After Reading ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich,’ I was reinforced with the idea that nothing we gain in this life through money, wealth, or status, will go with us once we die. After reading about Ivan’s struggle to accept death, I noticed his focus was so much on how he will not be able to live life as he once enjoyed. He has to get used to and anticipate a new experience, for example not having people over as much to his house, not having the physical strength to do things as he once did, and the most daunting anticipation of all, death. During the pandemic, I have seen many people go through the same process of getting used to new ways of living and even anticipating death. For me though, in this new era of life when the entire world has to live through a pandemic like this, I have realized that although everything that we cherish in this life does bring comfort and joy, we must all also anticipate and expect even, the few things common to all human beings, and one of the only few things that do not discriminate; change and death. Throughout this entire pandemic, personally, I have gotten used to the trend of change and the news of death. Although I never experienced death in my immediate family, since the beginning of the pandemic I have witnessed relentless news reports of the mass deaths due to the coronavirus. I have also witnessed and experienced tremendous change due to this pandemic. Change is also one of those things that everyone must experience, by choice or not. Having to stay home all the time not, not being able to visit family members as frequently, seeing so many establishments closed, have all been changes we all had to face in this pandemic. In this way, this idea that every human being is going to experience and even has to prepare for these things is reinforced after reading the Death of Ivan Ilyich. Ivan, although a fortunate and wealthy man, could not escape change nor death, nor can any of his friends or family members escape those things, and neither can we.
