Beside the core story within, the story itself has some interesting details. The first thing mentioned was the raining weather, the situation in which the characters were introduced. The detail of the rain throughout the story puzzles me in many ways: why were they put in that kind of weather? Or is the rain a metaphor? What are its functions? Etc.

First of all, the rain in fact brought the core story to another location. Because of the rain, the two of them had to find a shelter and they decided to go to Alekhin's house. If it hadn't been for the rain, the story and the way Ivan told it might have been different. What is more, Alekhin, the host just happened to be a land proprietor and Ivan's story was about his brother, who all his life tried to save money to buy land and become...