Light breathing genre. The meaning of the title and problems of Bunin’s story “Easy Breathing”

The story “Easy Breathing” is one of the most complex and philosophically filled works by I.A. Bunina. The reader is presented with quite simple story from the life of an ordinary high school student, but it is she who makes you think about many pressing issues not only of modernity, but also of existence.

"Easy breathing" genre features refers to a short story that sets itself the task, through a unique and specific event, to show not only the fate of its hero, but also to recreate a picture of the life of the entire society, including its vices and delusions.

The composition of the story is complex and unusual. The technique of reverse narration is used as a basis. At the beginning of the work, the reader learns that the main character Olya Meshcherskaya is dead, and then gets acquainted with her and the story of her life, already understanding that it will be tragic.

Analysis of Bunin’s work “Easy Breathing”

Compositional shifts and contrasts occur throughout the story. First there is a narrative from the present (the girl’s grave), which moves on to events of the past (a description of life in the gymnasium). Then the reader returns to a time close to the present - the death of Olya and the investigation of the officer who committed the murder. After which the narrative again moves into the past, telling about the vulgar connection between the girl and Malyutin. Here again the present is described: a cool lady on the way to the cemetery where the heroine is buried. The work ends with another reference to the past - a dialogue between Ole Meshcherskaya and her friend and her thoughts about the “light breathing” of a woman.

In each episode telling about the stage of Meshcherskaya’s life (growing up, moral decline and death), the author turns to various forms: narration, portrait, speech characters, landscape sketches, diary entries and author's remarks.

The time of the work is constantly interrupted or stopped, and the reader reconstructs the chronology of what happened. The narrative is vague, but thanks to this, reading the novel not only arouses interest, but also gives new meanings, provides an answer to main question: “Why is Olya’s fate so tragic?”

Everyone is to blame for what happened. This is also a cool lady who was unable to establish communication with her student, give her advice and become a mentor. Naturally, this is Malyutin, who seduced and seduced Olya. There is some blame also on the shoulders of the girl’s parents, who are mentioned a little in the story. Were they not obliged to protect their daughter from frivolity and, at a minimum, not to make friends with a person like Malyutin.

The tragic outcome was also predetermined by Ole Meshcherskaya’s attitude towards life. A person is also responsible for his destiny and what happens to him. I.A. Bunin speaks about this very clearly in his work.

Characteristics of the main characters of the story “Easy Breathing”

Olya Meshcherskaya is the main character of the story. She is the daughter of wealthy parents. He dances and skates best at balls. The girl differs from her peers in her beauty and femininity: early “she began to blossom, to develop by leaps and bounds,” and “at fifteen she was already known as a beauty.” Olya is opposed to other high school students with her attitude to life. While others carefully combed their hair, were very clean, and “watched their restrained movements,” the heroine of the story was not afraid of “neither ink stains on their fingers, nor a flushed face, nor disheveled hair.”

Her image intertwines childish naivety, sincerity, simplicity with unprecedented femininity and beauty. Such a destructive combination gave rise to envy, jealousy, and the emergence of thousands of rumors that she was flighty, incapable of love, and was driving her loved one to suicide with her behavior. However, the author makes it clear that these opinions of people about Olga Meshcherskaya are groundless. Her beauty and uniqueness attracts not only young people, but also evil with a fatal outcome.

Children are drawn to the heroine and feel in her good man. The narrator constantly mentions Olya only in context beautiful landscapes and harmonious places. When she is skating, it is a beautiful pink evening outside. When a girl is on a walk, the sun shines throughout wet garden" All this indicates the author's sympathy for his character.

Olga always reaches out to the beautiful, the perfect. She is not satisfied with the philistine attitude towards herself and life. However, this is precisely the position main character together with its uniqueness and spiritual subtlety predetermine the tragic outcome. How could it have been different? No. Olya Meshcherskaya is opposed to the whole world, her actions are unconscious, and her behavior does not depend on modern norms and rules accepted in society.

