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Tolstoy's The Death Of Ivan Ilyich

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In Tolstoy’s novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, the main character Ivan is on his deathbed looking back at all his regrets he had over his lifetime and how he wishes he lived a fuller life. As you read, Tolstoy uses specific words and phrases to make you believe that he was living a false reality. Ivan Ilyich believed that he has lived a happy and meaningful life, prior to his illness. Ivan’s materialistic values reflects his own life and the bourgeois society that surrounded him. This elite middle-class society cares little about an individual and more about what you can get out from other people. Tolstoy depicts Ivan as a man who thrives off materialistic ideas due to the bourgeois society.
Tolstoy’s novella focuses on a very ordinary man

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