Is the human claim to dominance tenable? Essays Is the human claim to dominance tenable?

In his story “Mr...” I.A. Bunin criticizes bourgeois reality. This is because rich people do not have a specific goal to which they strive, other than to get rich. Luxury is the meaning of their life. The author does not agree with such a system of society, when each person is assigned to the stratum to which his monetary capital corresponds. It is money, or rather the amount of it, that determines how others will treat you.

The gentleman from San Francisco is a collective image of all the bourgeoisie of America. People of his kind occupy a dominant place in the world. But other than elevating oneself above others, this position is not very remarkable. After all, such people are devoid of spiritual content. It is easy to notice that throughout the entire story the name of the main character was never mentioned - everyone calls him Master. But this doesn’t matter: the main thing is that he had a lot of money...

Throughout the story, several times the author addresses the topic of man’s place in the world. The first time was on the ship Atlantis. While there was fun on the decks of the ship in the evening (“... in the dance hall everything was shining and pouring out light, warmth and joy”), the watchmen on duty stood at their responsible posts (“... were freezing from the cold and going crazy from the unbearable strain of attention on duty tower...") and the stokers were busy with exhausting work ("... the ninth circle was like the underwater womb of a steamship, where gigantic furnaces cackled, devouring with their hot throats piles of coal, with a roar thrown into them by people drenched in acrid, dirty sweat and naked to the waist, crimson from the flames”). An incomprehensible position in society is occupied by a “couple in love”, hired to play love for good money.

The next time the author returns to the above topic is the stay of a family from San Francisco in Capri. And again, everyone’s main emphasis is on having large sums of money. Already at the first meeting with the inhabitants of the island, the Master is more popular than other visitors. As Bunin writes, he was the first to be provided with a number of services, hoping for his generosity: “He and his ladies were hastily helped to get out, they ran forward in front of him, showing the way...”, etc. At the hotel, the head waiter curries favor with visitors. His goal is to extract more money from the Master. In the hotel, just like on the Atlantis ship, you can monitor the social status of certain people. The lowest rung, it seems to me, is occupied by the receptionists; above are the owner and head waiter, and above them are the residents. But, as can be seen from the text, the highest level is again occupied by a gentleman from San Francisco: “A high-ranking lady has just left Capri, and the guests from San Francisco were given the very apartments that he occupied.”

But the unexpected death of the main character changes everything radically. The situation develops according to the following scheme: no person - no money, no money - no corresponding respect. Therefore, soon the gentleman from San Francisco occupies a place lower than which you can not imagine. At the hotel he is placed in the worst room, a drunken junior porter takes him to the ship in a cab, and on the Atlantis the coffin with the Master lies next to some stokers.

From the story I read, I concluded that position in society can be “bought” with money. The gentleman from San Francisco is a prime example of this.

July 29 2016

IS HUMAN CLAIM FOR DOMINATION SOUND? Woe to you, Babylon, strong city! Apocalypse Ivan Alekseevich Bunin - a subtle psychological characterization, able to sculpt a character or environment in detail. With a simple plot, one is struck by the wealth of thoughts, images and symbolism that are inherent in the artist. In his narration, Bunin is unfussy and thorough.

It seems that the entire world around him fits into his small space. This happens thanks to the wonderful and clear style of the writer, the details and details that he includes in his work. “The Mister from San Francisco” is no exception; in it the writer tries to answer the questions that interest him: what is man, his purpose on earth? With hidden irony and sarcasm, Bunin describes the main thing - the gentleman from San Francisco, without even honoring him with a name (he didn’t deserve it).

The gentleman himself is full of snobbery and complacency. All his life he strived for wealth, creating idols for himself, trying to achieve the same well-being as them. Finally, it seems to him that the set goal is close, it’s time to relax, live for his own pleasure, he is the “master” of the situation, but that’s not the case. Money is a powerful force, but it cannot buy happiness, prosperity, life...

When planning to travel to the Old World, a gentleman from San Francisco carefully plans a route; “the people to whom he belonged had the custom of beginning the enjoyment of life with a trip to Europe, India, Egypt... The route was worked out by the gentleman from San Francisco, which was extensive. In December and January he hoped to enjoy the sun in Southern Italy, the ancient monuments, the tarantella. He thought of holding the carnival in Nice, then Monte Carlo, Rome, Venice, Paris and even ".

It seems that everything has been taken into account and verified. But the weather lets us down. It is beyond the control of a mere mortal.

For money you can try to ignore her inconveniences, but not always, and moving to Capri was a terrible ordeal. The fragile steamer could barely cope with the elements that befell it. The gentleman from San Francisco believed that everything around him was created only to please his person; he firmly believed in the power of the “golden calf.”

