By Drishti Jain

STORY: "Work, Death and Sickness" by Leo Tolstoy. Also known as "The right way" is a classic short story that is considered to be Tolstoy's finest literary achievements. A story based on the essence of teamwork, sharing, and caring in human life.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS: When God 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 together 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 because 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, that an unpredictable death would make men cherish life and fellow men, 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. And perhaps, when the caregivers become sick, those they cared for would return the favor.  Men, however, did not care for each other because sickness created fear and disgust amongst them. God saw that men simply did not see that they could be happy by caring for each other and he left them alone. Only then men finally realized that if they worked together and for each other, they could all achieve happiness. Therefore, the only way to earn happiness is by adding value to other's life. And if you are short of this value that you're adding, then simply increase the number of people's lives you're adding value to.