The rest of the characters, including the cool lady, Malyutin, Olya’s friend and other people around, were introduced by the author only to emphasize the heroine’s individuality, her unusualness and originality.

The main idea of ​​the story “Easy Breathing”

Researchers have long come to the conclusion that it is not so much the external appearance that helps to understand the author’s intention, but internal plot, filled with psychological, poetic and philosophical meanings.

The heroine of the story is frivolous, but in a good way this word. Unknowingly she is exposed love affair with Malyutin, my father’s friend. But is this really the fault of the girl who believed an adult who talked about his feelings for her, who, as it turned out, showed ostentatious kindness and seemed like a real gentleman?

Olya Meshcherskaya is not like all the other characters, she is opposed to them and at the same time lonely. The episode of the fall and relationship with Malyutin only aggravated internal conflict and the heroine's protest.

The main character's motives
A number of researchers believe that the heroine herself sought death. She specifically handed over a sheet from the diary to the officer, who learned about the vicious affair of his beloved and was so upset that he shot the girl. Thus, Olga broke out of the vicious circle.

Other literary scholars believe that one mistake, i.e. The vicious relationship with Malyutin did not make the girl think about what happened. As a result, Olga started a relationship with an officer who had “absolutely nothing in common with the circle to which she belonged,” making her second and already fatal mistake.

Let's look at the episode of farewell to the officer at the station from a different angle. Olga gave him the most valuable and intimate thing - a sheet of paper with an entry from the diary. What if she loved her future killer and decided to tell the bitter truth about what happened to her. True, the officer did not take this as a confession, but as a mockery, a deception of the one who “swore to be his wife.”

The question of the meaning of life is eternal; in the literature of the early twentieth century, discussion of this topic also continued. Now the meaning was seen not in achieving some clear goal, but in something else. For example, according to the theory of "living life", the meaning of human existence is in itself, regardless of what this life is like. This idea was supported by V. Veresaev, A. Kuprin, I. Shmelev, B. Zaitsev. " Living life” I. Bunin also reflected in his writings; his “Easy Breathing” is a vivid example.

However, the reason for creating the story was not life at all: Bunin conceived the novella while walking through the cemetery. Seeing a cross with a portrait of a young woman, the writer was amazed at how her cheerfulness contrasted with the sad surroundings. What kind of life was it? Why did she, so lively and joyful, leave this world so early? No one could answer these questions anymore. But Bunin’s imagination painted the life of this girl, who became the heroine of the short story “Easy Breathing.”

The plot is outwardly simple: cheerful and precocious Olya Meshcherskaya arouses burning interest among the opposite sex. feminine attractiveness, her behavior irritates the headmistress of the gymnasium, who decides to give the pupil an instructive conversation about the importance of modesty. But this conversation ended unexpectedly: the girl said that she was no longer a girl, she became a woman after meeting the boss’s brother and a friend of Malyutin’s father. It soon turned out that this was not the only love story: Olya met with a Cossack officer. The latter was planning a quick wedding. However, at the station, before her lover left for Novocherkassk, Meshcherskaya said that their relationship was insignificant for her and she would not marry. Then she suggested reading diary entry about his fall. A military man shot a flighty girl, and the novella begins with a description of her grave. A cool lady often goes to the cemetery; the student’s fate has become meaningful to her.

Themes

The main themes of the novel are the value of life, beauty and simplicity. The author himself interpreted his story as a story about highest degree simplicity in a woman: “naivety and lightness in everything, both in audacity and in death.” Olya lived without limiting herself by rules and principles, including moral ones. It was in this simple-heartedness, reaching the point of depravity, that the charm of the heroine lay. She lived as she lived, true to the theory of “living life”: why restrain yourself if life is so beautiful? So she sincerely rejoiced in her attractiveness, not caring about neatness and decency. She also had fun with the courtship of young people, not taking their feelings seriously (school student Shenshin was on the verge of suicide because of his love for her).

