Ivan Bunin, "Easy breathing": analysis of the work. The meaning of the title and the problems of the story by I.A. Bunin "Easy breathing" (Bunin I

The meaning and problem of the story "Light Breath" by Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was Olya Meshcherskaya. She was a very talented girl from a wealthy family, but she was no different from high school students.

In the story, Olya played the role of a girl with a beautiful figure, which was not expressed by a human word. All her friends were very decent, but this is what Olya was different from others. She was not afraid of anything and never liked to listen to others.

At all the balls, Meshcherskaya was always in the spotlight, which she really liked. But her behavior was wrong, for which she was summoned to the office of the boss. Olya liked the boss's office, she entered it with ease and simplicity. The boss knew that she was not a girl, but not a woman either. That's why I asked Olya. Meshcherskaya replied that she was not a girl, but she was a woman. That all this happened last summer in the village with a friend and neighbor of your father, your brother Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin. The headmistress was very angry.

A month after this conversation, an officer who had nothing to do with Olya Meshcherskaya's circle shot her. After that, he stated that her words about marriage were a mockery of Malyutin's feelings. The officer offered a page from Olya's diary, which spoke about how disgusting she was Alexei Mikhailovich, that she could not survive that night with him. She was so happy to be alone, she felt as if she was alone in the whole world. But Malyutin was in love with her.

After death cool lady Olya Meshcherskaya did not leave her, she lived with fictions that replaced her real life. Olya's death captivated her. She went to her grave every holiday and did not take her eyes off her.

Nobody but best friend I did not know what was the most important thing in Olya Meshcherskaya.

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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 concisely and vividly captured in it, the feeling of beauty is so reverently conveyed. What is “light breathing”, why has this phrase become a common noun for a long time to refer to human talent - the talent to live? To understand this, let's analyze the story "Easy breathing".

Bunin's narrative builds on contrasts. Already from the first lines, the reader has some kind of ambivalent feeling: a sad, deserted cemetery, a gray April day, cold wind, which "tinkles and tinkles with 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 ... A rather large, convex porcelain medallion is embedded in the very cross, and in the medallion there is a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with joyful, amazingly lively eyes. Olya Meshcherskaya's whole life is described by the principle of contrast: a cloudless childhood and adolescence are contrasted with the tragic events of Olya's last year. 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 voluptuary, and then a living target for the Cossack officer deceived by her. The tragic death of Meshcherskaya inspires a frenzied, withering "service" to her memory a lonely little woman - a classy lady. The seeming simplicity of the plot of the story is violated by the opposition: a heavy cross and joyful, lively eyes, which makes the reader's heart shrink anxiously. It will haunt us throughout the 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 bleak fate of a classy lady who is used 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 and is "light breathing" - does not disappear forever. She is the best, real part of life. The heroine of the story, Olya Meshcherskaya, became the embodiment of this life. The girl is so natural that even the outward manifestations of her existence cause rejection by some and admiration by others: “But she was not afraid of anything - no ink spots on her fingers, no flushed face, no disheveled hair, no knee that got naked when she fell on the run. Without any of her worries and efforts, and somehow imperceptibly, everything that distinguished her so much in the last two years from the whole gymnasium came to her - grace, elegance, dexterity, a clear gleam in her eyes ... ”At first glance, we have before us an ordinary schoolgirl - a beautiful, prosperous and a little windy girl, the daughter of wealthy parents, who expects a brilliant party.

