Leo Tolstoy and James Joyce both use the aspect of light and darkness as symbols in their stories to represent the characters and their feelings. In The Death of Ivan and Ilyich, one of the symbols Tolstoy uses is the black sack. This sack was a long narrow sack that was never ending and the character in the story, Ivan, experiences going through this black sack twice. The first time he experiences going through this sack was right after he was given a medicine, opium. Ivan falls into the black sack and keeps falling but doesn’t know what is at the bottom of the sack. Falling through this sack was also painful and long. Right after he woke up, Ivan realized that he had been living his life wrongfully the whole time and everything in his life
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Ivan was a middle classed man who was just like everyone else and had believed that he had a good simple life. He had a good job, a wife and kids and enjoyed his life the way it was. He liked a lot of attention and liked being recognized. He believed that he had a very pleasant life and didn’t want anything otherwise. But Ivan had only thought that he was living a pleasant life. He had overlooked the little things. Ivan always avoided anything that would make him uncomfortable or anything that would make him feel unpleasant. After Ivan is diagnosed with his illness, his life is contradicted with the purpose of a pleasant life. “Just as my torments are getting worse and worse, so my whole life got worse and worse” (Tolstoy 105). His life becomes the complete opposite than what he had always thought it to be and Ivan realizes that everything in his life had no true meaning which is why it is ending in such a painful way. The more pain and agony he feels the worse his whole life seems to be. This what the black sack tells him and seeing the light at the end of the sack represents all the things pleasant things in life which couldn’t be a …show more content…
The young 12 year old who falls in love with his friend’s sister, who is referred to as Mangan’s sister. He experiences a happy feeling when he is around her and the way he feels when he sees her every time represents the symbol of light. The boy in this story lacks courage where he isn’t able to speak to her and express his feelings towards her. In the story, Joyce uses various settings to symbolize darkness such as the young boy hiding and using his curtains to hide away to see his friend’s sister. The boy always watches her from a distance and doesn’t approach her. One day, the young boy and Mangan’s sister have a conversation where she mentions a bazaar and after having that pleasant conversation, he decides to go to the bazaar himself to get something for her. This way, he can hint his feelings towards her. In the story, the young boy goes through some dilemma and reaches the bazaar just before it closes. He gets discouraged and ends up buying nothing for his friend’s sister and he just stands next to the bazaar as it shuts down and everything around him gets dark. The darkness in that scene represents the sadness and anger the young boy feels when he isn’t able to get anything for the girl he loves. He feels discouraged and remains to not share his feelings towards the
Ivan was a middle classed man who was just like everyone else and had believed that he had a good simple life. He had a good job, a wife and kids and enjoyed his life the way it was. He liked a lot of attention and liked being recognized. He believed that he had a very pleasant life and didn’t want anything otherwise. But Ivan had only thought that he was living a pleasant life. He had overlooked the little things. Ivan always avoided anything that would make him uncomfortable or anything that would make him feel unpleasant. After Ivan is diagnosed with his illness, his life is contradicted with the purpose of a pleasant life. “Just as my torments are getting worse and worse, so my whole life got worse and worse” (Tolstoy 105). His life becomes the complete opposite than what he had always thought it to be and Ivan realizes that everything in his life had no true meaning which is why it is ending in such a painful way. The more pain and agony he feels the worse his whole life seems to be. This what the black sack tells him and seeing the light at the end of the sack represents all the things pleasant things in life which couldn’t be a …show more content…
The young 12 year old who falls in love with his friend’s sister, who is referred to as Mangan’s sister. He experiences a happy feeling when he is around her and the way he feels when he sees her every time represents the symbol of light. The boy in this story lacks courage where he isn’t able to speak to her and express his feelings towards her. In the story, Joyce uses various settings to symbolize darkness such as the young boy hiding and using his curtains to hide away to see his friend’s sister. The boy always watches her from a distance and doesn’t approach her. One day, the young boy and Mangan’s sister have a conversation where she mentions a bazaar and after having that pleasant conversation, he decides to go to the bazaar himself to get something for her. This way, he can hint his feelings towards her. In the story, the young boy goes through some dilemma and reaches the bazaar just before it closes. He gets discouraged and ends up buying nothing for his friend’s sister and he just stands next to the bazaar as it shuts down and everything around him gets dark. The darkness in that scene represents the sadness and anger the young boy feels when he isn’t able to get anything for the girl he loves. He feels discouraged and remains to not share his feelings towards the