Outside Knowledge In Tolstoy's The Death Of Ivan Ilych

Outside knowledge is gained by reading or by being taught something from a teacher. From reading the book The Death of Ivan Ilych, I gained outside knowledge about the upper class. In the beginning of the book Ivan Ilych passed away. The book is all about how his coworkers take his death throughout the book. The book mentions: So on receiving the news of Ivan Ilych’s death the first thought of each of the gentlemen in that private room was of the changes and promotions it might occasion among themselves or their acquaintances. (Tolstoy, 2)

The first thing these men thought about was money. They thought about all the money they would gain from a promotion. The author was showing us how self-centered these upper class

Felicite was a maid for a rich lady. She never had much luck in her life. Her lover ended up leaving her and marrying a rich lady so he did not have to go to war. She thought he was being a coward because of his love for her but she was wrong. In the book, Theodore (Felicites lover): mentioned a difficulty; the previous year, his parents had purchased a substitute for him; but any day he might be drafted and the prospect of serving in the army alarmed him greatly.

According to dictionary.com, self-knowledge means “knowledge or understanding of oneself, one 's character, abilities, motives” (Dictionary.com).
Self-knowledge is what a person has experienced and gained knowledge from. Outside knowledge works off of self-knowledge. For a reader to gain outside knowledge, the writer must use their self-knowledge. Just how Tolstoy did with their stories. They used their self-knowledge to give us insight of what they were writing about. Tolstoy grew up within the upper class. His insight of what was happening gave him the self-knowledge to write a book. He wrote about Ivan Ilych who died a rich man. Ivan worked himself to death. Ivan worked so much because he thought that making money would make him and his wife