"Ivan Ilych's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible." After reading the text it seems the that Ivan's life, although it was eventful, did not stand out. He had the job, a wife education and even a family. The one thing that he seemed to lack was a connection with the people around him. When they went to his funeral, they were only concerned to what they could get out of the event. His problem seems to be connecting with people, which can be dangerous because one can not be happy without it. At the end he finally made this connection and it prepared himself, at the last minute, for death. In my opinion the ordinary that the author speaks of is not the same definition as to what we are used to. The ordinary is that he was not very outgoing, which is probably why he could not make these connections.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Ordinary outgoing
"Ivan Ilych's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible." After reading the text it seems the that Ivan's life, although it was eventful, did not stand out. He had the job, a wife education and even a family. The one thing that he seemed to lack was a connection with the people around him. When they went to his funeral, they were only concerned to what they could get out of the event. His problem seems to be connecting with people, which can be dangerous because one can not be happy without it. At the end he finally made this connection and it prepared himself, at the last minute, for death. In my opinion the ordinary that the author speaks of is not the same definition as to what we are used to. The ordinary is that he was not very outgoing, which is probably why he could not make these connections.
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That is a good observation that he really lacked the ability to connect with people on a deeper level. This led to all his other problems and living this unfulfilled life. His life is terrible because he lacks a deeper connection, but do you think that is the only reason why his life was terrible?
ReplyDeleteI challenge your assumption that one cannot be happy without human connections. There are many examples in the world of people that have been perfectly happy after years speaking very little, if at all, with other people:
ReplyDeleteLaozi
U Khandi
Yoshida Kenko
Zhang Daoling
I found these from a quick look at Wikipedia.