Philosophical problems of Bunin's works: analysis of creativity. Philosophical problems of Bunin's works. The meaning of the stories The main problems of Bunin's work

Bunin's work is associated with the ideological and creative principles and traditions of Russian classical literature. But the realistic traditions that Bunin sought to preserve were perceived by him through the prism of the new transitional time. Bunin always had a negative attitude towards ethical and aesthetic decadence, literary modernity; he himself experienced, if not the influence, then a certain influence of the development trends of “new art”. Social and aesthetic views Bunina were formed in the atmosphere of provincial noble culture. He came from an ancient noble family that was completely impoverished by the end of the century. Since 1874, the Bunin family has lived in the last estate remaining after the ruin - on the Butyrki farm in the Yeletsky district of the Oryol province. The impressions of his childhood years were later reflected in the writer’s works, in which he wrote about the collapse of the estate lordship, about the poverty that overtook both the lordly estate and the peasant huts, about the joys and sorrows of the Russian peasant. In Yelets, where Bunin studied at the district gymnasium, he observes the life of the bourgeois and merchant houses in which he had to live as a freeloader. He had to give up studying at the gymnasium due to financial needs. At the age of 12, Bunin left the family estate forever. A period of wandering begins. He works in the zemstvo government in Kharkov, then at Orlovsky Vestnik, where he has to be “everything that has to be. The beginning of Bunin’s literary activity dates back to this time. He gained recognition and fame as a prose writer. Poetry occupied a significant place. He started with poetry and wrote poetry until the end of his life. In 1887, Bunin’s first poems, “The Village Beggar” and “Over the Grave of Nadson,” were published in the St. Petersburg magazine “Rodina”; Bunin's poems of the early period bore the stamp of the sentiments of civil poetry of the 80s. In the early days of his literary activity, Bunin defended the realistic principles of creativity, spoke about the civic purpose of the art of Poetry. Bunin argued that “social motives cannot be alien to true poetry.” In these articles, he polemicized with those who believed that the civil lyrics of Nekrasov and the poets of the sixties were supposedly evidence of the decline of Russian poetic culture. Bunin's first collection of poetry was published in 1891. In 1899, Bunin met Gorky. Bunin becomes an active member of Sreda. In 1901, the collection “Falling Leaves” dedicated to M. Gorky was published, which included all the best from Bunin’s early poetry, including the poem of the same name. The leitmotif of the collection is an elegiac farewell to the past. These were poems about the homeland, the beauty of its sad and joyful nature, about the sad sunsets of autumn and the dawns of summer. Thanks to this love, the poet looks vigilantly and far, and his colorful and auditory impressions are rich.”2..

In 1903, the Academy of Sciences awarded Bunin the Pushkin Prize for Falling Leaves and The Song of Hiawatha. In 1909 he was elected honorary academician. pictorial-descriptive style.

\.A year after “Falling Leaves”, Bunin’s poetry book “New Poems” is published, inspired by the same sentiments. Today" invades Bunin's work in the pre-revolutionary years. There are no direct echoes of social struggle, as was the case in the poems of the poets - “znavetsy”, in Bunin’s poetry . Social problems and freedom-loving motives are developed by him in the key of “eternal motives”; modern life correlates with certain universal problems of existence - good, evil, life, death. Not accepting bourgeois reality, having a negative attitude towards the advancing capitalization of the country, the poet, in search of ideals, turns to the past, but not only to the Russian, but to the cultures and civilizations of distant centuries. The defeat of the revolution and the new rise of the liberation movement aroused Bunin's keen interest in Russian history, in problems of the Russian national character. The theme of Russia becomes the main theme of his poetry. In the 1910s, philosophical lyrics took the main place in Bunin's poetry. Looking into the past, the writer sought to grasp certain “eternal” laws of development of the nation, peoples, and humanity. The basis of Bunin's philosophy of life in the 10s was the recognition of earthly existence as only a part of eternal cosmic history, in which the life of man and humanity is dissolved. His lyrics intensify the feeling of the fatal isolation of human life in a narrow time frame, the feeling of man’s loneliness in the world. In the poems of this time, many of the motifs of his prose of the 30s were already heard. Supporters of the “new poetry” considered him a bad poet who did not take into account new verbal means of depiction. Bryusov, sympathetic to Bunin’s poems, at the same time wrote that “the entire lyrical life of Russian verse of the last decade (the innovations of K. Balmont, the discoveries of A. Bely, the quest of A. Blok) passed Bunin by.”5 Later N. Gumilyov called Bunin “the epigone of naturalism.”

