Acute sense of the crisis of civilization. Symbols in the story “The gentleman from San Francisco” The gentleman from san francisco table symbols

Stepanova E.E. The role of symbols and details in I.A. Bunin "The Gentleman from San Francisco" // International Journal of Social and Human Sciences. - 2016. - T. 8. No. 1. - S. 210-212.

THE ROLE OF SYMBOLS AND DETAILS IN I.A. Bunina

"THE GENERAL FROM SAN FRANCISCO"

HER. Stepanova, with student

Branch of the Omsk State Pedagogical University in G . Tara

(Russia, Tara)

Annotation . This article is devoted to the study of details and symbols, as well as consideration of their rolein the text on the example of the story I. A. Bunin "The Gentleman from San Francisco".Through the analysis of the story, it is proved that the characters in those To Ste are an artistic means of revealing the author's position. Cancel e There are also characteristic features of details and symbols in the system of the depicted world of the work of I. A. Bunina.

Keywords: Bunin, detail, symbol, apocalypse, philosophical parable.

Feeling tragic and hopeless d mundane existence of waves O many writers and poets of the turn of X I X-XX centuries. It is these settings e nia formed the basis of reflections of philosophy O fov and writers of this period about the meaning and transience of earthly life h nor, the tragedy of being, time and be h time. All this found a logical o T expression in their works. Approx and something indefinite, a to some extent, even sinister, was in you are called beginning of the first world warand permeated with a sense of fear of lo m some of the established centuries-old foundations of life, inspired by the revolutionary events in Russia. In the light of these s reproducing thoughts about the fate of society and regarded as the onset of the coming apocalypse of all mankind. P O good moods are found in ra with the tale I. Bunin "The Gentleman from San Francisco" 4 ].

The hero was sure that everything in this m and re p subject to the fulfillment of his desiresand desires equal to him: "He was d O freely generous on the road and therefore fully believed in the solicitude of all those who R miles and watered him, from morning to evening at lived for him, forestalling his slightest wish. ... So it was everywhere, so it was in swimming, so it should have been in Naples ".

Of course, material goods O strange traveler, as if at with a gum key, they opened most t at the door, but alas, not all. Wealth did not contribute to the extension of life, sirbut it didn't help him of death with honors and comforts b fight to the last berth. The owner of the hotel did not allow his body to be transferred to his good room, arguing that this would alienate the guests, and did not allow penetration into his property. e for a good coffin, but onlyjust offered an empty box of- under sod about howl . On this humiliation when- then how much t the number of tourists do not end, and his body at dawn is carried by a small boat to the bay, where torso master migrates to the hold, to the people, the cat O Rykh was not even noticed on the ship. T a In this way, the admiration for one's nature, which this person saw during his lifetime, turned into straight and opposite the humiliation experienced by his mortal body after life.

The author of the story shows how e the power of money in the mortal world is significant and what awaits a person who makes a bet on them. Here, not only disrespect and respect for the deceased, but also to the name, because no one remembers either. The story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" shows the ephemerality and destructiveness of this path for people. about eternity.

Many writers and sometimes poetswrote their works in the genre of parable(I.V. Turgenev "Alms", A.S.Pushkin "Shoemaker", A.P.Sumarokov and others). R story by Yves on Alekseevich can also be attributed toparable pointing toman's place in our world and its relationship with the surrounding reality. And you have to remember b that man is mortal, butthe most offensive, as one of Bulgakov's characters, he is mortalapno. Therefore, it is impossiblerelentlessly indulge in pleasure, and need to remember that you cannot feed your soul with such joys. All outstanding scientific and technical achievements of moderncivic society will not release the protagonistfrom death. This is what the tragedy is all about. e day of life, man is born and dies a Yes, but the soul lives forever.

The story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" refers to the philosophical parable of the blessingarya to the characters nested in it. And first of all it's about b once the main character. We know practically nothing about him, with the exception of those lines at the beginning of the story that show his life in the most general form, we do not know either his appearance or his name.neither. He's just one of the gentlemenstrong world, an ordinary, typical representative of his class. Taki m o b at the same time, it acts as a symbolgiven bourgeois class, a symbol of its m a ner, moral principles or their t existence.

