In all his works, Tolstoy does not lose his sense of reality and only rarely does he veer off the path of his own experience. There is simply no evidence of sentimentality or staginess in any of his works. In seeking to guide and reinforce the reader's understanding of his texts, Tolstoy also makes use of a variety of literary devices. In this case, I will mention just two of these, i.e. imagery and allusion. Through the use of imagery, Tolstoy largely succeeds in bringing his writings to life. In Anna Karenina, the author consistently attempts to associate some characters with specific colors. For instance, in regard to Countess Lydia Ivanovna, the author describes her as having "an unhealthy yellow complexion." In so doing, Tolstoy paints a vivid picture of the character in the reader's mind. In Hadji Murat, Tolstoy also makes use of olfactory and color imagery in phrases…...

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Works Cited

Bloom, Harold., ed. Leo Tolstoy. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House Publishers, 2003. Print.

Borrero, Mauricio. Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present. New York, NY: Facts on File, Inc., 2004. Print.

Leburn, Victor. Leo Tolstoy. Raleigh, N.C: Lulu, 2006. Print.

Orwin, D. Tussing. Leo Tolstoy. New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Company, 2005. Print.

Tolstoy's Advice
Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer most famous for his works of fiction such as ar and Peace, which discuss the importance of the latter and the hope for the complete eradication of the former. Among his many non-fiction writings is the book A Confession and Other Religious ritings wherein he writes about his own chronic depression and his search for a religion which could give him inner peace. Tolstoy had lived his whole life without fear of starvation and yet he realized that he was not nearly as happy as the peasants that he saw living in the village near his family home. He determined to reexamine his life and to reevaluate the things that were important. hat he was able to finally conclude was that the road to happiness had everything to do with understanding, cooperation and peace. If Leo Tolstoy were alive today and able to…...

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Works Cited:

Tolstoy, Leo. A Confession and Other Religious Writings. Digireads. 2010. Print.

Leo Tolstoy's Inclusion In The Literary Canon
In Tolstoy's prolific literary career, it appears that one central concern drove everything he did both in his life and his writing. This concern was the meaning of life. The drive behind the actions of his main characters in both ar and Peace and Anna Karenina is the search for meaning in their lives. As part of this search, Tolstoy and his characters also sought to make sense of the occurrences around them. Historically, Tolstoy writes from the perspective of a country in turmoil. His social commentary is then closely intertwined with the more general search for personal fulfillment. The result is the timeless quality of the works that are still enjoyed by a wide readership today. It is this timeless quality of his work, based upon his search for meaning in life, that most prominently begs for Tolstoy's inclusion in today's literary canon.…...

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Works Cited

Tolstoy, Leo. War and Peace. Translated by Constance Garnett. New York: The Modern Library, 1944.

Anna Karenina. Translated by Constance Garnett. New York: The World Publishing Company, 1946.

On Life and Essays on Religion. Translated by Aylmer Maude. London: Oxford University Press.

Farrell, James T. "Introduction." In Anna Karenina. Translated by Constance Garnett. New York: The World Publishing Company, 1946.

So art is not necessarily a means of throwing light upon reality, but even a means that will intentionally make things more obscure to our perceptions, so that we might understand the truth beyond the immediate reality. Truth may very well reside therefore in the confusion or the unfamiliarity of perception that modern art puts forth.
Also, it is obvious that art should be first of all free, and not submitted to rules that will constrain its form and content, and that will make it express not the truth but something that "should be." I think that the ideas about art that you express are about what good art should be like, but this is exactly what will drive us farther away from an understanding and a definition of art, because we should search for its essence in its sources and in the things that make artistic creation possible.

In postmodern…...

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Works Cited

Hofstader, Albert Philosophies of Art and Beauty, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1976

Sukla, Ananta Ch. Art and Representation: Contributions to Contemporary Aesthetics, Praeger, 2001

Tolstoy, Leo What is Art?, Indiana: The Bobbs- Merril Company, 1980

He became an ideal of the modern world equipped with his global ethical and spiritual thinking. It was a remarkable effort by him to ground righteousness in a balanced economics and broadened explanation for the assistance of suffering people. He also used literature and art as a medium for truth, for resistance to aggression, for the support of self-perfection and for progress of life, Folk literature took on a devout meaning and elevated to the universal; Tolstoy discharged complicated works. Tolstoy's examination of existence throws more light on the most important currents of notion in our Age which results in raising deeper troubles and realizes more intact territories of the mind than does any other creator. It is due to Tolstoy's fervent seeking of the existence of the spirit that the great ussian writer soars over the men of our day, and it is because his desire for devout…...

