Leo Tolstoy The Three Hermits

All of our lives we have been taught to conform to society. We are told to follow what the people before us have done and not to stray from tradition. In Leo Tolstoy’s The Three Hermits he tells the story of three hermits who live on a an island. One day the Archbishop asked about the island and and the three hermits that lived there because he heard they were godly men. When the Archbishop asked to go to the island the captain of the ship attempts to change his mind by saying, "the old men are not worth your pains." Even after hearing the stories from the crew and captain, the Archbishop still insists on going to see the three hermits. Once he arrives, he tries to teach the men the Lord’s Prayer so that they may worship the Lord properly. The Archbishop returns to the boat and the crew sails away, but the three hermits run on the water up to the boat saying that they have forgotten the prayer. The Archbishop replies, “Your own prayer will reach the Lord, men of God. It is not for me to teach you. Pray for us sinners.” This story reminds me of my life right now in high school. I’m not the most popular kid, I know a lot of people but I’m
Any person who strays away from the set plan is told they are wrong. In both stories the characters didn’t choose the normal path. In Tolstoy’s story, even though the hermits didn’t worship as the other people did, the bishop reminds them that what they are doing is just as good because they mean the words they say. The bishop even goes to say “Pray for us sinners,” since the hermits are maybe even better off than the people from the village that say the prayer, but do not mean it and continue to sin. In my own story, even though I took a different route than others I am still ending up in the same spot as my classmates or even better off. So even though in both stories the popular path wasn’t chosen, sometimes it isn’t so bad to be a