In addition to the symbols, the picture of life g e the swarm is filled with details. And if in T If the image of nature or things is given only when necessary, then in Bunin we meet one bright d e tal after another, thereby it will v lyal his principle of subject expression and body. The story contains vsevo z possible details that appear more than once O multiple to attract attention a tel to their true value. This may include the name of the ship, its captain, the image of the ocean and a couple in love. These images are symbolic already because in their typical, single form they show the behavior, the foundations of the whole society.

The story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" has an epigraph from the Bible: "Woe to you, Babylon, strong city!" , here it is identified with the description a understanding of the characters and situations of the current life, which gives an orientation to the perception of precisely philosophical reflections and into a torus.

The ocean is also symbolic at the end of the story. Storm tied up in most cultures with God's e wom and punishment. In a storm story depicted like a worldwide cataclysm e ter whistles like a dirge forthe owner who lost his former powerthe world, and with it the whole society. Terrible in the story and "living miracles and more" - gigantic shaft in the womb paroh Oh yeah, providing its movement, and " infernal toes" his underworld, in ra With red-hot pharynx which bubbling nev e home strength, and sweaty dirty people with reflections of crimson flames on their faces. Ho the inhabitants of the ship do not hear these about d simultaneously moaning and clanging sounds: they are drowned out by the melodies of the beautiful With orchestra and the thick walls of the cabins.

You can also see the symbol in the image of the captain of the ship, compare weaving from wood him a pagan deity. Appearance, indeed, similar to a deity: a huge red-haired man in a marine uniform with gold stripes, nah O he behaves as God should m, in on and top of the ship– the captain's cabin, symbolizing a certain Olympus, where an ordinary passenger is not allowed to enter. It can occasionally be seen on a lube, but his power and knowledge, not to O it is not in doubt. But in fact, the captain is an insecure h e Lovek, hoping for telegraph a P the paratha that was in the radiora b ke .

At the beginning and at the end of the story, we observe love flax couple, pr and attracting the attention of ship passengers by what they don't hide t your love. And only tocaptain knows their secret, to about which lies in the simple deception, they are simple mercenaries to entertain the guests of the ship. They symbolize precisely the deception that a includes modern society - the falsity of true feelings and well-being chia.

Bunin in his story uses a variety of techniques to create a different characters: removeav all subjective featuresand sticking out all the immoral features ( lack of spirituality , attraction to wealth, complacency), he makes an ordinary hero a symbol t about th society. I create other symbols t xia on the similarity of designs: ship with society; similarity of function y: k a pit and pagan deity; on ac about creative rapprochement: the ocean with people e chesky life, a man with a ship,furnaces with the fire of hell.

The characters in the story are thin O a natural means of revealing a v torso position. Through them Bunin from O brazil insincerity and viciousness with O temporary wealthy society, forget v walking in moral lawlessness.

Bibliographic list

1. Bunin, I.A. Light breathing: novels, short stories, poems[Text] / I.A. Bunin. - Moscow: Eksmo, 2015. - 1 92 p.

2. Literary Encyclopedia Fedorova, O.A. Symbolic imagereality in the storyBunin "The Gentleman from San Francisco"[Text] / 5. O.A. Fedorova, E. E. Stepanova // Philological readings: a collection of articlesinternational scientific and practicalth conference, May 25, 2016, G . Container. - Omsk: Publishing House of OmGPU, 2016. - S. 99-100.

HE ROLE OF THE PARTS AN D CHARACTERS IN THE STORY OF I.A. BUNIN

"T HE GENTLEMAN FROM SAN FRANCISCO»

E.E. Stepanova, student

Omsk pedagogical state university branch in Tara

(Russia, Tara)

abstract. This article is dedicated to the study of parts and symbols, as well as consider a tion of their role in the text on the example of the story of I.A.Bunin's "the Gentleman from San Francisco". Through the analysis of the story, it is proved that the characters in the text serve as an artistic means of revealing the author’s position. Marked and characters s tic peculiarities of parts and symbols in the system And the pictured world works I.A. Bunin.

keywords: Bunin, detail, symbol, Apocalypse, a philosophical parable.

1) The title of the story
is itself symbolic. Master - a person who has reached great heights, rich, enjoying life, doing something for himself. The city of San Francisco is a "golden" place, a city in which immoral people live, accustomed to get their own way by any means and do not value others who are less wealthy or who do not occupy a worthy, honorable place in high society of people.

