Tolstoy

Both Tolstoy and Plato address their fascination with death on their writings. In The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Tolstoy sees death as an inevitable horror. It seems incredible to Tolstoy, “that all men had been condemned to suffer this awful horror” (Tolstoy, 2004, p. 76). Tolstoy fears he cannot avoid death and will die. Whereas Plato sees death as a moral fact in Socrates’ dialogues. Plato’s view of death relates to dying instead of breaking the laws and living in dishonor. Tolstoy questions…

Thoreau, however is not so optimistic. He believes that what ever happens in Atlanta does not affect other people or in that matter another city that has nothing to do with it. He also believes that one person's vote or participation can make a difference. Thoreau holds that majority and nothing can change that. Both men were put in jail for very different reasons. Thoreau was thrown in jail for crime that he believed was unjust. He didn't pay his poll tax. No matter how…

When a government overwhelms its people, it is a citizen’s responsibility to be conscience of corruption and refusing unjust laws. In the articles “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau and “Letters from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr., a person must acknowledge if a poor government has created unfair laws and call their people to take a stand against it. King tries to define what a just law is and has a similar position with Thoreau. He believed that America was being unfair for…

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was imprisoned for marching through the streets of Birmingham, Alabama. In response, eight clergymen published a letter in the Post-Herald criticizing his presence and his strategies by naming him an extremist. From the cell where he was imprisoned, he responded by writing what has come to be known as “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. In this letter, Martin Luther King Jr. uses many rhetorical strategies to retaliate against the claims the clergymen make, and prove…

Zorz Sari’s novel Κόκκινη κλωστή δεμένη is once again an exception. As it was mentioned in the previous chapter, this largely autobiographical novel was published in 1974 three years after the publication of the also autobiographical novel Όταν ο Ήλιος…. In these novels Sari reflects on her personal experience from the period of the Occupation, while her trilogy on History is completed with the novel Οι νικητές (The winners) set in the period of the Dekemvriana and published in 1983. Most of…

Women have always struggled to break through an invisible glass ceiling that separates them from their goals. Women are kept from attaining higher positions in business, they are kept from studying math and science, and are deterred from playing certain sports. However, once upon a time women were kept from being themselves. Many women were discouraged from trying to learn at all, instead kept in the confines of the home. Virginia Woolf’s “What if Shakespeare Had Had a Sister?” brings to light…

Have you ever been in a toxic environment? I’m not talking about the nuclear toxic either, but rather the one where you’re forced to be around people that are no good for you. Tobias Wolff, author of This Boy’s Life, was stuck in one as a young boy. His mother was known to pick out bad boyfriends and settled with one named Dwight, who is probably the worst one mentioned. He seems to have a strange aura around him and it shows through the way he treats Tobias. There are many more people in this…

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…

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…