Ivan Ilyich Quotes

Tolstoy uses Ivan Ilyich to show varying degrees of Isolation. In the world today, there are many reasons why people isolate themselves from situations.

In chapter three, the character, Ivan starts to become isolated. "Ivan Ilych felt himself abandoned by everyone, and that they regarded his position with a salary of 3,500 rubles as quite normal and even fortunate. He alone knew that with the consciousness of the injustices done him, with his wife's incessant nagging, and with the debts he had contracted by living beyond his means, his position was far from normal." (823) At this point, Ivan is beginning to isolate himself. Ivan does not have anyone to help him with his insufficient salary. Not even his own father will help him. He feels as if, nothing is going his way, then he

Everything in the streets seemed depressing. The cabmen, the houses, the passers-by, and the shops, were dismal. His ache, this dull gnawing ache that never ceased for a moment, seemed to have acquired a new and more serious significance from the doctor's dubious remarks. Ivan Ilych now watched it with a new and oppressive feeling." (829) Ivan is feeling depressed. He is beginning to lean towards a dark and gloomy mood. Feeling sad about the changes in him and the world around him, Ivan begins to see himself as the oddball in the normal world. Therefore, this bring Ivan to an isolating mood. Racism can be in comparison with becoming isolated. In the world today, there are people that get the same feeling as Ivan Ilyich. They do not want to feel as the "weird" or "odd" one in a so called "normal" world. People of different race and ethnicity usually feel like this because of culture and skin color. An African going to all white school, that practice racism; will feel like an oddball. This will cause isolation for the student. Racism make people of any color that