THINKING ACTIVITY

   *COMPARISON OF WAR AND PEACE AND FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS:

      

                     WAR AND PEACE 

                                 

                         War and Peace (pre-reform Russian: Война и миръ; post-reform Russian: Война и мир, romanized: Voyna i mir [vɐjˈna i ˈmʲir]) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published serially, then published in its entirety in 1869. It is regarded as one of Tolstoy's finest literary achievements and remains an internationally praised classic of world literature. 

Author	Leo Tolstoy
Original title	Война и миръ
Translator	The first translation of War and Peace into English was by American Nathan Haskell Dole, in 1899
Country	Russia
Language	Russian, with some French and German
Genre	Novel (Historical novel)
Publisher	The Russian Messenger (serial)
Publication date	Serialised 1865–1867; book 1869
Media type	Print
Pages	1,225 (first published edition)
Followed by	The Decembrists (Abandoned and Unfinished)
Original text	Война и миръ at Russian Wikisource
Translation	War and Peace at Wikisource.

                                  The novel chronicles the French invasion of Russia and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society through the stories of five Russian aristocratic families. Portions of an earlier version, titled The Year 1805, were serialized in The Russian Messenger from 1865 to 1867 before the novel was published in its entirety in 1869.

                                   Tolstoy said War and Peace is "not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chronicle." Large sections, especially the later chapters, are philosophical discussions rather than narrative.Tolstoy also said that the best Russian literature does not conform to standards and hence hesitated to call War and Peace a novel. Instead, he regarded Anna Karenina as his first true novel.

                                   The term "war and peace" is sometimes used in general language to indicate something that is very long or comprehensive; for example, "I just need a short briefing, it doesn't have to be war and peace".

                              War and Peace is of such epic proportions that its endless outpourings of martial history, personal saga, and social document carries the reader along as a helpless spectator caught up in the full tide of life. Percy Lubbock in The Craft of Fiction (New York: The Viking Press, 1957) says it is a combination of two stories:"It is like an Iliad, the story of certain men, and an Aeneid, the story of a nation, compressed into one book."

                                         The way Tolstoy combines the personal, Iliad-like novel with the historical, Aeneid-like novel forms the dualistic structure of War and Peace. Beyond this duality — in fact beyond the bounds of the novel itself — the unifying focus of the book lies within the mind of its author, in his endless lifetime search to extract a single truth out of the profusion of specific experiences. The unifying element of War and Peace, although somewhat disclosed in Tolstoy's philosophic epilogue on the nature of history, is not evident within the material of the novel.

                                   The complexity and sweep of War and Peace, lacking the singularity of viewpoint achieved, for instance, in Anna Karenina, derives from the tension between two constant and interlocking orientations: the collective and the personal, the events of a nation and the experience of individuals.

                                    Thus the protagonists of the novel have a dual significance. On one plane they reveal individuals in their quest for self-definition, on the other they are participants in a mass movement whose pattern is forever undisclosed to them. By the same duality, public events and public figures reveal basic truths about the nature of private experience, and the relationship between moment-by-moment experiences of individuals, and their long-term search for meaning, with the unfolding destiny of a nation generates the dramatic conflicts and the individual turning points of the novel.

                                   A clear example of the way Tolstoy endows situations and characters with dual significance is our introduction to the Bolkonsky family in its country seat. The old prince, like the tsar himself, dominates and leaves his autocratic mark upon each member of his household. The situation we meet at Bleak Hills is a working model of old Russia.

                     Characterization 

                          Numerous minor incidents illustrate how Tolstoy uses the settings of war and of peace to reveal new aspects of particular situations. Pierre, for example, meets Osip Bazdyev during a peacetime journey that sets him on a new moral path. Osip's influence here foreshadows Pierre's ultimate conversion through Karataev, Bazdyev's spiritual counterpart, which occurs during Bezuhov's wartime experiences.

