Today’s society as a whole is preoccupied by staying up with the latest trends on social media and considers binging their way through a season of their favorite TV show as an accomplishment. An unsurprising, yet disappointingly large portion of today’s population fails to live what many would consider a “good life” (needs to be in quotes?), one that has meaning and purpose. And while few would admit they lead and unaccomplished life, with a bit of further examination it is not hard to see why so many people fall short in this department. _____ Tolstoy’s novella, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” serves as a not-so-subtle reminder of how easy it is to become caught up and preoccupied by the less important things in life and the impact this potentially
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“As a student, when he was first pursuing this dream life, he had done things which, at the time, seemed to him extremely vile and made him 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 improve one’s life through climbing the social ladder is not a new concept, Ivan did so by at first ignoring what he knew was right and wrong until the line between right and wrong blurred. Eventually, Ivan went through his life without consideration for right and wrong, the greater good, or a grasp on his own personal values. He focused and based his life, and by effect, his family’s lives off of societal expectation and possibly subconsciously, pursued this golden life through whatever means he saw fit. But adopting the values, or rather by muting his moral compass, lead to Ivan’s greatest failure and the cause of a domino effect of downfalls in his life. By …show more content…
It by nature accuses many people of living a life that by his standards, is not unfulfilling. It is important to assess how Socrates’s interpretation of a worth while life applies to today’s modern times. While we are definitely not living in Plato’s world, his values on what make a life good are still very pertinent today. According to Socrates, living a good life entails not being desire driven, reflecting and questioning all values for one’s self by coming to a conclusion about what they mean personally, and contributing to the stability of the community. These values are still highly valued in today’s culture, although they may seem to be becoming more rare. Using Socrate’s account can lead to further understanding of how one’s life should be lived through guiding our goals, choices, and
“As a student, when he was first pursuing this dream life, he had done things which, at the time, seemed to him extremely vile and made him 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 improve one’s life through climbing the social ladder is not a new concept, Ivan did so by at first ignoring what he knew was right and wrong until the line between right and wrong blurred. Eventually, Ivan went through his life without consideration for right and wrong, the greater good, or a grasp on his own personal values. He focused and based his life, and by effect, his family’s lives off of societal expectation and possibly subconsciously, pursued this golden life through whatever means he saw fit. But adopting the values, or rather by muting his moral compass, lead to Ivan’s greatest failure and the cause of a domino effect of downfalls in his life. By …show more content…
It by nature accuses many people of living a life that by his standards, is not unfulfilling. It is important to assess how Socrates’s interpretation of a worth while life applies to today’s modern times. While we are definitely not living in Plato’s world, his values on what make a life good are still very pertinent today. According to Socrates, living a good life entails not being desire driven, reflecting and questioning all values for one’s self by coming to a conclusion about what they mean personally, and contributing to the stability of the community. These values are still highly valued in today’s culture, although they may seem to be becoming more rare. Using Socrate’s account can lead to further understanding of how one’s life should be lived through guiding our goals, choices, and