The theme of disappearance and death in Bunin's story “The Gentleman from San Francisco. The life and death of a gentleman from San Francisco (based on the story by I. A. Bunin) Why did a gentleman from San Francisco die

"Terrible" in fact was the first touch of Death, which was never realized by a person in whose soul "for a long time there was no ... any mystical feelings." After all, as Bunin writes, the intense rhythm of his life did not leave "time for feelings and reflections." However, there were still some feelings, or rather, sensations, though the simplest, if not base ... The writer repeatedly points out that the gentleman from San Francisco is animated only at the mention of the tarantella performer (his question, asked "in an expressionless voice" , about her partner: is he not her husband - just gives out hidden excitement), only imagining how she, "swarthy, with simulated eyes, like a mulatto, you are in a flowery outfit /.../ is dancing", only anticipating "love young Neapolitan women, albeit not entirely disinterested", only admiring the "living pictures" in the brothels, or so frankly looking at the famous blonde beauty that his daughter becomes embarrassed. He feels despair only when he begins to suspect that life is slipping out of his control: he came to Italy to enjoy, and here it is fog, rains and terrifying pitching ... But he is given pleasure to dream about a spoonful of soup and a sip of wine.

And for this, as well as for the whole life lived, in which there were self-confident efficiency, and cruel exploitation of other people, and the endless accumulation of wealth, and the conviction that everyone around was called to serve him, to prevent his slightest desires, to carry his things, for the absence of any living principle, Bunin executes him. And he executes cruelly, one might say, mercilessly.

The death of a gentleman from San Francisco shocks with its ugliness, repulsive physiology. Now the writer makes full use of the aesthetic category of "ugly" so that a disgusting picture is forever imprinted in our memory, when "his neck tensed, his eyes bulged, his pince-nez flew off his nose ... He rushed forward, wanted to take a breath of air - and groaned wildly; the lower his jaw dropped /.../, his head fell on his shoulder and rolled around, /... / - and his whole body, writhing, raising the carpet with his heels, crawled to the floor, desperately fighting with someone. But this was not the end: "he was still fighting. He persistently fought against death, for no reason did he want to succumb to it, which so unexpectedly and rudely fell on him. He shook his head, wheezed, as if stabbed to death, rolled his eyes, like a drunk ... ". The hoarse gurgling continued to be heard from his chest later, when he was already lying on a cheap iron bed, under coarse woolen blankets, dimly lit by a single light bulb. Bunin does not spare repulsive details in order to recreate a picture of the pitiful, disgusting death of a once powerful man whom no amount of wealth can save from subsequent humiliation. And only when a particular gentleman from San Francisco disappears, and “someone else” appears in his place, overshadowed by the grandeur of death, he allows himself a few details that emphasize the significance of what has happened: “slowly (...) pallor flowed over the face of the deceased, and his features began to thin, brighten. And later, the dead person is also granted genuine communion with nature, which he was deprived of, which he never felt the need for, being alive. We remember well what the gentleman from San Francisco aspired to and "aided" for the rest of his life. Now, in the cold and empty room, "the stars looked at him from the sky, the cricket sang with sad carelessness on the wall."

But it seems that while depicting the further humiliations that accompanied the posthumous earthly "existence" of the gentleman from San Francisco, Bunin even contradicts the truth of life. The reader may wonder why, for example, the owner of the hotel considers the money that the wife and daughter of the deceased guest could give him in gratitude for transferring the body to the bed of a luxurious room, a trifle? Why does he lose the remnants of respect for them and even allow himself to "besiege" Madame when she begins to demand what is rightfully due to her? Why is he in such a hurry to "say goodbye" to the body, even without giving his relatives the opportunity to purchase a coffin? And now, on his orders, the body of a gentleman from San Francisco is immersed in a long box of English soda water, and at dawn, secretly, a drunk cab rushes down to the pier to hastily load onto a small steamboat, which will hand over his burden to one from port warehouses, after which it will again be on the Atlantis. And there, a black tarred coffin will be hidden deep in the hold, in which it will remain until returning home.