                                   Natasha, to provide another example, has two major meetings and partings with Andrey: the first, during the tranquil days of her youth, the final one during the wartime exodus from Moscow. Prince Andrey's first awareness of death, occurring in peacetime when he sees Liza die, prefigures his own fatal moment on the Austerlitz battlefield.

                           Moreover, Dolohov, to cite a minor character, exercises his cruelty against Nikolay during a card game, then against the drummer boy whom he wants shot during the last campaigns. The first instance of vengeance is necessary to explain Dolohov's character, whereas the second is another expression of that cruelty which helps Dolohov win battles.

                                   The structural integrity of War and Peace thus derives from Tolstoy's two-leveled handling of his material through the vehicles of characterization, narrative, and setting. Individual parts of the novel are integrated into the whole through this parallel plot technique which, moreover, allows the author to enrich the significance of particular incidents by repeating them in another context. This duality enables Tolstoy to compare the nature of private experience with historical events, the"inner" and"outer" states of the human condition, unconscious with conscious motives, and, finally, to illustrate the conflict between"free will" and"necessity."

                         Effect of war

                                   The 20th century was the most murderous in recorded history. The total number of deaths caused by or associated with its wars has been estimated at 187m, the equivalent of more than 10% of the world's population in 1913. Taken as having begun in 1914, it was a century of almost unbroken war, with few and brief periods without organised armed conflict somewhere. It was dominated by world wars: that is to say, by wars between territorial states or alliances of states.

                                         The period from 1914 to 1945 can be regarded as a single "30 years' war" interrupted only by a pause in the 1920s - between the final withdrawal of the Japanese from the Soviet Far East in 1922 and the attack on Manchuria in 1931. This was followed, almost immediately, by some 40 years of cold war, which conformed to Hobbes's definition of war as consisting "not in battle only or the act of fighting, but in a tract of time wherein the will to contend by battle is sufficiently known". It is a matter for debate how far the actions in which US armed forces have been involved since the end of the cold war in various parts of the globe constitute a continuation of the era of world war. There can be no doubt, however, that the 1990s were filled with formal and informal military conflict in Europe, Africa and western and central Asia. The world as a whole has not been at peace since 1914, and is not at peace now.

                                           Yet the world is increasingly divided into states capable of administering their territories and citizens effectively and into a growing number of territories bounded by officially recognised international frontiers, with national governments ranging from the weak and corrupt to the non-existent. These zones produce bloody internal struggles and international conflicts, such as those we have seen in central Africa. There is, however, no immediate prospect for lasting improvement in such regions, and a further weakening of central government in unstable countries, or a further Balkanisation of the world map, would undoubtedly increase the dangers of armed conflict.

                                  A tentative forecast: war in the 21st century is not likely to be as murderous as it was in the 20th. But armed violence, creating disproportionate suffering and loss, will remain omnipresent and endemic - occasionally epidemic - in a large part of the world. The prospect of a century of peace is remote.

                                  Plot

                                    War and Peace opens in the Russian city of St. Petersburg in 1805, as Napoleon’s conquest of western Europe is just beginning to stir fears in Russia. Many of the novel’s characters are introduced at a society hostess’s party, among them Pierre Bezukhov, the socially awkward but likeable illegitimate son of a rich count, and Andrew Bolkonski, the intelligent and ambitious son of a retired military commander. We also meet the sneaky and shallow Kuragin family, including the wily father Vasili, the fortune-hunter son Anatole, and the ravishing daughter Helene. We are introduced to the Rostovs, a noble Moscow family, including the lively daughter Natasha, the quiet cousin Sonya, and the impetuous son Nicholas, who has just joined the army led by the old General Kutuzov.

                                     The Russian troops are mobilized in alliance with the Austrian empire, which is currently resisting Napoleon’s onslaught. Both Andrew and Nicholas go to the front. Andrew is wounded at the Battle of Austerlitz, and though he survives, he is long presumed dead. Pierre is made sole heir of his father’s fortune and marries Helene Kuragina in a daze. Helene cheats on Pierre, and he challenges her seducer to a duel in which Pierre nearly kills the man.

