Question

What does Tolstoy have to say about the attractions of materialism in The Death of Ivan Ilyich?

Answer 1

Tolsoy explained in his novel by clearly saying matrialism is root cause of many problems in life. In this novel Ivan Ilyich is a person who try to attract people with his wealth he try to buy things in order to attract others towards him even though he is a middle class men. He is more concerned whether others will accept him in their social group and things , so he tries his best to do it so to avoid being rejected and isolated by them. He enjoyed his social life by spending time it materalistic things to get approved by others which also made him a point of attraction to others. Before he faces his death he could understand that his enjoyment was only around materialistic things rather than with real things as family, children etc., This shows that people become clind in front of materialistic things and they were not able to understand reality.