of the phrase gives it a peculiar expressive shade.
(Life in Naples immediately flowed according to routine ...)
PHRASEOLOGISM (Greek - expression) - a lexically indivisible, stable in its composition and structure, a phrase that is integral in meaning, reproduced in the form of a finished speech unit.
(He worked tirelessly…).
In this way, the paths are concentrated on a small space of the text and reflect the multiplicity and mobility of the author's points of view, the dynamics of time perceived by a particular observer. Of course, we have not touched everyone.literary and linguistic terms, but tried to cover those that are studied in schools and institutions of NGOs and vocational schools.
I.A. Bunin displayed in this story the problems of his time, when concerns about acquiring capital and increasing it became paramount in society. The author, with hard strokes, drew the characteristic features of capitalism that he saw in reality. The foreign bourgeois world is portrayed by the writer without iridescent colors and sentimentality, which corresponded to the onslaught of growing capitalism. The display of social problems has become a kind of background against which the struggle of eternal, true values with imaginary, false ideals becomes more vivid and intensifies.
The main character, to whom the author does not give a name, is shown at that period of his life when he had already achieved everything. The absence of a name here is symbolic: this technique allows you to generalize a typical representative of bourgeois society. This is an ordinary capitalist who achieved great wealth through incredible efforts, when for a long time he had to deny himself a lot: “He worked tirelessly - the Chinese, whom he signed out to work for him by the thousands, knew well what that meant!” The main thing for him was to get as much income as possible through cheap labor. Inability for mercy or pity, complete disregard for human rights and justice in relation to those who created capital for him, monstrous greed - all these are the personality traits of a “model capitalist”. These conclusions are also confirmed by the complete contempt of the master for the poor, impoverished, destitute people whom he sees during the journey, leaving in the cities where the steamer stopped. This is reflected with the help of the author's remarks: the master either does not notice the poor, or grins, looking arrogantly and contemptuously, or drives the beggars away, saying through his teeth: “Get out!”.
Man reduced the meaning of life to gain, the accumulation of wealth, but he did not have time to enjoy the fruits of his many years of “labor”.
And his life turned out to be meaningless: money and luxury did not bring joy. Death came quickly, suddenly, crossing out those values that the master considered a priority. He surrounded himself with expensive things and at the same time lost his humanity, becoming both internally and externally some kind of soulless idol with gold teeth and expensive rings. The creation of such an image emphasizes the author's position in relation to the capitalist gentlemen who lose their human appearance due to the passion for profit.
Further, the author shows how death equates the rich man with those who had neither gold nor jewelry - with the workers in the hold. Using the technique of contrast, antitheses, Bunin tells how in the dirty hold of the comfortable steamer Atlantis, when money turned out to be useless (they did not provide a separate luxurious cabin for the dead), the gentleman “travels” further, since it was in the hold that the coffin with his body was placed. The rich man wanted to satisfy his vanity by allowing himself idle rest in luxurious cabins and sumptuous feasts in the restaurants of the Atlantis. But quite unexpectedly, he lost power, and no amount of money will help the deceased to demand submission from the workers or respect from the attendants to his person. Life has put everything in its place, separating the true values from the imaginary ones. The wealth that he was able to accumulate, he will not need "in the next world." He did not leave a good memory of himself (he did not help anyone, and he did not build hospitals or roads), and the heirs will quickly squander the money.
At the end of the story, the image of the Devil, who was watching the movement of the Atlantis ship, naturally arises. And this leads to reflection: what attracts the interest of the ruler of hell to the ship and its inhabitants? In this regard, it becomes necessary to return to those lines in the work, where the author gives a detailed description of the ship, which "looked like a huge hotel with all the amenities." Bunin repeatedly emphasized that the frightening force of the movement of the ocean and the howl of a siren screeching “with furious malice”, with “hellish gloominess” could cause unconscious anxiety and longing among the passengers of the Atlantis, but everything was drowned out by the relentlessly sounding music. No one thought of those people who provided the idle public with all the comforts of a pleasant journey. Also, no one suspected that the "underwater womb" of a comfortable "hotel" can be compared with the gloomy and sultry bowels of the underworld, with the ninth circle of hell. What was the author hinting at with these descriptions? Why does he contrast the lives of wealthy cruising gentlemen spending huge amounts of money on luxurious leisure and hellish working conditions, such as workers in the hold?
