Analysis of “Antonov apples” by Bunin. Analysis of the story “Antonov Apples” (I. Bunin)
If you started studying the story of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin at school or college “ Antonov apples", analysis and summary of this work will help you better understand its meaning and find out what the writer wanted to convey to readers.
Prose masterpiece
As you know, at the beginning of his work, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin created works in poetic form. In the story “Antonov Apples,” the analysis of which you will soon read, the author conveys his love for his native land, the people living here, through prose, but through poetic expression.
This is the writer’s first work in which he talks in detail about the life of rural landowners. With particular delight, the author talks about ordinary people, writes that he would like, like a village man, to get up at dawn, wash himself with cool water from a barrel and go on a visit.
The work clearly senses the movement of time in three forms. This is the period from autumn to winter, from a person’s childhood to his maturity, from the heyday of estate culture to its extinction. The reader witnesses this by studying the story “Antonov Apples.” Analysis of this work also helps to understand this. We can conclude that we see a temporary movement of the earth, human life and local culture. To understand the above, familiarization with summary prosaic creation and its analysis.
“Antonov Apples”, Bunin: first chapter
In the first lines the author writes that he remembers early autumn, the smell of Antonov apples. It was at that time that bourgeois gardeners hired men to sort and fill apples, which they then took to the city for sale. The workers did not miss the opportunity to enjoy the fragrant fruits. During the preparation of the mash drink, when it was filtered (“for draining”), everyone drank honey. Even the blackbirds sit here, well-fed and contented, near the coral rowan trees.
The story “Antonov Apples” by Bunin is very positive. The author describes a prosperous village in which there are excellent harvests and people live long. Everything here is famous for its fertility. Even the elder woman looks like a Kholmogory cow. And, as you know, this animal was a symbol of prosperity. The author, describing this woman, says that she seemed to have horns on her head. This association is caused by the braids, which the elder woman styled in a special way. Several tied scarves make the head huge, which makes the woman even more like a cow. The elder is pregnant - this is another technique that helps to see the fertility and prosperity that reigns in these prosperous places. You are convinced of this by reading the beginning of the story “Antonov Apples.” Analysis of these rows confirms these conclusions.
The narrator likes everything here: Fresh air, the smell of straw, the starry night sky. We learn all this from the first chapter, as well as the fact that the story is told on behalf of the barchuk Nikolai.
Chapter 2
Bunin also begins the next part of the work with a mention of Antonov apples. He talks about folk superstition. It is believed that if the Antonovka crop is cropped, then the bread will be cropped too.
The writer shares his pleasant impressions of the early morning. Ivan Alekseevich so clearly describes how pleasant it is to wash your face by the pond, look into the turquoise sky, that these wonderful sensations are also conveyed to the reader.
Then the narrator says how nice it is after washing to have breakfast with the workers with potatoes, climb on a horse and gallop into the distance. We will learn about this by reading the work “Antonov Apples”. The content of the second chapter reveals the name of that wonderful village - Vyselki. It is here that old people live for 100 years or more, like, for example, Pankrat, who no longer remembers how far over a hundred he has passed.
In this chapter, the narrator remembers the estate of his aunt Anna Gerasimovna. She had a garden, and, of course, Antonov apples grew in it. Bunin talks about his aunt’s beautiful house with columns and a rich household. And the smell of apples hung even in the rooms. The author associated this aroma with pleasant associations. You come to this conclusion by analyzing this work.
Chapter 3
From it we learn about the writer's passion for hunting. After all, it was a popular entertainment for the landowners of those years. made it possible to reduce the number of this dangerous predator, which killed livestock and could attack humans. In the company of fellow hunting enthusiasts, the author shot wolves or other animals and returned home with the trophies to his aunt or stayed for several days with a landowner he knew.