In turn, Bunin did not recognize “new” poetic movements. Bunin strives to bring poetry closer to prose, which in his work acquires a peculiar lyrical character and is marked by a sense of rhythm. Of particular importance in the formation of Bunin's style was his study of oral folk art. in the 900s, Bunin’s work developed his own special way of depicting the phenomena of the world and the spiritual movements of man through contrasting comparisons. This is not only revealed in the construction of individual images, but also penetrates into the artist’s system of visual means. At the same time, he becomes a master of an extremely detailed vision of the world. Bunin forces the reader to perceive the outside world through sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. This is a visual experiment: sounds are extinguished, there are no smells. Whatever Bunin narrated, he first of all created a visual image, giving free rein to a whole stream of associations. In this he is extremely generous, inexhaustible and at the same time very precise. Bunin’s “sound” mastery was of a special nature: the ability to depict a phenomenon, thing, state of mind through sound with almost visible power. The combination of a calm description with an unexpected detail will become characteristic of Bunin's short story, especially of the late period. Bunin's detail usually reveals the author's view of the world, keen artistic observation and the sophistication of the author's vision characteristic of Bunin.

Bunin's first prose works appeared in the early 90s. Many of them are lyrical miniatures in their genre, reminiscent of prose poems; they contain descriptions of nature; intertwined with the reflections of the hero and the author about life, its meaning, about man. In terms of socio-philosophical range, Bunin's prose is significantly< шире его поэтического творчества. Он пишет о разоряющейся деревне, разрушительных следствиях проникновения в ее жизнь новых капита­листических отношений, о деревне, в которой голод и смерть, физи­ческое и духовное увядание. Bunin writes a lot about old people: this interest in old age, the decline of human existence, is explained by the writer’s increased attention to the “eternal” problems of life and death. The main theme of Bunin's stories of the 90s is impoverished, ruined peasant Russia. Not accepting either the methods or the consequences of its capitalization, Bunin saw the ideal of life in the patriarchal past with its “old-world well-being.”

The first volume of his stories was published in Znanie in 1902. However, in the group of Znanie people, Bunin stood apart both in his worldview and in his historical and literary orientation.

In the 900s, compared to the early period, the themes of Bunin's prose expanded and its style changed decisively. Bunin departs from the lyrical style of early prose. A new stage in Bunin’s creative development begins with the story “The Village”. The author's significant artistic innovation was that in the story he created a gallery of social types generated by the Russian historical process. The idea of ​​love as the highest value of life will become the main pathos of Bunin’s works and the emigrant period. The stories “Mr. from San Francisco” and “Brothers” were the pinnacle of Bunin’s critical attitude towards bourgeois society and bourgeois civilization and a new stage in the development of Bunin’s realism. In Bunin's prose of the 1910s, emphasized everyday contrast is combined with broad symbolic generalizations. Bunin accepted the February Revolution as a way out of the impasse into which tsarism had reached. But he perceived Oktyabrskaya with hostility. In 1918, Bunin left Moscow for Odessa, and in 1920, together with the remnants of the White Guard troops, he emigrated through Constantinople to Paris. “In emigration, Bunin tragically experienced separation from his homeland. Moods of doom and loneliness were heard in his works: The mercilessness of the past and passing time and will become the theme of many of the writer’s stories in the 30s and 40s. The main mood of Bunin’s work of the 20s is the loneliness of a person who finds himself “in someone else’s rented house,” far from the land that he loved “to the point of heartache.” “Eternal” themes , which sounded in Bunin’s pre-October work, are now coupled with themes of personal fate, imbued with moods of hopelessness of personal existence\

Bunin's most significant books of the 20-40s were the collections of stories "Mitya's Love" (1925), "Sunstroke" (1927), "Shadow of a Bird" (1931), the novel "The Life of Arsenyev" (1927-1933) and a book of short stories about love “Dark Alleys” (1943), which was a kind of result of his ideological and aesthetic quest. If in the 1910s Bunin's prose was liberated from the power of lyricism, then in these years, conveying the flow of the author's life sensations, it again submits to it, despite the plasticity of the writing. The theme of death, its secrets, the theme of love, always fatally associated with death, sounds more and more insistently and intensely in Bunin’s work. After a long time of oblivion, when Bunin was little published in Russia, his work returned to his homeland. Bunin was the first Russian writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize.

In Bunin's poetry, philosophical lyrics occupied one of the key places. Looking into the past, the writer sought to grasp the “eternal” laws of the development of science, peoples, and humanity. This was the meaning of his appeal to distant civilizations of the past - Slavic and Eastern.