But such a state of affairs is really possible in a world where Death is perceived as something shameful, obscene, "unpleasant", violating the orderly order, like mauvais ton (bad taste, bad upbringing), capable of spoiling the mood, unsettling. It is no coincidence that the writer chooses a verb that should not be consistent with the word death: "done." "If there hadn't been a German in the reading room /.../ - not a single soul from the guests would have known what he had done." Consequently, death in the perception of these people is something that should be "hushed up", hidden, otherwise "offended faces", claims and "spoiled evening" cannot be avoided. That is why the owner of the hotel is in such a hurry to get rid of the deceased, that in a world of distorted ideas about what is proper and improper, about decent and indecent (it is indecent to die like this, at the wrong time, but it is decent to invite an elegant couple, "play love for good money", satiated idlers, you can hide the body in a bottle box, but you can’t have guests break their exercise). The writer insistently emphasizes the fact that, if there were no undesirable witness, well-trained servants "instantly, in reverse, would have dashed off by the legs and head of the gentleman from San Francisco to hell," and everything would have gone according to routine. And now the owner has to apologize to the guests for the inconvenience caused: he had to cancel the tarantella, turn off the electricity. He even makes monstrous promises from a human point of view, saying that he will take "all measures in his power" to eliminate the trouble. that he can oppose something to inexorable death, that it is in his power to "correct" the inevitable.)

The writer "rewarded" his hero with such a terrible, unenlightened death in order to once again emphasize the horror of that unrighteous life, which could only end in this way. Indeed, after the death of a gentleman from San Francisco, the world felt relieved. A miracle happened. The very next day, the morning blue sky “became rich”, “peace and tranquility again settled on the island”, ordinary people poured into the streets, and the city market was decorated with his presence by the handsome Lorenzo, who serves as a model for many painters and, as it were, symbolizes beautiful Italy. Everything in him is in stark contrast to the gentleman from San Francisco, although he, too, like that old man! And his calmness (he can stand in the market from morning to evening), and his unselfishness ("he brought and already sold for a pittance two lobsters caught at night"), and the fact that he is a "carefree reveler" (his idleness acquires moral value according to compared to the fussy readiness of the American to consume pleasures). He has "regal habits", while the slowness of the gentleman from San Francisco seems lethargic, and he does not need to dress and preen specially - his tatters are picturesque, and his red woolen beret is smartly lowered over his ear as always.

But to an even greater extent, the peaceful procession from the mountain heights of two Abruzzo highlanders confirms the grace that has descended on the world. Bunin deliberately slows down the pace of the narrative so that the reader can open the panorama of Italy with them and enjoy it - "a whole country, joyful, beautiful, sunny, stretched under them: and the rocky humps of the island, which almost all lay at their feet, and that fabulous blue , in which he swam, and the radiant morning vapors over the sea to the east, under the dazzling sun, which was already warming hot, rising higher and higher, and the misty azure, still in the morning unsteady massifs of Italy, its near and distant mountains /. ../". The stop along the way that these two people make is also important - in front of the illuminated by the sun, in a crown, golden-rusty from bad weather, a snow-white statue of the Madonna. To her, "the immaculate intercessor of all those who suffer," they offer "humbly joyful praise." But also the sun. And morning. Bunin makes his characters children of nature, pure and naive... And this stop, which turns an ordinary descent from the mountain into a long journey even longer, makes it meaningful (again, in contrast to the senseless accumulation of impressions that should have crowned the journey of Mr. from San Francisco).

Bunin openly embodies his aesthetic ideal in ordinary people. Even before this apotheosis of natural, chaste, religious life, which arises shortly before the end of the story, his admiration for the naturalness and uncomplicatedness of their existence was visible. First, almost all of them were honored to be named. Unlike the nameless "master", his wife, "Mrs.", his daughter, "Miss", as well as the impassive owner of the hotel in Capri, the captain of the ship - servants, dancers have names! Carmella and Giuseppe splendidly dance the tarantella, Luigi bitingly mimics the English speech of the deceased, and old Lorenzo allows visiting foreigners to admire him. But it is also important that death equated the swaggering gentleman from San Francisco with mere mortals: in the hold of the ship, he is next to infernal machines serviced by naked people "drenched in caustic, dirty sweat"!

But Bunin is not so unambiguous as to confine himself to a direct contrast between the horrors of capitalist civilization and the natural modesty of an unpretentious life. With the death of the master, social evil disappeared from San Francisco, but cosmic, indestructible evil remained, the one whose existence is eternal because the Devil is vigilantly watching him. Bunin, who is usually not inclined to resort to symbols and allegories (the exception is his stories created at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries - "Pass", "Fog", "Velga", "Hope", where romantic symbols of faith in the future, overcoming , perseverance, etc.), here he piled on the rocks of Gibraltar the Devil himself, who did not take his eyes off the ship leaving into the night, and "by the way" remembered a man who lived on Capri two thousand years ago, "indescribably vile in satisfying his lust and for some reason had power over millions of people, inflicted cruelty on them beyond measure.

