Tolstoy’s Purpose

This worksheet invites students to explore Tolstoy’s purpose in writing The Death of Ivan Ilyich, focusing on his critique of society and his message about life and death. Students respond to guiding questions, analyze key ideas, and support their thinking with evidence from the text. This activity strengthens skills in literary analysis, critical thinking, and written expression while encouraging students to consider the author’s deeper intentions. Ideal for grades 9-12, it supports advanced comprehension and interpretation.

Skills Reinforced

• Author’s Purpose – Students analyze why Tolstoy wrote the novella
• Critical Thinking – Learners evaluate themes and societal critique
• Textual Evidence – Encourages support of ideas with examples from the text
• Written Analysis – Builds structured and thoughtful responses

Instructional Benefits

• Guided questions – Helps students focus on key analytical ideas
• No-prep resource – Easy to print and implement immediately
• Discussion-friendly – Great for deeper classroom conversations
• Standards-aligned – Supports higher-level literary analysis

This worksheet helps students move beyond understanding the story to analyzing its deeper purpose and message. By examining Tolstoy’s critique of social values and attitudes toward death, learners strengthen comprehension, interpretation, and analytical reasoning skills. It also reinforces the importance of questioning societal norms and exploring meaningful ideas. Whether used in a classroom or homeschool environment, this activity supports critical literacy, thoughtful discussion, and deeper engagement with the text.