The symbol is
2) the steamer "Atlantis",
huge, luxurious, comfortable. Its fate must match that of the famous sunken Atlantis, whose inhabitants were as immoral as those of San Francisco.

3) couple in love,
hired by Captain Lloyd "to play love for good money", symbolizes the atmosphere of artificial life, where everything is bought and sold - if only there was money.

4) Weather in December:
dull, deceptive, gray, rainy, damp and dirty - symbolizes the inner state of the souls of the characters in the story, mostly the main character - the Gentleman from San Francisco.

5) The behavior of the German in the reading room
is also a symbol. Instead of helping a dying man who became ill, the German "broke out of the reading room screaming, he stirred up the whole house, the whole dining room." He is the personification of people who are morally dead, soulless, thinking only of themselves.

The same is symbolized
6) people who shunned the family of the deceased Master from San Francisco,
not sympathetic, in a sense even cruel towards his wife and daughter, as well as

7) the owner,
who "in impotent and decent irritation shrugged his shoulders, feeling guilty without guilt, assuring everyone that he perfectly understood "how unpleasant it is", and giving his word that he would take "every measure in his power" to eliminate the trouble.

8) Devil
symbolizes something mystical, terrible, most likely, in the future that befell all these immoral people, plunging them into the abyss of hell, the symbol of which was

9) black hold,
where the dead and useless Gentleman from San Francisco lay.

*In 1776, the Spaniards settled on the coast of the peninsula, building a fort at the Golden Gate and founding a mission named after St. Francis. A small town that arose nearby was called Yerba Yuuena. In 1848, thanks to the California gold rush, the city began to grow rapidly. In the same year it was renamed San Francisco.
The history of San Francisco was greatly influenced by its unique geographical location and made it an important center of maritime trade and a very convenient defensive redoubt.

Reviews

Suddenly and unexpectedly. I love such topics, dear author) Let me help you in this matter with a couple of additions regarding the images of this notorious story)

Regarding the title of the work, as well as the figure of the protagonist himself:

No wonder Bunin called him Lord, and nothing more. Throughout the story, we do not see a single hint of the name, surname, or any other element of the personification of the hero. He is just a blur, a nondescript silhouette, a nameless shadow. Well, it happened, because after his death, everyone immediately forgot about him. Thus, the author shows us what is the fate of people who burn (sic) all their lives for the sake of money, power and prestige. They are just wallets with legs. And they are surrounded, as you noticed, by dead people, corrupt and soulless. And they surround not the people themselves, but their money and their status. So the world remembered this man as a kind of gentleman. Really, do you remember? A moment ago, dust particles were blown off him - all at his expense, and now his body is being transported to the same "Atlantis" in a box. The box is also a symbolic detail. There was no reverence for this "Master" initially and in sight - only for money.

And you, dear author, should also remember, against the background of the above, a certain Lorenzo, a poor gouging boatman, whose name is known throughout Italy. This Lorenzo is adored by Italian artists, which is expressed in the paintings with his direct participation. He never thought about material things, he did not flush most of his life down the drain to enjoy the rest of it surrounded by those who want his money. He just enjoyed life the way it is. And his name Bunin indicates. His name is known and remembered with the help of the above pictures.

The name is the main symbol of the story. The main character has such an empty and worthless life that the author did not even endow him with a name. All the same, everyone will forget him after death. And no one needed to know this, the main thing for them was that he was the master.

A similar moment with a name can be found in the story "Ionych" by Anton Palych. There was Dmitry Startsev, a spiritually rich uncle. And he became at the end - just Ionych. Wallet man. So they called him without respect, carelessly.

I hope my verbiage didn’t tire you, I just like to discuss works)

It seems to me that the boatman Lorenzo was invented by Bunin himself as a contrast to the main character) Although, who knows, I'm not so thoroughly aware ...

Symbolism and existential meaning of the story

"Sir from San Francisco"

In the last lesson, we got acquainted with the work of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin and began to analyze one of his stories, “The Gentleman from San Francisco”. We talked about the composition of the story, discussed the system of images, talked about the poetics of Bunin's word. Today in the lesson we have to determine the role of details in the story, note the images-symbols, formulate the theme and idea of ​​the work and come to Bunin's understanding of human existence.