Final chapter
So, our analysis comes to an end. Bunin's "Antonov Apples" in the final chapter conveys the author's anxiety; his impressions are no longer as rosy as at the beginning. He writes that the aroma of these fruits disappears from landowners' estates. Centenarians died, one old man shot himself. And the narrator no longer hunts in the company of people, but alone. But life in Vyselki is still in full swing: village girls bustle about, threshing grain.
The first snow has fallen. This ends the story “Antonov Apples” by Bunin. At the end, as at the beginning of the work, the author puts an ellipsis, since in the form of an essay he spoke about a short period of time, which, thanks to him, the readers were lucky enough to witness.
“Antonov Apples” is a story by Bunin, published in 1900. The work is built on a lyrical monologue-memory. What is the main theme of Bunin's Antonov Apples? What events inspired the writer to create this work?
Ivan Bunin
The analysis of "Antonov apples", like any similar task, should begin with brief information about the author. Ivan Bunin entered literature not as a prose writer, but as a poet. However, the debut collection of poems, which was published in Orel, did not cause much reaction from critics. Bunin received recognition after the publication of the book “Falling Leaves,” which also included exclusively poems.
Ivan Bunin left a deep and bright mark on Russian literature. In his lyrical works he continued classical traditions A. Fet, Y. Polonsky, A. Tolstoy. In stories and tales he showed, often with a nostalgic mood, the impoverishment noble estates, and the cruel face of the village, and disastrous oblivion moral principles life. Bunin became a classic of Russian literature thanks to such prose works, like “The Life of Arsenyev”, “Easy Breathing”, “ Damned days", "Antonov apples".
Analysis work of art can't do without brief history creation of a work. How did the idea for the story come about?
The history of the creation of "Antonov Apples"
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin planned to write this work back in the early nineties of the 19th century. Then he was visiting his relative's estate. One day I went out onto the porch and smelled the amazing, unique smell of apples. At the same time, he experienced nostalgia for serfdom.
When analyzing “Antonov Apples,” it should be said that in this work the author glorified the old landowner life. The main theme of the story is lyrical memories of noble culture. Many of Bunin’s works, including “Antonov Apples,” are permeated with nostalgia for the past.
An analysis of a writer’s work involves a presentation of the main facts from his biography. As you know, Bunin left Russia. But this happened many years after the publication of the story. However, already at the beginning of the century, Russia was not the same as depicted in the work “Antonov Apples”. Bunin's heroes are images from a past, happier life.
Vyselki
The lyrical hero remembers the past. In his imagination an early Golden autumn, a thinned garden, an incomparable aroma of apples. The author recalls Vyselki, a village that has been known in the area since the time of his grandfather as the richest. The houses here were strong and made of brick. There was also a small estate with an apple orchard.
Arseny Semyonich
The hero also remembers people who have long been dead. And first of all, the late relative of Arseny Semyonich. He was an avid hunter. A lot of people gathered at his house. The table was laden with food, and after dinner the owner and his guests went hunting. The horn sounded and the dogs howled. The author remembers horseback riding, the cries of hunters...
Years have passed
But what he remembers lyrical hero, long gone. The village still stands the same. What is she without her owners? Arseny Semyonich shot himself. The owner of the estate and apple orchard died. The kingdom of impoverished nobles has arrived.
Happy times are a thing of the past. Now the nobles are no longer the same, they are impoverished. True, they still gather at each other’s houses in the evenings. But life will never be the same. The harsh rural reality is shown. And the author wonders how to live now. But this life is not so bad... And again the author betrays himself colorful description of rural life, still not suspecting anything that the small landed nobility had very little time left to exist.
Analysis
What problems did Bunin raise in Antonov Apples? The author showed how it goes into the past patriarchal world, village estates are going bankrupt, disappearing. In his work, the writer made a kind of study of the historical foundations of the Russian village, tried to grasp the reasons for their collapse, to understand what new life every single person.
The story “Antonov Apples” is surprisingly poetic. However, the lyrical hero seems to be hidden from the reader. His story remains unknown. The reader only knows that the men call him “barchuk.” The emphasis in the work is on associations, memories of the past.
