(Book Review) "Ivan the Fool" by Leo Tolstoy

 1. Introduction

 

'Ivan the Fool' is a short story published in 1886 by Leo Tolstoy.

When I finished reading 'Ivan the Fool,' I remembered the words of Corinthians 1:27, "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise..."

How is it wise to live? Let us find the answer through this story.

2. summary

 

There lived a rich peasant, who had three sons and a daughter: Simon the Soldier, Taras the Stout, and Ivan the Fool, besides Martha, who was dumb.

One day Simon and Taras each came to the father and demanded to share his property.

When the father asked for the opinion of Ivan, who was taking full care of housework, he willingly agreed.

So the father distributed the portions of the two.

The old devil was unhappy that Ivan's family was in peace. He summoned three little imps and instructed to tackle the three brothers.

Each of the three imps took in charge of each of the three brothers.

The imp in charge of Simon made him so bold that he would try to conquer the world for his king. The vain ambition failed, and the king put him in prison.

Soon after, the imp let him break out of prison and escape to the father. Simon would become a troublemaker of the family. 

The devil handling Taras impulsed him to buy everything he wants. As a result, Taras owed a significant debt. He ought to run to his father for help. 

However, Ivan the Fool that another devil took charge was a pain in the neck. No matter how much the devil caused his stomach ache, Ivan didn't stop working, holding up the pain.

As the devil held on to Ivan's plow and didn't let it go, Ivan pushed his hand deep into the furrow and pulled something out. It was the nasty devil.

The devil, asking for his life, handed to Ivan three wood roots, which could cure any illness. One of the roots healed Ivan's stomach ache at once. 

Ivan released the devil, blessing, "Now begone! God be with you." As soon as he mentioned God, the devil plunged into the earth, leaving a hole.

Then the other two demons took a dare on Ivan but failed because of Ivan's upright and sincere character.

The first demon saved his life in exchange for letting Ivan know the secret of how to make soldiers out of a sheaf of rye.

The second demon also showed Ivan how to make golds from oak leaves to save his life.

Letting go of them, Ivan blessed, "God be with you!" They freaked out and plunged into the earth. Only one hole each was left behind.

The princess of this country came down with an incurable illness. Ivan healed the princess. Not thanks to the magic root.  He had already used the last root for a beggar woman with a crippled hand. 

Nevertheless, as soon as Ivan entered the palace, the princess was healed instantly. Ivan got married to the princess. After a while, the king died, and Ivan became the next king.

Simon also became another country's king thanks to Ivan, who made soldiers out of a sheaf of rye. The peace-loving Ivan had thought that the role of soldiers was singing. 

Taras became the king of another country, too, with the help of gold coins that Ivan made from oak leaves.

The childlike Ivan had thought that glittering gold coins were the same as toys to play.

However, both countries went under not long after. It was because the old devil stepped out against them.

Simon's military kingdom eventually ended up being conquered by a stronger enemy.  He lost all things.

Taras gathered a lot of money, but he couldn't buy anything with it. The old devil bought everything at a higher price one step ahead of Taras. All money was useless for Taras.

Finally, the old devil attacked Ivan and his country.

By the way, there was one rule in the kingdom: Only those who had horny-hands deserve to eat.

Martha, Ivan's sister, didn't allow the old devil to come to the dining table because he had clean and smooth hands.

The angry devil blamed Ivan's people, working with the hands, to be foolish.
He suggested letting people learn how to work with their heads.

There gathered many people at first around the tower where he spoke, but they all left eventually, losing interest.

The old devil began to grow weak so that he staggered and hit his head against the pillars on the platform. 

People said that he was finally beginning to work with his head, but the old devil tumbled out the stairs and left a hole on the ground. Ivan noticed that the nasty thing was the father of the previous little imps.

Likewise, also in the future, all the people in Ivan's kingdom will work hard. There is still one rule in the country; whoever has horny hands comes to the table, but whoever has not, must eat what the others leave.

3. Lessons

(1)  Why don't we make foolish choices?

Ivan is a fool. He does not take care of his profit, and he willingly accepts even discrimination.

To our surprise, however, the image of Christians in the Bible is not different from Ivan's.

In particular, the Corinthian 1:23 says, "but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles." (NIV)

And the Bible also explains that God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. (Corinthians 1:27)

Jesus' crucifixion to save the world is a foolish act in itself from the worldly perspective.

What kind of life do you want to live? When that question came into mind, remember this story and resolve below happen.

"Why don't we make foolish choices? Let me start living like a fool."

Do you want to experience a heavenly life in your daily life? If you have such a desire, how about living the way of Ivan the Fool little by little?

