Tolstoy

live, and living to die is expressed throughout history in all manners of literary works. Of the endless writers whom illustrate the theme of death, four authors whom depict this leitmotif are John Keats, Rosalía de Castro, Emily Dickinson, and Leo Tolstoy. The works albeit different, transcribe the desire to accomplish their goals; to blossom, before they are faced with their mortality; to perish. This idea is both beautifully motivating to fulfill ones dreams, yet exceptionally terrifying…

fiction book by Jon Krakauer about Christopher McCandless and his journey as he discovered who he was, independently from his family. For the majority of his youth Chris idolized non-conformist authors such as Henry David Thoreau, Jack London, and Leo Tolstoy who influenced his development and beliefs. When Chris begins his solo voyage, he utilizes their thoughts to guide him, and he discovered who he was aside from those authors he learned from. The character traits that Chris showcases in his…

Many off the Doukhobors were able to come to Canada due to one of the leaders named Leo Tolstoy and his followers. In 1902, 500 more Doukhobors came to Canada with Verigin, another leader/novelist of the Doukhobors making the Doukhobors the largest single mass migration in Canada’s history. Verigin led his followers to the southern parts of…

reminded by his friends, his wife and other acquaintances that he must find a gravestone for his uncle (Tolstoy). Everyone in Sergey’s life sees his procrastination in this case to be wrong. The cook calls it sinful not to buy a headstone, and he threatens Sergey with the cultural supernatural belief by telling Sergey that Fyodor would come back and choke him if he did not find a headstone soon (Tolstoy). It is Sergey’s duty, not only as a loved one, but because he promised Fyodor his word and…

When I first started the semester, the only real exposure I had to any of the arts was the music I listened to, two art museums and Bharatanatyam, a classical dance from India. Many events and readings later, I find myself with more insight in the arts. I have much more appreciation for all of the various arts, specifically ballet, opera, and the orchestra. Prior to this semester, I always held a biased disinterest in these types of performances due to the fact that I didn 't feel the need to…

Happiness as Contemplation and Religious Faith The purpose of this paper is to present comparison about what makes life worthwhile between Contemplation and Religious Faith. Leo Tolstoy argues that faith is essential to understand life and live beyond our obscurities. Also, Tolstoy believes that there is an irrational knowledge possessed by humanity and that is, faith, which leads humans to have a meaning of life. However, Aristotle argues that Contemplation is by means the highest happiness…

Tolstoy’s story, “Master and Man,” was expertly written and I enjoyed it greatly. At first glance, the story seems bland with no true meaning but, with deeper insight and careful consideration, it has underlying meanings. To put it mildly, it’s not simply a story about a selfish man and his ‘worker’; it’s a journey not just for the characters in the story, but for readers as well. This story gives readers an accurate glance into Russian culture and way of life. Countless people have extremely…

Ivan Ilyich’s Downward Spiral into Redemption The way Ivan gains redemption in the story is through a divine process that is able to save his soul. Through this redemption he comes to the understanding that he unwisely devoted his life to a value system that is devoid of actually accepting death as a possibility. He has lived a very simple, ordinary, and terrible life because he lives exactly as the value system of propriety and decorum wanted him to live and did not really live for himself.…

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…

Leo Tolstoy said in Anna Karenina that, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Why are all happy families alike? They are alike because to be happy, people don’t need much; if they have a loving relationship, health, and passion then it’s enough to be satisfied with one’s life. On the other hand, unhappiness is a much broader concept. Varying from an emotional discomfort to a distressing loss of a loved one, from a job loss to a natural catastrophe, and…