The basis of Bunin's philosophy of life is the recognition of earthly existence as only a part of eternal cosmic history, in which the life of man and humanity is dissolved. His lyrics intensify the feeling of the fatal confinement of human life in a narrow time frame, the feeling of man’s loneliness in the world.

The desire for the sublime comes into contact with the imperfections of human experience. Next to the desired Atlantis, the “blue abyss”, and the ocean, images of the “naked soul” and “night sadness” appear. The contradictory experiences of the lyrical hero were most clearly manifested in the deeply philosophical motives of dreams and souls. The “bright dream”, “winged”, “intoxicating”, “enlightened happiness” are sung. However, such a sublime feeling carries a “heavenly secret” and becomes “foreign to the earth.”

In prose, one of Bunin’s most famous philosophical works is the story “The Gentleman from San Francisco.” With hidden irony and sarcasm, Bunin describes the main character - a gentleman from San Francisco, without even honoring him with a name. The Master himself is full of snobbery and self-satisfaction. All his life he strived for wealth, setting an example for himself as the richest people in the world, trying to achieve the same prosperity as them. Finally, it seems to him that the set goal is close and, finally, it’s time to relax, live for his own pleasure: “Until this moment, he did not live, but existed.” And the gentleman is already fifty-eight years old...

The hero considers himself the “master” of the situation, but life itself refutes him. Money is a powerful force, but it cannot buy happiness, prosperity, respect, love, life. In addition, there is a force in the world that is beyond the control of anything. This is nature, element. All that rich people, like the gentleman from San Francisco, can do is isolate themselves as much as possible from weather conditions they do not want. However, the elements are still stronger. After all, their lives depend on her favor.

The gentleman from San Francisco believed that everything around him was created only to fulfill his wishes; the hero 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 they served him from morning to evening, preventing his slightest desire.” 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 how pathetic is the person who bets on it. 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 he do that he left for his descendants? Nobody even remembered his name.

Among civilization, in the everyday bustle, it is easy for a person to lose himself, it is easy to replace real goals and ideals with imaginary ones. But this cannot be done. It is necessary to take care of your soul in any conditions, to preserve the treasures that are in it. Bunin’s philosophical works call us to this. With this work, Bunin tried to show that a person can lose himself, but under any conditions he must retain something more within himself - and this is an immortal soul.

The philosophical problematics of the works of Bunin, the last Russian and classic and, as Maxim Gorky called him, “the first master of modern literature,” cover a wide range of issues that remain relevant in our difficult, disharmonious times.

The disintegration of the peasant world

Changes in the everyday and moral life of peasants and the sad consequences of such metamorphoses are shown in the story “The Village”. The heroes of this work are the fist Tikhon and the poor self-taught poet Kuzma. The philosophical problematics of Bunin's works are expressed by the perception of two opposing images. The action takes place at the beginning of the century, when hungry and impoverished village life, under the influence of revolutionary ideas, revives for a while, but then again plunges into deep hibernation.

The writer was acutely concerned about the inability of the peasants to resist the devastation of their native villages, their fragmentation. Their main problem, he believed, was their lack of independence, which is what the main character of the work admits: “I don’t know how to think, I’m not educated.” And this shortcoming, Ivan Bunin believed, was a consequence of long serfdom.

The fate of the Russian people

The philosophical problematics of Bunin's works resulted in bitter discussions about the fate of the Russian people. Coming from a noble family, he was always attracted to the psychological analysis of the common man. He looked for the origins of national character, its positive and negative features in the history of the Russian people. For him there was no significant difference between a peasant and a landowner. And, although the nobles were the true bearers of high culture, the writer always paid tribute to the role of the peasants in the formation of the original Russian spiritual world.

Love and loneliness

Ivan Bunin is an unsurpassed lyricist. The stories written in exile are almost poetic works. Love for this writer was not something lasting. It was always interrupted either by the will of one of the heroes, or under the influence of evil fate. But people experience separation and loneliness most acutely abroad. The philosophical issues of Bunin's works are also the feelings of a Russian person in exile. In the story “In Paris,” the author tells of a chance meeting of two lonely people in the distance. Both of them are far from Russia. At first, they are brought together by Russian speech and spiritual kinship. Acquaintance develops into love. And when the main character suddenly dies, the woman, returning to an empty house, experiences a feeling of loss and spiritual emptiness, which she can hardly fill in a foreign country, far from her native land.

