The gentleman from san francisco how society is shown. The problem of man and civilization in the story of I.A.

"The Gentleman from San Francisco" is a damning story about a millionaire capitalist who symbolic meaning to which Ivan Bunin put his value judgment about the bourgeoisie.

The writer does not honor the hero with the privilege of bearing any name, so we get to know him as a typical “master”, that is, only his social status. This artistic technique not only reflects the author's completely disapproving attitude towards his character, but also speaks of the generalization of the character he created.

Throughout his miserable life, the aristocrat has been chasing money, which is never enough. Only in old age he finally decided to spend some part of them on vacation with his wife and daughter. But this is not the type of worker. Bunin's hero achieved success at the cost of poverty and the deaths of other people who were not so lucky in life. He is so narrow-minded that, apart from the desire for profit and pleasure, he has no other desires. Even the gentleman is going on a cruise simply because it is customary for others. He does not think about the pleasure of seeing the world, its beauty, but only thinks about what can be tried on the ship for money.

The writer severely condemns the life of masters and shows us a prime example how death erases all class boundaries, exposing the insignificance of power and money. This means that a person should strive to live with dignity, so that after death not only his name is remembered, but also the good that he managed to accomplish during his term.

Bunin's story The Gentleman from San Francisco has an acute social orientation, but the meaning of these stories is not limited to criticism of capitalism and colonialism. Social problems capitalist society are only a background that allows Bunin to show the aggravation of the eternal problems of mankind in the development of civilization.

In the 1900s, Bunin traveled around Europe and the East, observing the life and order of capitalist society in Europe and the colonial countries of Asia. Bunin is aware of the whole immorality of the order that prevails in an imperialist society, where everyone works only to enrich the monopolies. Wealthy capitalists are not ashamed of any means to increase their capital.

This story reflects all the features of Bunin's poetics, and at the same time it is unusual for him, its meaning is too prosaic. The story has almost no plot. People travel, fall in love, earn money, that is, they create the appearance of activity, but the plot can be told in a nutshell: A man has died. Bunin generalizes the image of the gentleman from San Francisco to such an extent that it does not even give him any specific name. We don't know much about his spiritual life. Actually, this life did not exist, it was lost behind the thousands of everyday details that Bunin lists up to the smallest details. Already at the very beginning we see the contrast between cheerful and easy life in the cabins of the ship and the horror that reigns in its bowels: Every minute the siren called out with hellish gloominess and screeched with furious anger, but few of the inhabitants heard the siren, drowned out by the sounds of a beautiful string orchestra ...

A description of life on a steamboat is given in contrast image the upper deck and hold of the ship: Giant furnaces rumbled deafly, devouring piles of red-hot coal, with a roar plunged into them, covered with caustic, dirty sweat and up to the waist naked people, purple from the flames; and here, in the bar, they carelessly threw their legs on the arms of their chairs, smoked,

They sipped cognac and liqueurs... With this abrupt transition, Bunin emphasizes that the luxury of the upper decks, that is, the highest capitalist society, was achieved only through the exploitation, enslavement of people who constantly work in hellish conditions in the hold of the ship. And their pleasure is empty and false, symbolic meaning the story is played by a couple hired by Lloyd to play love for good money.

On the example of the fate of the gentleman from San Francisco, Bunin writes about the aimlessness, emptiness, worthlessness of life. typical representative capitalist society. The thought of death, repentance, sins, God never came to the gentleman from San Francisco. All his life he sought to be compared with those whom he had once taken as a model. By old age, there was nothing human left in him. He became like expensive thing, made of gold and ivory, one of those that always surrounded him: his large teeth glittered with gold fillings, his strong bald head was old ivory.

Bunin's idea is clear. He talks about the eternal problems of mankind. About the meaning of life, about the spirituality of life, about the relationship of man to God. To travel, a rich gentleman rides on the steamer Atlantis, where the most selective society is located, the very one on which all the benefits of civilization depend: the style of tuxedos, and the strength of thrones, and the declaration of war, and the well-being of hotels. These people are carefree, they have fun, dance, eat, drink, smoke, dress beautifully, but their life is boring, sketchy, uninteresting. Every day is like the previous one. Their life is like a scheme where hours and minutes are planned and scheduled. Bunin's heroes are spiritually poor, narrow-minded. They are created only to enjoy food, dress, celebrate, have fun. Their world is artificial, but they like it and enjoy living in it. Even a special pair of young people was hired on the ship for a very large sum of money, who played lovers in order to amuse and surprise rich gentlemen, and who had long been tired of this game. And no one knew that this couple had long been bored with pretending to suffer their blissful torment to shamelessly sad music ...