Some researchers of the work of I.A. Bunin saw in the features of the story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" the author's negative attitude towards the bourgeois world and the prophecy of a possible catastrophe. Y. Maltsev in one of his works notes the influence of the First World War on the mood of the writer, who allegedly perceived the events of this era as “the last act of the world tragedy - that is, the completion of the degeneration of Europeans and the death of the mechanical, godless and unnatural civilization of modern times .. .". However, it is difficult to fully agree with this. Yes, the apocalyptic motive is present, the author's position can be clearly traced in relation to the bourgeoisie, which is under the close attention of the Devil. But it is unlikely that Bunin could predict the death of capitalism: the power of money is too strong, capitals have already grown too much in that era, spreading their vicious ideals all over the world. And the defeat of this civilization is not expected even in the XXI century. So the writer, who clearly does not sympathize with the master and his fellow capitalists, nevertheless did not resort to global prophecies, but showed his attitude to eternal values and to false, far-fetched, transient values.
For example, the author contrasts the image of a rich gentleman with the image of the boatman Lorenzo, who can sell the fish he caught for nothing, and then, carelessly walking along the shore in his rags, enjoy a sunny day, admire the landscape. Lorenzo's life values are just those that are considered eternal: work that makes it possible to live, a kind attitude towards people, the joy of communicating with nature. In this he sees the meaning of life, and the intoxication of wealth is incomprehensible and unknown to him. This is a sincere person, he has no hypocrisy either in behavior or in assessing the achievements, the results of his work. The appearance of the boatman is drawn in bright colors, it does not cause anything but a smile. Only a few lines are allocated to create an image-symbol, but the author managed to convey to the reader that Lorenzo is sympathetic to him as the opposite of the main character, the capitalist.
Indeed, the writer had the right to a contrasting image of the characters, and the reader sees that the author does not condemn Lorenzo for carelessness, for frivolity in relation to money. On several pages of the work, with irony, endless breakfasts, lunches and dinners of wealthy passengers, their leisure, that is, playing cards, dancing in the restaurants of Atlantis, are depicted, for which huge amounts of money are spent. And this money is the same profit from the labor of people who were not paid fairly for their hard labor. So isn't it better to challenge the exploiters and not participate in the creation of capital for the masters? Apparently, such a philosophy could lead Lorenzo to a carefree lifestyle, and he allows himself to be free in this cruel bourgeois world. That is why man did not live by bread alone. But Lorenzo's followers, of course, cannot be many: people must support their families, feed their children.
Bunin also showed wandering musicians wandering along the slopes of the mountains: "... and a whole country, joyful, beautiful, sunny, stretched under them ...". And when these people saw a plaster statue of the Mother of God in the grotto, they stopped, "uncovered their heads - and naive and humbly joyful praises poured out to their sun, morning and her, the immaculate intercessor ...". These deviations from the main theme (the depiction of the life and death of the master) give reason to conclude about the author's position: Bunin does not sympathize with the gentlemen with gold rings on their fingers, with gold teeth, but these vagabonds without a penny in their pockets, but with "diamonds in their souls" .
The main theme of Bunin's work - love - is also covered in the story "The Gentleman from San Francisco", but the reverse, false side of a great feeling is shown here, when there is really no love. The writer symbolically showed the falsity of the feelings of the bourgeois elite, people who are sure that everything can be bought for money. A couple in love was portrayed for a good fee by two artists: they diversified the leisure of a wealthy clientele in such a way as to add romance to the journey. "Circus number" - fake bait instead of true love; ghostly happiness with a "bag of money" instead of true joys... and so on. In this work, many human values look like counterfeit banknotes.
Thus, through portrait characteristics, contrasting images, details, remarks and remarks, thanks to the use of antitheses, epithets, comparisons, metaphors, the author reflected his position in understanding the true and imaginary human values. The artistic merits of this work, the special, unique style, the richness of the language were highly appreciated by contemporaries of I.A. Bunin, and critics, and readers of all eras.
Reviews
Zoya, good afternoon.
And a wonderful article and a wonderful work by Bunin, the analysis of which it is dedicated to.