The topics that the classic of Russian literature touched upon in his works relate to issues that are relevant today. The modern reader is close to the philosophical issues of Bunin's works. An essay on a topic related to the work of this writer helps develop the student’s inner world, teaches him to think independently and forms moral thinking.

Meaning of life

One of the ills of modern society is its immorality. It appears unnoticed, grows and at some point begins to give rise to terrifying consequences. Both individuals and society as a whole suffer from them. Therefore, in literature lessons, considerable attention is paid to such a topic as the philosophical problems of Bunin’s works. An essay based on the story “The Man from San Francisco” teaches children to understand the importance of spiritual values.

Material wealth today is given such great importance that modern children, at times, are not aware of the existence of other values. The philosophy of a faceless man who has been increasing his wealth for so long and persistently that he has forgotten how to see the world as it is, and as a result - a tragic and pitiful end. This is the main idea of ​​​​the story about a rich gentleman from San Francisco. An artistic analysis of this work allows teenagers to take a different look at the ideas that reign in the minds of many people today. People who pathologically strive for success and material prosperity and, unfortunately, often serve as an example for a fragile personality.

Reading works of Russian literature contributes to the formation of a correct moral position. An essay on the topic “Philosophical problems of Bunin’s work “The Man from San Francisco”” helps to answer perhaps the most pressing questions.

The past century has given Russian culture a galaxy of brilliant artists. Their work has become the property of world literature. The moral foundations of the works of these authors will never become morally obsolete. The philosophical problematics of the works of Bunin and Kuprin, Pasternak and Bulgakov, Astafiev and Solzhenitsyn are the property of Russian culture. Their books are intended not so much for entertaining reading as for the formation of a correct worldview and the destruction of false stereotypes. After all, no one spoke so accurately and truthfully about such important philosophical categories as love, loyalty and honesty, like the classics of great Russian literature.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was born on October 22, 1870 in Voronezh into a noble family. He spent his childhood and youth on an impoverished estate in the Oryol province. The future writer did not receive a systematic education, which he regretted all his life. True, the elder brother Yuli, who graduated from the university with flying colors, went through the entire gymnasium course with Vanya. They studied languages, psychology, philosophy, social and natural sciences. It was Julius who had a great influence on the formation of Bunin’s tastes and views.

Bunin began writing early. Wrote essays, sketches, poems. In May 1887, the magazine "Rodina" published the poem "Beggar" by sixteen-year-old Vanya Bunin. From that time on, his more or less constant literary activity began, in which there was a place for both poetry and prose.

Outwardly, Bunin's poems looked traditional both in form and in theme: nature, joy of life, love, loneliness, sadness of loss and new rebirth. And yet, despite the imitation, there was some special intonation in Bunin’s poems. This became more noticeable with the release of the poetry collection “Falling Leaves” in 1901, which was enthusiastically received by both readers and critics.

Bunin wrote poetry until the end of his life, loving poetry with all his soul, admiring its musical structure and harmony. But already at the beginning of his creative career, he became more and more clearly a prose writer, and so strong and deep that Bunin’s first stories immediately earned recognition from the famous writers of that time: Chekhov, Gorky, Andreev, Kuprin.

In 1898, Bunin married a Greek woman, Anna Tsakni, having previously experienced a strong love and subsequent strong disappointment with Varvara Pashchenko. However, by Ivan Alekseevich’s own admission, he never loved Tsakni.

In the 1910s, Bunin traveled a lot, going abroad. He visits Leo Tolstoy, meets Chekhov, actively collaborates with the Gorky publishing house "Znanie", and meets the niece of the Chairman of the First Duma A.S. Muromtsev, Vera Muromtseva. And although Vera Nikolaevna actually became “Mrs. Bunina” already in 1906, they were able to officially register their marriage only in July 1922 in France. Only by this time did Bunin manage to obtain a divorce from Anna Tsakni.

Vera Nikolaevna was devoted to Ivan Alekseevich until the end of his life, becoming his faithful assistant in all matters. Possessing great spiritual strength, helping to steadfastly endure all the hardships and hardships of emigration, Vera Nikolaevna also had a great gift of patience and forgiveness, which was important when communicating with such a difficult and unpredictable person as Bunin was.

After the resounding success of his stories, the story "The Village" appeared in print, becoming immediately famous - Bunin's first major work. This is a bitter and very brave work, in which the half-crazed Russian reality with all its contrasts, precariousness, and broken destinies appeared before the reader. Bunin, perhaps one of the few Russian writers of that time, was not afraid to tell the unpleasant truth about the Russian village and the downtroddenness of the Russian peasant.