· Let's talk about the details in the story. What details did you see; which of them seemed symbolic to you.

Let's start with the notion of "detail".

Detail - a particularly significant highlighted element of an artistic image, an expressive detail in a work that carries a semantic and ideological and emotional load.

1. Already in the first phrase, there is some irony to Mr.: “no one remembered his name either in Naples or in Capri”, thereby the author emphasizes that Mr. is just a man.

2. The gentleman from S-F is himself a symbol - this is a collective image of all the bourgeois of that time.

3. The absence of a name is a symbol of facelessness, the inner lack of spirituality of the hero.

4. The image of the steamer "Atlantis" is a symbol of society with its hierarchy: the idle aristocracy of which is opposed to the people who control the movement of the ship, working in the sweat of their brow at the "gigantic" firebox, which the author calls the ninth circle of hell.

5. The images of ordinary residents of Capri are alive and real, and thus the writer emphasizes that the external well-being of the rich strata of society means nothing in the ocean of our life, that their wealth and luxury are not protection from the current of real, real life, that such people are doomed from the very beginning on moral baseness and dead life.

6. The very image of the ship is a shell of idle life, and the ocean is the rest of the world, raging, changing, but in no way touching our hero.

7. The name of the ship - "Atlantis" (What is associated with the word "Atlantis"? - a lost civilization), is a premonition of a disappearing civilization.

8. Does the description of the steamer cause you any other associations? The description is similar to "Titanic", which confirms the idea that a mechanized society is doomed to a sad outcome.

9. Nevertheless, there is a bright beginning in the story. The beauty of the sky and mountains, which, as it were, merges with the images of the peasants, nevertheless claims that there is true, real life in life, which is not subject to money.

10. Siren and music is also a symbol skillfully used by the writer, in this case, the siren is world chaos, and music is harmony and peace.

11. The image of the captain of the ship, whom the author compares with a pagan god at the beginning and at the end of the story, is symbolic. In appearance, this man really looks like an idol: red, of monstrous size and weight, in a marine uniform with wide gold stripes. He, as befits a god, lives in the captain's cabin - the highest point of the ship, where passengers are forbidden to enter, he is rarely shown in public, but passengers unconditionally believe in his power and knowledge. And the captain himself, being still a man, feels very insecure in the raging ocean and hopes for a telegraph machine, standing in the next cabin-radio room.

12. The writer ends the story with a symbolic picture. The steamer, in the hold of which the former millionaire lies in a coffin, sails through the darkness and blizzard in the ocean, and from the rocks of Gibraltar the Devil, “huge as a cliff”, watches him. It was he who got the soul of the gentleman from San Francisco, he owns the souls of the rich (pp. 368-369).

13. San Francisco gentleman's gold fillings

14. his daughter - with "delicate pink pimples near the lips and between the shoulder blades", dressed with innocent frankness

15. Negro servants "with squirrels like peeled hard-boiled eggs"

16. color details: Mr. smoked up to crimson redness of the face, stokers - crimson from the flames, red jackets of musicians and a black crowd of lackeys.

17. crown prince all wooden

18. the beauty has a tiny bent shabby dog

19. a pair of dancing "lovers" - a handsome man who looks like a huge leech

20. Luigi's respectfulness is taken to the point of idiocy

21. gong in a hotel in Capri sounds "loud, like in a pagan temple"

22. The old woman in the corridor "stooped, but decollete", hurried forward "like a chicken."

23. Mr. lay on a cheap iron bed, a box of soda water became a coffin for him

24. From the very beginning of the journey, he is surrounded by a mass of details that portend or remind of death. First, he is going to go to Rome to listen to the Catholic prayer of repentance there (which is read before death), then the Atlantis steamboat, which is a dual symbol in the story: on the one hand, the steamboat symbolizes a new civilization, where power is determined by wealth and pride, therefore in the end, the ship, and even with that name, must sink. On the other hand, "Atlantis" is the personification of hell and heaven.

· What is the role of numerous details in the story?

· How does Bunin draw a portrait of his hero? How does the reader feel and why?

(“Dry, short, oddly cut, but tightly sewn ... There was something Mongolian in his yellowish face with trimmed silver mustaches, his large teeth shone with gold fillings, his strong bald head was like an old bone ... " This portrait description is lifeless; it evokes a feeling disgust, since we have some kind of physiological description in front of us. The tragedy has not yet come, but it is already felt in these lines).

