Essay Questions

Why is Bunin terming love as a momentary vision which is futureless without meaning?

According to the author, love is complicated because it sometimes does unimaginable things. The author agrees that love brings contentment, but at the same time, life can be a source of sorrow. For instance, the author gives an example of heartbreaks. When people get married, they do so because of love, but it is the same love that turns into hatred when they divorce or break up. The author also brings a second scenario when a loved one dies. The same love that existed when one was alive turns into sorrow when that person dies. Consequently, love brings happiness that does not last forever because, at some point, it gives birth to grief. Therefore, the author is justified to argue that love is just a momentary vision, which has a future or meaning.

Does marriage always coincide with cheerfulness?

The author reveals the harsh reality of marriage, which contradicts the perception of many people. People outside of marriage think that marriage is a bed of roses, but that contradicts the truth. Marriage is an institution compounded with several challenges, infidelity being one of them. The heroine, the 'Sunstroke: Selected Stories of Ivan Bunin’, is unfaithful to her husband despite having a daughter with him. Besides the heroin character's infidelity, the author shows how other characters are involved in extramarital affairs. Therefore, adultery is a common thing in marriages, but the author does not justify it because he believes that there are forces behind such acts.

Why does the reader consider the ‘Sunstroke: Selected Stories of Ivan Bunin’ as an ambiguous book?

The book is fascinating from the start, but it gets vague as the reader explores it. The author decides to generalize the behavior of characters, and he does not directly mention character names. As a result, the reader fails to connect several happenings to particular individuals, which makes the book tedious. However, towards the end of the book, the reader realizes that the author's objective is to describe the commonness of the characters' behaviors and actions.