“The Village” and the “Sukhodol” that followed it determined Bunin’s attitude towards his heroes - the weak, the disadvantaged and the restless. But hence comes sympathy for them, pity, a desire to understand what is happening in the suffering Russian soul.

In parallel with the rural theme, the writer developed in his stories the lyrical theme, which had previously appeared in poetry. Female characters appeared, although barely outlined - the charming, airy Olya Meshcherskaya (the story "Easy Breathing"), the ingenuous Klasha Smirnova (the story "Klasha"). Later, female types with all their lyrical passion will appear in Bunin’s emigrant novels and short stories - “Ida”, “Mitya’s Love”, “The Case of Cornet Elagin” and, of course, in his famous cycle “Dark Alleys”.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, Bunin, as they say, “rested on his laurels” - he was awarded the Pushkin Prize three times; in 1909 he was elected academician in the category of fine literature, becoming the youngest academician of the Russian Academy.

In 1920, Bunin and Vera Nikolaevna, who did not accept either the revolution or the Bolshevik power, emigrated from Russia, “having drunk the untold cup of mental suffering,” as Bunin later wrote in his biography. On March 28 they arrived in Paris.

Ivan Alekseevich returned to literary creativity slowly. Longing for Russia and uncertainty about the future depressed him. Therefore, the first collection of stories, "Scream", published abroad, consisted only of stories written in Bunin's happiest time - in 1911-1912.

And yet the writer gradually overcame the feeling of oppression. In the story “The Rose of Jericho” there are such heartfelt words: “There is no separation and loss as long as my soul, my Love, Memory lives! I immerse the roots and stems of my past into the living water of the heart, into the pure moisture of love, sadness and tenderness... "

In the mid-1920s, the Bunins moved to the small resort town of Grasse in the south of France, where they settled in the Belvedere villa, and later settled in the Janet villa. Here they were destined to live most of their lives, to survive the Second World War. In 1927, in Grasse, Bunin met the Russian poetess Galina Kuznetsova, who was vacationing there with her husband. Bunin was fascinated by the young woman, and she, in turn, was delighted with him (and Bunin knew how to charm women!). Their romance received wide publicity. The insulted husband left, Vera Nikolaevna suffered from jealousy. And here the incredible happened - Ivan Alekseevich managed to convince Vera Nikolaevna that his relationship with Galina was purely platonic, and they had nothing more than a relationship between a teacher and a student. Vera Nikolaevna, incredible as it may seem, believed. She believed it because she couldn’t imagine her life without Ian. As a result, Galina was invited to live with the Bunins and become “a member of the family.”

For almost fifteen years, Kuznetsova shared a common home with Bunin, playing the role of an adopted daughter and experiencing all the joys, troubles and hardships with them.

This love of Ivan Alekseevich was both happy and painfully difficult. She also turned out to be immensely dramatic. In 1942, Kuznetsova left Bunin, becoming interested in the opera singer Margot Stepun.

Ivan Alekseevich was shocked, he was depressed not only by the betrayal of his beloved woman, but also by whom she cheated with! “How she (G.) poisoned my life - she’s still poisoning me! 15 years! Weakness, lack of will...”, he wrote in his diary on April 18, 1942. This friendship between Galina and Margot was like a bleeding wound for Bunin for the rest of his life.

But despite all the adversities and endless hardships, Bunin’s prose gained new heights. The books “Rose of Jericho”, “Mitya’s Love”, collections of stories “Sunstroke” and “Tree of God” were published abroad. And in 1930, the autobiographical novel “The Life of Arsenyev” was published - a fusion of memoirs, memoirs and lyrical-philosophical prose.

On November 10, 1933, newspapers in Paris came out with huge headlines “Bunin - Nobel laureate.” For the first time since the existence of this prize, the award for literature was presented to a Russian writer. Bunin's all-Russian fame grew into worldwide fame.

Every Russian in Paris, even those who had not read a single line of Bunin, took this as a personal holiday. The Russian people experienced the sweetest of feelings - a noble sense of national pride.

Being awarded the Nobel Prize was a huge event for the writer himself. Recognition came, and with it (albeit for a very short period, the Bunins were extremely impractical) material security.

In 1937, Bunin completed the book “The Liberation of Tolstoy,” which, according to experts, became one of the best books in all literature about Lev Nikolaevich. And in 1943, “Dark Alleys” was published in New York - the pinnacle of the writer’s lyrical prose, a true encyclopedia of love. In “Dark Alleys” you can find everything - sublime experiences, conflicting feelings, and violent passions. But what was closest to Bunin was pure, bright love, similar to the harmony of earth and sky. In “Dark Alleys” it is, as a rule, short, and sometimes instantaneous, but its light illuminates the hero’s entire life.

