Page 73 - DENG104_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_I

Elective English–I

Notes 5.6 Keywords

Feud : A bitter, often prolonged quarrel or state of enmity, especially such
a state of hostilities between two families or clans.

Reconcile : Restore friendly relations between, cause to coexist in harmony;
make or show to be compatible.
Flogging : Beat (someone) with a whip or stick to punish or torture them

Scuttled : Run hurriedly or furtively with short quick steps.

5.7 Review Questions

1. What made Ivan pity Gabriel as he sat down in his house thinking?
2. What in the old man’s opinion had made Ivan unable to see things right?
3. What did the old man ask Ivan to do without delay?

4. Was Ivan better off or worse off after the quarrel began? Why?
5. Pick one or more topic areas of interest from Tolstoy’s Confession and write an essay
expounding his views and your perceptions of them.

6. By 1889, (Tolstoy dies in 1910) the sixty-one year old Tolstoy had come to believe that
he had accomplished nothing in life. He poses the question “What will come of what I
do today and tomorrow? What will come of my entire life?” (Confession, p. 34). How
does Tolstoy answer his own question? How do you relate to his answer?
7. One of the fascinating characteristics we find in Confession is Tolstoy’s criticism of his
own class and acceptance of the peasant class and everything it stands for. Discuss what
the author is saying.
8. From the stories listed in question #6, choose one or more items that are mirrored in
Confession and discuss what Tolstoy means by making a similar statement in a short
work and in the larger, philosophical one.

Answers: Self Assessment

1. (c) 2. (b) 3. (c) 4. (a)

5.8 Further Readings

Books The Life of Tolstoy: Later years by Aylmer Maude, Dodd, Mead and Company,
1911 at Google Books
Why We Fail as Christians by Robert Hunter, The Macmillan Company, 1919 at
Wikiquotes
Why we fail as Christians by Robert Hunter, The Macmillan Company, 1919 at
Google Books

Online links www.w3.org/WAI/eval/considerations.html

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