Reaction Paper on God Sees the Truth but Waits by Leo Tolstoy

God Sees the Truth but Waits is written by Leo Tolstoy. Leo Tolstoy (Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy) ranks among one of the
world’s best writer. He was born on September 9, 1928 in Tula Province, Russia. And died on November 20, 1910 in
Astapovo Russia. One of his most successful later works was “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”. (Bren et al., 2014)

The story revolves around the life of Ivan Dmitrich Aksionov. A merchant who’s imprisoned for a murder he did not
commit. He spent twenty-six years in prison in Siberia. When he is finally going to be release from prison because the real
murderer turns himself up, by the time his pardon arrived, he was already deceased.

In the first part of the story, the part which Vanya, Aksionov’s wife, dreamt of something bad will happen to Aksionov… I
felt something… really something bad will happen to Aksionov or maybe even worse, just like every other stories. In
Vanya’s dream, it’s a sign of a terrible fate that awaits him. In her nightmare, she dreams that when her husband returns
from the fair, he will have gray hair. This could interpret as meaning that Ivan will be separated from his wife, and will
only be able to return to her when he’s old and gray. And it really happened. You see, dreams are like prophecy, just like
the old times. Prophetic dreams occur many times and are experienced by all sorts of people, like Vanya. If Aksionov only
followed Vanya’s advice, the terrible fate might not happen. Fate is something hard to avoid.

(Zulliger, H. 1934. Prophetic dreams) The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 15, 191-208. Examples are given of
dreams which seemed to be clear prophecies of subsequent events. Rigorous examination of the dream material and its
psychic setting discloses that they actually referred not to the future but to the past, to things already existent in the
unconscious of the dreamer. Thus a dream of the dreamer's death may signify an unconscious suicidal tendency awaiting
expression. Errors in memory of correct chronology often account for veridical dreams, or the phenomenon of déjà vu
may give a dream of new coloring; or the symbolic significance of the dream may permit its attachment to a subsequent
event which is unrelated but possessed of a similar deep symbolic significance. Behind prophetic dreams is the force of
narcissistic desire for power and knowledge, which gives them ready credence.

When Aksionov began to weep with Makar, I was like This person is something that I can’t imagine in my imagination,
this kind of act is not something you will see in everyday life basis. Being able to forgive the person who ruins your life.
The feeling of annoyance of being falsely convicted is too much of a burdened. But still Aksionov forgave Makar after all
those years of living like a slave. He will still remember what had happened to him even though he already did forgive
Makar, but he will be no longer bounded and burdened by the memories and the bitterness of the past. Basically
speaking, he had already move on in the past. And actually am amaze in what have he done, after all those sufferings he
still entrusted God about everything because He only knows the truth, the reason, behind his life being destroyed by false
imprisonment. Every pain had its purposes. That’s one of the things that I have seen in the story.

(According to Andrea Brandt Ph.D. M.F.T. September, 2014) Forgiveness requires feeling willing to forgive. Sometimes
you won’t, because the pain went too deep, or because the person was too abusive, or expressed no regret. Do not
attempt to forgive someone before you have identified, fully felt, expressed, and released all your anger and pain.
Forgiveness puts the final seal on what happened that hurt you. You will still remember what happened, but you will no
longer be bound by it. Having worked through the feelings and learned what you need to do to strengthen your
boundaries or get your needs met, you are better able to take care of yourself in the future. Forgiving the other person is
a wonderful way to honor yourself. It affirms to the universe that you deserve to be happy.

We all make mistakes in life, from small mistake to bad decisions that have major consequences. Feeling guilty about
these things is perfectly natural, because you too are human… but it’s not healthy to hold on to this guilt for so long. Like
Makar, he indeed felt the guilt for decades. The guilt of ruining the life, the family of someone else. But he finally lifted
the burdened that is hunting him for such a long time by confessing his crime.

(According to Shamanic Healer Karen Lang, September, 2013) Sitting in a calm, quiet place, visualize the person you feel
guilty about and ask them for forgiveness. Now, see them forgiving you, see yourself and the other person covered in
light, and see yourself no longer burdened by your guilt. Realize that no one is perfect—and also that our guilt often has
more to do with ourselves than those who we feel we have harmed. Guilt is often a self-created reminder of all the things
we wish we had done differently for ourselves.

Aksionov realize in the end that God already sees the truth, but waits. He realized that, as man-made justice is imperfect,
it is not his place to report Makar Semyonovich to the authorities for his escape attempt. Aksionov himself is a victim of
man-made something justice, and has come to understand, during his long stay in the camp, he concluded that only the
true justice can only be dispensed by God Himself, however long that may take. You just need to wait God Himself to
give His judgement.

(Anderson, Elizabeth, 1999, “What is the Point of Equality?” Ethics, 109: 287–337.) The idea of justice occupies centre
stage both in ethics, and in legal and political philosophy. We apply it to individual actions, to laws, and to public policies,
and we think in each case that if they are unjust this is a strong, maybe even conclusive, reason to reject them.
Classically, justice was counted as one of the four cardinal virtues (and sometimes as the most important of the four); in
modern times John Rawls famously described it as ‘the first virtue of social institutions’ (Rawls 1971, p.3; Rawls, 1999,
p.3). We might debate which of these realms of practical philosophy has first claim on justice: is it first and foremost a
property of the law, for example, and only derivatively a property of individuals and other institutions? But it is probably
more enlightening to accept that the idea has over time sunk deep roots in each of these domains, and to try to make
sense of such a wide-ranging concept by identifying elements that are present whenever justice is invoked, but also
examining the different forms it takes in various practical contexts. This article aims to provide a general map of the ways
in which justice has been understood by philosophers, past and present.

(Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, translated by Roger Crisp, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.) We begin by
identifying four core features that distinguish justice from other moral and political ideas. We then examine some major
conceptual contrasts: between conservative and ideal justice, between corrective and distributive justice, between
procedural and substantive justice, and between comparative and non-comparative justice. Next we turn to questions of
scope: to who or what do principles of justice apply? We ask whether non-human animals can be subjects of justice,
whether justice applies only between people who already stand in a particular kind of relationship to one another, and
whether individual people continue to have duties of justice once justice-based institutions have been created. We then
examine three overarching theories that might serve to unify the different forms of justice: utilitarianism,
contractarianism, and egalitarianism. But it seems, in conclusion, that no such theory is likely be successful.