A strong work: both by the images that Bunin presented, and by the beautiful literary description with which his literary work is full, the text itself.
The man from San Francisco and the boatman Lorenzo - what a good parallel, giving a comparison of values. An interesting literary move is not to name the main character, making him a household name.
And the image of the Devil! How aptly Bunin expressed it!
Zoya, thank you very much for analyzing Bunin's work.
Interesting article, correct and well written.
The topic raised by Bunin is eternal and important. For every time a person makes a choice how to live and live life: imaginary or real, enslaved by the passion of gain or living by eternal values and virtues.
Good luck, Zoya. Good Sunday to you.
With kind regards and best wishes,
Bunin's story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" tells that everything depreciates before the fact of death. Human life is subject to decay, it is too short to waste it in vain, and the main idea of this instructive story is to comprehend the essence of human existence. The meaning of the life of the hero of this story lies in his belief that everything can be bought with the available wealth, but fate decided otherwise. We offer an analysis of the work "The Gentleman from San Francisco" according to the plan, the material will be useful in preparing for the exam in literature in grade 11.
Year of writing– 1915
History of creation- In a shop window, Bunin accidentally drew attention to the cover of Thomas Mann's book "Death in Venice", this was the impetus for writing the story.
Topic– The opposites that surround a person everywhere are the main theme of the work - this is life and death, wealth and poverty, power and insignificance. All this reflects the philosophy of the author himself.
Composition– The problematics of “The Gentleman from San Francisco” includes both philosophical and socio-political character. The author reflects on the frailty of life, on the attitude of a person to spiritual and material values, from the point of view of various strata of society. The plot of the story begins with the journey of the master, the climax is his unexpected death, and in the denouement of the story the author reflects on the future of mankind.
Genre- A story that is a meaningful parable.
Direction- Realism. In the story of Bunin, it acquires a deep philosophical meaning.
The history of the creation of Bunin's story dates back to 1915, when he saw the cover of the book by Thomas Mann. After that, he visited his sister, remembered the cover, for some reason she caused him to associate with the death of one of the Americans on vacation, which happened during a vacation in Capri. Immediately, a sudden decision came to him to describe this incident, which he did in the shortest possible time - the story was written in just four days. With the exception of the deceased American, all other facts in the story are completely fictitious.
In The Gentleman from San Francisco, the analysis of the work allows us to highlight main idea of the story, which consists in the author's philosophical reflections on the meaning of life, on the essence of being.
Critics enthusiastically reacted to the creation of the Russian writer, interpreting the essence of the philosophical story in their own way. Theme of the story- life and death, poverty and luxury, in the description of this hero, who lived his life in vain, reflects the worldview of the whole society, divided into classes. High society, possessing all material values, having the opportunity to buy everything that is only for sale, do not have the most important thing - spiritual values.
On the ship, a dancing couple, depicting sincere happiness, is also a fake. These are actors who have been bought to play love. There is nothing real, everything is artificial and feigned, everything is bought. And the people themselves are false and hypocritical, they are faceless, which is what the meaning of the name this story.
And the master has no name, his life is aimless and empty, he does not bring any benefit, he only enjoys the benefits created by representatives of another, lower class. He dreamed of buying everything that was possible, but did not have time, fate decreed in its own way, and took his life from him. When he dies, no one remembers him, he only causes inconvenience to others, including his family.
The bottom line is that he died - that's all, he does not need any wealth, luxury, power and honor. He doesn't care where he lies - in a luxurious inlaid coffin, or in a simple soda box. Life was in vain, he did not experience real, sincere human feelings, did not know love and happiness, in the worship of the golden calf.
The storytelling is divided into two parts: how a gentleman sails on a ship to the coast of Italy, and the journey of the same gentleman back, on the same ship, only already in a coffin.
In the first part, the hero enjoys all the possible benefits that money can buy, he has all the best: a hotel room, gourmet meals, and all the other delights of life. The gentleman has so much money that he planned a trip for two years, together with his family, wife and daughter, who also do not deny themselves anything.
But after the climax, when the hero is overtaken by sudden death, everything changes dramatically. The owner of the hotel does not even allow to put the corpse of the gentleman in his room, having allocated for this purpose the cheapest and most inconspicuous. There is not even a decent coffin in which the gentleman can be put, and he is put in an ordinary box, which is a container for some products. On the ship, where the gentleman was blissful on deck among high society, his place is only in the dark hold.
