(349 words) The name is extremely important for creating a literary work. A true writer can spend a lot of time looking for just a few words over the main text. A well-chosen name can not only attract the attention of the reader, but also accurately convey the thoughts and ideas of the author himself. We can observe this situation in L. Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace”.
Initially, it seems that the secret of the name is simple. Tolstoy portrays the era of the Napoleonic Wars. A detailed picture that tells about the life of people at this extremely contradictory historical moment is intended to tell us about peaceful and military life in order to create historical authenticity. From here comes the name, as a designation of the whole era. But Tolstoy in this case looked much deeper. The novel itself begins during the war in Austria, in the St. Petersburg salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer. First of all, the images of typical noblemen of the nineteenth century appear before us - these are narcissistic careerists and hypocrites who do not care about anything except themselves. A little later, at the theater of operations, we see a similar picture: politicians, military commanders, career officers, and demoralized soldiers create an atmosphere of complete hopelessness and decay. The main thing that Tolstoy wants to show us is a fragmented, disorganized society that knows where to direct its forces. It is in this that the secret of the first part of the title of the novel “War ...” is revealed. The war that members of a decaying society wage against each other destroys the country and people. Tolstoy denies and despises such orders prevailing in Russia. To revive a sense of community in people, the writer unleashes a terrible test on them. The invasion of foreign invaders puts the Russian people on the brink of death. And it is precisely because of the threat of an external enemy that the country truly unites. Tolstoy remains true to himself, not forgetting to show us a small decayed aristocratic elite. But at the same time, the absolute majority of the people, as they can, is helping their country. And it is precisely this state of a single people, carried away by the idea of protecting their land from the invaders, that reveals to us the secret of the second part of the name “... peace”. Peace in society, a clear awareness of the Russian national fraternity. The sacrificial struggle of each individual for the good of the majority, as opposed to the struggle of loners only for their own interests.
War and peace are two states of society that are diametrically opposed to each other, based on different ideals. In fact, there are a huge number of interpretations of the name of the novel. And this once again emphasizes the whole depth of Tolstoy’s thoughts and the versatility of his greatest creation.
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