But our attention is constantly and persistently directed to some hidden springs of Olya's life. To do this, the author drags out 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 high school student Shenshin, flirts, albeit unconsciously, with Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, who seduces her, for some reason promises a Cossack officer to marry him. What for? Why does she need all this? And gradually we understand that Olya Meshcherskaya is beautiful, 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 decisions. It turns out that a wonderful feeling of fullness of life can be disastrous. Even the unconscious longing for her (like a classy lady) is tragic. Therefore, every detail, every step of Olya's life threatens with disaster: curiosity and prank can lead to violence, a frivolous game with other people's feelings - 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 maximally alive without observing the rules of the game means to be maximally doomed. After all, the environment in which Meshcherskaya was destined to appear is completely devoid of an organic, integral sense of beauty. Here, life is subject to strict rules, for the violation of which you have to pay. Olya, accustomed not only to teasing fate, but simply to bravely go towards new sensations and impressions in their entirety, did not have a chance to meet a person who would appreciate not only her bodily beauty, but also generosity and brightness. After all, Olya really had a “light breath” - a thirst for some special, unique fate, worthy only of the elect. The teacher, unable to save her student, recalls her words, accidentally overheard during the break. Among detailed description female beauty and the semi-childish “fitting” of this description to one’s own appearance, the phrase about “ easy breathing”, understood by the girl literally: “... But the main thing is, do you know what? - easy breath! But I have it - you listen to me sigh ... ”The author leaves the world not the beauty of the girl, not her experience, but only this never-opened opportunity. She, according to Bunin, cannot completely disappear, just as the craving for beauty, fortunately, 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, to accept it as a bright gift. Olya Meshcherskaya captivated those around her with her generous and furious love of life, but in a meager world small town, unfortunately for her, there was no person able to protect her "light breath" from the "cold spring wind".

Analysis of the story "Easy breathing"

The theme of love occupies one of the leading places in the writer's work. In mature prose, there are noticeable trends in understanding the eternal categories of being - death, love, happiness, nature. Often he describes "moments of love", which have a fatal character, a tragic coloring. He pays great attention female characters, mysterious and incomprehensible.

The beginning of the novel "Easy Breath" creates a feeling of sadness and sadness. The author prepares the reader in advance for the fact that the tragedy of human life will unfold on the following pages.

The main character of the novel, Olga Meshcherskaya, a schoolgirl, stands out among her classmates with a cheerful disposition and a clear love of life, she is not at all afraid of other people's opinions, and openly challenges society.

In the last winter, many changes took place in the girl's life. At this time, Olga Meshcherskaya was in the full bloom of her beauty. There were rumors about her that she could not live without admirers, but at the same time she treated them very cruelly. In her last winter, Olya completely devoted herself to the joys of life, she went to balls and went to the skating rink every evening.

Olya always tried to look good, she wore expensive shoes, expensive combs, perhaps she would have dressed in the latest fashion if all the gymnasium girls did not wear uniforms. The headmistress of the gymnasium made a remark to Olga about appearance that such jewelry and shoes should be worn adult woman and not just a student. To which Meshcherskaya openly declared that she has the right to dress like a woman, because she is her, and none other than the director's brother Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin is to blame for this. Olga's answer can be fully regarded as a challenge to the society of that time. A young girl without a shadow of modesty puts on things that are not for her age, behaves like a mature woman and at the same time openly argues her behavior with rather intimate things.

Olga's transformation into a woman took place in the summer at the dacha. When the parents were not at home, Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, a friend of their family, came to visit them at the dacha. Despite the fact that he did not find Olya's father, Malyutin nevertheless stayed at a party, explaining that he wanted it to dry out properly after the rain. In relation to Olya, Alexei Mikhailovich behaved like a gentleman, although the difference in their age was huge, he was 56, she was 15. Malyutin confessed his love to Olya, said all kinds of compliments. During tea drinking, Olga felt bad and lay down on the couch, Alexei Mikhailovich began to kiss her hands, talk about how he was in love, and then kissed her on the lips. Well, what happened next happened. We can say that on the part of Olga it was nothing more than an interest in mystery, the desire to become an adult.

After that there was tragedy. Malyutin shot Olga at the train station and explained this by saying that he was in a state of passion, because she showed him her diary, which described everything that happened, and then Olgino's attitude to the situation. She wrote that she was disgusted with her boyfriend.

Malyutin acted so cruelly because his pride was hurt. He was no longer a young officer, and even a bachelor, it was natural for him to amuse himself with the fact that a young girl expressed her sympathy for him. But when he found out that she felt nothing for him but disgust, it was like thunder among clear sky. He himself used to push women away, and then they pushed him away. The society was on the side of Malyutin, he justified himself by the fact that Olga herself allegedly seduced him, promised to become his wife, and then left him. Since Olya had a reputation as a heartbreaker, no one doubted his words.