“He was quite generous on the way and therefore fully believed in the care of all those who fed and watered him, served him from morning to evening, preventing his slightest desire, guarded his cleanliness and peace, carried his things, called porters for him, delivered his chests to hotels. It was like this everywhere, it was like this in sailing, it should have been like this in Naples.” Yes, the wealth of the American tourist, like a magic key, opened many doors, but not all. It could not prolong his life, it did not protect him even after death. How much servility and admiration this one saw during his life, the same amount of humiliation his mortal body experienced after death.

Bunin shows how illusory the power of money is in this world. And the person who bets on them is pathetic. Having created idols for himself, he strives to achieve the same well-being. It seems that the goal has been achieved, he is at the top, for which he worked tirelessly for many years. What did you do that you left for your descendants? Nobody even remembered his name.

What to remember? Thousands of such gentlemen travel annually along standard routes, claiming exclusivity, but they are only likenesses of each other, imagining themselves as masters of life. And their turn comes, and they leave without a trace, causing neither regret nor bitterness.

In the story “Mr. from San Francisco,” Bunin showed the illusory and disastrous nature of such a path for a person. A true creative person tries to self-realize, to bring maximum benefit to the Fatherland, to people living nearby, so their names remain for centuries, like the name of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin himself - a wonderful creator and artist of words.

Woe to you, Babylon, strong city!
Apocalypse
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is a writer of subtle psychological characterization, who knows how to sculpt a character or environment in detail. With a simple plot, one is struck by the wealth of thoughts, images and symbolism that are inherent in the artist. In his narration, Bunin is unfussy and thorough. It seems that the entire world around him fits into his small work. This happens thanks to the wonderful and clear style of the writer, the details and details that he includes in his work.
The story “Mr. from San Francisco” is no exception; in it the writer tries to answer the questions that interest him: what is a person’s happiness, his purpose on earth?
With hidden irony and sarcasm, Bunin describes the main character - a gentleman from San Francisco, without even honoring him with a name (he didn’t deserve it). The gentleman himself is full of snobbery and complacency. All his life he strived for wealth, creating idols for himself, trying to achieve the same well-being as them. Finally, it seems to him that the set goal is close, it’s time to relax, live for his own pleasure, he is the “master” of the situation, but that’s not the case. Money is a powerful force, but it cannot buy happiness, prosperity, life...
When planning to travel to the Old World, a gentleman from San Francisco carefully plans a route; “the people to whom he belonged had the custom of beginning the enjoyment of life with a trip to Europe, India, Egypt...
The route was developed by the gentleman from San Francisco and was extensive. In December and January he hoped to enjoy the sun in Southern Italy, the ancient monuments, the tarantella. He thought of holding the carnival in Nice, then Monte Carlo, Rome, Venice, Paris and even Japan.”
It seems that everything has been taken into account and verified. But the weather lets us down. It is beyond the control of a mere mortal. For money you can try to ignore her inconveniences, but not always, and moving to Capri was a terrible ordeal. The fragile steamer could barely cope with the elements that befell it. The gentleman from San Francisco believed that everything around him was created only to please his person; he firmly believed in the power of the “golden calf.” “He was quite generous on the way and therefore fully believed in the care of all those who fed and watered him, served him from morning to evening, preventing his slightest desire, guarded his cleanliness and peace, carried his things, called porters for him, delivered his chests to hotels. It was like this everywhere, it was like this in sailing, it should have been like this in Naples.”
Yes, the wealth of the American tourist, like a magic key, opened many doors, but not all. It could not prolong his life, it did not protect him even after death. How much servility and admiration this man saw during his life, the same amount of humiliation his mortal body experienced after death.
Bunin shows how illusory the power of money is in this world. And the person who bets on them is pathetic. Having created idols for himself, he strives to achieve the same well-being. It seems that the goal has been achieved, he is at the top, for which he worked tirelessly for many years. What did you do that you left for your descendants? Nobody even remembered his name. What to remember? Thousands of such gentlemen travel annually along standard routes, claiming exclusivity, but they are only likenesses of each other, imagining themselves as masters of life. And their turn comes, and they leave without a trace, causing neither regret nor bitterness.
In the story “Mr. from San Francisco,” Bunin showed the illusory and disastrous nature of such a path for a person. A true creative personality tries to self-realize, to bring maximum benefit to the Fatherland, to people living nearby, so their names remain for centuries, like the name of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin himself - a wonderful creator and artist of words.