(2) The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.

We live in a world that admires life enjoyable without working. Lotto is envious in that it can give us a wealthy lifestyle at once if we win.

But the biblical view of work is not like that. According to Genesis 2:15, God placed Adam, the first man, in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 makes the point more clear. "The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat." (NIV)

We might think this novel is more respectful of blue-collar working with the hands than white-collar operating with the head.

But if we look deeply into it, we will find such a view is not what the novel says.

We are easy to ignore the value of manual labor. The novel defends the perspective that working hands matter, representing it through both lives of Ivan the Fool and Martha the Dumb.

And it is warning against the discrimination which is devaluing manual labor, comparing it to the arrogant attitude of the old devil.

In the country of Ivan the Fool, we can see what a community with biblical values is like.

Heaven, as we often imagine, would not be a place to enjoy without working. Wouldn't it be the opposite?

In God's kingdom, people who are working will be most praised. So Jesus said, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working."

 

(Book Review) "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen

                      

 1.Introduction  

   'The Little Mermaid' was published in 1837 by Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen.

   The Little Mermaid gives up everything because she loves the prince. It's like our relationship with Jesus. The Little Mermaid's love leads us to the love of Jesus. Now it is our turn. What about our love for Jesus?

2.Summary

   The Little Mermaid lives with her father, a sea king, grandmother, and five older sisters. Mermaids have permission to rise out of the sea when they reach their fifteenth year.
 
   It was finally the youngest princess's turn. As she swam up the water, she saw a ship holding a banquet. It was a birthday party for a prince. The moment the Little Mermaid saw the prince, she fell in love.

   The girl hid nearby and waited for someone to help him out. A young woman from the monastery found the prince and took care of him. The prince, coming to life, mistook the woman for a lifesaver. The Little Mermaid was heartbroken with grief.

   She came down to the sea and asked her grandma, "Can humans live forever?"
The old lady replied that mermaids sometimes lived up to three hundred years, but the span of human life was even shorter.

   The grandma also said that when a mermaid died, it became a sea bubble, while humans lived with immortal eternal. The Little Mermaid wanted to be a human. She wished she would love the prince forever as a human.

 

   She went to the sea witch and asked for her help. Instead of giving a potion for making human legs, the sorceress demanded the princess's tongue, which allowed her to sing beautiful songs.

   In addition to that, The eternal soul of a human being that the Little Mermaid wanted was not easy to obtain. It was only possible to get it when she reached marriage with the prince, being loved by him. If the prince married another woman, the mermaid would turn into a bubble.

   Moreover, once she had become a human being, she could never come back as a mermaid forever. The Little Mermaid accepted all this.

   She approached the beach close to the palace where the prince was and drank a draught of the potion. When she fell unconscious, the fish's tail was gone, and she had a pair of human legs.

   The prince discovered her. He liked her, who was pretty and kind despite being unable to speak. He took her anywhere he went. The prince was fond of seeing her dancing. The desperate girl for love danced for the prince with all her heart even though she felt pain and shed blood at every step.

   The king wanted the prince to marry the princess of a neighboring country. Surprisingly, the princess turned out to be the lady, the prince believed, to save his life on the coast. The prince didn't hesitate to accept the marriage a moment. They threw a party on the ship to celebrate the wedding.
 
   The poor girl did not get the prince's love. As the sea witch warned, she was about to become a foam. At that time, her sisters came up and gave a knife they got from the sea witch. If the Little Mermaid plunges it into the prince's heart and his blood falls upon her feet, she will be once more a mermaid.

   The Little Mermaid sneaked into the cabin and raised a knife at the sleeping prince by the bride, but she could not stab him. She went back out of the cabin, threw the knife away into the waves and jumped into the sea.

   The heroine of this tragic love turned into a bubble. But that wasn't the end of the story. Afterwards, she became a spirit of the air, feeling the warm sunshine.
Thanks to her kind heart, she will have a chance to obtain an immortal soul one day in the next three hundred years.

3. Lessons

 

   When we read 'the Little Mermaid' through the Biblical perspective, we will easily attempt to connect the prince in the story with Jesus because the Bible compares Jesus to a groom, the church to a bride.

   However, as we read the story, we rather feel the deeper fragrance of Jesus from the Little Mermaid.

   Read one of the monologues of the Little Mermaid after she rescued the drowning prince and laid him on the beach. (among the quotes in the Disneyland animation)

   "What would I pay to stay here beside you?"