"The Gentleman from San Francisco" can be summed up as genre story a, but this story is filled with deep philosophical content, and differs from other Bunin's works. Usually, Bunin's stories contain a description of nature and natural phenomena, striking in their liveliness and realism.
In the same work there is a main character, around whom the conflict of this story is tied. Its content makes us think about the problems of society, about its degradation, which has turned into a spiritually mercantile creature, worshiping only one idol - money, and renounced everything spiritual.
The whole story is subject philosophical direction, and in plot plan is an instructive parable that gives a lesson to the reader. The injustice of a class society, where the lower part of the population vegetates in poverty, and the cream of high society senselessly burns life, all this, in the end, leads to a single finale, and in the face of death everyone is equal, both poor and rich, no one can buy it off money.
Bunin's story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" is rightfully considered one of the most outstanding works in his work.
Average rating: 4.6. Total ratings received: 769.
The purpose of the lesson: to reveal the philosophical content of Bunin's story.
Methodological techniques: analytical reading.
During the classes.
I. The word of the teacher.
The First World War was already underway, there was a crisis of civilization. Bunin turned to the problems that are relevant, but not directly related to Russia, to the current Russian reality. In the spring of 1910 I.A. Bunin visited France, Algeria, Capri. In December 1910 - in the spring of 1911. I have been to Egypt and Ceylon. In the spring of 1912 he again left for Capri, and in the summer of the following year he visited Trebizond, Constantinople, Bucharest and other European cities. From December 1913 he spent half a year in Capri. The impressions of these travels were reflected in the stories and short stories that compiled the collections Sukhodol (1912), John the Rydalets (1913), The Cup of Life (1915), and The Gentleman from San Francisco (1916).
The story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" (originally titled "Death on Capri") continued the tradition of L.N. Tolstoy, who portrayed illness and death as the most important events that reveal the true value of a person (Polikushka, 1863; Death of Ivan Ilyich, 1886; Master and Worker, 1895). Along with the philosophical line in Bunin's story, social problems were developed, associated with a critical attitude to the lack of spirituality of bourgeois society, to the rise of technical progress to the detriment of internal improvement.
Bunin does not accept bourgeois civilization as a whole. The pathos of the story is in the feeling of the inevitability of the death of this world.
Plot built on the description of an accident that unexpectedly interrupted the well-established life and plans of the hero, whose name "no one remembered". He is one of those who, until the age of fifty-eight, "worked tirelessly" to become like rich people, "whom he once took as a model."
II. Storytelling conversation.
What images in the story are symbolic?
(Firstly, the symbol of society is perceived as an ocean steamer with the significant name "Atlantis", on which an unnamed millionaire sails to Europe. Atlantis is a sunken legendary, mythical continent, a symbol of a lost civilization that could not resist the onslaught of the elements. There are also associations with the deceased in 1912 year "Titanic" The "ocean that walked behind the walls" of the steamer is a symbol of the elements, nature, opposed to civilization.
The image of the captain is also symbolic, “a red-haired man of monstrous size and heaviness, similar ... to a huge idol and very rarely appeared in front of people from his mysterious chambers.” Symbolic image of the title character ( reference: the title character is the one whose name is placed in the title of the work, he may not be the main character). The gentleman from San Francisco is the personification of a man of bourgeois civilization.)
To more clearly imagine the nature of the relationship between "Atlantis" and the ocean, you can apply a "cinematic" technique: the "camera" first slides along the floors of the ship, demonstrating rich decoration, details that emphasize the luxury, solidity, reliability of "Atlantis", and then gradually "sails away", showing the enormity of the ship as a whole; moving further, the “camera” moves away from the steamer until it becomes like a nutshell in a huge raging ocean that fills the entire space. (Let's recall the final scene of the film Solaris, where, it would seem, the found father's house turns out to be only an imaginary one, given to the hero by the power of the Ocean. If possible, you can show these shots in class).
What is the main setting of the story?
