Ivan Bunin, "Lapti": a short summary of the story about life and death

Ivan Bunin, "Lapti" (a brief summary follows) is a short story with a seemingly simple storyline. However, Bunin's talent is that when you read his works, you guess yourself or the story you heard recently with a tragic end ...

Sometimes in the late evening, when it is completely dark, you approach the window, you look out on the street, and there - hundreds of thousands of windows. Some burn bright yellow light, others - darkness, but each of them reads its own story, its story, develops its story ...

So in Bunin's prose - gray everyday life with its curiosities and incidents. However, there is one "but" that can not be expressed in one word, or even words. It gets to the very depth of the human soul and takes out something truly alive, real, what you are afraid to miss, to lose again in this depth of misunderstanding, in the endless string of words and deeds. So..

Ivan Bunin, "Lapty": a short summary

Winter. On the fifth day an impenetrable blizzard and blizzard sweeps. There is not a soul around. The windows of one farmhouse house had a grief - a child is seriously ill. Despair, fear and helplessness took possession of the mother's heart. The husband is away, he can not get to the doctor, and he himself will not be able to get there in this weather. What to do?

Something knocked in the hallway. This Nefed brought straw for the stove. A minute or two later he looked into the room to ask about the health of the child. It turned out that the boy is very weak, with fire burning, most likely, will not survive, but most importantly - he deliriously mentions some red bast shoes, asks them ...

Without thinking a long time Nefed goes to the next village for new bast shoes and for magenta - red paint: if he asks, then he wants the soul, and it's imperative to go and get it ...

The night passed in alarming expectation.

In the morning an ominous knock came out of the window. They were peasants from a neighboring village. They brought Nefed's frozen body. Found it by accident, when they themselves fell into a snow pit, and already despaired of being saved. But when they saw the stiffened body of the Nefed familiar to them, they realized that the farm was very close. They strained their last strength and reached the people.

Behind the belt, under the fur coat of a peasant, lay new children's bast shoes and a bottle of fuchsin. Thus ends the story (IA Bunin) "Lapti", the summary of which was set out above.

The main idea: "Lapti", Bunin I. A.

The last sentence, the point, the end of the story. During the reading of a particular work, we are more interested in the plot than what is hidden behind the words and actions of the main characters. But then hundreds of thoughts come: why, why, why ... The story written by Ivan Bunin - "Lapti" is first of all an ode to extraordinary kindness and readiness for self-sacrifice. But this is only the tip of the iceberg, the first layer that offers to dig further, and to discover all new and unexpected riches. What else is hidden behind the "scenery" of the unfolding drama?

Behind the window ruthless element rules, ready to destroy anyone who dares to resist it. On the threshold is death, which awaits its hour without pity and unnecessary doubt. The disconsolate mother humbles humbly before her. And only Nefed shows determination to confront these two inevitabilities and follow the dictates of the soul.

And at this point the reader embraces feelings that are difficult to convey in words. Like a thin thread of light, something inexplicable, and at the same time painfully familiar, permeates, passes through and unites souls, fates and circumstances. Nefed does not try to explain his seemingly crazy desire to go for bast shoes in an impenetrable blizzard and blizzard. He knows one thing: he desires the soul, and it is sinful to argue and argue here. The question arises - whose soul called him on the road: a dying boy, an inconsolable mother, himself or those lost men? The ridiculous, and somewhere even stupid, seemingly death of Nefed becomes meaningful, and, it may be said, a necessary sacrifice. She gave the right to life to those stray peasants from a neighboring village, and perhaps to a child.

Once again I want to remind you that this story is called, which Ivan Alekseevich wrote   Bunin, Lapti. The summary, of course, can not convey the entire subtlety and depth of feelings of the main characters, so reading the original is simply necessary.