The only real thing in the artificial world was the nascent feeling of love for the young prince in the daughter of a gentleman from San Francisco.

The steamboat on which these people are sailing consists of two floors. The upper floor is dominated by the rich, who think they have a right to everything that they are allowed to do, and the lower floor is occupied by stokers, dirty, bare-chested, crimson from the flames. Bunin shows us the split of the world into two parts, where one is allowed everything, and the other nothing, and the steamship Atlantis is the symbol of this world.

The world of millionaires is insignificant and selfish. These people are always looking for their own benefit, so that they alone feel good, but they never think about the people who surround them. They are arrogant and try to avoid people of lower rank, treat them with disdain, although ragamuffins will faithfully serve them for pennies. Here is how Bunin describes the cynicism of the gentleman from San Francisco: And when Atlantis finally entered the harbor, rolled up to the embankment with its multi-storey bulk dotted with people, and the gangway rumbled, how many porters and their assistants in caps with gold galloons, how many all sorts of commission agents, whistling boys and hefty ragamuffins with packs of colored postcards in their hands rushed to meet him with an offer of services! And he grinned at these ragamuffins .., and calmly spoke through his teeth in English, then in Italian: “Get out! Away!".

A gentleman from San Francisco travels across different countries, but he does not have a sense of admiration for beauty, he is not interested in seeing the sights, museums, churches. All his senses are reduced to eating well and relaxing, leaning back in his chair.

When a gentleman from San Francisco dies, suddenly feeling some kind of illness, then the whole society of millionaires became agitated, feeling disgust for the deceased, because he violated their peace, their constant state of celebration. People like them never think about human life, about death, about the world, about some global issues. They just live without thinking about anything, doing nothing for the sake of humanity. Their life passes aimlessly, and when they die, no one will remember that these people existed. In life, they have not done anything significant, worthwhile, therefore they are useless to society.

This is very well illustrated by the example of a gentleman from San Francisco. When the wife of the deceased asked to be moved to her husband's room, the owner of the hotel refused, as he had no benefit from this. The dead old man was not even placed in a coffin, but in a box of English soda water. Bunin contrasts: how respectfully they treated a wealthy gentleman from San Francisco and how disrespectfully they treated a dead old man.

The writer denies such a life as the gentleman from San Francisco and the rich gentlemen from the steamer Atlantis led. He shows in the story how insignificant money is before death. main idea The story is that everyone is equal before death, that some class, property lines that separate people are not important before death, so you need to live your life in such a way that after death a long memory of you remains.

Bunin's stories are relevant to this day. And it's not that they criticize capitalism and colonialism as horrifying moments in history. Bunin raises acute social issues that simply cannot leave a person indifferent.

An important place in his story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" is played by the description of the "eternal" problem of mankind in the development of civilization.

The peculiarity of the work is that it completely lacks a plot. People, places, conversations, meetings flash before us. But in all this eternal flow there is nothing sincere and pure.

The protagonist The gentleman from San Francisco is a generalized image of humanity. So it is not surprising why Bunin did not even give him a name. Describing the life of the character, the author plunged him into the vanity of thousands of different small things, which plunged the Lord into routine work.

What impressed me the most was the description of the ship.

I really liked how Bunin described the whole essence of life, using various comparisons and metaphors. The upper decks are the elite of society, the upper class. The lower decks are an enslaved society. The ship will sail only under the condition of cruel exploitation. While the top of society will enjoy life, everyone else will be forced to bear a heavy yoke. The worst part is that it all happened. History teaches, in truth, hard lessons.

Bunin uses the image of Mr. Bunin to show how empty and worthless the life of a representative of a capitalist society is. The man of that time thought only about profit, completely forgetting about God, repentance, death and sin.