Some critics of that time accused Bunin's "Dark Alleys" of either pornography or senile voluptuousness. Ivan Alekseevich was offended by this: “I consider “Dark Alleys” the best thing I wrote, and they, idiots, think that I disgraced my gray hairs with them... The Pharisees do not understand that this is a new word, a new approach to life,” - he complained to I. Odoevtseva.

Until the end of his life he had to defend his favorite book from the “Pharisees.” In 1952, he wrote to F.A. Stepun, the author of one of the reviews of Bunin’s works: “It’s a pity that you wrote that in “Dark Alleys” there is some excess of consideration of female charms... What an “excess” there! I only gave a thousandth part of how men of all tribes and peoples “look” everywhere, always at women from their tenth birthday to the age of 90.”

The writer devoted the last years of his life to working on a book about Chekhov. Unfortunately, this work remained unfinished.

Ivan Alekseevich made his last diary entry on May 2, 1953. “This is still amazing to the point of tetanus! In some, very short time, I will be gone - and the affairs and fate of everything, everything will be unknown to me!”

At two o'clock in the morning from November 7 to 8, 1953, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin died quietly. The funeral service was solemn - in the Russian church on Daru Street in Paris with a large crowd of people. All newspapers - both Russian and French - published extensive obituaries.

And the funeral itself took place much later, on January 30, 1954 (before that, the ashes were in a temporary crypt). Ivan Alekseevich was buried in the Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve des Bois near Paris. Next to Bunin, after seven and a half years, his faithful and selfless life partner, Vera Nikolaevna Bunina, found her peace.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin (1870-1953) is called “the last classic.” Bunin's reflections on the deep processes of life result in a perfect artistic form, where the originality of the composition, images, and details are subordinated to the intense author's thought.

In his stories, novellas, and poems, Bunin shows us the whole range of problems of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The themes of his works are so diverse that they seem to be life itself. Let's trace how the themes and problems of Bunin's stories changed throughout his life.

• a) The main theme of the early 1900s was the theme of Russia’s fading patriarchal past. We see the most vivid expression of the problem of a change of system, the collapse of all the foundations of noble society in the story “Antonov Apples”. Bunin regrets Russia's fading past, idealizing the noble way of life. Bunin’s best memories of his former life are saturated with the smell of Antonov apples. He hopes that, together with the dying Russia of the nobility, the roots of the nation will still be preserved in its memory.
• b) In the mid-1910s, the themes and problems of Bunin's stories began to change. He moves away from the theme of Russia's patriarchal past to a critique of bourgeois reality. A striking example of this period is his story "The Master from San Francisco." With the smallest detail, mentioning every detail, Bunin describes the luxury that represents the true life of the gentlemen of modern times. At the center of the work is the image of a millionaire who doesn’t even have his own name, since no one remembered it - and does he even need one? This is a collective image of the American bourgeoisie. “Until the age of 58, his life was devoted to accumulation. Having become a millionaire, he wants to get all the pleasures that money can buy: ... he thought of holding the carnival in Nice, in Monte Carlo, where at this time the most selective society flocks, where some enthusiastically indulge in automobile and sailing races, others roulette, others to what is commonly called flirting, and fourth to shooting pigeons, which soar very beautifully from cages over the emerald lawn, against the backdrop of a sea the color of forget-me-nots, and immediately hit the ground with white lumps...” - this is a life deprived internal content. The consumer society has erased everything human in itself, the ability for empathy and condolences. The death of the gentleman from San Francisco is perceived with displeasure, because “the evening was irreparably ruined,” the hotel owner feels guilty, and gives his word that he will take “all measures in his power” to eliminate the trouble. Money decides everything: guests want to have fun for their money, the owner does not want to lose profit, this explains the disrespect for death. Such is the moral decline of society, its inhumanity in its extreme manifestation.
• c) There are a lot of allegories, associations and symbols in this story. The ship "Atlantis" acts as a symbol of civilization; The gentleman himself is a symbol of the bourgeois well-being of a society where people eat deliciously, dress elegantly and do not care about the world around them. They are not interested in him. They live in society as if in a case, closed forever to people of another circle. The ship symbolizes this shell, the sea symbolizes the rest of the world, raging, but in no way touching the hero and others like him. And next to it, in the same shell, are the people who control the ship, working hard at the gigantic firebox, which the author calls the ninth circle of hell.