When a person is closer to nature, his life and relationships with others are simpler. Bunin clearly showed in this story the idea of disastrous and doomed beauty. The idea of the common destinies of the nobility and peasantry sweeps through the entire work. After all, everyone is equally threatened with death.
Image of Russia
The book “Antonov Apples” is a unique look at Russia. For some motherland associated with Antonov apples, honey and morning freshness. For others - on a frosty winter morning. Like no one else, Bunin managed to discover the beauty of Russia, the tenderness native nature. After all, even readers who have never been to the village and can hardly imagine the smell of apples are imbued with rural old landowners landscapes created by this writer.
Criticism
IN literary society the story caused mixed reactions. Maxim Gorky, having read Bunin’s work, said that the author managed to “sing beautifully, sincerely, juicily.” However, the Petrel of the Revolution did not like Bunin's idea. He expressed categorical disagreement with the philosophical concept of the work. The most widely read newspaper in the capital greeted Antonovsky Apples with bewilderment. A well-known publicist noted: “Bunin writes about everything that comes to his hand, and therefore it is impossible to read to the main thing.”
Five years after the publication of the story, a parody of Kuprin appeared in the magazine “Zhupel”. This essay contained the following words: “Where are you, beautiful time Antonov apples, serf souls, ransom payments?" satirical work Kuprin called it not at all poetically - “Pies with milk mushrooms.”
“Antonov apples” by I.A. Bunin
A lyrical tone, based on the patriarchal depth of national consciousness, is characteristic of I. Bunin’s prose, which is always turned to the past. As if picking up the Turgenev baton, the writer speaks with incomparable melancholy about the ruin, the emptying of the noble nests that were once the stronghold of Russia, its cultural component.
Sometimes there are no words to convey all the pain and joy, sadness and tenderness - all the feelings associated with memories of the past, slipping away at the behest of indomitable time, so memory clings to all aspects of perception (vision, hearing, touch, smell). It is precisely this kind of world, sensual, material, that is woven in Bunin’s story "Antonov apples", written between 1898 and 1900.
Everything is subject to Bunin’s poetic prose: capturing the variety of shades of color ( black-lilac poneva, gray-iron stallion), and the play of chiaroscuro ( “someone’s black silhouettes, as if carved from wood...while giant shadows walk through the apple trees”), and synesthetic metaphors based on co-sensation ( sundresses smelling of paint, clear, icy, heavy water).
Through this variety of details and signs, we are shown the inner richness, intensity of spiritual life and depth of the narrator’s experiences. The hero himself seems to be hidden from the reader, his story is unknown, only that the men call him barchuk. The emphasis is only on his memories and associations associated with the past, with the taste, smell, and appearance of Antonov apples.
The beginning of the story is based on poetic device — gradations, replete with repetition of words "I remember". It seems as if the hero is afraid that at least one shade of feeling will escape from his memories.
The story has several parts. IN first part- memories of the village, men, the joy and carefreeness of life, accompanied by the crunch of Antonov apples.
Part two — autumn time, coupled with a story about ancient old women, decorously preparing a gravestone and a richly decorated shroud for themselves, and about rich men. Here the hero’s memories are transferred to the estate to his aunt, Anna Gerasimovna, who is described with a nostalgic longing for light, spacious and blue sky, clear distance, well-trodden road. There, in the lost world, every little thing is imbued with poetry and beauty, even telegraph poles "like silver strings", and the falcons sitting on them - "black icons on music paper» . But the most precious, important autumn memory is the smell of Antonov apples.
The third part — "the fading spirit of the landowners", deepening colors cold autumn, dead and anxious, waiting for the first rays of the winter sun, the proximity of loss. The anxious rhythm of the hunt, the estate of Arseny Semenovich, hospitality, the bliss of youth and noble life, honoring its ancient roots and Russian culture.
