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• The symbolism of rain throughout the story and how it foreshadows events within Ivan’s story
o “and you wait for the rain that does not come”
o “before beginning his story, but just then it began to rain. And five minutes later there was a downpour, and it was hard to tell when it would be over.”
o “the rain beat against the window panes all night.”
• Alyohin is a big symbol as he draws parallels with Ivan’s brother
o Gladly welcoming guests
o His description in the story
 “…looking more like a professor or an artist than a gentleman farmer. He was wearing a white blouse, badly in need of washing, that was belted with a rope and drawers, and his high boots were plastered with mud and straw. His eyes and nose were black with dust.”
 Shows that he tried to make himself look important in company
 He worked hard to take care of his farm (like Nikolay)
 His clothes were not washed / cheap (used his money for his “dreams / ambitions” like Nikolay).
 Alyohin did not pay much attention to Ivan’s story, just like Nikolay would not listen to Ivan trying to convince him to forget about this dream that was too far out of his reach to achieve.
o Complimented his bathing cabin (his possession of wealth).
• Ivan Ivanych swimming in the rain delightedly is his example of living life in his way and enjoying it as how he perceives to be the way to live life (taking every moment in & enjoying it to the fullest).
• Nikolay’s dream was out of his reach – Ivan’s opinion in this quote:
o “To retire from the city, from the struggle, from the hubhub, to go off and hide on one’s own farm – that’s not life, it is selfishness, sloth, it is a kind of monasticism, but monasticism without works. Man needs not six feet of earth, not a farm, but the whole globe, all of Nature, where unhindered he can display all the capacities and peculiarities of his...