Bunin also touched on the theme of the meaninglessness and dullness of existence in the image of the teacher Olya. This “older girl” is contrasted with her student: the only pleasure for her is a suitable illusory idea: “At first, her brother, a poor and unremarkable ensign, was such an invention - she united her whole soul with him, with his future, which for some reason seemed brilliant to her. When he was killed near Mukden, she convinced herself that she was an ideological worker. The death of Olya Meshcherskaya captivated her with a new dream. Now Olya Meshcherskaya is the subject of her persistent thoughts and feelings.”

Issues

• The issue of the balance between passions and decency is revealed quite controversially in the short story. The writer clearly sympathizes with Olya, who chooses the first, praising her “light breathing” as a synonym for charm and naturalness. In contrast, the heroine is punished for her frivolity, and punished harshly - by death. The problem of freedom follows from this: society with its conventions is not ready to give the individual permissiveness even in the intimate sphere. Many people think that this is good, but they are often forced to carefully hide and suppress the secret desires of their own soul. But to achieve harmony, a compromise is needed between society and the individual, and not the unconditional primacy of the interests of one of them.
• You can also highlight the social aspect of the novella: a joyless and dull atmosphere provincial town, where anything can happen if no one finds out. In such a place there is really nothing else to do except discuss and condemn those who want to break out of the gray routine of existence, at least through passion. Social inequality manifests itself between Olya and her last lover (“ugly and plebeian in appearance, who had absolutely nothing in common with the circle to which Olya Meshcherskaya belonged”). Obviously, the reason for the refusal was the same class prejudices.
• The author does not dwell on the relationships in Olya’s family, but judging by the heroine’s feelings and events in her life, they are far from ideal: “I was so happy that I was alone! In the morning I walked in the garden, in the field, was in the forest, it seemed to me that I was alone in the whole world, and I thought as well as I had ever thought in my life. I dined alone, then played for a whole hour, listening to the music I had the feeling that I would live endlessly and be as happy as anyone.” It is obvious that no one was involved in raising the girl, and her problem lies in abandonment: no one taught her, at least by example, how to balance between feelings and reason.

Characteristics of heroes

1. The main and most developed character of the novel is Olya Meshcherskaya. Author great attention pays attention to her appearance: the girl is very beautiful, graceful, graceful. But oh inner world little is said, the emphasis is only on frivolity and frankness. Having read in a book that the basis of female charm is light breathing, she began to actively develop it both externally and internally. She not only sighs shallowly, but also thinks, fluttering through life like a moth. Moths, circling around the fire, invariably scorch their wings, and so the heroine died in the prime of her life.
2. The Cossack officer is a fatal and mysterious hero; nothing is known about him except for his sharp difference from Olya. How they met, the motives for the murder, the course of their relationship - one can only guess about all this. Most likely, the officer is a passionate and addicted person, he fell in love (or thought that he fell in love), but he was clearly not satisfied with Olya’s frivolity. The hero wanted the girl to belong only to him, so he was even ready to take her life.
3. The cool lady suddenly appears in the finale as an element of contrast. She has never lived for pleasure; she sets goals for herself, living in an imaginary world. She and Olya are two extremes of the problem of balance between duty and desire.

Composition and genre

Genre " Easy breathing» - short story (short) plot story), V small volume many problems and themes were reflected, a picture of life was drawn different groups society.

The composition of the story deserves special attention. The narrative is sequential, but it is fragmented. First we see Olya’s grave, then she is told about her fate, then we return to the present again - a visit to the cemetery by a classy lady. Speaking about the life of the heroine, the author chooses a special focus in the narrative: he describes in detail the conversation with the head of the gymnasium, the seduction of Olya, but her murder, acquaintance with the officer is described in a few words. Bunin concentrates on feelings, sensations, colors, his story seems to be written in watercolors, it is filled with airiness and softness, therefore the unpleasant is described captivatingly.

Meaning of the name

“Easy breathing” is the very first component of female charm, according to the creators of the books that Olya’s father has. The girl wanted to learn lightness, turning into frivolity. And she achieved her goal, although she paid the price, but “this light breath dissipated again in the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind.”