People strove for a single established image of the ideal. And no one cared that he was immoral, sinful and anti-democratic. Everyone was blind on the path to their "success" and "happiness".

The gentleman from San Francisco did not live, but existed. So there is nothing surprising in the fact that at the end of his life he completely lacked humanity.

So what's the point this story. First of all, Bunin tried to show us how much civilization influences a person. At each stage of its development, society had its own values ​​and desires. Of course, there have always been people who are ready to go against the system. But the majority chose the spacious and easy path of submission.

The author tried to convey how important it is to preserve the true human values that without them a person simply cannot be called a person. Each of us is individual, each has its own special destiny. All of us should worry not only about the material, but also about the spiritual. And the most important thing, according to the author, is that only a person's relationship with God can make you happy.

I know there are many more challenges ahead. Mankind will have to adjust to new laws again and again. So we must be ready for this in order to give a fitting rebuff to any system that will consider that it has the right to enslave, humiliate and insult.

food cult, gambling and dancing are the amusements of the chosen society. The 58-year-old Gentleman thinks about the love of young Neapolitan women, and in the evenings he admires “living pictures” in some brothels.

Quite indicative in the context of the stated research topic is the description of the scene of the death of a gentleman from San Francisco. It would seem that only when a person nearby dies, those around them sober up, shake off some unnecessary, as it seems at this moment, temporary thoughts and deeds, i.e. transitory, and think about the permanent. About the meaning of life, purpose, price, you begin to think about the lost. But none of this is in the reaction high society who watched the death of a gentleman from San Francisco 220 Stepanov M. This is how earthly glory passes. / Literature. No. 1, 1998. S. 12. 0 .

The people around do not want unnecessary reminders of death that walks next to every person, since this knowledge interferes with a carefree existence, it can cross out the “meaning” of their empty and worthless life that each of them has chosen for himself: “in a quarter of an hour everything is in the hotel -how it's in order. But the evening was irreparably ruined. Some, returning to the dining room, finished their dinner, but silently, with offended faces, while the owner approached one person after another, shrugging his shoulders in impotent and decent irritation, feeling guilty without guilt, assuring everyone that he perfectly understood , “how unpleasant it is,” and giving the word that he will take “every measure in his power” to eliminate the trouble; the tarantella had to be cancelled, excess electricity was turned off, most of the guests went to the city, to the pub 221 Bunin IA A man from San Francisco./Bunin IA Novels and stories. Comp. Devel A. A. L.; Lenizdat, 1985. S. 387. 1".

The reaction of society to the death of the master was not just indifference to himself and his family, but more than that - it was expressed in irritation from a spoiled evening. In addition to irritation and annoyance, we no longer see any feelings or thoughts about the death of a person.

The owner of the hotel was sincerely upset by what happened, but not by the very fact of the death of a person, but by the fact that he could not hide it from the guests and the fact of the death of a gentleman from San Francisco in the hotel became “public property”. He not only did not express sympathy for the family of the deceased, but also dramatically changed his attitude in it: “... hastily, correctly, but already without any courtesy and not in English, but in French, the owner objected, who was not at all interested in those trifles, what visitors from San Francisco could now leave in his box office 222 Ibid. S. 389. 2 ".

It is also impossible to ignore the reaction of the family from San Francisco to the death of the master. His wife was shocked by what had happened, but rather by its suddenness than by the fact itself. Both women - both the wife and the daughter of the master spent the night after his death in tears: “Miss and Mrs., pale, with eyes that have failed from tears and a sleepless night 223 Ibid. P. 390. 3”, but it cannot be said that having lost their master, his family did not lose the meaning of life. Being part of that high society, the ins and outs of which Bunin exposes in his story, we can say that the family from San Francisco was more sorry only that the uninterrupted source was closed wealth for them 224 Stepanov M. This is how earthly glory passes. / Literature. No. 1, 1998. S. 12. 4 . This is evidenced by numerous, at first glance, imperceptible details of the story. So, among them, one can single out the scene of a dispute with the owner of the hotel: “Mrs.'s tears immediately dried up, her face flared up. She raised her tone, began to demand, speaking her own language and still not believing that respect for them had finally been lost. Comp. Devel A. A. L.; Lenizdat, 1985. S. 388. 5".