According to Bunin, social evil can be temporarily eliminated - who was "everything" became "nothing", what was "above" turned out to be "below", but cosmic evil, embodied in the forces of nature, historical realities, cannot be eliminated. And the guarantee of this evil is darkness, a boundless ocean, a furious blizzard, through which a steadfast and majestic ship passes heavily, on which the social hierarchy is still preserved: below the mouths of hellish furnaces and slaves chained to them, above - elegant lush halls, an endlessly lasting ball , a multilingual crowd, the bliss of languid melodies...

But Bunin does not paint this world as socially two-dimensional; for him, there are not only exploiters and exploited in it. The writer does not create a socially accusatory work, but a philosophical parable, and therefore he makes a small correction. Above all, above the luxurious cabins and halls, lives the "overweight driver of the ship", the captain, he "sits" above the whole ship in "cozy and dimly lit chambers." And he is the only one who knows for sure about what is happening - about a couple of lovers hired for money, about a gloomy cargo that is at the bottom of the ship. He is the only one who hears the "heavy howls of a siren strangled by a storm" (for everyone else, as we remember, it is drowned out by the sounds of an orchestra), and this disturbs him, but he calms himself, placing his hopes in technology, in the achievements of civilization, just as those who sail on the steamer believe in him, convinced that he has "power" over the ocean. After all, the ship is "huge", it is "steady, firm, majestic and terrible", it was built by the New Man (these capital letters used by Bunin to designate both the man and the Devil are noteworthy!), And behind the wall of the captain's cabin there is a radio room where the telegraph operator receives any signals from all parts of the world. In order to confirm the "omnipotence" of the "pale-faced telegrapher", Bunin creates a kind of halo around his head: a metal half-hoop. And to complete the impression, it fills the room with "a mysterious rumble, trembling and dry crackle of blue lights bursting around ...". But before us is a false saint, just like the captain - not a commander, not a driver, but only a "pagan idol", which they used to worship. And their omnipotence is false, just as all civilization is false, covering up its own weakness with external attributes of fearlessness and strength, persistently driving away thoughts of the end from itself. It is just as false as all this tinsel splendor of luxury and wealth, which are not able to save a person either from death, or from the gloomy depths of the ocean, or from universal anguish, a symptom of which can be considered the fact that the charming couple, magnificently demonstrating boundless happiness, "long ago I got bored (...) pretending to be tormented by my blissful torment. The formidable mouth of the underworld, in which "terrible in their concentration forces" are seething, is open and awaits its victims. What forces did Bunin mean? Perhaps this is the anger of the enslaved - it is no coincidence that Bunin emphasized the contempt with which the gentleman from San Francisco perceives the true people of Italy: "greedy, garlic-smelling people" living in "miserable, moldy stone houses stuck on top of each other near the water , near the boats, near some rags, tins and brown nets. But, of course, it is also a technique ready to get out of subordination, only creating the illusion of security. It is not for nothing that the captain is forced to reassure himself by the proximity of the telegraph operator's cabin, which in fact only looks "as if armored."

Perhaps the only thing (besides the chastity of the natural world of nature and people close to it) that can resist the pride of the New Man with the old heart is youth. After all, the only living person among the puppets that inhabit ships, hotels, resorts is the daughter of a gentleman from San Francisco. And even if she also does not have a name, but for a completely different reason than her father. In this character for Bunin, everything that distinguishes youth from satiety and fatigue brought by the years lived has merged. She is all in anticipation of love, on the eve of those happy meetings, when it doesn’t matter if your chosen one is good or bad, it’s important that he is standing next to you and you “listen to him and don’t understand from excitement what he (...) says” , thrilled by the "inexplicable charm", but at the same time stubbornly "pretending to look intently into the distance." (Bunin clearly demonstrates condescension towards such behavior, stating that "it does not matter what exactly awakens the girl's soul, whether it is money, fame, or nobility of the family," what is important is that she is able to awaken.) The girl almost falls into fainting when she thinks she saw the crown prince of an Asian state she liked, although it is known for certain that he cannot be in this place. She is able to be embarrassed, intercepting immodest glances, with which her father escorts beauties. And the innocent frankness of her clothes clearly contrasts with only her father's youthful attire and with the rich outfit of her mother. Only her longing squeezes her heart when her father confesses to her that in a dream he saw a man who looked like the owner of a hotel in Capri, and at that moment she was visited by a "feeling of terrible loneliness." And only she sobs bitterly, realizing that her father is dead (her mother's tears instantly dry up as soon as she receives a rebuff from the owner of the hotel).