(The main action of the story takes place on the huge ship famous "Atlantis". The limited plot space allows you to focus on the mechanism of the functioning of bourgeois civilization. It appears as a society divided into upper "floors" and "basements". Upstairs, life goes on like in a "hotel with everyone comforts ", measured, calm and idle. "Passengers" living "safely", "many", but much more - "a great many" - those who work for them "in cooks', scullery" and in the "underwater womb" - at the "gigantic furnaces".)
What technique does Bunin use to portray the division of society?
(The division has the nature of the antithesis: rest, carelessness, dances and work, unbearable tension are opposed ”; "radiance ... of the chamber" and "gloomy and sultry bowels of the underworld"; "gentlemen" in tailcoats and tuxedos, ladies in "rich", "charming" "toilets" and "naked people covered in caustic, dirty sweat and waist-deep, purple from the flames." Gradually, a picture of heaven and hell is being built.)
How do "tops" and "bottoms" relate to each other?
(They are strangely related to each other. "Good money" helps to get to the top, and those who, like "the gentleman from San Francisco", were "quite generous" to people from the "underworld", they "fed and watered .. .from morning to evening they served him, preventing his slightest desire, guarded his cleanliness and peace, dragged his things ... ".)
Why is the main character without a name?
(The hero is simply called “master” because that is what he is. At least he considers himself a master and revels in his position. He can afford to “just for the sake of entertainment” go “to the Old World for two whole years”, can enjoy all the benefits guaranteed by his status, believes "in the caring of all those who fed and watered him, served him from morning till night, warned his slightest desire", can contemptuously throw to the ragamuffins through his teeth: "Go away! Via!". ("Away!").)
(Describing the appearance of the gentleman, Bunin uses epithets that emphasize his wealth and his unnaturalness: “silver mustache”, “golden fillings” of teeth, “strong bald head”, is compared with “old ivory”. There is nothing spiritual in the gentleman, his goal is to become rich and reap the benefits of this wealth - came true, but he did not become happier because of this. The description of the gentleman from San Francisco is constantly accompanied by the author's irony.)
When does the hero begin to change, lose his self-confidence?
(“The master” changes only in the face of death, it is no longer the gentleman from San Francisco that begins to appear in him - he was no longer there - but someone else. " Death makes him a man: "his features began to thin, brighten .. .". "Dead", "deceased", "dead" - this is how the author of the hero now calls. The attitude of those around him changes dramatically: 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 box from - under a soda ("soda water" is also one of the signs of civilization), the servant, trembling before the living, mockingly laughs at the dead. At the end of the story, the "body of a dead old man from San Francisco" is mentioned, which returns "home, to the grave, to the shores of the New World ", in a black hold. The power of the "master" turned out to be illusory.)
How is society shown in the story?
(The steamboat - the last word in technology - is a model of human society. Its holds and decks are the layers of this society. On the upper floors of the ship, which looks like "a huge hotel with all amenities," the life of the rich, who have achieved complete "well-being," flows measuredly. This life is indicated the longest indefinitely personal sentence, occupying almost a page: "get up early, ... drink coffee, chocolate, cocoa, ... sit in the baths, stimulating appetite and well-being, make daily toilets and go to the first breakfast ...". These proposals emphasize the impersonality, lack of individuality of those who consider themselves the masters of life. Everything they do is unnatural: entertainment is needed only to artificially stimulate appetite. "Travelers" do not hear the evil howl of a siren, foreshadowing death - it is drowned out by "the sounds of a beautiful string orchestra" .
The passengers of the ship represent the nameless “cream” of society: “There was a certain great rich man among this brilliant crowd, ... there was a famous Spanish writer, there was a world-class beauty, there was an elegant couple in love ...” The couple portrayed love, was “hired by Lloyd to play love for good money." It is an artificial paradise filled with light, warmth and music.
And there is hell. The “underwater womb of the steamer” is like the underworld. There, "gigantic fireboxes cackled deafly, devouring with their red-hot mouths piles of coal, with a roar thrown into them by people covered in caustic, dirty sweat and waist-deep naked people, purple from the flame." Note the disturbing coloring and menacing sound of this description.)
How is the conflict between man and nature resolved?