Fourth part- bitter melancholy that there is no longer the smell of Antonov apples, just as there are no old people or landowners.
The four parts of the story are the circle of life, a run from youth to maturity for the hero, from full life to decline for noble Russia.
Leaving, dissolving into cruelty new reality, Russia was imprinted in Bunin’s story in the smell, taste, and appearance of Antonov apples. First snow, dark house windows, gentle sounds guitars and the last lines of the story... “I covered the road with white snow”.
A lyrical tonality, based on the patriarchal depth of national consciousness, is characteristic of I. Bunin’s prose, which is always turned to the past. As if picking up the Turgenev baton, the writer speaks with incommensurable melancholy about the ruin, the emptying of the noble nests that were once the stronghold of Russia, its cultural component.
Sometimes there are no words to convey all the pain and joy, sadness and tenderness - all the feelings associated with memories of the past, slipping away at the behest of indomitable time, so memory clings to all aspects of perception (vision, hearing, touch, smell). It is precisely this kind of world, sensual, material, that is woven in Bunin’s story "Antonov apples", written between 1898 and 1900.
Everything is subject to Bunin’s poetic prose: capturing the variety of shades of color ( black-lilac poneva, gray-iron stallion), and the play of chiaroscuro ( “someone’s black silhouettes, as if carved from wood...while giant shadows walk through the apple trees”), and synesthetic metaphors based on co-sensation ( sundresses smelling of paint, clear, icy, heavy water).
Through this variety of details and signs, we are shown the inner richness, intensity of spiritual life and depth of the narrator’s experiences. The hero himself seems to be hidden from the reader, his story is unknown, only that the men call him barchuk. The emphasis is only on his memories and associations associated with the past, with the taste, smell, and appearance of Antonov apples.
The beginning of the story is based on a poetic device - gradations, replete with repetition of words "I remember". It seems as if the hero is afraid that at least one shade of feeling will escape from his memories.
The story has several parts. IN first part- memories of the village, men, the joy and carefreeness of life, accompanied by the crunch of Antonov apples.
Part two- autumn time, associated with the story of ancient old women, decorously preparing themselves a gravestone and a richly decorated shroud, and about rich men. Here the hero’s memories are transferred to the estate of his aunt, Anna Gerasimovna, who is described with nostalgic longing for the light, spacious and blue sky, the clear distance, the well-trodden road. There, in the lost world, every little thing is imbued with poetry and beauty, even telegraph poles "like silver strings", and the falcons sitting on them - "black marks on music paper". But the most precious, important autumn memory is the smell of Antonov apples.
The third part - "the fading spirit of the landowners", the deepening colors of cold autumn, dead and anxious, awaiting the first rays of the winter sun, the proximity of loss. The anxious rhythm of the hunt, the estate of Arseniy Semenovich, hospitality, the bliss of youth and noble life, honoring its ancient roots and Russian culture.
Fourth part- bitter melancholy that there is no longer the smell of Antonov apples, just as there are no old people or landowners.
The four parts of the story are the circle of life, a run from youth to maturity for the hero, from full life to decline for noble Russia.
Russia, leaving, dissolving in the cruelty of the new reality, was imprinted in Bunin’s story in the smell, taste, and appearance of Antonov apples. The first snow, dark windows of houses, gentle sounds of a guitar and the last lines of the story... “I covered the road with white snow”.
- Analysis of the story “Easy Breathing”
- “Dark Alleys”, analysis of Bunin’s story
- Brief summary of Bunin’s work “Caucasus”
Such works created in early period creativity of Ivan Alekseevich, includes the story “Antonov Apples”, in which one can feel the sadness and sadness of the writer himself. The main theme of this Bunin masterpiece is that the writer points to main problem society of that time - the disappearance of the former estate life, and this is the tragedy of the Russian village.