In emigration, Bunin creates the parable "Youth and Old Age", summing up his thoughts about the life of a person who has embarked on the path of profit and acquisition. "God created heaven and earth... Then God created man and said to man: you, man, will live thirty years in the world, you will live well, you will rejoice, you will think that God created and made everything in the world for you alone "Are you satisfied with that? And the man thought: so good, but only thirty years of life! Oh, not enough ... Then God created the donkey and said to the donkey: you will carry waterskins and packs, people will ride you and beat you on the head with a stick. Are you satisfied with such a term? And the donkey sobbed, wept and said to God: why do I need so much? Give me, God, only fifteen years of life. - And add fifteen to me, said the man to God, - please, add from his share! - And so God did, agreed. And the man left forty-five years of life ... Then God created the dog and also gave him thirty years of life. You, God said to the dog, will always live evil, you will guard the master's wealth, not trust anyone else , you will lie at passers-by, you will not sleep at night from anxiety... And ... the dog even howled: oh, I will have half of such a life! And again the man began to ask God: add me this half! And again, God added to him ... Well, then God created the monkey, gave her thirty years of life too, and said that she would live without labor and without care, only her face would be very bad ... bald, wrinkled, bare eyebrows They climb on the forehead, and everything ... will try to be looked at, and everyone will laugh at her ... And she refused, asked for only half ... And the man begged for himself this half too ... The man his own lived for thirty years as a human being - he ate, drank, fought in the war, danced at weddings, loved young women and girls. And for fifteen years he worked as a donkey, amassing wealth. And fifteen dogs kept their wealth, kept lying and getting angry, did not sleep at night. And then he became so ugly, old, like that monkey. And everyone shook their heads and laughed at his old age ... "

The story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" can be considered a full-blooded canvas of life, later folded into tight rings of the parable "Youth and Old Age". But already in it, a harsh sentence was passed on the donkey man, the dog man, the monkey man, and most of all, the New Man with an old heart, who established such laws on earth, the entire earthly civilization, chained itself in the shackles of false morality.

In the spring of 1912, the whole world was informed about a collision with an iceberg of the largest passenger ship, the Titanic, about the terrible death of more than one and a half thousand people. This event sounded a warning to mankind, intoxicated with scientific success, convinced of its limitless possibilities. The huge Titanic for some time became a symbol of this power, but its immersion in the waves of the ocean, the self-confidence of the captain who did not heed the danger signals, the inability to withstand the elements, the helplessness of the crew once again confirmed the fragility and insecurity of man in the face of cosmic forces. Perhaps I.A. Bunin perceived this catastrophe most sharply, seeing in it the result of the activity of the “pride of a New Man with an old heart”, which he wrote about in his story “The Gentleman from San Francisco” three years later, in 1915 .