Lightness is also associated with the style of the short story: the author diligently avoids sharp corners, although he talks about monumental things: true and far-fetched love, honor and dishonor, illusory and real life. But this work, according to the writer E. Koltonskaya, leaves the impression of “bright gratitude to the Creator for the fact that there is such beauty in the world.”

You can have different attitudes towards Bunin, but his style is full of imagery, beauty of presentation and courage - that’s a fact. He talks about everything, even the forbidden, but knows how not to cross the line of vulgarity. That is why this talented writer is still loved today.

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One of the most widely famous works I.A. Bunin is undoubtedly the story “Easy Breathing”. It can be assumed that the impetus for its writing was the writer’s trip to Capri, where during a walk the writer saw a tombstone with a medallion in a small cemetery. It depicted a very young and unusually beautiful girl with a happy expression on his face. The tragedy of this terrible contradiction, apparently, struck the writer so much that he decided to “revive” the heroine on the pages of his prose.
The image of “light breathing” that organizes the entire story is taken from an old book, which the main character Olya Meshcherskaya reads, retelling to her friend an episode that particularly struck her. It says that a woman should be able to be beautiful and the most important thing about her is “easy breathing.” The heroine joyfully concludes that she has it and that only happiness awaits her in life. However, fate decrees otherwise.
The central character of this story is high school student Olya Meshcherskaya. She is famous for her beauty, sweet spontaneity, charming naturalness. “She was not afraid of anything - not ink stains on her fingers, not a flushed face, not disheveled hair, not a knee that became bare when falling while running,” the author of the story lovingly writes about her. There is even something from Natasha Rostova in Olya - the same love of life, the same openness to the whole world. No one danced better than Olya, no one skated better, no one was looked after like that. This young creature with sparkling, lively eyes seemed created only for happiness.
But one Cossack officer, who sought intimacy with her and was refused, ends this young wonderful life with one shot.
This ending is too tragic, and sometimes I want to reproach the writer for such a painful ending. But let's think about it: did the shot really kill the heroine? Maybe the officer just pulled the trigger, and the tragedy happened much earlier?
Indeed, reading the story, you wonder why, besides Olya, in this provincial town there is not a single person worthy of being depicted with the same admiration. The rest of the characters simply leave us indifferent, like, for example, Meshcherskaya’s friend, or they cause disgust. This is Olya’s father’s friend, fifty-six-year-old Malyutin. The whole city seems to be saturated with a suffocating atmosphere of vulgarity, inertia and depravity. Indeed, how can you explain Olya’s behavior? Yes, she is charming, sweet, natural, but reading the scene where Meshcherskaya admits to the head of the gymnasium that she is already a woman, you can’t help but be embarrassed by such a terrible dual personality: on the one hand, Olya is perfection itself, on the other, she is just a girl , who knew the joy of carnal pleasures too early. These contradictory images the same heroine is not given an unambiguous understanding of her character, and sometimes an almost hooligan thought comes to mind: isn’t Olya Lola, introduced by Bunin into literature long before the author of “Lolita”?
In my opinion, the motives for the actions of the heroine of “Easy Breathing” are very difficult to evaluate from a logical point of view. They are irrational, “uterine”. Revealing the image of such an ambiguous heroine as Meshcherskaya, one should not be afraid to consider different and even opposing points of view. We said above that Olya’s fate and character are a product of the inert provincial environment where she grew up. Now, faced with the amazing inconsistency of the heroine, we can assume something completely different.
Bunin, as you know, although he is considered the last classic critical realism, still does not fully follow his principles of depicting reality. To say that Meshcherskaya is just a product of an environment that corrupts and kills young innocence means, in my opinion, to consider the story too straightforwardly, thereby impoverishing the original author’s intention. Correct society, and there will be no vices - this is what they said in the 19th century, but in the 20th they increasingly do not look for reasons, saying that the world is unknowable. Meshcherskaya is like that, and nothing more. As another argument, we can recall Bunin’s stories about love, in particular, where the actions of the heroes are also very difficult to motivate. It’s as if they are controlled by some blind, unreasoning force, spontaneously giving people happiness and sorrow in half. In general, Bunin is characterized by just such a worldview. Let us recall the story “The Gentleman from San Francisco,” in which fate takes the hero’s life in the most unexpected way, without giving any explanation. In the light of these considerations, we can make a judgment about Olya that is opposite and to some extent counterbalances our first conclusions: the writer, in the image of a high school student unlike others, wanted to show the true nature of a woman who is completely at the mercy of blind, “uterine” instincts. The conviction that life disposes of us solely at its own discretion is best illustrated by the example of a young girl who knew life too early and therefore died untimely.
Probably, it is impossible to give an unambiguous answer to the question of who Olya really is, what problems she raises in this story, and it is hardly necessary. You can delve deeper into the image of the main character, better understand the specifics and problems of the story and try to reconcile the two opposing points of view outlined above by thinking about the title. The “light breath” that “dissipates forever in that cold wind” is, in my opinion, figurative expression what is spiritual, truly human, in a person. A charming and at the same time depraved schoolgirl, a stupid and evil officer who killed her, a provincial town with all its ugliness - all this will remain on the sinful earth, and this spirit that lived in Ola Meshcherskaya will fly up to be embodied in something again and remind us that, besides our vain and petty thoughts and deeds, there is something else in the world that is beyond our control. This, in my opinion, is the enduring significance outstanding story Ivan Alekseevich Bunin.

