Regret

Maupassant's short story Regret revealed how not being true to yourself and expressing how you feel can ultimately haunt you for a life time. Monsieur Saval was an old man that constantly wondered how his life would have been if he would have expressed his love to his dear friend's wife Madame Sandres. One day as they were on a picnic her husband fell asleep, so her and Saval took a walk together. During this time it is evident that Madame Sandres is flirting with Saval by holding his arm and making flirtatious gestures, but Saval does not get the hint. This incident haunts Saval to the point where he decides to confront Madame Sandres, even though it happened several years ago. Madame Sandres confesses that on that day she would have yeilded to him, but she is a woman with no regrets because she never cheated on her husband yet she was still true to her feelings. Saval and Madame Sandres are foil characters because she acted upon how she felt but Saval held his feelings in.

Kenny Chesney's song "A Lot of Things Different" is the perfect song for this story. He talks about how there many things in life he would change if he could and it is a great inspiration to seize the day and live it up with no regrets.The story could have had ended completely different if Saval had chosen to follow his heart, but I think that is just how life goes.
There are so many "what ifs" throughout life. I believe that everything happens for a reason and wondering "what if" is simply a waste of precious time. This story made me evaluate my life and try to think if i had any so called regrets or things I would have done different, but I can honestly say I don't have any and that is a good feeling to have.

Tolstoy

Tolstoy's novella on Ivan Ilyich is a story of a middle aged man thats life is cut short due to a self aquired injury. Ilyich finds his greatest joy in life to be his progession up the "social ladder." When he hurts himself, he knows that he is going to die even though the doctors try to decieve him into thinking he will get well. While reading the story I felt as if Ilyich was dying mentally from his lack of sympathy, as well as physically from his pain. I can relate to this because this summer I had my wisdom teeth taken out, and it was the worst pain I have ever had to endure in my 18 years of life. However no matter how intense the pain was, nothing made me more mad than when my family thought that I was faking/exagerating about the extent of the pain. When having to go through a hard time in your life, especially when faced with death, it is important to have a huge support group for continuous comfort. Ivan Ilyich was deprived of this, and I believe that is one of the main reasons his death was so tragic.

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
Leo Tolstoy

This quote from Tolstoy is implemented in the novella because up until the end Ivan Ilyich does not think that he of all people deserves to die, and this may be true, but he puts the blame for his life on everyone else but himself. When he realized he was going to die he could have tried to become a better father to his kids, or a better husband to his wife, but instead he chose to remain bitter towards everyone around him.