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 a childâs character as insecurity, lightness and naivety.
The history of her tragedy can convey a summary. âEasy breathingâ is a story about Meshcherskaya Ola, who has not yet experienced love, but is already faced with cruelty and cynicism of the adult world. According to the composition, the story can be divided into four parts.
âEasy breathingâ, summary (introduction)
The action takes place in April at a large county cemetery. A fresh clay mound under a large new oak cross. From the convex porcelain medallion, a perky gymnasium joyfully gazes with a startlingly lively look.
The inscription says that it is Meshcherskaya Olya.
âEasy breathingâ, summary (1 part)
Small, she did not stand out from the background of other gymnasium students. One could only say that she was pretty, from among the happy and rich girls. One might add that the student is capable, but inattentive to the remarks of a classy lady.
Gradually, it developed and flourished. 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 did not follow, like other girls, her hairdo, she was not particularly clean, she ran fast, flushed, sometimes kneeling down.
Unnoticed, without any efforts and worries on her part, those qualities came to her that began to distinguish her from others during the last two years of her school life. She was distinguished by grace, elegance, dexterity and a clear gleam of eyes. She was the best in the dance at the ball and ran on skates. High school students fell in love with her and looked after her. Olya was most loved by the elementary grades in the gymnasium. True, there was a rumor about her windiness ...
In her last winter, Olga was completely stunned by the fun, as they noticed in the gymnasium. In the crowd at the rink, she seemed the happiest and most carefree. Once at a big break, her boss called her to her. Grizzling, though youthful, she began her conversation by saying to Olya that she was no longer a girl, but also not a woman, to wear adult hairstyles, expensive combs and slippers. Olya calmly and simply interrupted the boss, saying that she became a woman thanks to the efforts of the bossâs brother - Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin.
âEasy breathingâ, summary (2 part)
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 circle of communication of the schoolgirl. He shot her right on a crowded train station. The confession made by Olya Meshcherskaya, which shocked her boss, was completely confirmed. The officer said that they had been deceived by a gymnasium student, who was close to him and promised to become a wife, but, seeing off at the train station, renounced her words and said that she simply mocked him. In evidence, she gave me a read of the diary page, where she wrote about Milyutin. He read it and shot it at once.
This is what the girl wrote in her diary. Record dated July last year. âI am writing at two in the morning. Today I broke up with virginity! The family left for the city, and I was left at the cottage alone. I felt so good! I walked, dined and played music alone, thought that my happiness would never end. I did not think that the visit of my fatherâs friend Alexei Mikhailovich for a long time. I liked to accept him, he looked after me as a gentleman, regretted that he did not find my dad, joked and confessed his love. And when I lay down to rest on the couch, I began to kiss. How this happened, I still do not understand. I did not expect this from myself! I am terribly disgusted with him and canât live now! ... "
âEasy breathingâ, summary (conclusion)
Every week, on Sunday, a small woman in black visits the grave.
She turned out to be a classy lady of Meshcherskaya Olya, a middle-aged girl living in her fantasy world, replacing her with reality. She really regrets that the girl died. Once a classy lady became an involuntary witness to Olyaâs conversation with her friend. The girl said that in one fatherâs old book she 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 the woman had easy breathing! I was convinced that she had it! She invited me to listen to how she breathes ...
This light breathing of hers now disappeared into the world again. It soars freely in the cold spring wind and in a gloomy cloudy sky.
Ivan Bunin, "Easy breathing", a brief summary of which is described above, was written even before emigration. The story differs from the lyrical works in prose in that it has a clear, not blurred, plot and strict looped composition. It begins and ends with a description of the cemetery. This is apparently due to the idea of ââthe story, a nagging sense of loss of a young promising life.