The story “Easy Breathing,” written in 1916, is deservedly considered one of the pearls of Bunin’s prose - the image of the heroine is so succinctly and vividly captured in it, and the feeling of beauty is so tenderly conveyed. What is “light breathing”, why has this phrase long ago become a common noun to denote human talent - the talent to live? To understand this, let’s analyze the story “Easy Breathing.”

Bunin builds his narrative on contrasts. Already from the first lines, the reader has some kind of dual feeling: a sad, deserted cemetery, a gray April day, cold wind, which "rings and rings like a porcelain wreath at the foot of the cross." Here is the beginning of the story: “In the cemetery, over a fresh clay mound stands new cross made of oak, strong, heavy, smooth... The cross itself has a rather large, convex porcelain medallion embedded in it, and in the medallion is a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with joyful, amazingly lively eyes.” The whole life of Olechka Meshcherskaya is described according to the principle of contrast: cloudless childhood and adolescence are contrasted tragic events the last year Olya lived. The author everywhere emphasizes the gap between the apparent and the real, external and internal state heroines. The plot of the story is extremely simple. The young, recklessly happy beauty schoolgirl Olya Meshcherskaya becomes first the prey of an elderly sensualist, and then a living target for the Cossack officer deceived by her. Tragic death Meshcherskaya encourages a lonely little woman - a classy lady - to perform a frantic, withering “service” to her memory. The apparent simplicity of the story's plot is disrupted by the contrast: a heavy cross and joyful, lively eyes, which makes the reader's heart clench anxiously. It will haunt us throughout the entire story of short life Olya Meshcherskaya. The simplicity of the plot is deceptive: after all, this is a story not only about the fate of a young girl, but also about the joyless fate of a classy lady, accustomed to living someone else’s life, shining with reflected light - the light of Olya Meshcherskaya’s “living eyes”.

Bunin believed that the birth of a person is not his beginning, which means that death is not the end of the existence of his soul. The soul - its symbol is “light breathing” - does not disappear irrevocably. She is the best, real part of life. The embodiment of this life was the heroine of the story, Olya Meshcherskaya. The girl is so natural that even the external manifestations of her existence cause rejection among some and admiration among others: “And she was not afraid of anything - not ink stains on her fingers, not a flushed face, not disheveled hair, not a knee that became bare when falling while running. Without any of her worries or efforts, and somehow imperceptibly, everything that distinguished her from the entire gymnasium in the last two years came to her - grace, elegance, dexterity, the clear sparkle of her eyes...” At first glance, before us is an ordinary high school student - a beautiful, prosperous and slightly flighty girl, the daughter of wealthy parents, who is expecting a brilliant match.

