1) In no fewer than 150 words, write your own discussion post answering one of the following prompts:
Select several passages, paragraphs, or moments from “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” and then, using our lecture on Realism, show how these passages are good examples of Realism in the novella. Match up the criteria and common elements of Realism listed in our lecture with the scenes, paragraphs, or passages you have selected from “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.” For example, you could quote these lines “At the entrance stood a carriage and two cabs. Leaning against the wall in the hall downstairs near the cloakstand was a coffin-lid covered with cloth of gold, ornamented with gold cord and tassels, that had been polished up with metal powder” and say they are an excellent example of Realism because they feature extreme attention to detail, descriiptions of a mundane location, and descriiption that is focused on describing a here-and-now moment. Please be detailed in your explanations of how your selected quotes match the common elements of Realism. For this prompt, the quotes from the story will not be considered part of your required 150 words.
The purpose of Russian Realist texts was typically to inspire people–the goal was to show how horrible “real life” could be, and how sad human circumstances are, in order to encourage people to rise up against their harsh circumstances. Realist texts wanted to show how bad the world could be in order to provoke people into fighting to improve the world and their corrupt societies. Do you believe that “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” matches this goal? Was Tolstoy trying to call attention to a problem he saw in Russian society? Was he trying to get people to think about how they were living their lives and encouraging people to make a change for the better? If so, how do you know? Use specific evidence (such as quotes) from “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” to explain the purpose/goal of the novella and how Tolstoy might have been pushing for people to think again about their own lifestyles.
2) End your post by creating an open-ended question for your classmates to answer. An “open-ended” question is a question that cannot be answered with a basic yes/no type answer–a question that people will have to write a complete response to, an explanation or discussion-type question. This question should be about something related to this week’s reading or lecture that interested you, confused you, has left you with questions, or something you would like more information about. Place this question at the end of your post, in bold or underlined text.
