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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page essay that discusses and analyzes the nature of the salvation that marks the death of Ivan Ilych in Tolstoy's famous narrative. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: KL9_khivansal.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
(Carter, 2003, p. 162). As this suggests, Tolstoys story recounts what is like for Ivan to endure the illness that plagues him and to know that he will soon die.
Ivan is a self-centered member of the Russian middle class who always focused on propriety and what was expected of him, focusing always on what actions would most benefit his
career. However, in the last moments of his life, he finds salvation, which derives from the fact that he considers the needs of someone other than himself. Tolstoy opens
the narrative with a description of how the announcement of Ivans death affected his colleagues. While Tolstoy stipulates that they all liked him, their first thoughts are of how Ivans
death would bring about "changes and promotions" that would affect them (Tolstoy). This self-centeredness is a quality that Tolstoy also relates to Ivan, as he establishes Ivans character by describing
his lifestyle, showing that he lived quite selfishly, only thinking of his own needs and prioritizing his own desires. Additionally, Tolstoy shows that
Ivan allowed the dictates of society to govern his own values and attitudes. For example, he marries, not because he is in love, but because it is expected and part
of the regimen of behavior that is required to obtain and maintain a position on the upper rungs of the social ladder. Ivan does not begin to question his orientation
towards life until he is suffering and faced with death. He contemplates his life, considering his most pleasant and happy memories and realizes that the majority of these were
in his early childhood and "the child who had experienced that happiness existed no longer, it was like a reminiscence of somebody else" (Tolstoy).
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