The story ends with the fact that the classy lady Olga Meshcherskaya, a dreamy lady living in her fictional ideal world, comes to Olya's grave every holiday and silently watches her for several hours. For the lady Olya is the ideal of femininity and beauty.

Here, “easy breathing” is an easy attitude to life, sensuality and impulsiveness that were inherent in Olya Meshcherskaya.

After studying the analysis of the story "Light Breath" you will undoubtedly be interested in other works related to Ivan Alekseevich Bunin:

• "Sunstroke", analysis of Bunin's story
• "Cuckoo", a summary of Bunin's work

- an outstanding personality in world literature, one of the few writers who became a laureate Nobel Prize in literature. He lived a pretty busy life. Due to the fact that the origin of the writer stretches from a respected noble family, he did not feel strong hardships and problems in his life. Those rules noble life demanded that Ivan start early independent life. This led to many problems and mistakes in his seemingly easy life. Ivan repeatedly made mistakes in his own work affairs, in his personal life, and bitter experience taught the young writer and poet the real real Voronezh life.

At a young age, he began working for small magazines and newspapers. His abilities, by the way, were quickly noticed by the editors. The fame of Bunin's simple and understandable style quickly spread throughout the city. The future writer is gaining great popularity, which is easily emphasized by all the innovations in the work of that time. The meaningful life of the young and deep man makes you breathe unevenly to his work. The versatile personality of this man made it possible to write chic texts. Bunin often wrote:

• Articles.
• Stories.
• Reasoning.
• Poems.
• Novels.

That is, Bunin himself argued that his creative potential could easily be realized in any direction.

"Easy breathing" - the peak of the author's creativity

It is known that short stories rarely make their author known to the whole world. But Bunin was lucky, because his most beautiful story entitled "Easy breath" instantly spread all over the world. Almost all people, critics and other writers have been able to feel this unbelievable story. Many people call "Easy breathing" the best story Bunin.

It is interesting that the history of the creation of this tragic story began with a random walk of the writer. He is brought to the cemetery, where he accidentally sees a beautiful girl on one of the crosses. At the same time, a story about Olya Meshcherskaya arose in his head.

Hoping to write new story for the editors of the Moscow magazine " Russian word, he began to create. It is such an interesting and fascinating prehistory of the appearance of "Easy Breath".

Lonely woman stands over a gray cross. A cool breeze makes the fallen leaves dance around the grave. Gray clouds did not give a single chance for the sun to shed light on the mortal earth.

Olya Meshcherskaya, at first glance, is a typical simple girl who, after school, should become real lady. Almost all of her friends did not resist the rules and learned the manners of a modest and virginal personality. However, the violent nature and unprincipled outlook on life quickly changed everything. further fate Oli. The girl behaves quite freely in society, breathes easily on full chest and does not accept the typical rules of conduct. Thanks to this, she gained a bad reputation, and those close to her began to consider Olga at all, lung girl behavior.

It was not the family or relatives who suffered the most from such a girl. , and the gymnasium, where she spent hours reading textbooks and studying all essential rules behavior in society and among men. This provoked repeated general developmental conversations between main character and head of the school. However, the last dialogue between them put everything on the shelves.

Under strong pressure from the teacher, Olya says that she is no longer an innocent girl. A storm of emotions and anger almost forced the head of the gymnasium to raise her hand against the pupil. After that, Olya also clarified that her first man in her life was not a simple passer-by boy from a neighboring yard, but an experienced and wealthy Alexei Dmitrievich Milyutin. He was not only an acquaintance of Olya's father, but also turned out to be the brother of the head of the institution where she studied.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since the very moment when she admitted that at the age of fifteen she had long said goodbye to innocence . More than these years she was not destined to live. An unknown officer shoots her and kills her with only one bullet. The proceedings were quite loud, everyone knew what had happened.

Later it became known that this officer, whom no one knew about, had a close relationship with Olya. On the loud court everyone learned that the once sweet girl, albeit without a clear framework for behavior, brutally destroyed all the dreams of this officer. Before he left for Novocherkassk, she gave him only one page from her diary to read. It literally describes the story of Malyutin. Before the trial, with his hand on his heart, the officer said that his mind was clouded. His hand reached for the gun on its own. So, in the middle of the pyron, in front of many unknown people, he decided the further fate of the sweet and girl Olya.

