Work, Death, and Sickness
Encyclopedia
Work, Death, and Sickness, sometimes also translated as The Right Way, is a short story by Russia
n author Leo Tolstoy
written in 1903. The story takes the form of a parable
about the creation of work, death, and sickness.
first created man, he had no need to work, and he would always live to be exactly one hundred years old. God thought that this would allow humans to live in harmony, but such was not the case. They were solitary, they fought, and they did not cherish life. As a remedy, God created work in the hopes that it would bring men together. They could not build homes or grow food on their own, but instead of working in harmony, men formed competing groups that fought even more. As a remedy for these new problems, God created death. The hope was that an unpredictable death would make men cherish life, but instead it created even more inequity as the strong threatened the weak with death. God was disappointed with this inequity, and he created sickness. The hope was that the healthy would care for the sick, because when the caregivers became sick, those they cared for would return the favor. Men, however, did not care for each other because sickness created fear and disgust. God saw that men simply did not see that they could be happy, and he left them alone. Only in recent times have men finally realized that if they worked together and cared for each other, they could all achieve happiness.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n author Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
written in 1903. The story takes the form of a parable
Parable
A parable is a succinct story, in prose or verse, which illustrates one or more instructive principles, or lessons, or a normative principle. It differs from a fable in that fables use animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as characters, while parables generally feature human...
about the creation of work, death, and sickness.
Synopsis
When GodGod
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
first created man, he had no need to work, and he would always live to be exactly one hundred years old. God thought that this would allow humans to live in harmony, but such was not the case. They were solitary, they fought, and they did not cherish life. As a remedy, God created work in the hopes that it would bring men together. They could not build homes or grow food on their own, but instead of working in harmony, men formed competing groups that fought even more. As a remedy for these new problems, God created death. The hope was that an unpredictable death would make men cherish life, but instead it created even more inequity as the strong threatened the weak with death. God was disappointed with this inequity, and he created sickness. The hope was that the healthy would care for the sick, because when the caregivers became sick, those they cared for would return the favor. Men, however, did not care for each other because sickness created fear and disgust. God saw that men simply did not see that they could be happy, and he left them alone. Only in recent times have men finally realized that if they worked together and cared for each other, they could all achieve happiness.