(Society is just like a well-oiled machine. Nature, which seems to be an object of entertainment along with “antiquity monuments, a tarantella, serenades of wandering singers and ... the love of young Neapolitan women,” recalls the illusory nature of life in a “hotel.” It is “huge”, but around it - the "water desert" of the ocean and the "cloudy sky". Man's eternal fear of the elements is muffled by the sounds of the "string orchestra". He is reminded of the "permanently calling" from hell, groaning "in mortal anguish" and "furious malice" siren, but they hear it "few". All the rest believe in the inviolability of their existence, guarded by the "pagan idol" - the commander of the ship. The specificity of the description is combined with symbolism, which makes it possible to emphasize the philosophical nature of the conflict. The social gap between rich and poor is nothing compared to the abyss that separates man from nature and life from non-existence.)
What is the role of episodic heroes of the story - Lorenzo and the Abruzzo highlanders?
(These characters appear at the end of the story and are in no way connected with its action. Lorenzo is “a tall old boatman, a carefree reveler and a handsome man,” probably the same age as a gentleman from San Francisco. Only a few lines are dedicated to him, but a sonorous name is given, in contrast from the title character. He is famous throughout Italy, served as a model for many painters more than once. "With a regal habit" he looks around, feeling truly "royal", enjoying life, "drawing with his tatters, a clay pipe and a red woolen beret lowered on one ear.” The picturesque poor old man Lorenzo will live forever on the canvases of artists, and the rich old man from San Francisco was deleted from life and forgotten before he could die.
The Abruzzi highlanders, like Lorenzo, personify the naturalness and joy of being. They live in harmony, in harmony with the world, with nature: “They walked - and a whole country, joyful, beautiful, sunny, stretched under them: and the stony humps of the island, which almost all lay at their feet, and that fabulous blue, in which he swam, and the radiant morning vapors over the sea to the east, under the dazzling sun ... ". The goat-skin bagpipe and the highlanders' wooden forearm are contrasted with the "beautiful string orchestra" of the steamer. The highlanders give their lively, unsophisticated music of praise to the sun, the morning, "the immaculate intercessor of all those who suffer in this evil and beautiful world, and born from her womb in the cave of Bethlehem ...". These are the true values of life, as opposed to the brilliant, expensive, but artificial, imaginary values of "masters".)
What image is a generalizing image of the insignificance and perishability of earthly wealth and glory?
(This is also a nameless image, which recognizes the once powerful Roman emperor Tiberius, who lived the last years of his life in Capri. Many "come to look at the remains of the stone house where he lived." "Humanity will forever remember him," but this is the glory of Herostratus : "a man who is unspeakably vile in satisfying his lust and for some reason had power over millions of people, who inflicted cruelty on them beyond measure. " In the word "for some reason" - exposure of fictitious power, pride; time puts everything in its place: gives immortality to the true and casts the false into oblivion.)
III. Teacher's word.
In the story, the theme of the end of the existing world order, the inevitability of the death of a soulless and soulless civilization gradually grows. It is embedded in the epigraph, which was removed by Bunin only in the last edition of 1951: “Woe to you, Babylon, strong city!” This biblical phrase, reminiscent of the feast of Belshazzar before the fall of the Chaldean kingdom, sounds like a harbinger of future great catastrophes. The mention in the text of Vesuvius, the eruption of which killed Pompeii, reinforces the formidable prediction. A keen sense of the crisis of civilization, doomed to non-existence, is associated with philosophical reflections on life, man, death and immortality.
IV. Analysis of the composition and conflict of the story.
Material for the teacher.
Composition The story is circular. The hero's journey begins in San Francisco and ends with the return "home, to the grave, to the shores of the New World." The "middle" of the story - a visit to the "Old World" - in addition to the specific, has a generalized meaning. The "New Man", returning to history, evaluates his place in the world in a new way. The arrival of the heroes in Naples, Capri opens up the possibility for inclusion in the text of the author's descriptions of the "wonderful", "joyful, beautiful, sunny" country, the beauty of which is "powerless to express the human word", and philosophical digressions due to Italian impressions.
Climax is the scene of "unexpectedly and rudely falling" on the "master" of death in the "smallest, worst, dampest and coldest" room of the "lower corridor".