History of the story
In the early autumn of 1891, Bunin visited the village with his brother Evgeniy Alekseevich. And at the same time, he writes a letter to his common-law wife Varvara Pashchenko, in which he shares his impressions of the morning smell of Antonov apples. He saw how the autumn morning began in the villages and he was struck by the cold and gray dawn. The old grandfather’s estate, which now stands abandoned, also evokes pleasant feelings, but once upon a time it hummed and lived.
He writes that with great pleasure he would return to the time when landowners were honored. He writes to Varvara about what he experienced then, going out onto the porch early in the morning: “I would like to live like the old landowner! Get up at dawn, leave for the “departing field”, don’t get out of the saddle all day, and in the evening with a healthy appetite, with a healthy fresh mood to return home through the darkened fields.”
And only nine years later, in 1899 or 1900, Bunin decides to write the story “Antonov Apples”, which was based on reflections and impressions from visiting his brother’s village estate. It is believed that the prototype of the hero of Arseny Semenych’s story was a distant relative of the writer himself.
Despite the fact that the work was published in the year it was written, Bunin continued to edit the text for another twenty years. The first publication of the work took place in 1900 in the tenth issue of the St. Petersburg magazine “Life”. This story also had a subtitle: “Pictures from the book “Epitaphs.” For the second time, this work, already revised by Bunin, was included in the collection “The Pass” without a subtitle. It is known that in this edition the writer removed several paragraphs from the beginning of the work.
But if we compare the text of the story with the edition of 1915, when the story “Antonov Apples” was published in Full meeting Bunin’s works, or with the text of the 1921 work, which was published in the collection “Initial Love”, then you can see their significant difference.
Plot of the story
The story takes place in early autumn, when the rains were still warm. In the first chapter, the narrator shares his feelings that he experiences in a village estate. So, the morning is fresh and damp, and the gardens are golden and already noticeably thinned out. But most of all, the smell of Antonov apples is imprinted in the narrator’s memory. The bourgeois gardeners hired peasants to harvest the crops, so voices and the creaking of carts can be heard everywhere in the garden. At night, carts loaded with apples leave for the city. At this time, a man can eat plenty of apples.
Usually a large hut is placed in the middle of the garden, which becomes settled over the summer. An earthen stove appears next to it, all sorts of belongings are lying around, and in the hut itself there are single beds. At lunchtime, this is where food is prepared, and in the evening they put out a samovar and the smoke from it pleasantly spreads throughout the area. And on holidays, fairs are held near such a hut. Serf girls dress up in bright sundresses. An “old woman” also arrives, which somewhat resembles a Kholmogory cow. But not so much people buy something, but come here more for fun. They dance and sing. Closer to dawn it begins to get fresh, and the people disperse.
The narrator also hurries home and in the depths of the garden watches the incredible fairytale picture: “As if in a corner of hell, a crimson flame is burning near the hut, surrounded by darkness, and someone’s black silhouettes, as if carved from ebony wood, are moving around the fire.”
And he also sees a picture: “Then a black hand several arshins in size will fall across the entire tree, then two legs will clearly appear - two black pillars.”
Having reached the hut, the narrator will playfully fire a rifle a couple of times. He will spend a long time admiring the constellations in the sky and exchange a few phrases with Nikolai. And only when his eyes begin to close and a cool night shiver runs through his entire body, he decides to go home. And at this moment the narrator begins to understand how good life is in the world.
In the second chapter the narrator will remember a good and good year. But, as people say, if Antonovka is a success, then the rest of the harvest will be good. Autumn is also a wonderful time for hunting. People already dress differently in the fall, since the harvest is harvested and difficult work is left behind. It was interesting for the storyteller-barchuk to communicate at such a time with old men and women, and to observe them. In Rus' it was believed that the longer old people live, the richer the village. The houses of such old people were different from others; they were built by their grandfathers.
