:: growth ::

I'm reading through tolstoy's war & peace and taking exhaustingly extensive notes. then I pick through them to discuss recurring themes, great passages, and all the character development, and report back here. also there are a lot of spoilers. this is your only warning. 

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BOOK 3 PART 1

Consciously man lives for himself, but unconsciously he serves as an instrument for the accomplishment of the historical, social ends of mandating. An act committed is irrevocable, and that action coinciding in time with the actions of millions of other men acquired historical significance. The higher a man stands on the social scale, the more connections he has with people and the more power he has over them, the more manifest is the predetermination of his ever act.
   'The hearts of kings are in the hand of God.'
   A king is the slave of history.
   History -- that is, the unconscious, common, swarm life of mankind -- uses every moment of the life of kings as an instrument for its own ends.

diverting from his usual narrative course, tolstoy spends the first chapter of part three laying out mankind and why war is fought -- or rather, he asks the question, but doesn't answer it. he just points out that every person with a role in fighting, from the people in charge to the people on the ground, justifies their part in it (right or not).
   which seems all insightful and wise, but then he immediately switches into narrative about our boys there on the field and it becomes personal and microscopic. no longer philosophizing, real life becomes much more complex: I'm not thinking, "hey nikolai, why don't you clue in and go out for world peace?" I'm completely caught up in his moment, which is almost myopic in its here-and-now-ness. nikolai (and the reader; at least me) isn't stepping back and looking at the ginormous picture of human history -- he's focusing on his life and the next decisions he has to make based on the ones he's just made. we all do this. and I don't think tolstoy is judging him for it.
   a thing may be senseless, he says, but we still do it; and sometimes when you're caught up in something all you can do is be swept along and make the best of it.

"swept along" is apt in this case: in a disturbing turn of events, napoleon is on the riverbank and a group of uhlans (eastern european cavalry) choose to swim across the swollen river, instead of fording further up, to prove their devotion to him -- self-sacrifice that literally drowns about forty men. napoleon is annoyed by the noisy crossing and leaves before they're partway across (they never make it and have to swim back). and yet the next day, he sends to award a medal to the man who led the charge. the chapter ends with "quos vult perdere -- dementat": those whom [god] destroys he first drives mad.

andrei, the restless, now the broken-hearted, is sick of inaction. he chooses to give up a place of power, near the emperor, for field duty, because he comes to realize that "the success of a military action depends not on [the leaders and their theories], but on the man in the ranks who shouts: 'We are lost!' or 'Hurrah!'" after having seen the disorganized, chaotic, divided military meeting, andrei forfeits power for action: "Only in the ranks can one serve with the assurance of being useful."

incredible tolstoy switches to nikolai who proves this. his regiment is paused above the action when he realizes it's a pivotal moment in the battle. without waiting for a command, "touched up his horse and galloped to the head of the squadron, and before he had time to give the command, the whole squadron, sharing his feeling, started after him." here's nikolai, influencing the war just as andrei understood it; the way one man's actions become historical in the context of all the others' happening simultaneously.

back on the homefront, natasha finds comfort (similarly to marya) in abandoning herself to God: "a sense of the possibility of redemption from sin, of a new, pure life, and of happiness." pierre, too, believes in living for something outside of himself; andrei hopes for "God and a future life"...as the characters each stop dwelling on themselves and their grief -- do something, and usually to someone else's benefit -- their depression fades and they can continue with joy. I wonder, is there a certain amount of self-forgiveness involved? do they have to find a hope for redemption before they can actually be redeemed?

natasha and pierre have grown closer in her time of trouble. pierre, the only one attached to essentially all parties in the story (and certainly all parts in the andrei-natasha-anatol fiasco), has really been there for her and this selfless care has quieted his questioning. she gives him a certain fulfillment of spirit and he's more at peace; even though, as he acknowledges, she'll never know how much he cares for her and he is still married to helene.
   pierre is very humble. he's content to wait and watch. maybe from being shy and not especially good-looking he's learned to be kind and non-judgmental. but at the same time, he just is kind; he may be more accepting, having faced rejection, but his kindness is a part of who he is. there is something likable about the bumbling pierre, in a way andrei is never liked. andrei is admired, sometimes feared, always respected, and has an official fan club started by me, but never reaches the level of loved- or loving-ness that pierre experiences. there's something a little too cynical and wary about him. he who gives much loves much :)
   he's changed a little, though: he's not being led so much. he's beginning to think about what he thinks and starting to stand up for himself (funny, I'm seeing that in several places). he's all for sacrifice, he says to the fanatical die-for-the-emperor group, but he wants to "know the state of affairs in order to be able to improve on it." this is growth even from his attempted estate overhaul; he blindly jumped into that, and it worked out not at all. now he's preaching less fanaticism and more knowledge -- a tempering of the emotional pierre that speaks volumes to his character. yay pierre. we hope good things for you.

relationship tracker:
IN LOVE
nikolai + sonya
pierre + natasha

IN MARRIAGE
pierre + helene
vera + berg
boris + julie

up-to-now SUNK SHIPS
andrei + lise
marya + anatol
nikolai + sonya (later unsunk)
helene + pierre (unsunk, sunk, etc.)
dolokhov + sonya
denisov + natasha
andrei + natasha
anatol + natasha (hmm...pattern?)

soundtrack - the void, andy black*

*as long as you hear andrei sighing along with a wrinkled brow of pain