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References

1. Ernest J. Simmons, Introduction to Tolstoy's Writings (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968), 139-142.

2. Rowe, William Woodin. Leo Tolstoy. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1986.

Tolstoy described the height of rye to be "as high as a horse" to show the temptation that Pahom was facing as he heard this. The temptation is best described by Tolstoy with the words "Pahom's heart kindled with desire." Pahom just could not resist the temptation and soon went off to visit the place. When he went there he realized what he was told was true. Pahom drooling with desire disposed off his property and settled here with his family. He bought land and was doing very well. However man cannot resist devil and materialism is the nature of man. Tolstoy has expressed this well in his story. Tolstoy is a magnificent writer. He is never dull, never stupid, never tired, never pedantic, never theatrical. He is head and soulders over the others (ichard Ellmann, p.217).Tired by renting other people's land, Pahom aims to buy more land. His…...

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References

1) The Atlantic Monthly - Reading Chekhov: A Critical Journey. Volume: 289. Issue: 1. Publication Date: January 2002. Page Number: 126-31.

2) Daniel Akst - Article Title: Buyer's Remorse. Magazine Title: The Wilson Quarterly. Volume: 28. Issue: 1. Publication Date: Winter 2004. Page Number: 42+.

3) Richard Ellmann, James Joyce (New York: Oxford University Press, 1959), Page Number: 217.

4) Elizabeth Villiers Gemmette - Book Title: Law in Literature: Legal Themes in Short Stories. Publisher: Praeger Publishers. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1992.

life in prison and finally, the banker bets the lawyer that he cannot live for fifteen years in solitary confinement and if he can do so, the banker agrees to pay him two million dollars. In his self-imposed prison the lawyer reads extensively and reaches an epiphany. He writes his sentiments in a sort of suicide note; he abandoned his station just one day before he was to receive his prize. Renouncing the two million dollars was a profound statement against human greed and materialism. The lawyer writes that most earthly affairs are "worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage." Moreover, the banker had come to kill the lawyer so that he would not have to pay out his bet: illustrating the extent of his inhumane greed. Chekhov's story is consummately persuasive, encouraging readers to contemplate the deeper meaning of life and of human existence.
Both Tolstoy and Chekhov…...

Tolstoy and Chekhov
Death is the only true inevitability in a person's life. Once born, the only thing that is guaranteed is that one day that life will be extinguished. People live their whole lives with a death sentence hanging over their heads. For some people, death is terrifying and they rail against it and do whatever they can to avoid it. Others see death as a kind release, excusing them from the world of men, where they toil. Each person reacts differently to their own impending death and to the deaths of their loved ones. There is no single right or wrong way to react to someone's death or to react around someone who is in the process of dying. In both Anton Chekhov's "Rothschild's Fiddle" and Leo Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych," the authors explore the ways that a man may deal with the death of those around…...

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Works Cited:

Chekhov, Anton. "Rothschild's Fiddle." The Chorus Girls and Other Stories. 1920. Print.

Tolstoy, Leo. "The Death of Ivan Ilych." 1886. Print.

Tolstoy, Etc
Most people seek after what they do not possess and are thus enslaved by the very things they want to acquire -- Anwar El-Sadat

The Egyptian leader Anwar El-Sadat spoke in condemning terms, towards the end of his life, of the enslaving nature of every human being's impulse to better him or herself through acquisition. He did so, not as a detached observer, but after personally wrestling with one of the most formidable and intransient struggles over land that the human species has waged during modern history. In his own lifetime, before being assassinated, Sadat was able to reach some state of accord with the Israeli leader Begin at Camp David. The two leaders created an equitable arrangement about the land under dispute, but only after their people had endured many years of conflict.

However, Sadat spoke as a man leading a country that already had a certain level security in…...

Tolstoy and Shakespeare
"How Much Land Does a Man Need?"

The short story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" By Tolstoy serves to teach a lesson to the reader. It is a morality play explaining the sin of greed and how it leads to trouble. The story begins with a peasant complaining that he does not have enough land. "If I had plenty of land, I shouldn't fear the Devil himself!" (Tolstoy 140) Land is thereby equated with lack of fear. In the end, greed is what causes the peasant Pahom's death. He believes that he can outwit his neighbors and get their land at a fraction of its value. His cockiness leads him to have a heart attack at sunset and be buried in a six foot grave. "Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed" (140). The title of the story becomes ironic in light…...

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Works Cited:

Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. New Haven: Yale UP, 2006. Print.

Tolstoy, Leo. "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Short

Stories. New York: Dover, 1993. Print.