The story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" was written by Bunin in 1915, during the First World War. During this difficult period, there was a rethinking of established values, people, as it were, looked at themselves and the world around them in a new way, trying to understand the causes of the disaster and find a way out of the current situation.
“The Gentleman from San Francisco” by Bunin, in my opinion, is one of such works. In this story, the writer discusses what is the main thing in life, what needs to be followed, which can give salvation and comfort.
In the course of action, watching the movements of a wealthy American and his family, we understand that the way of life and thoughts of these people contains some kind of flaw, something that turns them into the living dead.
At first glance, in the life of a gentleman from San Francisco, everything is fine. He is rich and respectable, he has a wife and a daughter. All his life, the hero worked, going towards the intended goal - wealth: "... finally, he saw that a lot had already been done, that he was almost equal to those whom he once took as a model ...".
By the age of fifty-eight, the gentleman had achieved his goal, but what did it cost him? The writer shows that all this time the hero did not live, but existed, depriving himself of all the delights of life. Now, already in his advanced years, he decided to rest and enjoy. But what does it mean to him to "enjoy life"?
This person is blind, lives surrounded by his own illusions and the illusions of the society in which he moves. Moreover, the master does not have his own thoughts, desires, feelings - he acts as his environment tells him to. The writer is completely ironic about this: "The people to whom he belonged had a habit of starting the enjoyment of life with a trip to Europe, to India, to Egypt."
The hero considers himself the ruler of the world only because he has a lot of money. Indeed, due to his condition, the gentleman can afford a multi-day cruise to the countries of the Old World, a certain level of comfort and service (the upper deck of the Atlantis steamship, good hotel rooms, expensive restaurants, etc.) But all these are “external” things, only attributes that are not able to warm the soul of a person, and even more so, make him happy.
Bunin shows that this man missed the most important thing in his life - he did not find love, a real family, a true support in life. The San Francisco gentleman doesn't love his wife, and she doesn't love him. The daughter of this man is also unhappy in love - already at a mature age for a bride, she is not married, because she is guided by the same principles as her father. The writer ironically remarks that on this cruise the whole family expected to meet a rich groom for her: “... don't you have happy meetings on your travels? Here sometimes you sit at the table or look at the frescoes next to the billionaire.
In the course of the hero's journey, the writer debunks his life values and ideals, shows their falsity and ephemeral nature, isolation from real life. The culmination of this process is the death of the master. It was she, the most real of all that could be, who put everything in its place, showed the hero his place. It turned out that money does not play any role when it comes to true love, respect, recognition. After the death of the hero, no one even remembered his name, as, indeed, during his lifetime.
The body of the gentleman returned home on the same steamer Atlantis, only in the hold, among the boxes and all sorts of rubbish. This, in the end, characterizes the true position of the hero, his real significance, sums up the life of a gentleman from San Francisco. This result is deplorable.
So what are true values in Bunin's understanding? We see that he rejects the ideals of the bourgeois world, considering them false and leading to destruction. I think that what is true for a writer is that which stands above human ambitions and delusions. First of all, it is nature, eternal and unchanging, keeping within itself the laws of the Universe. In addition, these are unshakable human values, which are also a continuation of the eternal world laws: justice, honesty, love, trust, etc.
A person who violates all this inevitably goes to death. As well as a society that preaches such values. That is why Bunin took the lines from the Apocalypse as an epigraph to his story: “Woe to you, Babylon, strong city ...” The author’s thought will be even more understandable if we turn to the continuation of this phrase - “... for your judgment has come in one hour.” The writer believes that contemporary Western civilization must perish, because it is based on false values. Humanity must understand this and accept the other as a basis, otherwise the Apocalypse will come, about which our ancient ancestors warned.

The story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" begins with the journey of a certain man and his family. The name of the hero is not called by the author intentionally. This is a collective image. It only becomes clear to the reader that the man is well off and is now going on vacation. He is 58 years old, however, in his opinion, he is just beginning to live. The man believes that he deserved a rest, as he worked hard. The author clarifies that the hero has many hired workers under whose hands he made his fortune. The plans of the gentleman from San Francisco are visiting many countries, sightseeing and other places where you can have a good rest and indulge in gluttony. About whether his dreams came true, you will find out by reading the summary. "The Gentleman from San Francisco" is a story that has received recognition around the world, and is undoubtedly worth reading.

"Atlantis"

The entire San Francisco family sets sail on a ship called the Atlantis. It is a huge hotel on the water, on the upper decks of which guests have fun, dance, eat, listen to music and just enjoy life, while dirty and hard work is in full swing in the holds. The entire work "The Gentleman from San Francisco" is based on such oppositions. The heroes of the story are the head of the family himself, his elderly wife and their marriageable daughter. The girl is already at the age when it is urgent to get married, so her parents go on a trip with the hope of picking up a decent match for her along the way in the form of some kind of billionaire.

The whole situation that prevailed on the ship is well described by the summary. A gentleman from San Francisco is completely given to rest and does not even know what this trip will lead to.

Every day on the boat starts and ends the same way. In the morning they get up early, when it is still dark, drink hot chocolate and coffee, then do exercises to awaken their appetite, after which they calmly go to the first breakfast. Then they walk around the decks, having fun, spending time playing games, and waiting for a second breakfast. After the next meal, it's time to relax and enjoy the views of the ocean, and everything ends with tea. Dinner is the highlight of every evening. This is a special time when the best orchestra plays for the guests of the ship, and delicious drinks are served on the tables. Ladies and their gentlemen wear chic dresses and tuxedos.