This event, only by coincidence, was perceived as a “terrible incident” (“if there hadn’t been a German in the reading room” who escaped from there “with a cry”, the owner would have been able to “calm ... with hasty assurances that this is so, a trifle ...”). The unexpected disappearance into non-existence in the context of the story is perceived as the highest moment of the collision of the illusory and the true, when nature "rudely" proves its omnipotence. But people continue their "carefree", insane existence, quickly returning to peace and tranquility. They cannot be awakened to life not only by the example of one of their contemporaries, but even by the memory of what happened “two thousand years ago” during the time of Tiberius, who lived “on one of the steepest slopes” of Capri, who was the Roman emperor during the life of Jesus Christ.
Conflict The story goes far beyond the scope of a particular case, in connection with which its denouement is connected with reflections on the fate of not one hero, but all past and future passengers of Atlantis. Doomed to the "hard" path of overcoming "darkness, the ocean, blizzards", closed in the "hellish" social machine, humanity is suppressed by the conditions of its earthly life. Only the naive and simple, like children, can enjoy the joy of communion "with the eternal and blissful abode." In the story, the image of “two Abruzzo highlanders” appears, baring their heads in front of a plaster statue of the “immaculate intercessor of all those who suffer”, recalling “her blessed son”, who brought the “beautiful” beginning of good to the “evil” world. The devil remained the owner of the earthly world, watching "from the stony gates of the two worlds" the deeds of the "New Man with an old heart." What will choose where humanity will go, whether it will be able to defeat the evil inclination in itself - this is the question to which the story gives a "suppressing ... soul" answer. But the denouement becomes problematic, since in the finale the idea of a Man is affirmed, whose "pride" turns him into the third force of the world. The symbol of this is the ship's path through time and the elements: "The blizzard fought in its gear and wide-mouthed pipes, whitened with snow, but it was steadfast, firm, majestic and terrible."
Artistic originality The story is connected with the interweaving of the epic and lyrical principles. On the one hand, in full accordance with the realistic principles of depicting the hero in his relationship with the environment, on the basis of social specifics, a type is created, the reminiscent background for which, first of all, are the images of “dead souls” (N.V. Gogol. “Dead Souls", 1842), At the same time, just like in Gogol, thanks to the author's assessment, expressed in lyrical digressions, the problems deepen, the conflict acquires a philosophical character.
Supplementary material for the teacher.
The melody of death latently begins to sound from the very first pages of the work, gradually becoming the leading motive. At first, death is extremely aestheticized, picturesque: in Monte Carlo, one of the activities of wealthy loafers is “shooting pigeons, which soar very beautifully and cages over an emerald lawn, against the backdrop of a sea the color of forget-me-nots, and immediately knock white lumps on the ground.” (In general, Bunin is characterized by the aestheticization of things that are usually unsightly, which should rather frighten than attract the observer - well, who, except him, could write about “slightly powdered, delicate pink pimples near the lips and between the shoulder blades” in the daughter of a gentleman from San Francisco, compare the whites of the eyes of blacks with “peeled hard-boiled eggs” or call a young man in a narrow tailcoat with long tails “a handsome man, like a huge leech!”) Then a hint of death appears in the verbal portrait of the crown prince of one of the Asian states, a sweet and pleasant person in general , whose mustache, however, "through, like a dead man", and the skin on the face was "as if stretched". And the siren on the ship chokes in "mortal anguish", promising evil, and the museums are cold and "deadly clean", and the ocean walks "mournful mountains from silver foam" and buzzes like a "funeral mass".
But even more clearly the breath of death is felt in the appearance of the main character, in whose portrait yellow-black-silver tones prevail: a yellowish face, gold fillings in the teeth, an ivory skull. Creamy silk underwear, black socks, trousers, and a tuxedo complete his look. Yes, and he sits in the golden-pearl radiance of the hall of the dining room. And it seems that from him these colors spread to nature and the whole world around. Unless an alarming red color is added. It is clear that the ocean rolls its black waves, that a crimson flame escapes from the furnaces of the ship, it is natural that the Italians have black hair, that the rubber capes of the cabbies give off black, that the crowd of lackeys is “black”, and the musicians may have red jackets. But why is the beautiful island of Capri also approaching with “its blackness”, “drilled with red lights”, why even “reconciled waves” shimmer like “black oil”, and “golden boas” flow over them from the lit lanterns on the pier?
