Which best describes the purpose of the paradox in the excerpt?

Which statement best summarizes this excerpt from leo tolstoy's the death of ivan ilyich? and in imagination he began to recall the best moments of his pleasant life. but strange to say none of those best moments of his pleasant life now seemed at all what they had then seemed—none of them except the first recollections of childhood. there, in childhood, there had been something really pleasant with which it would be possible to live if it could return. but the child who had experienced that happiness existed no longer, it was like a reminiscence of somebody else.

In hard times by charles dickens, the scene in which the characters discuss the depiction of horses on wallpaper and flowers on carpets is the author’s way of showing the absurdity of

If you wanted to figure out a topic and some details about that topic you would want to use a ?