Essay text:

There is and cannot be any doubt about the correctness of the wishes of the gentleman from San Francisco...
I. Bunin. Mr. from San Francisco In the history of mankind, times often came when people began to arrogantly believe in their own ability to comprehend with their minds all the laws of life, to direct the course of the historical process. Man put himself at the center of the world, the Universe, feeling himself to be the unsurpassed crown of creation.
So the gentleman from San Francisco (note that he is so typical that he does not even have his own name) was sure that he could plan his life minute by minute, just as he planned his trip. And this confidence was usually reliably supported by money, an undeniable trump card in the world of capital. Self-satisfied and arrogant, this gentleman spent his whole life striving for wealth, creating idols for himself and trying to achieve the same prosperity as them. In fact, he was not even the master of his own life, which he always sought to build “in the image and likeness” of others: he behaved like all very rich people, planned a trip along the route that all very rich people follow, had a wife and daughter, who were not much different from the wives and daughters of all rich people. Money is a powerful force that helped this man create the illusion that it is possible to buy prosperity, happiness, life in the same way as he bought confidence in his own rightness, respect and hypocritical smiles of others: “He was quite generous in his ways and fully believed in caring all those who fed and watered him, served him from morning to evening, preventing his slightest desire, guarded his cleanliness and peace, carried his things, called porters for him, delivered his chests to hotels.”
But everything in the world is much more complicated than the most ingenious and well-calibrated plan that can be created by the human mind. The illusion of absolute protection from accidents is violated in the story at every step. . The elements are beyond a person’s control, and the weather more than once upset the millionaire’s plans at the very beginning of his journey, forcing him to hide in the comfortable cabins of the ship, chew sour lemon for seasickness, or change his carefully planned route.
If people have the opportunity to more or less independently manage their own lives, then no one has yet been able to conquer death. Without warning, unexpectedly, this insidious lady laughed in the face of the smug millionaire, instantly turning him from the “master” of life into an old man, into a body. And was he a man with a soul before that? Did he manage to achieve something truly valuable that prolongs human life even after death, remaining in the memory of descendants? No, I couldn't. A slave of capital, a slave of desires and meaningless ideals, he was the master only of his own illusions.
With irony, Bunin strives to show the futility of human claims to dominance in the world, since he is sure that man is not the center of the Universe, but only a small grain of sand. And even human death is unable to stop or slow down the stormy and full-flowing river of life.

The rights to the essay “Is the human claim to dominance tenable? (based on the story by I. A. Bunin “The Mister from San Francisco”)” belong to its author. When quoting material, it is necessary to indicate a hyperlink to

Is man's claim to dominance tenable?

In his story “Mr...” I.A. Bunin criticizes bourgeois reality. This is because rich people do not have a specific goal to which they strive, other than to get rich. Luxury is the meaning of their life. The author does not agree with such a system of society, when each person is assigned to the stratum to which his monetary capital corresponds. It is money, or rather the amount of it, that determines how others will treat you.

The gentleman from San Francisco is a collective image of all the bourgeoisie of America. People of his kind occupy a dominant place in the world. But other than elevating oneself above others, this position is not very remarkable. After all, such people are devoid of spiritual content. It is easy to notice that throughout the entire story the name of the main character was never mentioned - everyone calls him Master. But this doesn’t matter: the main thing is that he had a lot of money...

Throughout the story, several times the author addresses the topic of man’s place in the world. The first time was on the ship Atlantis. While there was fun on the decks of the ship in the evening (“... in the dance hall everything was shining and pouring out light, warmth and joy”), the watchmen on duty stood at their responsible posts (“... were freezing from the cold and going crazy from the unbearable strain of attention on duty tower...") and the stokers were busy with exhausting work ("... the ninth circle was like the underwater womb of a steamship, where gigantic furnaces cackled, devouring with their hot throats piles of coal, with a roar thrown into them by people drenched in acrid, dirty sweat and naked to the waist, crimson from the flames”). An incomprehensible position in society is occupied by a “couple in love”, hired to play love for good money.

The next time the author returns to the above topic is the stay of a family from San Francisco in Capri. And again, everyone’s main emphasis is on having large sums of money. Already at the first meeting with the inhabitants of the island, the Master is more popular than other visitors. As Bunin writes, he was the first to be provided with a number of services, hoping for his generosity: “He and his ladies were hastily helped to get out, they ran forward in front of him, showing the way...”, etc. At the hotel, the head waiter curries favor with visitors. His goal is to extract more money from the Master. In the hotel, just like on the Atlantis ship, you can monitor the social status of certain people. The lowest rung, it seems to me, is occupied by the receptionists; above are the owner and head waiter, and above them are the residents. But, as can be seen from the text, the highest level is again occupied by a gentleman from San Francisco: “A high-ranking lady has just left Capri, and the guests from San Francisco were given the very apartments that he occupied.”

But the unexpected death of the main character changes everything radically. The situation develops according to the following scheme: no person - no money, no money - no corresponding respect. Therefore, soon the gentleman from San Francisco occupies a place lower than which you can not imagine. At the hotel he is placed in the worst room, a drunken junior porter takes him to the ship in a cab, and on the Atlantis the coffin with the Master lies next to some stokers.

From the story I read, I concluded that position in society can be “bought” with money. The gentleman from San Francisco is a prime example of this.