                           Andrew’s wife, Lise, gives birth to a son just as Andrew arrives home to his estate, much to the shock of his family. Lise dies in childbirth, leaving Andrew’s devout sister Mary to raise the son. Meanwhile, Pierre, disillusioned by married life, leaves his wife and becomes involved with the spiritual practice of Freemasonry. He attempts to apply the practice’s teachings to his estate management, and share these teachings with his skeptical friend Andrew, who is doing work to help reform the Russian government.

                                     Meanwhile, the Rostov family’s fortunes are failing, thanks in part to Nicholas’s gambling debts. The Rostovs consider selling their beloved family estate, Otradnoe. Nicholas is encouraged to marry a rich heiress, despite his earlier promise to marry Sonya. Nicholas’s army career continues, and he witnesses the great peace between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander. Natasha grows up, attends her first ball, and falls in love with various men before becoming seriously attached to Andrew. Andrew’s father objects to the marriage, and requires Andrew to wait a year before wedding Natasha. Natasha reluctantly submits to this demand, and Andrew goes off to travel.

                                 After Andrew departs, his father becomes irritable and cruel toward Mary, who accepts the cruelty with Christian forgiveness. Natasha is attracted to Anatole Kuragin, who confesses his love. She eventually decides that she loves Anatole and plans to elope with him, but the plan fails. Andrew comes home and rejects Natasha for her involvement with Anatole. Pierre consoles Natasha and feels an attraction toward her. Natasha falls ill.

                                   In 1812, Napoleon invades Russia, and Tsar Alexander reluctantly declares war. Andrew returns to active military service. Pierre observes Moscow’s response to Napoleon’s threat and develops a crazy sense that he has a mission to assassinate Napoleon. The French approach the Bolkonski estate, and Mary and the old Prince Bolkonski (Andrew’s father) are advised to leave. The prince dies just as the French troops arrive. Mary, finally forced to leave her estate, finds the local peasants hostile. Nicholas happens to ride up and save Mary. Mary and Nicholas feel the stirrings of romance.

                                     The Russians and French fight a decisive battle at Borodino, where the smaller Russian army inexplicably defeats the French forces, much to Napoleon’s dismay. In St. Petersburg, life in the higher social circles continues almost unaffected by the occupation of Moscow. Helene seeks an annulment of her marriage with Pierre in order to marry a foreign prince. Distressed by this news, Pierre becomes deranged and flees his companions, wandering alone through Moscow.

                                Meanwhile, the Rostovs pack up their belongings, preparing to evacuate, but they abandon their possessions to convey wounded soldiers instead. Natasha’s younger brother Petya enters the army. On the way out of the city, the Rostovs take along the wounded Andrew with them. Pierre, still wandering half-crazed in Moscow, sees widespread anarchy, looting, fire, and murder. Still obsessed with his mission of killing Napoleon, he saves a girl from a fire but is apprehended by the French authorities. Pierre witnesses the execution of several of his prison mates, and bonds with a wise peasant named Platon Karataev.

                                  Nicholas’s aunt tries to arrange a marriage between Nicholas and Mary, but Nicholas resists, remembering his commitment to Sonya. Mary visits the Rostovs to see the wounded Andrew, and Natasha and Mary grow closer. Andrew forgives Natasha, declaring his love for her before he dies. General Kutuzov leads the Russian troops back toward Moscow, which the French have finally abandoned after their defeat at Borodino. The French force the Russian prisoners of war, including Pierre, to march with them. On the way, Platon falls ill and is shot as a straggler. The Russians follow the retreating French, and small partisan fighting ensues. Petya is shot and killed.

                                        Pierre, after being liberated from the French, falls ill for three months. Upon recovering, he realizes his love for Natasha, which she reciprocates. Pierre and Natasha are married in 1813 and eventually have four children. Natasha grows into a solid, frumpy Russian matron. Nicholas weds Mary, resolving his family’s financial problems. He also rebuilds Mary’s family’s estate, which had been damaged in the war. Despite some tensions, Nicholas and Mary enjoy a happy family life.

