When the three men go river bathing, the point-of-view changes. Up until this point, we have seen Ivanich and Bourkin as more or less an undifferentiated unit: they do have a conversation but it doesn't reveal much about them as separate individuals. In the first paragraph, they are described as sharing the same thoughts: they are both tired, the fields seem endless "to them" and they both love the beauty and grandeur of the countryside.
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When the three men go river bathing, the point-of-view changes. Up until this point, we have seen Ivanich and Bourkin as more or less an undifferentiated unit: they do have a conversation but it doesn't reveal much about them as separate individuals. In the first paragraph, they are described as sharing the same thoughts: they are both tired, the fields seem endless "to them" and they both love the beauty and grandeur of the countryside.
Once they are bathing, however, Ivanich emerges as a distinct personality. He swims and dives gleefully, swims out to the mill and talks to the peasants, floats on his back, lets the rain hit his face and calls the bathing "delicious." He is able to thoroughly enjoy engaging with his environment in a way Bourkin, and their host, Aliokhin, do not. In this scene, we see Bourkn and Aliokhin grouped together, telling Ivanich it is time to get out of the water.
This scene helps characterize Ivanich: he will tell a depressing story, but is the most alive of them (we learn that it is a long time since Aliokhin has bathed). The scene also underscores that people are isolated from one another, once you scratch below the surface: Ivanich, after all, enjoys the water alone.
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