Ironic, Bunin ridicules all the vices of the bourgeois image life through the collective image of the master, numerous details - the emotional characteristics of the characters.

· You have probably noticed that time and space stand out in the work. Why do you think the story develops along the journey?

The road is a symbol of life's journey.

· How does the hero relate to time? How did the master plan his trip?

when describing the world around from the point of view of a gentleman from San Francisco, time is indicated accurately and clearly; In a word, time is specific. Days on the ship and in the Neapolitan hotel are planned by the hour.

· In which fragments of the text does the action develop rapidly, and in which plot time seems to stop?

The count of time goes unnoticed when the author tells about a real, fulfilling life: a panorama of the Gulf of Naples, a sketch of a street market, colorful images of the boatman Lorenzo, two Abruzzo highlanders and, most importantly, a description of a “joyful, beautiful, sunny” country. And time seems to stop when the story begins about the measured, planned life of a gentleman from San Francisco.

· When is the first time a writer calls a hero not a master?

(On the way to the island of Capri. When nature overcomes him, he feels old man: “And the gentleman from San Francisco, feeling himself as he should, - a very old man, - was already thinking with longing and malice about all these greedy, garlic-smelling little people called Italians ...” Right now, feelings are waking up in him: “longing and anger", "despair". And again there is a detail - "enjoyment of life"!)

· What do the New World and the Old World mean (why not America and Europe)?

The phrase "Old World" appears already in the first paragraph, when it tells about the purpose of the gentleman's trip from San Francisco: "solely for fun." And, emphasizing the ring composition of the story, it also appears in the ending - in combination with the "New World". The New World, which gave rise to the type of people who consume culture "only for the sake of entertainment", the "Old World" are living people (Lorenzo, highlanders, etc.). The New World and the Old World are two facets of humanity, where there is a difference between isolation from historical roots and a lively sense of history, between civilization and culture.

· Why do events take place in December (Christmas Eve)?

this is the ratio of birth and death, moreover, the birth of the Savior of the old world and the death of one of the representatives of the artificial new world, and the coexistence of two time lines - mechanical and genuine.

· Why did death overtake a Mr. from San Francisco in Capri, Italy?

All people, regardless of their financial situation, are equal in the face of death. The rich man, who decided to get all the pleasures at once, “Just starting to live” at 58 (!), suddenly dies.

· How does the old man's death evoke feelings in those around him? How do others behave towards the wife and daughter of the master?

His death causes not sympathy, but a terrible commotion. The innkeeper apologizes and promises to settle everything quickly. Society is outraged that someone dared to ruin their vacation, to remind them of death. To a recent companion and his wife, they experience disgust and disgust. The corpse in a rough box is quickly sent to the hold of the steamer. The rich man, who considered himself important and significant, turned into a dead body, is not needed by anyone.

The idea can be traced in the details, in the plot and composition, in the antithesis of false and genuine human existence. (False rich people are contrasted - A couple on a steamboat, the strongest image-symbol of the world of consumption, plays love, these are hired lovers - and real residents of Capri, mostly poor people).

The idea is that human life is fragile, everyone is equal in the face of death. Expresses through a description of the attitude of others to the living Mr. and to him after death. The master thought that money gave him an advantage. “He was sure that he had every right to rest, to pleasure, to travel in every way excellent ... firstly, he was rich, and secondly, he had just begun to live.”

· Did our hero live a full life before this trip? What did he devote his whole life to?

Mr. up to this moment did not live, but existed, i.e., his entire conscious life was devoted to "making equal to those whom Mr. took as his model." All the mister's convictions proved to be erroneous.

· Pay attention to the ending: it is the hired couple that is highlighted here - why?

After the death of the master, nothing has changed, all the rich also continue to live their mechanized lives, and the “couple in love” also continues to play love for money.

· Can we call the story a parable? What is a parable?

Parable - a short edifying story in an allegorical form, containing moral teaching.

· So, can we call the story a parable?

We can, because it tells about the insignificance of wealth and power in the face of death and the triumph of nature, love, sincerity (images of Lorenzo, the Abruzzo mountaineers).

· Can man resist nature? Can he plan everything like a gentleman from S-F?