This small diary was dedicated not only to the life story of Olya Meshcherskaya. There are several pages about how silly the cool lady lived her life. Each word from this diary created an imaginary impression that Olya was trying to become the very heroine of her father's books, who managed to find easy breathing.

A sudden gust of spring wind was finally able to dispel the desired light breath of the once sweet and wayward Olya.

Brief analysis of the main characters

Most of narrative focused on the diary of a dead high school student, the story "Easy breathing" managed to reveal many images in a couple of sentences.

Analysis of Easy Breathing

If we take into account the general morality of history, then Ivan Bunin tried to show the injustice of the whole world. Where women have no rights, but at the same time, they are able to decide the fate of many men. The plot shows the ordinary everyday life of society at the beginning of the 20th century. If you delve into this little story, you will notice that the retelling will take no more than a few sentences. Thus, Ivan Bunin showed the typicality of the current situation of that time.

Ivan Bunin shows vices in every image human soul, and the fact that their pernicious influence leads to the most terrible consequences. “Easy breathing” is an indirect allusion to the fact that a person truly gains freedom only after leaving this dirty and callous world. It's a shame that in the story everyone is a victim. Even the strong head of the gymnasium became a victim of strong and cruel restrictions.

Bunin, as if speaking through a distorted mirror that the world is a big bank in which people are like insects. To survive, you have to get along with other residents, or destroy everyone.

After reading this work, literary critics and strong personalities proclaimed this small story Ivan Bunin, as the pinnacle of art in writing a word. Reading this work is necessary to understand that all actions and words are always fraught with consequences.

L. Vygotsky's book "The Psychology of Art" was first published in 1965, forty years after it was written. It still retains scientific interest. Separate pages of this work are devoted to Bunin's story "Easy breathing". There are many interesting observations on his composition, the structure of individual phrases. But in general, the author, in our opinion, very controversially interpreted the meaning of the story. According to the scientist, if we take the events of the hero's life "in their vital and everyday meaning, we have before us simply the unremarkable, insignificant and meaningless life of a provincial schoolgirl, a life that clearly grows on rotten roots ... The emptiness, meaninglessness, insignificance of this life is emphasized by the author., with tactile power" (Vygotsky L.S. Psychology of art. - M, 1986). However, as L. Vygotsky notes, this is not the impression of the story as a whole. The writer "achieves just the opposite effect, and the true theme of his story, of course, is light breathing, and not the story of the gutted life of a provincial schoolgirl. This is a story not about Olya Meshcherskaya, but about light breathing (?!"); its main feature is that feeling of liberation, lightness, detachment and perfect transparency of life, which can in no way be deduced from the very events underlying it.
It is difficult to agree with the statement that our reader's impression of the story is not connected with its content, and also with the fact that the story leaves the impression of "lightness, sinfulness and perfect transparency (?!) of life." I think the reader endures somewhat different feelings. This is bitterness, even pain for the awkward life of a girl. L. Vygotsky's idea that Meshcherskaya's life is meaningless and insignificant contradicts Bunin's ethics and aesthetics. For Bunin, female beauty is a priceless gift of nature, and not "emptiness and rot",

The concept of "light breathing" is interpreted by scientists vaguely and abstractly. Meanwhile, this is a very specific designation of one of the components of female beauty, with the code of which Olya met while reading her father's books. It was they who had a negative impact on her fragile soul. Here is what she said to her beloved friend: "I ... read what beauty a woman should have ... black, resinous eyes ... black as night, eyelashes, a gently playing blush, a thin figure ... a small leg ... correctly rounded calf, shell-colored knee, sloping but high shoulders - I almost learned a lot by heart, so it's all true - but the main thing, you know what? - Easy breathing! But I have it - you listen, how I sigh, - is it true, is there?

