[SOLVED] the course readings and discussions of the works by Melville, Tolstoy, and Borowski

Based on the course readings and discussions of the works by Melville, Tolstoy, and Borowski, answer the question in a reflective/analytical essay examining the main themes of the texts.
1.       What is an authentic life?
The dying Ivan Ilyich starts doubting if he has lived as he should, even though he seems to have done everything he ought to have done (85). He wants to carry on living, “nicely and pleasantly” (84), but is living a nice and pleasant life enough to be considered real and authentic? He comes to a painful realization that what he considered pleasant has turned into something worthless (84). So perhaps he did not live his life in the right, real way.
““But if that’s so,” he said to himself, “and I am quitting this life with the consciousness that I have ruined everything that was given me, and it is impossible to rectify it, what then?” He lay on his back and started going over his whole life in a totally new way. In the morning, when he saw the footman, then his wife, then his daughter, then the doctor-their every movement, their every word confirmed the terrible truth revealed to him that night. In them he saw himself, all that he had lived by, and saw clearly that it was all not right, that it was all a terrible, vast deception concealing both life and death.” (88)
Guiding questions**: What does authenticity mean? How should one live an authentic life? Which characters portray the theme of authenticity versus inauthenticity in a most compelling way? What enables them to live an authentic life? What prevents them from doing so? What, if anything, can make them re-evaluate their own life? Is it important to live authentically? Why/why not?