A person is mortal (“suddenly mortal” - Woland), therefore a person cannot resist nature. All technological advances do not save a person from death. This is the eternal philosophy and tragedy of life: a person is born to die.

· What does the story tell us?

"Mr. from..." teaches us to enjoy life, and not to be internally soulless, not to succumb to a mechanized society.

Bunin's story has an existential meaning. (Existential - associated with being, the existence of a person.) In the center of the story are questions of life and death.

· What is capable of resisting non-existence?

Genuine human existence, which is shown by the writer in the form of Lorenzo and the Abruzzo highlanders (fragment from the words "Only the market traded on a small area ... 367-368").

· What conclusions can we draw from this episode? What 2 sides of the coin does the author show us?

Lorenzo is poor, the mountaineers of Abruzzo are poor, singing glory to the greatest poor in the history of mankind - the Mother of God and the Savior, who was born "in poor shepherd's home." "Atlantis", the civilization of the rich, which is trying to overcome the darkness, the ocean, the blizzard - an existential delusion of mankind, a diabolical delusion.

The story "The Gentleman from San Francisco", written in 1915 by Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, hides a certain subtext in its image-symbols. The deep meaning of the work does not lie on the surface, in a word, in order to better understand Bunin, one must peer into the details, into fragments, attach importance to every little thing. From the point of view of the genre, the work is a parable - a short story in which a philosophical understanding of life phenomena is given in an allegorical form.

Before the beginning of the work, an epigraph from the Bible is given: "Woe to you, Babylon, strong city!", Which is already a symbol, sets a certain tone.

Babylon in the Bible is a city of sin, various vices, because of which the city perished.

Let's turn to the main character, who, by the way, doesn't even have a name... His character is a collective image, faceless, gray. This gentleman wanted to be like everyone else, to have a decent rest, as is customary in his circle. And he went to Europe on the liner "Atlantis". The name symbolizes the sunken Atlantis, and the liner itself is a social stratification. At the very bottom is the engine room, where stokers and mechanics work in hellish heat and stuffiness, thanks to them the ship sails. Sailors and service personnel live on the lower decks. On the upper deck, wealthy passengers relax and laze, burdening themselves with unnecessary luxury.

In my opinion, the ocean is also a symbol. It shows that everyone is equal in front of a huge, strong element. Passengers live artificially, immorally, they think only about their own benefit. An interesting detail is a dancing couple in love, hired "to play love for good money."

The journey of the central character ends with sudden death. His dead body is immersed in the very womb of that same ship and taken back to America, which shows the ultimate nonsense of human existence.

So, in the story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" the philosophical idea is revealed through symbolic generalizations and image-symbols.

Updated: 2014-10-16

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"The Gentleman from San Francisco" is a philosophical story-parable about a person's place in the world, about the relationship between a person and the world around him. According to Bunin, a person cannot resist world upheavals, cannot resist the flow of life that carries him like a river - a chip. Such a worldview was expressed in the philosophical idea of ​​the story “The Gentleman from San Francisco”: a person is mortal, and (according to Bulgakov’s Woland) is suddenly mortal, therefore human claims to dominate nature, to understand the laws of nature are groundless. All the remarkable scientific and technical achievements of modern man do not save him from death. This is the eternal tragedy of life: a person is born to die.

The story contains symbolic details, thanks to which the story of the death of an individual person becomes a philosophical parable about the death of the whole society, in which gentlemen like the protagonist rule. Of course, the image of the protagonist is symbolic, although it can by no means be called a detail of Bunin's story. The backstory of the gentleman from San Francisco is set out in a few sentences in the most general form, there is no detailed portrait of him in the story, his name is never mentioned. Thus, the protagonist is a typical protagonist of the parable: he is not so much a specific person as a type-symbol of a certain social class and moral behavior.

In the parable, the details of the narrative are of exceptional importance: a picture of nature or a thing is mentioned only out of necessity, the action takes place without scenery. Bunin violates these rules of the parable genre and uses one bright detail after another, realizing his artistic principle of subject representation. In the story, among the various details, recurring details appear that attract the reader's attention and turn into symbols ("Atlantis", its captain, the ocean, a couple of young people in love). These recurring details are symbolic already because they embody the general in the individual.

