Ivan Ilych’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible” (799). Writes Leo Tolstoy in “The death of Ivan Ilych,” with this statement, he captures the effect of how money power and the pursuit of happiness take on a much different meaning when one is forced to take account of their life and the choices that they have made. Ivan did all that was expected of him as far as education, career and family life, yet he could never fill the void in his life that he yearns for as
end before our eyes, we start to think that we missed the boat. We all have an unrealistic idea of a perfect life, but there is no such thing. We can of course work to live a fulfilled and happy life. Modest Mouse’s “Missed the Boat”, Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and Edvard Munch’s The Scream are all works that symbolize what it is to live an unfulfilling life, and they are meant to make us think of our own lives so we dont find ourselves screaming when our time comes. When our time comes
In the movie Clueless, there are two near death experiences the two best friends Tai and Cher experience. After Cher leaves a party, she gets abandoned in an unsafe parking lot across town from her house, and she is held at gunpoint by a desperate man who took advantage of a helpless and wealthy looking young woman. Luckily, Cher is not harmed, and he only takes her money and phone. However, this leads her to realize who she trusts most in her life, namely her former step-brother Josh. This then
The Death of Gregor Samsa and Ivan Ilyich’s Metamorphosis Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis are two late 19th and early 20th century novels that encapsulate Western Literature. In Tolstoy there was an unmistakable bias toward literature with a social purpose, stimulated by the awakening forces of nationalism, liberalism, and humanism. In Kafka there was a deep questioning of all philosophical and/or religious solutions in a period where there was an increasing