But our attention is constantly and persistently directed to some hidden springs of Olya’s life. To do this, the author delays the explanation of the reasons for the death of the heroine, as if generated by the very logic of the girl’s behavior. Maybe she herself is to blame for everything? After all, she flirts with the high school student Shenshin, flirts, albeit unconsciously, with Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, who seduces her, for some reason promises the Cossack officer to marry him. For what? Why does she need all this? And gradually we understand that Olya Meshcherskaya is beautiful, just as the elements are beautiful. And just as immoral as she is. She wants to reach the limit in everything, to the depth, to the innermost essence, regardless of the opinions of others. In Olya’s actions there is no meaningful vice, no sense of revenge, no pain of repentance, no firmness of decision. It turns out that a wonderful feeling of fullness of life can be destructive. Even the unconscious longing for her (like a classy lady) is tragic. Therefore, every detail, every step of Olya’s life threatens disaster: curiosity and pranks can lead to violence, frivolous play with other people’s feelings can lead to murder. Olya Meshcherskaya lives, and does not play the role of a living being. This is her essence. This is her fault. To be extremely alive without following the rules of the game means to be extremely doomed. After all, the environment in which Meshcherskaya was destined to appear was completely devoid of an organic, holistic sense of beauty. Here life is subject to strict rules, the violation of which has to be paid. Olya, who was accustomed not only to teasing fate, but simply to courageously go towards new sensations and impressions in their entirety, did not have the chance to meet a person who would appreciate not only her physical beauty, but also her spiritual generosity and brightness. After all, Olya really had “light breathing” - a thirst for some special, unique destiny, worthy only of the chosen few. The teacher, who was unable to save her student, recalls her words, accidentally overheard during recess. Among detailed description female beauty and the half-childish “trying on” of this description to one’s own appearance, the phrase about “ easy breathing”, taken literally by the girl: “... But the main thing is, do you know what? - easy breath! But I have it - listen to how I sigh...” The author leaves to the world not the beauty of the girl, not her experience, but only this never-revealed opportunity. She, according to Bunin, cannot completely disappear, just as the craving for beauty, happiness, for perfection cannot disappear: “Now this light breath has again dissipated in the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind.”

“Easy breathing” in Bunin’s view is the ability to enjoy life and accept it as a bright gift. Olya Meshcherskaya captivated those around her with her generous and fierce love of life, but in the meager world of the small town, unfortunately for her, there was no person who could protect her “light breath” from the “cold spring wind.”

When it comes to stories about love, the first person remembered is Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. Only he could so tenderly and subtly describe a wonderful feeling, so accurately convey all the shades that exist in love. His story “Easy Breathing,” the analysis of which is presented below, is one of the pearls of his work.

Heroes of the story

The analysis of "Easy Breathing" must begin with brief description actors. The main character is Olya Meshcherskaya, a high school student. A spontaneous, carefree girl. She stood out among other high school students with her beauty and grace; already at a young age she had many fans.

Alexey Mikhailovich Malyutin, a fifty-year-old officer, a friend of Olga's father and brother of the head of the gymnasium. A single, pleasant-looking man. Seduced Olya, thought she liked him. He was proud, therefore, having learned that the girl was disgusted with him, he shot at her.

Head of the gymnasium, sister Malyutin. A gray-haired but still youthful woman. Strict, unemotional. She was irritated by the liveliness and spontaneity of Olenka Meshcherskaya.

Cool lady heroine. An elderly woman whose dreams have replaced reality. She came up with lofty goals and devoted herself to thinking about them with all passion. It was precisely this dream that Olga Meshcherskaya became for her, associated with youth, lightness and happiness.

The analysis of “Easy Breathing” needs to be continued summary story. The narrative begins with a description of the cemetery where high school student Olya Meshcherskaya is buried. A description of the expression in the girl’s eyes is immediately given - joyful, amazingly alive. The reader understands that the story will be about Olya, who was a cheerful and happy schoolgirl.

