Read: Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Master and Man

1. Tolstoy begins his recounting of Ivan Ilyich's personal history by stating, "The past history of Ivan Ilyich's life was simple, commonplace, and most terrible" (11). What does he mean? Do you agree?

2. How does Ivan Ilyich perceive his home in Petersburg? How does Tolstoy describe it?

3. Why does Ivan Ilyich find comfort in the company of Gerasim? What values does Gerasim represent?

4. Tolstoy describes Ivan Ilyich as "talented, likable, cheerfully sociable, but always strictly fulfilling what he felt to be his duties" (12). Why does Ivan Ilyich later wonder whether his "law-abiding, correct, and proper life" (54) might in fact be "'not done -- 'not the right thing'?" (55). What lessons should we take from that?

5. In "Master and Man," what are the differences in personality and approach to the world between Vassili and Nikita? How does wealth and social status relate to these differences?

6. Why does Vassili decide to abandon, and then save, Nikita? What lessons should we take from that?

Journal Entry #9: Can Death Teach Us How to Live? (due in class on April 20 and by email to aleshkow[at]holycross.edu).

Both of these short stories center around confronting our own mortality and the insights that imminent death might yield about how one should live. Pick one of the stories and describe the lesson that you believe Tolstoy wants us to take from the main character's death. How might confronting and accepting the inevitability of our own deaths allow us to decide how to live? If you or someone you know well has had a direct brush with death (an accident or serious illness, for example), how did that experience affect your/his/her perspective on how to live?

For more information, contact: aleshkow@holycross.edu