Compare Ivan Ilych with Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." Is there any similarity? What is Ivan's road?

The speaker of Frost's poem takes the road less trodden, which has made all of the difference, he says. The poet strikes out a different, less charted path in the woods, implying he is a nonconformist. In contrast, Ivan Ilych takes a conventional path, the path too often taken. Taking this trodden path makes a great deal of difference in Ilych's life, but to the detriment of his quality of life.

Compare Ivan Ilych with "The Unknown Citizen." Is there any similarity?

Auden's unknown citizen is less powerful in his society than Ivan. However, he leads a similarly drab and spiritually bankrupt existence, ruffling no feathers, working in a boring unionized job, buying all of the typical consumer goods that are supposed to give modern man 'pleasure,' and like Ivan never once questioning the values…...

The Brothers Karamazov and the Death of Ivan Ilyich Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov and Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilyich examine the role that suffering plays in the transformation of a soul for better or for worse. Being a much longer work, Dostoevsky’s novel examines suffering from a number of different perspectives, giving a number of different outcomes—each depending on the will of the individual character, the psychological situation of that character, the character’s faith, and so on. Tolstoy takes a narrower focus by looking at how the suffering of one character changes the person’s mental state—and how the suffering of his caretaker gives him a window of grace to truly transform his soul and get it ready for judgment on the other side of the grave. This paper will compare these two works and show how suffering and the transformation of a person are linked by the extent to which the individual…...

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 truth that had been revealed to him during the night. In them he saw himself -- all that for which he had lived -- and saw clearly that it was not real at all, but a terrible and huge deception which had hidden both life and death. This consciousness intensified his physical suffering tenfold. He groaned and tossed about, and pulled at his clothing which choked and stifled him. And he hated them on that account (Tolstoy, 1981)."
The above passage is a common theme to many as they pass through the acceptance of the inevitable, death.

In Hesse's work however,. The protagonist is not a boring quiet average Joe as Ivan appeared to be. In this work, Siddhartha, is a man…...

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REFERENCES

Hesse, Herman. Siddartha Mass Market Paperback: 160 pages

Publisher: Bantam Classics; Reissue edition (January 1, 1982)

Tolstoy, Leo. The Death of Ivan Llych.

Publisher: Bantam Classics; Reissue edition (March 1, 1981)

"
Ivan Ilych and Marlow share much in common in terms of their dutiful service to an external bureaucracy, feeling stymied by that bureaucracy, and desiring deeper more meaningful spiritual experiences. At the same time, though, Ilych remains far more traditional than Marlow, whose open-mindedness earns him Kurtz's trust. Ilych is open-minded in terms of his willingness to see through superficiality and social facades, but he rarely sees beyond the mundane until the illness sets in. In fact, Ilych remains completely caught up in the rat race that defines ussian government work to the extent that promotions and salary raises make him "completely happy." Marlow, on the other hand, stares death in the face each day. He also encounters the faces of African people who shock him out of his mundane existence: "I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an…...

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References

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Retrieved May 14, 2008 at http://historyofideas.org/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=ConDark.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1

Tolstoy, Leo. The Death of Ivan Ilych. Retrieved May 14, 2008 at http://www.geocities.com/short_stories_page/tolstoydeath.html

Gulliver's Travels," "Tartuffe," "Madame Bovary," "The Death of Ivan Ilyich," & "Things Fall Apart"
The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and compare how the theme(s) of "Things Fall Apart" by Achebe relate to the theme and/or storylines of "Gulliver's Travels," by Swift, "Tartuffe," by Moliere, "Madame Bovary," by Flaubert, and "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Tolstoy. All these authors use their works to "expose and alter the fundamental moral codes that determine political systems and social mores" (Levine 136).

POLITICAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIAL MORES

Things Fall Apart," by Chinua Achebe is a novel about an African family named Okonkwo, who try to fit in to the white man's society. However, their own society was balanced, happy, and complete, and they did not really need to fit in with the white man. hen they did, it ultimately destroyed their society, and way of life.

Gulliver's Travels," by Jonathan Swift, carries…...

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Works Cited

Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary: Life in a Country Town. Trans. Gerard Hopkins. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Grossman, Debra. "SparkNotes on Gulliver's Travels." SparksNotes.com. 2002.  http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gulliver 

Levine, Alan. "Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart as a Case Study in Nietzsche's Transvaluation of Values." Perspectives on Political Science 28.3 (1999): 136-141.

Moliere, Jean Baptiste Poquelin. "Tartuffe." Project Gutenberg. 2002.  http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=2027

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