In the story "The Death of Ivan Ilych" the main theme is Death. The reality of
             death, the denial of death and the way the characters in the story chose to deal with
             it. Ivan Ilych was a simple man who led an ordinary life, he was a member of the
             court of justice and involved in a unhappy marriage. he chose to deal with his life by
             moving around a lot in different jobs and playing card games with his friends. He
             became very ill when he first got a pain in his side from falling at an earlier day while
             hanging drapes. The doctors diagnosed him with appendix problems, but his illness
             becomes worse, He made peace with his life before he died, he asked his wife for
             forgiveness, and recognized that he had wasted his life.
             His best friend first announced that Ivan Ilych had died while reading the
             obituary to his colleagues during a break at a trial. They try to avoid thinking about his
             death by thinking of how it will affect their own lives either with a promotion or how
             they will have to trouble themselves with paying respects, and visiting his family.
             Ivan's wife talked of pensions and government grants at his funeral. She
             waited for him to die while he was laying in his death bed, but all she could care
             about was what she was going to get from his pension. Even Ivan's own daughter
             avoided thinking about her fathers death. The only character in this story that showed
             compassion towards the dying man was his sick nurse Gerasim, he was a good man
             and the only one that acknowledged his death. Everyone deals with death in their
             own way, some choose to avoid it simply by not thinking about it, and others
             acknowledge that death is something that will eventually happen to everyone.
             In the beginning of this story it was hard to stay focused because it started off
             kind of slow but once I got into it I thought it was a good story. I enjoyed reading it
             because once you get readi...