This reading has a very strong meaning to it. I thought that it was very wrong for the mother to beat up her daughter, and the young boy beat up his dog, but the one important character, Ivan, made me think twice. He seemed like he is so old, since he have been through a lot, and knows the past history. He taught the reader many things, and wanted to point out many things about philosophy and life. First, he explained how when people are hurt, they will also hurt others too. For example, he explained how the young boy abused his dog, but he also announced to the reader that his father was so mad at him for doing that, so he killed his own son with the dogs, in front of the mother’s eyes. Also, Ivan explained to Alyosha this one very important
Alexie draws in the reader by first telling a short story about her father back in the 1970’s. Alexie then goes on in briefly telling the reader what prison was like for their father. Eventually moving on to how the father met the mother and the relationship they father and mother had. This is an interesting take on the way a child views their father and mother and how the father has craved freedom. The fluidity of this short piece is excellent, it is not choppy and it gives just enough detail without dragging the story out. It also helps that this piece is an easy read. One of the things that I enjoyed from the piece was the comparison to how Indians would live compared to different races mentioned in the piece. I though it gave the Victor the narrator some personality. Victor also does a lovely job on creating the images of what his parents and their relationship, as well as his love for his father. The analogy of Jimi Hendrix and freedom for the freedom was easy to pick up on, especially for when the father had bought himself a motorcycle and found the freedom he craved (something Jimi Hendrix heavily
It is not until Ivan falls ill and is close to death, does he realize he lived “a most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible life”, meaning that he wasted his life by living by propriety; it is also through Ivan’s sickness and suffering that he’s able to find redemption as well as the true meaning of life.
Toward the beginning of book, Artie touches base at his father, Vladek’s home keeping in mind that his goal is to record his dad’s Holocaust recollections for a book he is writing. Artie’s mother died from suicide and as Artie was going through with her funeral. Artie and Vladek enter a dark and depressing phase, Artie lets his feelings out by drawing it out and making a comic. As the reader, it shows how effortlessly it is to find out about the amount Arties endured amid this time of his life. In a way it speaks to his parents hardships during the holocaust as his dad had explained to him through the book. It discovered a lot of opinions and how painful to his father as he reads it, and Mala purposely keeping this comic.
This essay was meant to show you that there are certain things that are in stories that you may need to think twice about.These things might help you understand the story better, or maybe even determine what could happen next in the story. All in all, this essay was to bring up some ideas that you may not have caught while reading these stories, and hopefully even helped you understand some things that just didn’t make sense before, make sense
Art’s choice to include a 2-page prologue before the beginning of the book proper helps to very clearly illustrate the relationship that Art and Vladek have had up until the beginning of the book. Art is abandoned by his friends, and his father attempts to comfort him, however this appears to Art, and therefore the reader, as more of a comparison between Vladek’s experiences during the holocaust and Art’s childhood suffering, especially with the mention of “no food for a week”, which Art has utilised to create a sense of emotional distance, of an incompatibility between the two.
Ivan believes that children are innocent and therefore they should not suffer aggression and torture from adults. When aggression, maltreatment, and torture are done to children, there is where Ivan might ask himself questions like, where is God?, why doesn’t he interfer? Ivan said that he wants to be present the day that Jesus come back to earth to judge dead and alive because he is curios and therefore, he would like to know what are all the sacrifice of humans for. Ivan believes that Jesus makes justice but, he can not simply understand why God doesn’t have mercy of defenseless children who are unreasonable torture.
Again, Tolstoy portrays pain as something that can be all-consuming. For much of the text, Ivan is obsessed with his pain and suffering, from when it begins as a nagging pain in his side until he ruminates on it day and night while on his death bed. Tolstoy flips the script a little, however, because another key facet of this depiction of pain is that it’s seen as something of a teacher. Through the pain and suffering that Ivan feels from confronting his own mortality and impending death, he learns about himself, what a good life really means, existential issues about the afterlife, and other related topics. He has epiphanies throughout the book, with the most memorable and poignant one, for me, coming when he considers if he lived a good life on page 213 in my book.
