What Men Live By

“What Men Live By” bases itself around its central religious and moral themes, mirroring a parable in its apparent simplicity and directness. The use of rhetorical and literary strategies allows the narrative to create a self-proving argument. Each action takes on multiple meanings, all of which eventually tie themselves back to Human Connection as Divine and the need for compassion in God. This thesis is directly stated within the work: The angel Michael says, “I have now understood that though it seems to men that they live by care for themselves, in truth it is love alone by which they live. He who has love, is in God, and God is in him, for God is love” (Part 12, paragraph 6). This thesis and method of storytelling allow for a religious and moral argument to be stated while still utilizing a style meant to be universally understandable.

In the context of Tolstoy’s development as a writer and thinker, this story fits securely into his views on art and religion in the last two decades of the 19th century. These ideas culminated in his 1897 essay What Is Art?, in which he attempts to answer the eponymous question, arguing that true art must be “universal,” i.