                   Point of view of writer 

                                   A writer who influenced Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom struggle was dragged into court on Wednesday with Justice Sarang Kotwal asking activist Vernon Gonsalves about a copy of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, among other books, he had at his home. “Why would you keep a book about a war in another country at your home?” the Bombay High Court judge asked.

                                          War and Peace, considered one of Tolstoy’s masterpieces, is a sweeping saga of the French invasion of Russia and its impact on everyday lives told through the stories of two families, the fun-loving Rostovs and the grim Bolkonskys, with the quixotic Count Pierre Bezukhov crossing their paths. He began writing it in 1863, and like other novels of the time it came out serially before being published in its entirety, over 1,000 pages, in 1869. Tolstoy sets it in the period of the Napoleonic wars (1805-1812), and ‘war’ and ‘peace’ intersect, from the battlefield to happy homes, old associations forgotten, new connections made. (To give just one example, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who is engaged to Natasha Rostov, goes off to war and dies; Pierre is taken prisoner by the French but ultimately survives to marry Natasha.) 

                                  In Penguin's Vintage Classics edition, Richard Pevear writes in the introduction that War and Peace embodies the national myth of “Russia’s glorious period,” in the confrontation of Napoleon and Field Marshal Kutuzov, and at the same time it challenges that myth and all such myths through the vivid portrayal of the fates of countless ordinary people, men and women, young and old, French as well as Russian, and through the author’s own passionate questioning of the truth of history. There are vivid descriptions of battles, many love stories, an enquiry of ideas, Western and Russian, philosophical studies of life and its vicissitudes, and a quest for answers to moral questions. On war, Tolstoy wrote emphatically, “On the twelfth of June, the forces of Western Europe crossed the borders of Russia and war began – that is, an event took place contrary to human reason and to the whole of human nature.”

                                                     When it was first published, some readers were overwhelmed by the sheer size, and the array of characters. Aware of the dismay it caused, Tolstoy tried to explain the book in an article, “It is not a novel, still less an epic poem, still less a historical chronicle. War and Peace is what the author wanted and was able to express, in the form in which it is expressed…” Read in translation, Henry James described it as a “large, loose baggy monster”, but also added that “Tolstoy is a reflector as vast as a natural lake; a monster harnessed to his great subject—all human life!”

         FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE 

                                 Ernest Hemingway was a writer whose style was very different to that of most writers in his time. Instead of using more drawn out, overly descriptive writing, his stories were more of a “get to the point” style. Hemingway’s style came from his background as a journalist, where he was taught to make stories short and informative, as most articles in newspapers are.

                          Instead of using 20 pages to describe one person’s odor or something along those lines, Hemingway would finish an entire story in a small amount of space. But what set him apart from the rest was his ability to use the fewest words with maximum information. Before Hemingway began publishing his short stories, American writers affected British mannerisms. Adjectives piled on top of one another; adverbs tripped over each other and the plethora of semicolons often caused readers exasperation. And then came Hemingway to set the trend. An excellent example of Hemingway’s style is found in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” whose plot is simple, yet highly complex and difficult. When Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1954, his writing style was singled out as one of his foremost achievements. The committee recognized his

 “forceful and style-making mastery of the art of modern narration.”

                           This spare, carefully honed and polished writing style of Hemingway was spontaneous but he had learned to report facts crisply and succinctly as a journalist.  Another aspect of Hemingway’s style was his use of atmosphere. When you read a story by Hemingway, you feel like you were in the setting, seeing what the characters saw, and feeling as the characters felt. In the novella “The Old Man and the Sea,” Hemingway writes about an old fisherman who goes out into the sea in search of fish. The story is about 15% dialogue and 85% of the old man alone in the sea.  Being an obsessive revisionist, Hemingway has been reported to have revised and rewritten all or portions of ‘The Old man and the Sea’ more than two hundred times. His words are simple and uniquely brilliant. So Hemingway said that a writer’s style should be:

 “direct and personal, his imagery rich and earthy, and his words simple and vigorous”