   This word of the Little Mermaid directs our eyes straight to Jesus. As Revelation 5:9 says, He is the Savior Jesus who purchased persons for God. In other words, Jesus paid His blood to set us free from prisoners of sin.

   What price did the Little Mermaid pay to stay beside the prince? Above all, she gave up her status as the sea princess.

   It reminds us of Jesus, who abandoned the glory of heaven to come down to this earth because he loved us who were sinners.

   The Little Mermaid also paid her tongue and voice to the sea witch instead of getting human legs. Moreover, she even accepted the worst-case scenario of dying when not getting love.

   We take the scent of Jesus' love from Andersen's "The Little Mermaid." It is an amazing love that has reached the terminal of the Cross, starting from the dishonor of incarnation.

   The Little Mermaid, who is destined to become a bubble, gets a chance not to die. If she kills the prince with a knife of the witch, she could go back to a mermaid.

   But the Little Mermaid didn't go that way. It's because of love. The choice has led her to lose the mortal life, but to gain the chance for immortal life.

   "What would I pay to stay here beside you?" The Little Mermaid asked so and dedicated everything of her, even life.

    If so, what about me? What can I dedicate to love?

(Book Review) "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe

1. Introduction 

'The Black Cat' is a short story published in 1843 by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. From the first-person point of view, "I" takes a look back on his life the day before the execution.

2. Summary 

From my infancy, I had been gentle and especially fond of animals. I had a remarkably large and beautiful cat, entirely black, called Pluto. He attended me wherever I went about the house.

But from one day onwards, it was all mixed up. Alcohol was the cause of the trouble. As I drank, I turned violent.

One night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence.

I seized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he gave a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer.

I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the neck, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!
 
The next day, I was stunned to see what I had done. Pluto, who had lost one eye, was avoiding me in extreme terror. As I looked at it, the feeling of guilt soon gave place to irritation.

Finally, I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to a tree in the garden.

On the night of the day, a fire broke out in my house. My wife, a servant, and I made our escape from the flame.

The next day, I approached the unburned surface of a wall and saw the figure of a gigantic cat with a rope around its neck.

Months later, I was in search of another pet to replace the vacancy of Pluto. I then saw a cat closely resembling Pluto in a pub.

The cat followed me home. It domesticated itself at once and became a great favorite immediately with my wife.

I found later that it, like Pluto, also had been deprived of one of its eyes. It was overlapped with one eye of Pluto, and I disgusted it.

The worst incident occurred. One day my wife accompanied me into the cellar of the house. The cat entered under my feet and nearly threw me headlong.

The following is my testimony about what happened:
 
"It exasperated me to madness. Uplifting an axe…in my wrath....I aimed a blow at the animal. But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded, by the interference, into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain."

I deposited my wife's body between the outer and inner walls of the basement. After I'd done all, I re-laid the whole structure as it originally stood. 

I looked for the cat, but it did not make its appearance anywhere.

Afterwards, a party of the police came to investigate my wife's disappearance. When the police couldn't find anything suspicious in my house, I got excited, being satisfied with my perfect crime. 

I rapped heavily, with my cane upon that very portion of the brick-work where I hid the corpse of the wife.

Then a bizarre cry echoed through the wall into the cellar. When the police broke down the wall, the body of his wife turned up. And a live cat was sitting on top of it.

The strange noise was none other than from the beast. I had walled the monster up within the tomb!

3. Lessons 

It's a horrifying story. How come the protagonist with a gentle character turned into such a terrible figure?

Alcohol was the primary cause, but not the main. The writer does not specify why, but readers can't get it out of their minds.

The Bible answers through Ephesians 6:12.

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (NIV)

That's right. We can say that evil spirits are involved in the destruction of the protagonist of "The Black Cat."

We see the anger issue here in this novel. In the Bible, the first person with anger disorder was Cain.

Cain brought his offering to God along with his brother Abel, but the Lord accepted only Abel's. (Genesis chapter 4) So Cain was furious, and his face was downcast.
 
God said to the angry Cain, "If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door....you must rule over it." Nonetheless, Cain killed his brother Abel in the field.

There must be an evil spirit behind Cain's uncontrolled anger having ended up murdering.

Apostle Paul makes a request, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior."

But we live in a more and more furious and brutal society.
 
Even Christians are not free from it. If a wicked spirit pours oil on my burning rage, it will make an explosion without control.

Remember one thing. Dirty things floating on the water sink down only when the water is calm.

When we get caught up in rage, let's stop everything immediately, and look to God silently.

David, in Psalm 62:1, confesses, "For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation." (ESV)

I pray that God's salvation, which recovered David's soul, will come down upon all those who are struggling with anger control.