There are many biblical allegories in this story. The hold of a ship can be compared to the underworld. The author hints that the gentleman from San Francisco sold his soul for earthly goods and is now paying for it with death.

Symbolic in the story is the image of a huge, rock-like devil, who is a symbol of the impending catastrophe, a kind of warning to humanity. It is also symbolic in the story that after the death of the rich man, the fun continues, absolutely nothing has changed. The ship sails in the opposite direction, only with the body of the rich man in a soda box, and ballroom music thunders again “among the mad blizzard sweeping over the ocean that was buzzing like a funeral mass.”

d) It was important for the author to emphasize the idea of ​​​​the insignificance of human power in the face of the same mortal outcome for everyone. It turned out that everything accumulated by the master has no meaning before that eternal law to which everyone, without exception, is subject. Obviously, the meaning of life is not in acquiring wealth, but in something else that cannot be assessed monetaryly or aesthetic wisdom. The theme of death receives varied coverage in Bunin's works. This is both the death of Russia and the death of an individual. Death turns out to be not only the resolver of all contradictions, but also the source of absolute, purifying power (“Transfiguration”, “Mitya’s Love”).

Another of the main themes of the writer’s work is the theme of love. The cycle of stories “Dark Alleys” is devoted to this topic. Bunin considered this book the most perfect in artistic skill. “All the stories in this book are only about love, about its “dark” and most often very gloomy and cruel alleys,” wrote Bunin. The collection “Dark Alleys” is one of the last masterpieces of the great master.

In the literature of Russian diaspora, Bunin is a star of the first magnitude. After being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933, Bunin became a symbol of Russian literature throughout the world.

RESPONSE PLAN

1. A word about the writer’s work.

2. The main themes and ideas of I. A. Bunin’s prose:

a) the theme of the passing patriarchal past (“Antonov Apples”);

b) criticism of bourgeois reality (“Mr. from San Francisco”);

c) the system of symbols in I. A. Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco”;

d) the theme of love and death (“Mr. from San Francisco”, “Transfiguration”, “Mitya’s Love”, “Dark Alleys”).

3. I. A. Bunin - Nobel Prize laureate.

1. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin (1870-1953) is called “the last classic.” Bunin's reflections on the deep processes of life result in a perfect artistic form, where the originality of the composition, images, and details are subordinated to the intense author's thought.

2. In his stories, novellas, and poems, Bunin shows us the whole range of problems of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The themes of his works are so diverse that they seem to be life itself. Let's trace how the themes and problems of Bunin's stories changed throughout his life.

a) The main theme of the early 1900s is the theme of the passing patriarchal past of Russia. We see the most vivid expression of the problem of a change of system, the collapse of all the foundations of noble society in the story “Antonov Apples”. Bunin regrets Russia's fading past, idealizing the noble way of life. Bunin’s best memories of his former life are saturated with the smell of Antonov apples. He hopes that, together with the dying Russia of the nobility, the roots of the nation will still be preserved in its memory.

b) In the mid-1910s, the themes and problems of Bunin's stories began to change. He moves away from the theme of Russia's patriarchal past to a critique of bourgeois reality. A striking example of this period is his story "The Master from San Francisco." With the smallest detail, mentioning every detail, Bunin describes the luxury that represents the true life of the gentlemen of modern times. At the center of the work is the image of a millionaire who doesn’t even have his own name, since no one remembered it - and does he even need it? This is a collective image of the American bourgeoisie. “Until the age of 58, his life was devoted to accumulation. Having become a millionaire, he wants to get all the pleasures that money can buy: ... he thought of holding the carnival in Nice, in Monte Carlo, where at this time the most selective society flocks, where some enthusiastically indulge in automobile and sailing races, others roulette, others to what is commonly called flirting, and fourth to shooting pigeons, which soar very beautifully from cages over the emerald lawn, against the backdrop of a sea the color of forget-me-nots, and immediately hit the ground with white lumps...” - this is a life devoid of internal content . The consumer society has erased everything human in itself, the ability for empathy and condolences. The death of the gentleman from San Francisco is perceived with displeasure, because “the evening was irreparably ruined,” the hotel owner feels guilty, and gives his word that he will take “all measures in his power” to eliminate the trouble. Money decides everything: guests want to have fun for their money, the owner does not want to lose profit, this explains the disrespect for death. Such is the moral decline of society, its inhumanity in its extreme manifestation.

c) There are a lot of allegories, associations and symbols in this story. The ship "Atlantis" acts as a symbol of civilization; The gentleman himself is a symbol of the bourgeois well-being of a society where people eat deliciously, dress elegantly and do not care about the world around them. They are not interested in him. They live in society as if in a case, closed forever to people of another circle. The ship symbolizes this shell, the sea symbolizes the rest of the world, raging, but in no way touching the hero and others like him. And nearby, in the same shell, are the people who control the ship, working hard at the gigantic firebox, which the author calls the ninth circle of hell.