The epigraph from the Bible: “Woe to you, Babylon, strong city!”, as conceived by the author, set the tone for the story. The combination of a verse from the Apocalypse with the image of modern heroes and the circumstances of modern life already sets the reader in a philosophical mood. Babylon in the Bible is not just a big city, it is a city symbol of vile sin, various vices (for example, the Tower of Babel is a symbol of human pride), because of them, according to the Bible, the city died, conquered and destroyed by the Assyrians.

In the story, Bunin draws in detail the modern steamship Atlantis, which looks like a city. The ship in the waves of the Atlantic becomes for the writer a symbol of modern society. In the underwater womb of the ship there are huge furnaces and an engine room. Here, in inhuman conditions - in a rumble, in hellish heat and stuffiness - stokers and mechanics work, thanks to them the ship sails across the ocean. On the lower decks, various service areas are located: kitchens, pantries, wine cellars, laundries, etc. Sailors, attendants and poor passengers live here. But on the upper deck there is a selective society (only about fifty people), which enjoys a luxurious life and unimaginable comfort, because these people are the “masters of life”. The ship ("modern Babylon") is called symbolically - after the name of a rich, densely populated country, which in an instant was swept away by the waves of the ocean and disappeared without a trace. Thus, a logical connection is established between the biblical Babylon and the semi-legendary Atlantis: both powerful, flourishing states perish, and the ship, symbolizing an unjust society and named so significant, also risks perishing in the raging ocean every minute. Among the ocean, shaking waves, a huge ship looks like a fragile ship that cannot resist the elements. It is not for nothing that the Devil looks after the steamer leaving for the American shores from the rocks of Gibraltar (it was not by chance that the author capitalized this word). This is how Bunin's philosophical idea about the powerlessness of man in front of nature, incomprehensible to the human mind, is manifested in the story.

The ocean becomes symbolic at the end of the story. The storm is described as a global catastrophe: in the whistle of the wind, the author hears a “funeral mass” for the former “master of life” and all modern civilization; the mournful blackness of the waves is emphasized by white shreds of foam on the crests.

The image of the captain of the ship, whom the author compares with a pagan god at the beginning and at the end of the story, is symbolic. In appearance, this man really looks like an idol: red, of monstrous size and weight, in a marine uniform with wide gold stripes. He, as befits a god, lives in the captain's cabin - the highest point of the ship, where passengers are forbidden to enter, he is rarely shown in public, but passengers unconditionally believe in his power and knowledge. Asam the captain, being still a man, feels very insecure in the raging ocean and hopes for a telegraph machine, standing in the next cabin-radio room.

At the beginning and at the end of the story, a couple in love appears, which attracts the attention of the bored passengers of the Atlantis by not hiding their love, their feelings. But only the captain knows that the happy appearance of these young people is a hoax, because the couple "breaks a comedy": in fact, she is hired by the owners of the shipping company to entertain passengers. When these comedians appear among the brilliant society of the upper deck, the falseness of human relations, which they so importunately demonstrate, spreads to everyone around them. This “sinfully modest” girl and a tall young man “resembling a huge leech” become a symbol of high society, in which, according to Bunin, there is no place for sincere feelings, and depravity is hidden behind ostentatious brilliance and well-being.

Summing up, it should be noted that "The Gentleman from San Francisco" is considered one of Bunin's best stories both in idea and in its artistic embodiment. The story of the nameless American millionaire turns into a philosophical parable with broad symbolic generalizations.

Moreover, Bunin creates symbols in different ways. The gentleman from San Francisco becomes a sign-symbol of bourgeois society: the writer removes all the individual characteristics of this character and emphasizes his social features: lack of spirituality, passion for profit, boundless complacency. Bunin's other symbols are built on associative rapprochement (the Atlantic Ocean is a traditional comparison of human life with the sea, and a person himself with a fragile boat; fireboxes in the engine room are the hellish fire of the underworld), on rapprochement by the device (multi-deck ship - human society in miniature), on convergence in function (the captain is a pagan god).

Symbols in the story become an expressive means for revealing the author's position. Through them, the author showed the deceit and depravity of the bourgeois society, which has forgotten about moral laws, the true meaning of human life and is approaching a universal catastrophe. It is clear that Bunin's premonition of a catastrophe was especially aggravated in connection with the world war, which, as it flared up more and more, turned into a huge human slaughter before the author's eyes.