Analysis Of Tolstoy's My Confession

Genocides test their victims not only physically, but also mentally and spiritually. This was observed during the Holocaust, where the “lucky” survivors at the concentration camps had to come to terms between their reality and their idea of faith. Author and survivor, Elie Wiesel, shows this in his memoir Night. Throughout the memoir, Wiesel shows that during these times of trouble, faith in humanity was more insidious than the faith in God. Even though times of great prosperity, or of great ruin, turn men to faith as a cure-all, events such as the Holocaust spiritually exhausted their victims into a state of losing faith.

Throughout the novel of The Death of Ivan Ilych, Tolstoy conveys his thematic focus through his unique use of diction. Tolstoy examines several factors that have altered Ivan Ilych’s lifestyle. The only way to enhance our understanding of these factors is to observe how Tolstoy portrays Ivan’s evolving comprehension of what death means to him. Evidently, such portrayal can be thoroughly observed and understood by carefully analyzing Tolstoy’s use of diction. Furthermore, there are several themes that Tolstoy focuses on primarily, which are often associated with the depiction of the human existence as a conflict between different sides of the spectrum and Ivan’s tendency to alienate himself from the world.

As this book ends, it questions about if there is life worth living. Mankind today has destroyed the idea of truth their ancestors had created. Without this truth, it becomes harder for people to experience what people went through to find meaning. For example, Dr. King’s legacy would not have influence people today if he had no purpose. His legacy cause today’s people to look at racism as a scar against all races.

Faith is a relative concept to many people. Whether they see it as simply an action to participate in or a way of life, it dictates what they do. Through various literary devices, Meditation 17 by John Donne, How I Found Religion at a Baseball Game by Robert Fink, and An American Childhood by Annie Dillard all effect the reader and makes them think deeply about what the author is saying while utilizing various methods to do so. One similar aspect of the three essays is the author’s idea and opinion of God. Their views of God and their faith may have been different, but the main idea and concept of God remains the same.

He states that God is not dead, due to the belief in him many individuals have, but he is an accident. This work is appropriate to use in this essay because it shows that people see a purpose in everything, even when it is not there. This work also quotes Karl Marx which he states that “humans have adopted religion as an opiate, to sooth the pain of existence” (196). Jong, Jonathan. "

Fyodor’s middle child, Ivan, on the other hand, is very conflicted. Not having a good relationship with his father, led him to really doubt mankind. Unlike Alyosha, Ivan was not that invested in others. Ivan believes that people like to depend on the idea of right and wrong because they think that it somehow defines their afterlife. Contrary to those beliefs, Ivan thinks that people can do whatever they want to without regarding any morals.

Sansom writes, “He faces his mortality and realizes the failure of constructing a life on preferences and abstract relationships” (421). Shallow relationships and a focus on outward appearance lead to a neglect of Ivan’s actual purpose. In this time of Ivan grappling with death, Tolstoy proposes the idea that before we die “the choice is not how to act in ways so that we can control our death and question the meaning of life, but whether there is a reality to which we can find real value as individuals that is not nullified by the existential syllogism” (Sansom 424). The control that he sought as a way to defend himself against chaos does not lead him to peace; instead, it disappoints him and helps move Ivan to a place of deeper understanding. At the very end during an interaction with his son, Ivan finally “empties himself of meaningless false images of human purpose, [and] he then sees how to respond honestly with integrity to his destiny” (Sansom 427).

(The date is October 31st, 2020, Halloween night. A rather strange and mysterious night, with a luminance full moon above. Adults, teenagers, and children roam the city of La Crosse is gathering all the candy they can, when the lights start to flicker and the winds starts to swirl. Everyone turns to their phone to see what the matter is, but no technology is working. When all at once the lights go out and a bolt of lightning strikes the Hoeschler clock tower.

Have you ever wondered why life was created and what your purpose is? Well, you probably have, you just don’t remember it. We ask ourselves a variety of questions every day. It might be a simple or hard question you are facing throughout the day, but the answer is the main thing you need to remember. The meaning of life is more than just a simple question like the others we ask ourselves.

Living one’s life for the benefit of others is where true happiness is achieved. Like much of Tolstoy’s work following Three Deaths in 1859, the passage from life into death is critical to the plot of “Master and Man.” Vasili becomes the savior of the man he had simply been using. There is a religious symbolism to the character’s actions, although it might not necessarily be a singular connection. Christian imagery is possible, as is Buddhist imagery, with the line, “Nikita’s alive, which means I’m alive, too.”

Individuality In Chekhov’s “The Bet” What was the most lost on a wager? Money, time, or a favorite item? Anton Chekhov wrote a story about a bet and the what was gained or lost from it. Chekhov was a Russian writer and doctor and lived from 1860 - 1904.

What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment” (Frankl, p. 108). The meaning of life, when used as a general term, has a broad definition because of its ever-changing nature. However, the true definition of the meaning of life is supposed to be established on an individual basis. It’s the events going on in your personal life at that moment in time that defines what meaning is. “To put the question in general terms would be comparable to the question posed to a chess champion: ‘Tell me, Master, what is the best move in the world?’”

Scanning through his past several years, he returns to his mother’s death and analyzes her choice to seek a lover at the end of her life. While before he thought it was strange and even somewhat aggravating, he realizes now, being so close to death, that people will enter a desperate search for meaning when their time left is fleeting. But at the same time, he reasons potentially as a coping mechanism, there is no difference whether he dies by execution later that day or in 40 years because he will be dying all the same. Together, these two realizations, though somewhat contradictory, create his bridge to Existentialism. By establishing these two points, he can allow himself to, “open up to the gentle indifference of the world - finding it so much like himself”(122), and apply whatever meaning he wants to life in order to make it as rich and enjoyable as desired, rather than drifting along as a pitiful being waiting for some greater power to guide him along.

I believe people over think this question too much, I mean I get it, the question itself is vague and arises other questions. Even the word "meaning ", makes you think. But if we mean "the purpose of life. Then to me it 's not complex at all.