A Good Life In Leo Tolstoy's The Road To Character

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The Road to Character Our society today in the United States has a cultural mold that they would like to see everyone fit into. It goes beyond how successful of a career you have or if you are married or not, the majority tries to sway opinions politically, spiritually and in other ways, these are the winds of culture that I want to stand up against. In The Road to Character, David Brooks uses a novel from Leo Tolstoy to show an example of a man named Ivan Ilyich who fits the social norm but started to think against it. Ivan lived an acceptable life by society 's views , he had a good career, family, and had accomplishments in his field of work. Although once he took a fall and found out he was dying, he came to the realization that the way …show more content…

Brooks focuses on internal things such as morales, and inner peace. According to Miroslav Volf who Brooks had shared thoughts with a good life only needed three things “peace, righteousness, and joy”. According to Volf if you had all three of these your life would feel fulfilled if you were not enamored with materialistic things. I believe a good life is different for everybody because everyone is not the same. Some people may only feel fulfilled on inner things, while others materialistic or a mixture of the two. A good life in my eyes is being able to provide for yourself and others not only spiritually and mentally, but also physically, because there are different types of joys in the world that come from different …show more content…

There were quite a few values that they tried to instill in me, but because of my personality I fought against them. I still hold on to quite a few of the morales I was raised with, but when I was sent to public school some of my values and morales became skewed. My parents fought against me a lot to keep me on the right path but once I became old enough to start contemplating those ideas I fought back. The most important thing in life for me is family, but when I speak of family I mean more than just blood related relatives, im talking about friends and community. I want to be a leader not only for my household family but for my community. I get this view from my uncle who I look up to as a leader of his household and the community he lives in. He does a great deal to provide for not only his wife and children but for those around him. He is a role model that I look up to in life, because in my eyes he is successful in every area of his

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