"The Death of Ivan Illyich" is a book about a man's struggle with the idea that men are not as invincible as they seem and that we all must come to terms with the one very thing that none of us can escape from, and that is death. We may think about death in secondary terms, or we may never think about death at all. Therefore, death is generally held as the fate of men as a group of beings, and it never becomes personal until one has experienced it. At the very end of one's life, one becomes melancholy and realizes many things that never before were seen or understood and it is then that they understand the real life drama of death and what their life has meant and stood for, that their work in vanity was exerted. The pain was too enormous that it overtook Ivan Illyich and beckoned him from his everyday activities. He asked him self at the end of his journey, "'What does it all mean? Why has it happened? It's inconceivable, inconceivable that life was so senseless and!
             disgusting. And if it really was so disgusting and senseless, why should I have to die, and die in agony? Something must be wrong. Perhaps I did not live as I should have,' it suddenly occurred to him. '"But how could that be when I did everything one is supposed to?'" This exactly pinpoints the meaning of the novel and this exactly is the authors purpose in writing this novel. It is to this meaning that the author contributes through diction, syntax and other forms of literary elements. Therefore, examining all elements we see a thoroughly complete and rounded out novel, illustrated and brought to life through some of the most ingeniously empowered forms of literary components.
             It would take pages and pages to discuss Leo Tolstoy's ways of achieving his purpose in his novel "The Death of Ivan Illyich", but for the sake of space and time we will only discuss one. That point o...