In the true tradition of the Russian novel, we today explored how a dying Ivan converses with both God and his own soul questioning first ,the meaning of his life and second, the existence of God . He asks God why he suffers, and Matthew ,based on the novel ,discussed how if God had answered Ivan he would have cited Ivan's behavior and values as the cause of his suffering. We then explored the symbolism of the "black sack", and I placed on the board ideas to include in a literary essay including symbolism, figurative language, and theme. We reviewed where in the novel Tolstoy has previously employed these tecniniques. We then traced Ivan's dialogue with his soul and discussed how Ivan begins to realize he was happiest as a child before he was corrupted by propriety and money. Matthew took good notes on these topics and annotated his book accordingly,. HW -read chapter 10 Ans.study guide qs. ch 9 and 10.