The Death of Ivan Ilyich
In your essay, you will need to consider why and how a text from our course syllabus “speaks” to you (I will be using "The Death of Ivan Illyich")and elaborate on how it lends insight into yourself, your values, and the world you live in. This writing assignment provides you the opportunity to develop your skills as a perceptive reader and critical thinker. It also offers you the chance to explore your connection in depth to a particular piece of literature. There are several ways to approach this assignment. To give you some examples, you might think about how a text we’ve read helped you gain a greater understanding of the human condition (perhaps enlarging your empathy for the situation of others). Ex.: How did reading The Death of Ivan Ilyich influence your thinking about death and/or shape your understanding of what defines a ‘meaningful’ life? While this essay is largely interested in your personal connection with a text, you will still need to support your position with close reading and analysis. As with any analysis, this requires you to break the text down into its component parts and consider how literary elements (plot, point of view, setting, theme, etc.) contribute to the effect and significance of the story. Finally, your essay must be thesis-driven. This means you must clearly state your interpretation of the story’s theme or larger message. This statement will serve as the focus for the development of your paper. General Guidelines: Essays must be 3-5 pages, typed in a readable, size-appropriate font, and double-spaced Final drafts must be in MLA format and include a works cited page Essay must be developed with insightful, detailed, and persuasive examples Essay must sustain a well-focused, well-organized discussion and express ideas clearly and precisely Essay must demonstrate adequate facility with conventions (grammar, usage, and mechanics) of standard written English
Instructor:
Course:
Date:
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
The story of the death of Ivan Ilyich sheds light on the consequences that may arise when an individual lives a life without meaning, as well as without a real and withstanding connection of their life. The story also portrays many insights like the dreadful weak spots of the hearts of men, the elision and primacy of death and the presence of a bourgeois society among others (Tolstoy, 23). Ivan’s life clearly shows that life is what an individual may make of it and the will of making it. It is important to explain how reading this story has influenced personal thinking regarding what defines a meaningful life.
The unfolding events of the story from the beginning pose many questions concerning the character involved, Ivan whose death does not affect anyone. Being a husband and a father as well as colleague and friend to certain people and with societal class, Ivan would have been mourned at least. Instead, some of the people only pretend to care, as his friend and colleague Peter goes to Ivan’s house because he felt obligated, while Ivan’s widow, Fedorovna, "puts an unconvincing display of tears". The fact that nobody seemed to care much even when Ivan was critically ill, portrays a self-centered society that would be interested in persons as long as they did not bring any burdens to them. He had been alienated by friends and family and could only find sympathy from a Gerasim who is one of his servants, who shows him genuine compassion. The wife and children were going about in their usual activities while taking the situation lightly, pretending that the ailment will pass. This further shows that Ivan regardless his determination to succeed, might have made wrong decisions in life that caused people not to care a lot about him. For instance, the story explains about the way family relationship started to deteriorate and even after he had climbed the career ladder into a magistrate, he couldn’t care about the poor condition of family relationship. Instead of working towards bettering the family relationship, Ivan consoled escaped into a lifestyle of playing bridge with friends and work.
A personal definition of a meaningful life would be leaving at peace with others and oneself, as well as being contented at whatever level. This would be one of the greatest achievements even at the death bed, yet as Ivan reviews his life he severally understands that he had lived his life wr...