Moreover, these words of the author also show more irritation than regret that the husband of the lady from San Francisco died - the same irritation as everyone around. The author, as it were, shows that with his sudden death, the gentleman from San Francisco brought a lot of trouble and trouble to high society, which is in no way consistent with the rules of accepted etiquette.

Bunin I.A. showed failure life philosophy high society, which is the "managers" modern civilization who sees the meaning of life in increasing wealth, which not only makes it possible to live cheerfully and idly, but does this only possible way finding the meaning of life.

However, sudden death of the gentleman from San Francisco showed that everything he accumulated has no meaning in the face of that eternal law to which everyone is subject without exception. So the meaning of life is individual people, and of the whole human civilization as a whole, consists not in the acquisition of wealth, but in something else, not amenable to monetary evaluation, - worldly wisdom, kindness, spirituality.

It is precisely spirituality that is absent in the life of a “choice society”, which is evidenced not only by their pastime, but, perhaps even to a greater extent, by the bored perception of museums, ancient monuments, i.e. exactly what was the original, formal purpose of the journey, i.e. exactly what is an expression of the path traversed by human civilization.

The coffin in the hold at the end of the story is a kind of verdict on the insanely rejoicing society, a reminder that even rich people standing “on top of the world” are by no means omnipotent, do not always determine their fate and are worthless before higher powers.

“The Gentleman from San Francisco” tells about the complex and dramatic interaction of the social and the natural-cosmic in human life, about the claims to dominance in this world, about the unknowability of the Universe and civilization, which inevitably moves towards its own finale, which should never be forgotten. And the ship of our civilization, guided by the proud consciousness of its human chosenness, is moving towards a presumptuously set dream, and in our ears the warning whistle of a siren becomes more and more distinct: “Woe to you, Babylon, a strong city 226 Bem A. L. Gentleman from San Francisco. / Literature. No. 40, 2000. S. 7-8. 6".

As the society is shown in the story the gentleman from san faracisco

Answers:

1. Huge Atlantis is a model of a capitalist society. The description of life on the ship is given in a contrasting image of the upper deck and hold of the ship: The gigantic furnaces rumbled deafly, devouring piles of red-hot coal, with a roar thrown into them by people covered in caustic, dirty sweat and waist-deep naked people, purple from the flames; and here, in the bar, they smoked carelessly, sipped cognac and liqueurs. With this abrupt transition, Bunin emphasizes that the luxury of the upper decks, that is, the highest capitalist society, was achieved only through the exploitation and enslavement of people who continuously work in hellish conditions in the hold of the ship. 2. The gentleman from San Francisco is a symbolic image, because he does not even have a name. He is the symbol of an entire class. The absence of a name also speaks of the absence of individuality. He is just a typical rich man. (Look at the text as the author describes it in the book!) 3. The world of millionaires is insignificant and selfish. These people are always looking for their own benefit, so that they alone feel good, but they never think about the people who surround them. They are arrogant and try to avoid people of lower rank, treat them with disdain, although ragamuffins will faithfully serve them for pennies. 4. The gentleman from San Francisco, this poor rich man, is contrasted with the episodic figure of the boatman Lorenzo, a rich poor man, “a carefree reveler and a handsome man”, indifferent to money and happy, full of life. Life, feelings, beauty of nature - this is what, according to I. A. Bunin, are the main values. And woe to him who has made money his goal. 5. The image of the gentleman from San Francisco. 6. To talk about the plot of the story, artistic originality read the story. The climax of the story is unexpected death Main character. In its suddenness lies the deepest philosophical meaning. The gentleman from San Francisco is postponing his life until later, but none of us is destined to know how much time is allotted to us on this earth. Life cannot be bought with money. The hero of the story brings youth to the altar of profit for the sake of speculative happiness in the future, but he does not notice how mediocre his life has been.

high society, where the rich do what the high society is supposed to do, even if it doesn't want to! everything is played! there are no feelings and cannot be! The death of the master confirms all this, when we don’t care that a person has died, but the administration does not benefit from this death and it inspires the people in every possible way so as not to lose clients!