There are many biblical allegories in this story. The hold of a ship can be compared to the underworld. The author hints that the gentleman from San Francisco sold his soul for earthly goods and is now paying for it with death.

Symbolic in the story is the image of a huge, rock-like devil, who is a symbol of the impending catastrophe, a kind of warning to humanity. It is also symbolic in the story that after the death of the rich man, the fun continues, absolutely nothing has changed. The ship sails in the opposite direction, only with the body of the rich man in a soda box, and ballroom music thunders again “among the mad blizzard sweeping over the ocean that was buzzing like a funeral mass.”

d) It was important for the author to emphasize the idea of ​​​​the insignificance of human power in the face of the same mortal outcome for everyone. It turned out that everything accumulated by the master has no meaning before that eternal law to which everyone, without exception, is subject. Obviously, the meaning of life is not in acquiring wealth, but in something else that cannot be assessed monetaryly or aesthetic wisdom. The theme of death receives varied coverage in Bunin's works. This is both the death of Russia and the death of an individual. Death turns out to be not only the resolver of all contradictions, but also the source of absolute, purifying power (“Transfiguration”, “Mitya’s Love”).

Another of the main themes of the writer’s work is the theme of love. The cycle of stories “Dark Alleys” is devoted to this topic. Bunin considered this book the most perfect in artistic skill. “All the stories in this book are only about love, about its “dark” and most often very gloomy and cruel alleys,” wrote Bunin. The collection “Dark Alleys” is one of the last masterpieces of the great master.

3. In the literature of Russian abroad, Bunin is a star of the first magnitude. After being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933, Bunin became a symbol of Russian literature throughout the world.

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS

1. Which scene is the culmination of I. A. Bunin’s story “The Gentleman from San Francisco”?

2. What is symbolic of the image of the gentleman from San Francisco - a man without a name, without history, without purpose?

64. Theme of love in prose I.A. Bunina . (Using one story as an example.) (Ticket 1)

Russian literature was distinguished by its extraordinary chastity. Love in the minds of Russian people and Russian writers is primarily a spiritual feeling.
Bunin in Sunstroke fundamentally rethinks this tradition. For him, the feeling that suddenly arises between random fellow travelers on a ship turns out to be as priceless as love. Moreover, it is love that is this intoxicating, selfless, suddenly arising feeling that causes an association with sunstroke.
Bunin's interpretation of the theme of love is connected with his idea of ​​Eros as a powerful elemental force - the main form of manifestation of cosmic life. It is tragic at its core. Because it turns a person over and dramatically changes the course of his life. Much in this regard brings Bunin closer to Tyutchev.
In love, Bunin's heroes are raised above time, situation, circumstances. What do we know about the heroes of Sunstroke? No name, no age. Only that he is a lieutenant, that he has “an ordinary officer’s face, gray from a tan, with a whitish, sun-bleached mustache and bluish white eyes.” And she was on vacation in Anapa and is now going to her husband and three-year-old daughter, she has a lovely laugh and is dressed in a light canvas dress.
We can say that the entire story “Sunstroke” is devoted to describing the experience of the lieutenant who lost his accidental lover. This plunge into darkness, almost “mindlessness,” occurs against the backdrop of an unbearably stuffy sunny day. All descriptions are literally saturated with burning sensations. This sunshine should remind readers of the “sunstroke” that befell the heroes of the story. This is at the same time immense happiness, but it is also a blow, a loss of reason. Therefore, at first the epithet “sunny” is adjacent to the epithet “happy”, then later the “aimless sun” appears in the story.
The writer depicts that terrible feeling of loneliness, rejection from other people, which the lieutenant experienced, pierced by love.
The story has a ring composition. At the very beginning, you can hear the impact of the landing steamer hitting the pier, and at the end you can hear the same sounds. A day passed between them. But in the minds of the hero and the author, they are separated from each other by at least ten years (this figure is repeated twice in the story), but in fact by eternity. Now a different person is traveling on the ship, having comprehended some of the most important things on earth, having become familiar with its secrets.