I Really Am a Realist, Really.

I am struggling with my identity. Half of me is a Romanticist and half of me belongs to Realism. I just love Wordworth, Keats and the rest! I just love the romantic’s poetry, but I will say, Tolstoy’s intriguing writing won my heart. I read Tolstoy’s writing and relate, and think of times in my life and in the lives of my friends. I feel like he just hits the spot on one of the hardest things to figure out—life. Tolstoy is able to discuss the real, the mundane, and the messy things in life without it seeming like a diary entry or the latest reader’s digest. He is able to get to the very substance of life that makes up each and every day of a lifetime. He ties in topics like marriage, family life, death and sorrow. These he ties in seamlessly, creating an evocative story that is somehow all cohesive.

I feel like my blog is sounding like a book review on the back cover. Sorry. Let me continue and make my point clearer.

He is able to say things that many people go through but can’t express. For example, one of my favorite excerpts shows how Ilyich was tormented by the feeling of being misunderstood. Tolstoy captured this sorrow of being misunderstood as he described the state of Ivan Ilyich, “ …and Ivan Ilyich was left all alone with the consciousness that his life was poisoned and was poisoning the lives of others, and that this poison did not weaken but penetrated more and more deeply into his being” (1441). Everyone has felt this way before or will feel this way at some point. It's terrible. Tolstoy points out that even though we all go through similar instances in life, walking through our average day, somehow we seem to run parallel to others, never taking the time to connect and give sympathy.

Finally Tolstoy brings Gerasim into the picture and brings hope and a little light to the story. Gerasim is the one who in humility takes Ilyich’s hand and walks with him through the valley of the shadow of death. Tolstoy wrote a work that both looked at reality and highlighted truly beautiful things in mankind. He showcased both the good and bad without making it seem overly gooshy or ridiculously dramatic.

I suppose I am realist also. I am won over.

P.S. I commented on Megan's Post