For extra credit please read The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy and write a 3-6 paragraph post that answers one or more of the following questions;
a. How does Ivan's quest for status, advancement, prestige, and generally the approval of others endanger his chance to live a more meaningful life?
b. Schwartz is the "cool" character in the first part of the story. Please analyze him.
c. Ivan, as almost all of us, bases his efforts in life on the map provided by his culture. The culture values "the easy, agreeable, gay and always decorous [ ...] life, approved of by society and regarded by himself as natural." What map has been provided by your family, subculture, culture? What are the main destinations and goals and plans in your life? What should the tone of your life be, according to the map you've been provided?
d. Ivan transforms in the last part. What does this process show about the worthiness of the map he was provided? Should he have lived otherwise? How?
e. Please compare The Death of Ivan Ilyich to A Christmas Carol - specifically the character of Ivan to the character of Ebenezer. If you don't want to read Dickens, you can use your knowledge from a film version. Dickens' work came out in 1843 and Tolstoy's in 1886. Tolstoy called Dickens the greatest writer of the century and had his portrait hanging on a wall, and Scrooge might have been the inspiration for Ivan Ilyich. Do the stories share the same moral? How do tone and emphasis differ in the two parallel stories?
f. Please discuss and analyze any other aspects of the book, of your choice, that relates to our sense of lostness, the source of our lostness, and our attempts to either cover up or fill that emptiness through heroic life and/or the approval of others.
Details:
The essay counts up to 10 points, same as a regular assignment, so the option to change the dividend as usual but without changing the divisor. You may choose to do two separate essays for a possible total of 20 points. Due January 1, 2010 at 9pm.
If you seek wisdom before dying, this book could be a helpful source and will also help you catch references among educated people.
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