The story of I.A. Bunin "Easy breathing" (summary)

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Female characters often became the center of attention of Ivan Bunin's creative searches. Apparently, he was interested in exploring their mystery and incomprehensibility. In a story about easy breathing, written in 1916, Bunin explores such qualities of the character of a girl-child as insecurity, lightness and naivety.

The story of her tragedy can convey a summary. “Light Breath” is a story about Olya Meshcherskaya, who has not yet experienced love, but has already faced the cruelty and cynicism of the adult world. According to the composition, the story can be divided into four parts.

"Easy Breath" summary (intro)

The action takes place in April at a large county cemetery. Fresh earthen mound under a large new oak cross. From a convex porcelain medalliona perky schoolgirl joyfully looks with a strikingly lively look.

The inscription says that this is Olya Meshcherskaya.

"Easy breathing" summary (part 1)

Small, she did not stand out from the background of other schoolgirls. One could only say that she was pretty, one of the happy and rich girls. It could also be added that she is a capable student, but inattentive to the remarks of a cool lady.

Slowly it developed and blossomed. By the age of fourteen, she already had a charming feminine figure, slender legs and a thin waist. At fifteen, she was known as a beauty, despite the fact that she did nothing for this. She didn’t follow her hair like other girls, she wasn’t particularly clean, she ran fast, blushing, sometimes knocking her knees.

Imperceptibly, without any efforts and cares on her part, those qualities came to her that began to distinguish her from others during the last two years of her gymnasium life. She was distinguished by grace, elegance, dexterity and a clear gleam in her eyes. She was the best dancer at the ball and ran on skates. The high school students fell in love with her and looked after her. Olya was most loved by the junior classes in the gymnasium. True, there was a rumor about her flightiness…

In her last winter, Olya was completely crazy with fun, as they noticed in the gymnasium. In the crowd at the skating rink, she seemed the happiest and most carefree. Once, at a big break, her boss called her to her. Gray-haired, albeit youthful, she began her conversation by saying thattold Olya that she was no longer a girl, but not yet a woman, to wear adult hairstyles, expensive combs and shoes. Olya calmly and simply interrupted the boss, saying that she had become a woman thanks to the efforts of the boss's brother, Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin.

"Easy breathing" summary (part 2)

The girl died a month later at the hands of a Cossack officer, judging by his ugly and plebeian appearance, which has nothing to do with the social circle of the high school student. He shot her right on the crowded station platform. The confession made by Olya Meshcherskaya, which shocked the boss, was completely confirmed. The officer said that he had been deceived by a schoolgirl who was close to him and promised to become a wife, but, seeing him off at the station, she retracted her words and said that she was simply mocking him. As proof, she let me read the page of the diary where she wrote about Milyutin. He read it and immediately shot her.

This is what the girl wrote in her diary. The entry is dated July last year. “I am writing at two in the morning. Today I lost my virginity! The family went to the city, and I was left alone in the country. I felt so good! I walked, dined and played music alone, I thought that my happiness would never end. I did not think that the visit of my father's friend Alexei Mikhailovich would be for a long time. I liked to receive him, he looked after me like a gentleman, regretted that he did not find dad, joked and confessed his love. And when I lay down to rest on the couch, he began to kiss. How it happened, I still do not understand. Didn't expect this from me! I test for himterrible disgust and I can’t live now!…”

"Easy breathing", summary (conclusion)

Every week, on Sunday, a little woman in black visits the grave.

She turned out to be a classy lady Olya Meshcherskaya, a middle-aged girl living in her fantasy world, replacing her reality. She is very sorry that the girl died. One day, a classy lady became an unwitting witness to Olya's conversation with a friend. The girl said that in one of her father's old books she had read about female beauty. It said that in addition to external data: eyes boiling with resin, a small leg and a thin camp, the main thing is that a woman should have easy breathing! She made sure she had it! Invited to listen to her breathe…

That light breath of hers has now dissolved into the world again. It floats freely in the cold spring wind and in the gloomy cloudy sky.

Ivan Bunin "Easy breathing", a summary of which is set out above, wrote before emigration. The story differs from lyrical works in prose in that it has a clear, not blurry, plot and a strict looped composition. It begins and ends with a description of the cemetery. This seems to be driven by the idea behind the story, the aching feeling of losing a promising young life.