When the time comes for dancing, every evening all eyes are riveted on one couple in love, who do not hide their feelings. And only one commander of the ship, a heavy man with a red beard, who rarely appears before the guests, knows that this couple are just actors hired to create a romantic atmosphere on board. About what happened next, you will be told a summary. The San Francisco gentleman and his family enjoy the journey and indulge in relaxation and pleasure.

crown prince

Life on the ship flows smoothly and measuredly. Suddenly, a new guest steps on board and attracts everyone's attention. This is the crown prince, who has an unusual appearance. His skin, as if varnished, has a yellowish tint. And with all his appearance, he resembles a dead man.

The daughter of a gentleman from San Francisco was immediately introduced to the prince, and tender feelings flare up in her heart towards him, or rather, towards his condition.

The description of all the details of the work contains the summary presented here. "The Gentleman from San Francisco" is a story filled with many references to the theme of death.

Naples

A family from San Francisco goes ashore in Naples. Life becomes measured again, begins with breakfast and ends with dinner with entertainment. However, the weather brings our travelers down. It rains all the time and spoils the mood and rest. They decide to change their place of residence and go to Capri on a small boat. The San Francisco family is seasick all the way, so they arrive at their destination exhausted and sick.

Island of Capri

Sorrento welcomes new guests with some excitement. A crowd of people gathers on the site of the funicular, ready at any moment to offer their services for a small fee. And all of them are looking forward to our heroes, who stand out among the rest of the new arrivals.

Relations between people of different financial status in his story touches on I.A. Bunin. A gentleman from San Francisco, accustomed to the constant helpfulness of people, perceives everything that happens without much gratitude.

Finally the family gets to the hotel. There everything is as usual. They are provided with one of the best rooms and a team of the most efficient and polite servants.

fatal evening

After arrival, all family members begin their preparations for dinner. After taking a bath and putting on a tailcoat that choked him, the gentleman from San Francisco goes to the library. There he sits down in a chair and opens a newspaper to view the latest news. Suddenly he becomes ill, the lines float before his eyes, and he falls. If there hadn’t been a German nearby, who also came here for a portion of the latest news, no one would have guessed what exactly happened here. The servants would quickly carry the gentleman from San Francisco to the farthest room in order not to publicize this most unpleasant incident. However, the German raises a panic, and the incident is known to all the guests.

The dying gentleman from San Francisco is taken by servants to the worst room, which is dark and damp, and laid on an iron bed. Soon his wife and daughter come running, both excited and crying, but it's too late. What everyone feared happened. Our hero is dead.

And everyone will be rewarded according to his sins...

The wife of the deceased is refused a request to transfer the gentleman from San Francisco back to their room. The owner of the hotel wants to get rid of the body as soon as possible, so he doesn’t even give him the opportunity to wait until the simplest coffin is made. The deceased is placed in an old soda box and sent back on the same ship. The only difference is that he arrived here on the upper deck, surrounded by numerous guests, and from here he is sent in deep solitude in a dark hold. On this sad note, I. A. Bunin ends his story. "The Gentleman from San Francisco" is a work about the meaning of life, it serves as a kind of reminder to all living that death does not choose according to the principle of material well-being.