Although Art can’t feel exactly the same guilt his father felt, Art still feels guilt for not having suffered as his parents did. Art never had to live through what his parents did; therefore he does not know what the Holocuast was like. Sitting at his desk, Art proclaims “At least fifteen foreign editions are coming out. I’ve gotten 4 serious offers to turn my book into a T.V. special or movie. In May 1968 my mother killed herself. (She left no note)” (5, p 41). The disjointed nature of Art’s statement portrays his guilt in the sense that no matter what he accomplishes, his life will be insignificant in comparison to his parents’. Because he cannot accept that he will never experience what his parents have, Art has difficulty ever feeling accomplished and instead just feels more guilt. Both Vladek and Art struggle to let go of their pasts as they both find themselves consumed with what has happened rather than what is yet to come.
In The Death of Ivan Ilych Leo Tolstoy conveys the psychological importance of the last, pivotal scene through the use of diction, symbolism, irony. As Ivan Ilych suffers through his last moments on earth, Tolstoy narrates this man's struggle to evolve and to ultimately realize his life was not perfect. Using symbols Tolstoy creates a vivid image pertaining to a topic few people can even start to comprehend- the reexamination of one's life while on the brink of death. In using symbols and irony Tolstoy vividly conveys the manner in which Ilych views death as darkness unto his last moments of life when he finally admits imperfection.
Labov's second element, the orientation element, is present in both the speakers' stories but is used slightly differently by each. The first man talks about his dog and its skills before continuing to explain the specific event the story is about, providing descriptions of the setting before moving onto what actually happened in said setting. His way of telling the story reveals that he may be very detail oriented and attentive, much as a hunter should be, and puts an emphasis on what's going on around him or on the setting of the story. The way he vehemently explains his faith in his dogs skills, in addition to the intro where he talks about never hitting a child or dog, indicate that he is someone that stands very strongly by their beliefs.
The seen environment present when reading The Death of Ivan Ilych story is the way Ivan’s family lived and the way Ivan treated everyone with coldness. The unseen was depicted by the atmosphere present in Ivan’s’ room, making friends and family members uncomfortable to be there. The storied environment is when Ivan realizes that his life has been a mistake and he converts religiously, he finds God and Ivan repents from all his sins, it is not until then that he found peace in his mind.
“Here the devil is struggling with God, and the battlefield is the human heart,” says Dostoevsky through Dmitri. In the book, The Brothers Karamazov, written by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ivan and Alyosha seem to represent the Karamazov Heart, as they argue upon God’s theodicy. Ivan announces to Alyosha that he wishes to recite a poem that he memorized called, The Grand Inquisitor, in order to justify his rebellion towards God. Here, I will give a general summary and analysis of the text, and finally, critique Ivan’s philosophical ideas.
When shopping for a dog to keep the house safe, a family picks the dog prophesized to be “feared and respected” (97). Based off his menacing appearance, the family names the dog Attila, after the vicious ruler of the Mongols. Within the first month, however, Attila’s true peaceable nature comes to light, as he acts apologetic “for even giving an impression of violence” (98). The distinction between Attila’s perception and his actual nature creates a strong comedic effect. In a grand demarcation of his appearance, when Ranga pillages the family’s house, Attila not only welcomes him, but actually gifts himself to the thief by following him onto the streets (99-100). The loss of the jewelry, along with the loss of the family pet saddens the boy, yet his mother jokes she “should after all thank the thief for taking away that dog” (101). In an ironic debacle, Attila apprehends the thief by accidentally tripping him during a chase, yet Attila has not the faintest desire of stopping the thief. The family brings Attila home, where people hail him as a hero. Most surprisingly, even the mother declares Attila “too deep for words” (101). Despite the constant praise he receives, only thoughts of deep sadness breach Attila’s mind. “Attila’s greatest ambition in life [i]s to wander in the streets freely” (100), therefore, by unintentionally stopping the thief, Attila prevents his
The characters of the novel are fit to the theme of man’s intuitive evilness, as the boys are under the age of 14. When they continue to enjoy torturing others, they reveal their enjoyment of being savages. They do not desire any order or law of directing force in their state of savagery.
The life Ivan lived is a deception that hides life's true meaning and leaves one terrified. Ivan has finally seen the truth for himself that he was blind from. For example, after taking a quick look at everyone, listening to every word, and seeing their movement Ivan could confirm the truth. “In the morning when he saw first his footman, then his wife, then his daughter, and then the doctor, their every word and movement confirmed to him the awful