                      POINT OF VIEW 

                              For Hemingway, point of view is important. ‘For Whom Bell Tolls’ presents the narrative through an omniscient point of view that continually shifts back and forth between the characters. In this way, Hemingway can effectively chronicle the effect of the war on the men and women involved. The narrator shifts from Anselmo’s struggles in the snow during his watch to Pilar’s story about Pablo’s execution of Fascists and El Sordo’s lonely death to help readers more clearly visualize their experiences. Against the backdrop of the group’s attempt to blow up the bridge, each character tells his or her story: Maria tells of her parents’ murder and her rape; Jordan shares what he learned about the true politics of war at Gaylord’s in Madrid. 

                               Pilar provides the most compelling and comprehensive stories of Finito’s fears in bullfighting and of Pablo and his men as they beat the Fascists to death in a drunken rage.  Hemingway enhance thematic focus. Pilar’s stories of struggle and heroism make their mission more poignant and place it in an historical context. Jordan‘s flashbacks to a time when his ideals were not tempered by the reality of war highlight his growing sense of disillusionment. His dreams of a future with Maria in Madrid add a bittersweet touch to his present predicament.   Michael Reynolds says about ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ that:

“Without drawing undue attention to his artistry, Hemingway has written a collection of short stories embedded in a framing novel.”

                              Hemingway is a master of dialogues. Hemingway’s most important contribution to the art of narration is perhaps his dialogue wherein the authorial comment is absolutely minimum as exemplified by the short story, ‘The Killers’. When Goerge says, ‘What are you looking at?’ Max looked at George. ‘Nothing’…‘The hell you were. You were looking at me.’ In ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, he captured the vital Spanish idiom through English as in, ‘the mujer of Pablo’. There are very few adjectives and adverbs in Hemingway style. 

                              These are replaced by the simple word ‘Said’. Certainly, he was influenced by Gertrude Stein and Mark Twain and thus his style reflects simplicity of expression. Although his style has shifted from casual to mature but in the typical Hemingway Style, the greatest burden is carried forward by the nouns and the simplest verbs. But at all times, his style perfectly suits to his theme and subject matter. His style is also symbolic.  For Whom the Bell Tolls the bridge stands for many things simultaneously. His style seems, in fact, to gain from association and connotation rather than denotation. The sea in The Old Man and the Sea, can stand for life, the world in which one meets one’s friends and adversaries:

“He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone…”

               CHARACTERIZATION 

                           Swearing is one of the major ways in which characters are given color, and personality. It defines Pilar and Agustín, and the more cynical way Robert Jordan swears also contrasts him with his more exuberantly obscene Spanish friends. Love of cursing in general is meant to be characteristically Spanish.

                              Hemingway also lends that "Spanish-ness" to his characters' language by using really awkward straight translations into English: lots of thee's and thou's, and words which mean something different in normal English than Spanish (for example, "molest," which means bother in Spanish and is a much more everyday word). Every so often, a character will also break into a regional dialect, as Anselmo does when he curses Pablo out at the very beginning of the book.

       EFFECT OF WAR IN " FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS:

                          At first glance Hemingway's novel For Whom The Bell Tolls appears to be an action packed war novel. But underneath all the action there are underlying ideas that reveal much about how war changes a man and causes him to realize the importance of time.

                       Hemingway reveals these ideas about war through the narrator's thoughts and through the interaction between the major characters. Hemingway shows that war brings about a personal change, that reveals much about man's individuality and that time is limited.

                            Hemingway reveals much about the individuality of men through the relationship of Robert Jordan and Maria. When Jordan is dying at the end of the novel he says to Maria "Thou wilt go now, rabbit. But I go for thee. As long as there is one of us there is both of us. Do you understand?"(p460) We begin to understand how we as people are never truly alone but instead are always surrounded by the memories and thoughts of those we love. When two people truly fall in love they become as one. Where one goes, both go. Robert finally says to her " The me in thee. Now you go for us both. Truly. We both go in thee now. This I have promised thee. Stand up. Thou art me now. Thou art all there will be of me. Stand up." (Pg.462) By saying this Jordan reveals how man is never an individual but instead is made up of all the influences, experiences, and memories that we have shared with others.

