27of364

Tolstoy though not an old man when he wrote the novel, understood how the young see the old and how the old are just as informed, and wiser then the young. We also get a good look at how complex the Napoleon issue is, even if Tolstoy is not actually impressed with the French general. We also get some more latent German hate. The family tree is interesting: the joke being the father going in for family hubris

26of364

A lesser writer would say how the son and the old father were emotionless, and probably give some silly back story for their relationship, here Tolstoy shows us how they live and we are richer for it. We KNOW these people, we intuit the relationships between father, son, and sister. We also get a less subtle clue to the father where he says “God has nothing to do with it” before we learned he’s not superstion