Leo Tolstoy

Peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society. According to dictionary.com, nonviolent resistance is the “refusal to obey a law considered unjust” (dictionary.com). Throughout history, this type of resistance has been used in a positive manner to help maintain a free society. Ranging from walking for salt to taking bus seats, these protests resulted in positive changes for the many and proved to those still facing oppression that violence is never the answer. Mohandas Gandhi is…

family. But as Ivan becomes sicker, he is unable to leave this room, the room where he relieved the injury that caused his poor health, and he becomes a part of the decor. Ivan measures his life in material wealth, so it only makes sense that the way Tolstoy illustrates Ivan’s true pain is through connecting it to this room and the material objects inside, objects Ivan hand picked to represent him well to society. Creating a list of all the things Ivan put in the room, then continuing it to…

In The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Ivan could be considered as one who takes things for granted especially life. Ivan is known for his working and quest to get higher on the social hierarchy because that is the most important thing to Ivan. He was caught in being the best, that he forgot how to live life respectively. Ivan also went into marriage with his wife without truly loving her. Therefore at the end of the day Ivan realizes that he had spent his entire life doing everything wrong and because…

"My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of realizing Him," said Mahatma Gandhi, one of the greatest revolutionary leaders in history. Though some people, like Malcolm X, during the Civil Rights movement did not agree with non-violence, non-violence is always the smartest and safest way of protesting. This is what Robert Kennedy wanted to teach the people with his speech on the day Martin Luther King Jr. died: that violence does not lead…

How do you feel about disrespect to elderly? Well, it happens all the time. In “The Old Grandfather And His Little Grandson,” by Leo Tolstoy, a grandfather is mistreated by his own son and daughter-in-law. In “The Wise Old Woman,” by Yoshiko Uchida, many elderly are sent away at the age of seventy one. In these two stories a young lord and two parents come to a realization in life. The parents in the “Old Grandfather And The Little Grandson” do not let the grandfather eat at the table because he…

THE POWER OF PATIENCE The strongest of all the warriors are these two- time and patience: Leo Tolstoy Understanding patience: Patience is the most under-utilized as well as the most misunderstood concept for an average human being but the combined power of patience, hard work plus smart work is nothing short of a miracle. For the vast majority of people, say 80% of the entire human population, when they think or hear about patience, they believe that its about waiting i.e. you keep waiting till…

As mentioned earlier Dr King believed that non-violence and civil disobedience are the only ways to fight for freedom. During my research on Dr. Martin Luther King and his attributes towards non-violence, I found his book “Stride toward freedom”. In this book Dr. King outlined his way of nonviolence. He tells the story of the Montgomery movement and his own personal journey, and then offers six basis points for nonviolence. Dr. King lived and taught these essential ingredients of active…

feel disgusted with himself; but later, seeing that people of high standing had no qualms about doing these things, he was not quite able to consider them good but managed to dismiss them and not feel the least perturbed when he recalled them.” (Tolstoy p. 44) Even though at one point Ivan’s conscious was trying to guide him in the morally correct direction, he allowed his desire to live what he felt others considered a good life to corrupt and overtake his personal values. The aspiration to…

It is campaign time, and Enrique Perez, the new candidate started his campaign promising thousands of jobs, no more hunger and quality education for every single child, teenager and adult in Mexico. The more people he got, the more promises he did, he said that he will repair most of the roads, he said that he is going to build strong bonds with other countries to promote the country, he said so many things that he seems omnipotent compared with the other candidates. The time flew and he became…

Non-violence is a powerful ideology and approach for social change that refutes the use of physical violence. But why choose non-violence over violence? The usage of nonviolence involves peaceful active behavior within the midst of conflict. At its core, nonviolence embodies respect, and even love, for one’s opponents. The practice acknowledges and utilizes the importance of dialogue without the utilization of physical threat or coercion in negotiating and problem solving. Also histories records…