                           Furthermore This change came upon Jordan as a consequence of joining the war. Before the war had started he had no idea what it meant to be an individual, or to truly fall in love. Jordan says to Maria "I have never loved someone as thee. Before our cause I never new what it was like to truly live.

                           Or to love, as I do thee" (P160). This shows how being in the war allowed him to understand what it really meant to be a man. Before the war he never lived as full a life as he does during the war. It is the essence of war which causes these changes in him.

                                 The simple character Anselmo is also changed by the war. But instead of the changes being negative as they are with many of the other characters (except
Jordan), they bring upon a positive change on him. 

                               PLOT 

                                      For Whom The Bell Tolls opens in May 1937, at the height of the Spanish Civil War. An American man named Robert Jordan, who has left the United States to enlist on the Republican side in the war, travels behind enemy lines to work with Spanish guerrilla fighters, or guerrilleros, hiding in the mountains. The Republican command has assigned Robert Jordan the dangerous and difficult task of blowing up a Fascist-controlled bridge as part of a larger Republican offensive.

                             A peasant named Anselmo guides Robert Jordan to the guerrilla camp, which is hidden in a cave. Along the way, they encounter Pablo, the leader of the camp, who greets Robert Jordan with hostility and opposes the bridge operation because he believes it endangers the guerrilleros’ safety. Robert Jordan suspects that Pablo may betray or sabotage the mission.

                           At the camp, Robert Jordan meets Pilar, Pablo’s “woman.” A large, sturdy part-gypsy, Pilar appears to be the real leader of the band of guerrilleros. A rapport quickly develops between Robert Jordan and Pilar. During the course of the evening, Robert Jordan meets the six other inhabitants of the camp: the unreliable Rafael, feisty and foul-mouthed Agustín, dignified Fernando, old Primitivo, and brothers Andrés and Eladio. The camp also shelters a young woman named Maria, whom a band of Fascists raped not long before. Robert Jordan and Maria are immediately drawn to each other.

                             Robert Jordan and Anselmo leave the camp to scout out the bridge. When they return, Pablo publicly announces that neither he nor his guerrilleros will help blow up the bridge. Pilar and the others disagree, however, so Pablo sullenly gives in. Privately, Rafael urges Robert Jordan to kill Pablo, but Pilar insists that Pablo is not dangerous. That night, Maria comes out to join Robert Jordan as he sleeps outside. They profess love for each other and make love.

                             The next morning, Pilar leads Robert Jordan through the forest to consult with El Sordo, the leader of another band of guerrilleros, about the bridge operation. They take Maria along. El Sordo agrees to help with the mission, but both he and Robert Jordan are troubled by the fact that the bridge must be blown in daylight, which will make their retreat more difficult. On the way back to Pablo’s camp, Robert Jordan and Maria make love in the forest. When they catch up with Pilar, Maria confesses to Pilar that the earth moved as they made love. Pilar, impressed, says that such a thing happens no more than three times in a person’s lifetime.

                                    Back at the camp, a drunken Pablo insults Robert Jordan, who tries to provoke Pablo, hoping to find an excuse to kill him. Pablo refuses to be provoked, even when Agustín hits him in the face. When Pablo steps away for a few minutes, the others agree that he is dangerous and must be killed. Robert Jordan volunteers to do it. Suddenly, Pablo returns and announces that he has changed his mind and will help with the bridge. Later that night, Maria comes outside to sleep with Robert Jordan again. They talk about their feeling that they are one person, that they share the same body.

                                 Alone, Robert Jordan contemplates suicide but resolves to stay alive to hold off the Fascists. He is grateful for having lived, in his final few days, a full lifetime. For the first time, he feels “integrated,” in harmony with the world. As the Fascist lieutenant approaches, Robert Jordan takes aim, feeling his heart beating against the floor of the forest.