The men lived well, and the narrator even at one time wanted to try to live like a man in order to experience all the joys of such a life. At the narrator's estate serfdom was not felt, but it became noticeable on the estate of Aunt Anna Gerasimovna, who lived only twelve miles from Vyselki. The signs of serfdom for the author were:
☛ Low outbuildings.
☛ All the servants leave the servants’ room and bow low and low.
☛ A small old and solid manor.
☛ Huge garden
The narrator remembers his aunt very well when she, coughing, entered the room where he was waiting for her. She was small, but also somehow solid, like her house. But most of all the writer remembers the amazing dinners with her.
In the third chapter, the narrator regrets that the old estates and the order established in them have gone somewhere. The only thing left from all this is hunting. But of all these landowners, only the writer’s brother-in-law, Arseny Semenovich, remained. Usually towards the end of September the weather deteriorated and it rained continuously. At this time the garden became deserted and boring. But October brought a new time to the estate, when the landowners gathered at their brother-in-law's and rushed to hunt. What a wonderful time it was! The hunt lasted for weeks. The rest of the time it was a pleasure to read old books from the library and listen to the silence.
In the fourth chapter, the writer hears the bitterness and regret that the smell of Antonov apples no longer reigns in the villages. The inhabitants of the noble estates also disappeared: Anna Gerasimovna died, and the hunter’s brother-in-law shot himself.
Artistic Features
It is worthwhile to dwell in more detail on the composition of the story. So, the story consists of four chapters. But it is worth noting that some researchers do not agree with the definition of the genre and argue that “Antonov Apples” is a story.
In Bunin’s story “Antonov Apples” we can highlight the following: artistic features:
✔ The plot, which is a monologue, is a memory.
✔ There is no traditional plot.
✔ The plot is very close to poetic text.
The narrator gradually changes chronological pictures, trying to guide the reader from the past to what is happening in reality. The ruined houses of the nobles for Bunin are historical drama, which is comparable to the saddest and saddest times of the year:
Generous and bright summer is the past rich and beautiful home of landowners and their family estates.
Autumn is a period of withering, the collapse of foundations that have been formed over centuries.
Researchers of Bunin's creativity also pay attention to the pictorial descriptions that the writer uses in his work. It’s as if he’s trying to paint a picture, but only a verbal one.
Ivan Alekseevich uses a lot of pictorial details. Bunin, like A.P. Chekhov, resorts to symbols in his depiction: ★ The image of a garden is a symbol of harmony.
★ The image of apples is both a continuation of life, kindred, and love for life.
Story Analysis
Bunin’s work “Antonov Apples” is the writers’ reflections on fate landed nobility, which gradually faded and disappeared. The writer’s heart aches with sadness when he sees vacant lots in the place where only yesterday there were busy noble estates. An unsightly picture opens before his eyes: only ashes remain from the landowners' estates and now they are overgrown with burdocks and nettles.
Sincerely, the author of the story “Antonov Apples” worries about any character in his work, living with him all the trials and anxieties. The writer created a unique work, where one of his impressions, creating a bright and rich picture, is smoothly replaced by another, no less thick and dense.
Criticism of the story "Antonov Apples"
Bunin's contemporaries highly appreciated his work, since the writer especially loves and knows nature, village life. He himself belongs to to the last generation writers who come from noble estates.
But critics' reviews were mixed. Yuliy Isaevich Aikhenvald, who was in great authority at the beginning of the 20th century, gives the following review of Bunin’s work: “Bunin’s stories, dedicated to this antiquity, sing its departure.”
Maxim Gorky, in a letter to Bunin, which was written in November 1900, gave his assessment: “Here Ivan Bunin, like a young god, sang. Beautiful, juicy, soulful. No, it’s good when nature creates a person as a nobleman, it’s good!”
But Gorky will re-read Bunin’s work itself many more times. And already in 1901, in a letter to his to the best friend He will write to Pyatnitsky his new impressions:
“Antonov apples smell good - yes! - but - they don’t smell democratic at all... Ah, Bunin!”
