Reading Notes Week 11 Part A

Reading Notes 

Week 11

Part A

• In the introduction to writer Leo Tolstoy the text uses many adjectives to describe him like a womanizer and aristocrat which means he was a gentle person to the highest rank and had his way with women. 
• Also he was a vegetarian which made me think even being born in 1828 and passing away in 1910 it is surprising people born in that time period had the idea of no indulging in meat.
• It was very ironic that he was famous for his knowledge on the topic of marriage but struggled in his own marriage. 
• Leo was known for his reflection on how to live the best way on this world and how you should handle the temptations of guilt, pleasure, war, money, and sex. 
• He wrote once "Blame me and not the  path I tread" making me think intensely on the lessons given in the bible of how God can judged us as humans but he choses not to blame the past things you have done to stumble in your walk of life. 
• With the examples of great novels like "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" Leo was able to convey to readers many stories of humanistic pursuits , military fights, and love and marriage. 
• The story that the text focuses on is "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" which is a story of an ordinary middle class man who recently finds out that he will die soon. And this direction the story is going in is automatically interesting because Leo I know was born in a time where they wrote a lot of stories of self reflection and this is exactly what  the character in the story struggles with after finding out this disturbing fact. 
• It is interesting when the story begins on page 740 the author jumps straight into the story although I feel it would have been even more helpful to give background on who Ivan is and how did he die. 
• Reading this text leaves me with questions but I can say this is a very detailed story so in continuing to read you understand further where the author is going.