In the last phrase, the repetition of individual words and expressions, unfinished sentences convey the agitation of the narrator, her joy of self-affirmation that she, too, belongs to the clan of beautiful women. This monologue also speaks of the lack of spiritual subtlety in Meshcherskaya. After all, everything she said about female beauty emphasized the ugliness of her friend, "full, tall" Subbotina. In this tabloid code of female beauty, everything is about appearance, and exaggerated, vulgar, and nothing about spirituality, moral character her bearers. Some inferiority of the admirer of this code is obvious. However, Bunin has a double feeling for his heroine: enthusiastic and sorrowful. The intonation of admiration is palpable when the writer tells about Olya's charm, her naturalness, devoid of coquetry. "She was not afraid of anything - no ink stains on her fingers, no flushed face, no disheveled hair." The passionate love of life of the heroine is to the liking of the narrator. However, he bitterly notes her frivolity, the absence of any ethical concepts and restraints.

A seventeen-year-old schoolgirl could not help reading individual works Pushkin, Turgenev, Tolstoy (the events reflected in the story take place after Russo-Japanese War, and these writers were included in the gymnasium curriculum in literature). However, they did not leave a mark on her soul.

Judging by the tabloid novelistic literature, which was in the cabinets of Meshchersky and his friends (we are talking about Malyutin), she did not receive the necessary spiritual development. And the county gymnasium contributed little to this. It is enough to refer to the image of the head of the gymnasium - her favorite occupation in the office - knitting, the content of her conversation with Meshcherskaya, in order to have an idea of ​​the pedagogical atmosphere in the gymnasium. The boss is worried about her hair beyond her years and Olya's expensive combs, her shoes "at twenty rubles". But the financial expenses of the family are outside the pedagogical competence of the boss. And the very tone of the "conversation" - irritable, unfriendly - testifies to the lack of pedagogical tact in relationships with students. Note that during her teachings, the boss continued to knit.

The pastime of schoolgirls - festivities, balls, skating - did little for their moral development.

To excel at balls and the skating rink, to experience the attention of young people: all this did not make the girl happy. Only alone with herself, in communion with nature, Olya felt happy. Here is what she entered in her diary: "... I was left alone. I was so happy that I was alone that I don’t know how to say. In the morning I walked alone in the garden, in the field, was in the forest, it seemed to me that I was alone all over the world, and I thought as well as ever in my life, and I dined alone, then whole hour played, to the music I had the feeling that I would live without end and be as happy as ever!

The appearance at the dacha of Malyutin destroys the harmony in Olya's soul. She was defenseless against the harassment of the old vulgar. Meshcherskaya did not have any special feelings for the 56-year-old Malyutin. What she liked about him is insignificant. I liked that Malyutin was well dressed, that his eyes were "very young, black, and his beard was elegantly divided into two long parts and completely silver." At first, Olya was shocked by what happened to her. “I don’t understand how this could happen, I went crazy, I never thought that I was like that! Now I have one way out ...” However, the pain of repentance turned out to be short-lived. She tried to drown it out with violent fun. But one irreparable mistake led to another: a connection with a Cossack officer, ugly and narrow-minded, then a break in an insulting form for him, giving him his diary. This is no longer a prank and a game, but impermissible promiscuity, even cynicism.

"To be extremely alive means to be extremely doomed. Such is the terrifying truth of Bunin's worldview." (Waiman S. "Tragedy" easy breathing". - Literary studies, 1980, No. 5). Does rapprochement with Malyutin, an officer, mean being "extremely alive"? There is no love in this closeness, strong feelings, passion. Olya Meshcherskaya never survived the rise of feelings experienced by many of the writer's heroes: Khvoshchinsky ("Grammar of Love"), Mitya ("Mitya's Love"), Galya ("Galya Ganskaya"), Rusya ("Rusya") and many others . The fall of Olya is a consequence, in the language of Bunin, of her "uterineness", a thirst for self-fulfillment.

The writer exposed the reasons for the failed life of Meshcherskaya. It is the lack of spirituality, the absence ethical standards. Olya never thought about what worries a girl of her age - about love, her future.

There is an image that attracted little attention from those who wrote about the story. This is the image of a classy lady whose fate reveals the spiritual squalor that reigns in the county town.

