Question

Tolstoy divides people up into four groups, depending on how they react to the awareness that they are moving inevitably towards death. What do you think of his categorization? Which group might you belong to? (100 words)

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate on the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) Tolstoy basically attempts to categorise people based on their behaviour under pressure or when faced with a dilemma. For the sake of the illustration, Tolstoy assumes “death” to be the dilemma in question. He categorises people into four different groups based on how they would react to death.

The first group chooses to remain ignorant about inevitable death since there is nothing they can do to avoid it and hence they choose to be ignorant about a problem with no solution. The second would be Epicurian individuals who live life to the fullest since they will be dead soon anyway. However, these people might be immoral for ignoring the needs of the “have-nots” of society and only enjoying their own lives.

The third group is that which commits suicide with the logic that, if death is inevitable and there is no afterlife, then life itself is pointless and death is better if it is faced sooner. The fourth group is those that hold on to life despite not comprehending great questions of life’s purpose and the afterlife. These are the people who believe that there is nothing else to do other than hold on and live life and so that is what they do.

One might be able to identify with the fourth group. This is because one cannot really control life, death and all the variables that surround it. Therefore, it is best to probably just live one’s life by neither ignoring nor focusing too much on death. This is when one acknowledges that death is a part of life but, also comprehends that nothing can really be done about it and so is best to live as one should.