Assignment: Discussion Assignment

Respond to the discussion question. Your answers should address the following:

Answer all parts of the question thoroughly and accurately in at least two fully developed paragraphs for each topic.

Provide detailed evidence in the form of quotations from the text. Follow APA guidelines for citing and referencing the text.

Demonstrate a clear understanding of the time period, topic, or genre that is this week's focus.

Use this APA Citation Helper for properly citing resources.

Review and comment on at least two, preferably more, of your peers' answers. Ensure your responses are substantive. That is, provide a significant level of detail in your responses and show active engagement through referencing the readings; drawing on your own experiences; giving your opinions; respectfully disagreeing, where appropriate; and asking questions that are designed to generate further discussion of the material and its implications outside the realm of the assigned question.

Use the Respond link to post responses and materials that pertain to this assignment. Use the Respond link beneath any existing postings to respond to them.

Discussion Question

Society and Its Discontents

Through the character of Ivan Ilyich, Tolstoy offers a critique of affluent Russian society in the nineteenth century. Tolstoy describes Ivan's life as the "most simple and most ordinary and therefore the most terrible." What makes Ivan's life terrible? What aspects of his contemporary society is Tolstoy trying to critique? You might also consider how the servant Gerasim is presented as an alternative approach to life.