At first, the meaning of the existence of a classy lady was the dream of her brother, "an unremarkable ensign", whose future seemed brilliant to her. She believed that her fate "somehow fabulously changed thanks to him." After his death, she convinced herself that she was "an ideological trrken" and served the highest interests. But after the death of Meshcherskaya, the classy lady devoted herself to the frenzied service of her memory. Obviously, the surrounding life is spiritually poor, which pushes a person into the world of fiction. This lonely woman, who spends long hours at the grave of Meshcherskaya, evokes sympathy in the reader for herself as a restless person who has not found herself in life.

A few remarks about the composition of the story. She is subordinated not to, as L. Vygotsky believed, in order to "extinguish, destroy, the direct impression" of events, but to reveal the drama of the heroine's life.

The story begins with the finale of Meshcherskaya's life, a description of her grave; then a story about Olya's childhood and carefree youth. Next is the episode in the boss's office, where we learn about what happened to her. The next episode is Olya's death; a digression into her past - an appeal to the diary. And again the cemetery where Olya rests. Then a laconic story about a cool lady and again about the past of the heroine - a story about "easy breathing". And the end of the story.

The plot consists of episodes that are contrasting in their content and tone. Dramatic scenes are interspersed with the narrative of the poetry of youth; the sad cemetery landscape is adjacent to the description of the bleak life of a classy lady, which is supported by Olya's enthusiastic monologue about female beauty.

A mixture of plans, from the present to the past; episodes of sad and filled with the joy of being Olya - such is the structure of the story, the plot of which is distinguished by extraordinary composure and drama. Each episode is a stage in the life of Meshcherskaya, her growing up, moral decline and death. The writer turns to various forms of character modeling: narrative, portrait, indirect and direct speech. actors, landscape sketches, diary entries, copyright digressions.

The sad lines of the beginning of the story and its ending precede and complete the reader's perception and serve as a kind of epitaph for an untimely cut short life. “In the cemetery, over a fresh clay embankment, there is a new cross made of oak, strong, heavy ... A rather large bronze medallion is embedded in the very cross, and in the medallion there is a photographic portrait of a schoolgirl with disgusting, amazingly lively eyes.

This is Olya Meshcherskaya.

And these "amazingly lively eyes" will attract the attention of visitors to the cemetery for a long time, reminding them of the once lively charming girl.

"Non-Sunset Light" is the title of one of Bunin's poems. In some ways, it resembles "Easy Breath":

Not a plate, not a crucifix -
Before me so far
Institute dress
And shining eyes.

Sadness is fanned, like the story as a whole, the last line of the work: "Now this light breath has again dissipated in the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind." For the author words easy breath represent youth, violence vitality and at the same time frivolity and thoughtlessness. This is how the author himself explained the meaning of the title of the story. "Ivan Alekseevich," recalled G.N. Kuznetsova, - began to explain that he was always attracted by the image of a woman brought to the limit of her "uterine essence": "Only we call it uterine, and I called it there light breath. Such naivete and lightness in everything, both in insolence and in death, is “light breathing”, non-thinking” (Literary heritage, vol. 84, v. 2, M 1973).

So, a person is responsible for how his life develops. He is in many ways the creator of his own destiny. But the story also has a deeper meaning. The world depicted by the writer is hostile to beauty. Malyutin abused Meshcherskaya, the head of the gymnasium was unfriendly to her, a classy lady scolded her with her instructions, a Cossack officer disposed of Meshcherskaya's life, only students lower grades with their childish instincts, they managed to distinguish Olya among the schoolgirls and "they did not love anyone like her."

The fate of Meshcherskaya is in many ways similar to the fate of the heroine of Blok's poem "On the Railway":

Under the embankment, in the mowed ditch,
Lies and looks, as if alive,
In a colored scarf, on braids
abandoned
Beautiful and young.

The green of uncut grasses as personification eternal life, the conviviality of the clothes of the deceased, her youth, beauty - and death!

The "terrible world" is alien and hostile to beauty, and with its vulgarity and filth, it destroys everything outstanding and beautiful.
Literature program for secondary general education educational institutions, approved by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, offers in the 9th grade to get acquainted with the work of I.A. Bunin stories: " Sunstroke", "John the Rydalets", " Clean Monday"and others (at the choice of the teacher and students).
We think that, among others, the philologist will choose "Easy breathing" - one of the best works writer.