The Search for Life's Meaning

Where it surfaces

• I

  The narrator's early belief in self-perfection as a substitute for religious faith, and its eventual corruption into worldly ambition.

• III

  Tolstoy's existential questions—'What is it for? What does it lead to?'—drive the chapter's central crisis.

• IV

  The narrator's desperate quest to find a purpose in life, ultimately concluding that life is a 'stupid and spiteful joke.'

• V

  The narrator's central quest is to find a meaning in life that death cannot destroy, driving his investigation of all sciences.

• VI

  The narrator's central quest is to find the meaning of life, which he pursues through science and philosophy but finds only despair.

• VII

  The narrator systematically examines how his educated contemporaries cope with life's apparent absurdity, ultimately questioning whether his own rational conclusions are flawed.

• VIII

  The narrator contrasts rational knowledge, which denies meaning, with the faith of the masses, which provides a purpose for living.

• Chapter X

  The narrator's quest for a faith that explains the meaning of life drives the entire chapter, culminating in his acceptance of the common people's faith.

• Chapter XI

  The narrator corrects his earlier nihilism by distinguishing his own corrupted life from the meaningful life of common people.

• XII

  The narrator's entire journey is a search for the meaning of life, culminating in the realization that faith and living in accord with God's will provide that meaning.

• XIV

  The narrator seeks meaning through faith, but finds it only in the simple beliefs of peasants and holy men, not in learned theology.

• Chapter XV

  Tolstoy's quest for a faith that provides the power of life, leading him to reject institutional religion in favor of a more universal truth.