…….And no one knew either what this couple had long been bored with pretending to suffer their blissful torment to shamelessly sad music, nor what stands deep, deep below them, at the bottom of the dark hold, in the neighborhood of the gloomy and sultry bowels ship, heavily overcoming the darkness, the ocean, the blizzard ......
After a long struggle with impudent death, which came so unexpectedly and suppressed with its power, it seemed such a meaningful and wonderful life, gentleman from San Francisco, or rather the soul of the gentleman from San Francisco, rebelled for a long time because of such injustice, and because of that being a man, he did so much to be a significant and respected person, gain wealth and go on a cruise with the whole family. It seemed to him that if there is money, and he had it, since he always aspired to it, then death is also subject to them. But it was all wrong. Slowly, the gentleman from San Francisco began to realize the truths that he had forgotten in the pursuit of false well-being.
When his body was placed in the hold, the gentleman from San Francisco was already ready for this and meekly accompanied him as the last worldly value, but something delayed him on deck, and he stopped in his thoughts, despite the fact that his body continued carry. By this moment, he literally saw the light: he already understood that expensive outfits cannot replace the craving for beauty, that the society of rich people is very rarely sincere and warm, that living the life he lived, one cannot achieve respect, that everything in his life was played and bought. The gentleman from San Francisco was offended and bitter that in the world where he lived, there was a lie, and that even that beautiful, seemingly ideal pair of lovers was nothing more than a pair of actors. Now, after death, he saw more than he could see in life, including the souls of people: in the entire crew of the Atlantis, he saw only masks, behind which there is either deadening of the soul, or eating sadness and sadness. All of them were similar, all these people relied on material wealth. What for? And because none of them knew what the deceased gentleman from San Francisco found out, none of them knew that what they were striving for was a mirage of happiness, warm and inviting, that everyone wants to master. The gentleman from San Francisco, having lost the material part of his life, that is, his body and money, felt that part of life, which is usually referred to as spiritual. He felt that not all bankers' wives were happy, and that behind the sweet and cheerful smile of most of the ladies there were scary things in places: depressive and gloomy thoughts, and sometimes even thoughts about suicide. His soul, wandering around the decks through the passengers of the ship, even more disappointed in the life she lived, went down into the bowels of the ship, to where her body rested.
In the hold, the soul of the gentleman from San Francisco felt more comfortable, because up there, everything was the same as before, only the gentleman from San Francisco himself became different. It is believed that after death, a person ceases to exist, but this is not so, after death, some people only begin to live, since their earthly life did not leave anything behind. What could the gentleman from San Francisco remember? Maybe a wedding? The birth of a daughter? But no, at that time his thoughts were completely different .... Only now, he fully understood that the goals that you set for yourself are not always correct and do not always lead to a good result, and that you need to always keep your life under control and at least sometimes think about what will happen in a year or two. The soul sat next to the body and understood that it was already too late to change something, and the people from above did not know what wise judgments were almost at the very bottom of the ship ....

The Gentleman from San Francisco was written in 1915. During this difficult period, during the First World War, people rethought established values, perceived the world around them and themselves differently, tried to understand the causes of the disaster, in search of a way out of such a difficult situation.

Such a work is “The Gentleman from San Francisco”, where the author talks about the main values of life that need to be followed, which will bring salvation and peace.
Observing the life of a wealthy American and his family members, we see that in the way of life, thoughts and actions of these people there is some kind of flaw that turns the latter into the living dead.

Of course, the life of the hero from San Francisco is quite prosperous, since he is rich and respected, he has a family. Working all his life, achieving the intended goal - wealth, the master notices that he has come a long way and has practically caught up with those who were once his model.

The author shows that having lived for fifty-eight years and having achieved his goal, the master did not live one way or another, but only existed, devoid of all the charms of life. Finally, he decided to take a break and enjoy life. What does it mean to him to "enjoy life"?

Living surrounded by the illusions of society, the master is blind, he does not have his own thoughts, feelings, desires, he follows the desires of society and the environment.

The hero, having a lot of money, compares himself with the ruler of the world, as he can afford a lot, but all this is not able to make a person happy, warm his soul.

Having wealth, the master missed the main thing in his life - true love, family, Oprah in life. He does not love his wife, and she does not love him, the daughter, although mature for a bride, is not married, guided by the same principles as her father. The author notes that during this cruise the whole family hoped to meet a rich groom for their daughter.

During the action of the work, the writer shows the isolation of the hero's personality from real life, the falsity of his values and ideals. The culmination of the process is the death of the hero, which puts everything in its place, showing the hero his place. As it turned out, money and wealth do not play any role when it comes to real love, recognition and respect. No one remembered the name of the hero after death, as, however, they did not remember during his lifetime either.

The hero's body also returned home on the steamer "Atlantis", but already in the hold, among the boxes of all kinds of rubbish. This is the summary of the hero's life. From the work we see that the writer rejects the ideals of the bourgeois world, considers them leading to destruction. The truth for the writer is that which stands above human ambitions and delusions, and this is, first of all, nature, which is eternal and unchanging, keeps the laws of the Universe, as well as the highest human values - honesty, trust, justice, love, etc. .

If a person violates all this, then he inevitably strives for death, like a society that preaches such values. It is for this reason that the lines from the Apocalypse became the epigraph of the work: "Woe to you, Babylon, strong city, for in one hour your judgment has come."