Free Sample Essays > European Literature
War and Peace
world, but no one thinks of changing himself." It is only through action that these soldiers find the truth. The men are up in arms, with the idea that they are somehow going to be the changing factor in a war, in their world, and yet they are forced to realize that their will must equal the size of such plans.
Furthering the concept of personal responsibility, the ideas of the aristocracy and their view toward society and overall role in it must be considered. While offset by certain examples, the general thought was one of hypocrisy. " Sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means -- except by getting off his back" says Tolstoy. Stating that man is capable of making an expression of sympathy and caring but in the long run, incapable of following such through with any sort of action representative of his words. This idea relates back to the idea of truth and its importance in the character of men and of society as well as the general hypocrisy so rampant.
To truly understand the novel and its underlying meanings, we must understand the novelist. Tolstoy is a man that believes in individual character, but he is also a man that was a hearty believer in the power of god. As he so willfully states, "The chief difference between words and deeds is that words are always intended for men for their approbation, but deeds can be done only for God." It becomes apparent that Tolstoy was a man of truth; a man that would point out the obvious in such a way that it seemed to be a revelation upon reading, even if the truth he was attempting to illuminate was already well lit. As Tolstoy says, "Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold." It is this pursuit for the truth, the findings with which we are presented, and the casual way in which they are laid out that makes this book such an interesting, engaging and long living classic.