Extra Credit: f.

I feel like many of us in this world can connect to Ivan in some way or another. Even though we don’t want to follow a set of rules set by our societies, we are forced to do so without even knowing it. Instead of learning what the true meaning of life is by making his own decisions, Ivan lets the society represent what the true meaning of life is. By living his life as an aristocrat, Ivan made decisions based off of “rules” set for aristocrats. For example, he gets married because an individual in his standing should get married; he buys a house located in the city and decorates it with highbrow trappings because of his aristocratic status. Ivan is definitely “lost” because he is not making decisions for himself; he lets his set of “rules” make it for him.

All of us adapt our self to this sense of “lostness” as we are growing up in certain societies. This feeling has been with us for many generations. It has been interpreted in different ways, yet it still comes back to the same feeling. The source can alternate, for different individuals: for some it maybe caused by the lack of care and nurturing received from parents, for others like Ivan it may be caused by the amount of pressure caused by society. The sources of “lostness” go up the hierarchy; when you are down below then the source of this feeling is usually caused by the people that are close to you like family and friends, when an individual is in a higher level, then most of this “lostness” has to do more with the society.

'Maybe I did not live as I ought to have done,' it suddenly occurred to him. 'But how could that be, when I did everything properly?' he replied, and immediately dismissed from his mind this, the sole solution of all the riddles of life and death, as something quite impossible.When Ivan learns about an illness it’s like a slap on the face for him, he comes back into life. Since he knows that death is near, he looks at life from a different set of eyes. This causes him to learn what really matters in life. It doesn’t have to do with his status in society, yet what counts most like love and compassion. He doesn’t really live through this sense of “lostness” anymore; instead he lives his life by looking through the amazing aspects of life. He is not controlled by his society and doesn’t care about this fact either; he only does what he desires to do so.

I think that all of us that have experienced life in this world go through a stage where we feel lost. Whether we are rich or poor, young or old we will live through the sense of “lostness” in at least one part of our life. Even though we may not want to face this feeling, we are forced to do so. Most of this has to do with our society and how it treats its members. There are always a set of rules that are put out for all of us; it’s out decision to follow it or not to. We all want to be accepted by others to lose this feeling, but what we don’t realize is that we will have this sense of “lostness” within us no matter what we do. We may want to ignore it by filling it up with other materials, but it will still be there. It’s a permanent part of us, no matter what we do it will always be there forever.