Comparing Mitch Alboms Tuesdays with Morrie and Leo Tolstoys The Deat

Love and Death in Mitch Alboms Tuesdays with Morrie and Leo Tolstoys The Death of Ivan IlychOne tommyrot is distinctively American in its optimism and characteristic of the 1990s in its t one and only(a) the some another(prenominal)wise shows the unmistakable dispo patternion of nineteenth century Russia. The more recent halt follows the actual life of a sociology professor at Brandeis University while the other explores a product of Leo Tolstoys imagination. Tuesdays with Morrie and The Death of Ivan Ilych portray two characters who sit on opposite ends of the literary spectrum but who share the dark bond of terminal illness and advance knowledge of their deaths. One views the knowledge as a blessing and as an opportunity to make his final good-byes, the other writhes in pain and begs for an end to his vicious sentence of suffering. In the organization of identical fates these two men show stark contrasts, all for the simple-minded reason that moreover one of them found a w ay to love. though illness stripped both Morrie Schwartz and Ivan Ilych of their hope for survival, their dissimilar lifestyles led all(prenominal) to a much different end. Morrie found himself in an overflow of clemency while surrounded by family, friends and colleagues. Ivan, on the other hand, found only the obligatory company of his wife and the painful awareness that no one really cared. Both characters ended their lives the way they lived them, as Ivan acknowledges In them he saw himself (Ivn, 149). While Morrie poured himself into every moment of life and every kindred he pursued, Ivan skirted the dangers of emotion to live easily, pleasantly, and decorously (Ivn, 115). In the spirit of much(prenominal) an opposition, the two stories become somewhat like responses to each other. Morrie Schwatrz, proclaimed... ... such books? whole things considered, the answer is a confident Yes. No law of literary coincidence mandates that the works in question hold the same level o f profound repute. These two stories focus on death, the great equalizer, one of the most howling(a) facts of human existence and one that we will all someday face. though the paths vary, both characters meet the same epiphany in the end. Morrie savors most of his life with an accord of the secret while Ivan receives it only hours before dying. What really matters, however, is that they both draw it. Works CitedAlbom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie An Old Man, a Young Man, and Lifes great Lesson. New York Doubleday, 1997.Tolstoy, Leo. The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories. Afterword by David Magarshack. Trans. J. D. Duff and Aylmer Maude. New York NAL/Signet Classic, 1990.