It goes on to say that until the age of 14, Meshcherskaya was no different from other high school students. She was a pretty, playful girl, like many of her peers. But after she turned 14, Olya blossomed, and at 15 everyone already considered her a real beauty.

The girl was different from her peers in that she was not bothered by appearance, didn’t care that her face turned red from running and her hair became disheveled. No one danced at balls with such ease and grace as Meshcherskaya. No one was looked after as much as she was, and no one was loved by the first-graders as much as she was.

In her last winter, they said that the girl seemed to have gone crazy with fun. She dressed up like adult woman and was the most carefree and happy at that time. One day the head of the gymnasium called her to her. She began to scold the girl for acting frivolously. Olenka, not at all embarrassed, makes a shocking confession that she has become a woman. And the boss’s brother, her father’s friend, Alexey Mikhailovich Malyutin, is to blame for this.

And a month after this frank conversation, he shot Olya. At the trial, Malyutin justified himself by saying that Meshcherskaya herself was to blame for everything. That she seduced him, promised to marry him, and then said that she was disgusted with him and let him read her diary, where she wrote about it.

Her cool lady comes to Olenka’s grave every holiday. And he spends hours thinking about how unfair life can be. She remembers a conversation she once heard. Olya Meshcherskaya told her beloved friend that she had read in one of her father’s books that the most important thing in a woman’s beauty is light breathing.

Features of the composition

The next point in the analysis of “Easy Breathing” is the features of the composition. This story differs in the complexity of the chosen plot structure. At the very beginning, the writer already shows the reader the end of the sad story.

Then he goes back, quickly running through the girl's childhood and returning to the heyday of her beauty. All actions quickly replace each other. The girl’s description also speaks to this: she becomes more beautiful “by leaps and bounds.” Balls, skating rinks, running around - all this emphasizes the lively and spontaneous nature of the heroine.

There are also sharp transitions in the story - here, Olenka makes a bold confession, and a month later an officer shoots at her. And then April came. Such a quick change in the time of action emphasizes that everything happened quickly in Olya’s life. That she took actions without thinking at all about the consequences. She lived in the present without thinking about the future.

And the conversation between friends at the end reveals to the reader the most main secret Oli. This is that she was breathing lightly.

The image of the heroine

In the analysis of the story "Easy Breathing" it is important to talk about the image of Olya Meshcherskaya - a young, lovely girl. She differed from other high school students in her attitude to life and her view of the world. Everything seemed simple and understandable to her, and she greeted every new day with joy.

Perhaps that is why she was always light and graceful - her life was not constrained by any rules. Olya did what she wanted, without thinking about how it would be accepted in society. For her, all people were just as sincere and good, which is why she so easily admitted to Malyutin that she had no sympathy for him.

And what happened between them was curiosity on the part of a girl who wanted to become an adult. But then she realizes that it was wrong and tries to avoid Malyutin. Olya considered him as bright as she herself was. The girl did not think that he could be so cruel and proud that he would shoot at her. It is not easy for people like Olya to live in a society where people hide their feelings, do not enjoy every day and do not strive to find the good in people.

Comparison with others

In the analysis of the story “Easy Breathing” by Bunin, it is no coincidence that the boss and classy lady Olya is mentioned. These heroines are the complete opposites of the girl. They lived their lives without being attached to anyone, putting rules and dreams at the forefront of everything.

They did not live the real bright life that Olenka lived. That's why they have to her special treatment. The boss is annoyed by the girl’s inner freedom, her courage and willingness to stand up to society. The cool lady admired her carefreeness, happiness and beauty.

What is the meaning of the name

In analyzing the work “Easy Breathing,” you need to consider the meaning of its title. What was meant by easy breathing? What was meant was not the breathing itself, but rather the carefree, spontaneity in expressing feelings that was inherent in Olya Meshcherskaya. Sincerity has always fascinated people.

It was brief analysis“Easy Breathing” by Bunin, a story about easy breathing - about a girl who loved life, learned sensuality and the power of sincere expression of feelings.