So Bunin creates in the reader an idea of the omnipotence of a gentleman from San Francisco, capable of drowning out even the beauty of nature! (...) After all, even sunny Naples is not illuminated by the sun while an American is there, and the island of Capri seems to be some kind of ghost, “as if it had never existed in the world”, when a rich man approaches him ...
Remember, in the works of which writers there is a “talking color scheme. What role does yellow play in Dostoevsky's image of Petersburg? What other colors are significant?
Bunin needs all this in order to prepare the reader for the climax of the story - the death of the hero, about which he does not think, the thought of which does not penetrate his consciousness at all. And what a surprise can there be in this programmed world, where the solemn dressing for dinner is done in such a way as if a person is preparing for the “crown” (that is, the happy peak of his life!), Where there is a cheerful smartness, albeit not young, but well-shaven and a very elegant man who so easily overtakes an old woman who is late for dinner! Bunin saved only one detail, which is "knocked out" from a series of well-rehearsed deeds and movements: when a gentleman from San Francisco is dressing for dinner, his neck cufflink does not obey his fingers. She does not want to fasten in any way ... But he still defeats her. Painfully biting "flabby skin in the recess under the Adam's apple", wins "with eyes shining from tension", "all gray from the tight collar that squeezed his throat." And suddenly, at that moment, he utters words that in no way fit in with the atmosphere of general contentment, with the enthusiasm that he was prepared to receive. “- Oh. This is terrible! - he muttered ... and repeated with conviction: - This is terrible ... ”What exactly seemed terrible to him in this world designed for pleasure, the gentleman from San Francisco, who was not used to thinking about unpleasant things, did not try to understand. However, it is striking that an American who previously spoke mainly English or Italian (his Russian remarks are very short and are perceived as “passing through”) repeats this word twice in Russian ... By the way, it is worth noting in general his jerky, as barking speech: he does not speak more than two or three words in a row.
"Terrible" was the first touch of Death, which was never realized by a person in whose soul "for a long time ... there were no mystical feelings left." After all, as Bunin writes, the intense rhythm of his life did not leave "time for feelings and reflections." However, some feelings, or rather sensations, he still had, however, the simplest, if not base ones ... The writer repeatedly points out that the gentleman from San Francisco revived only at the mention of the tarantella performer. (his question, asked “in an expressionless voice”, about her partner: is he not her husband - just gives out hidden excitement), only imagining how she, “swarthy, with feigned eyes, like a mulatto, in a flowery outfit ( ...) dances”, only anticipating “the love of young Neapolitans, albeit not entirely disinterested”, only admiring the “live pictures” in brothels or looking so frankly at the famous blonde beauty that his daughter felt embarrassed. He feels despair only when he begins to suspect that life is slipping out of his control: he came to Italy to enjoy, and here it is foggy rains and terrifying pitching ... But it is given to him with pleasure to dream about a spoonful of soup and a sip of wine.
And for this, as well as for the whole life lived, in which there was self-confident businesslikeness, and cruel exploitation of other people, and the endless accumulation of wealth, and the conviction that everything around is called to “serve” him, “prevent his slightest desires”, “ carry his things”, for the lack of any living principle, Bunin executes him and executes him cruelly, one might say, mercilessly.
The death of a gentleman from San Francisco shocks with its ugliness, repulsive physiology. Now the writer makes full use of the aesthetic category of "ugly" in order to permanently imprint a disgusting picture in our memory. Bunin does not spare repulsive details in order to recreate a man whom no amount of wealth can save from the humiliation that followed after his death. Later, the dead person is also granted genuine communion with nature, which he was deprived of, which, being alive, he never felt the need for: “the stars looked at him from the sky, the cricket sang with sad carelessness on the wall.”
What works can you name where the death of the hero is described in detail? What is the significance of these “finals” for understanding the ideological intent? How is the author's position expressed in them?
The writer “rewarded” his hero with such an ugly, unenlightened death in order to once again emphasize the horror of that unrighteous life, which could only end in such a way. Indeed, after the death of a gentleman from San Francisco, the world felt relieved. A miracle happened. The very next day, the morning blue sky “became richer”, “peace and tranquility again settled on the island”, ordinary people poured into the streets, and the city market was decorated with his presence by the handsome Lorenzo, who serves as a model for many painters and, as it were, symbolizes beautiful Italy .. .
