Wednesday, November 27, 2013

What if.. Nahhh, Better Not Go There.

I recently found myself mourning the loss of Prince Andrew. In my depressed state of mind I thought of an irrational and just as bad alternative I wish would have happened instead: what if Pierre would have died instead of Andrew? When this idea popped into my mind I was at the bargaining stage of grief, and as soon as it passed I realized that was a stupid idea. As much as I feel emotionally attached to Andrew, I love Pierre too and the novel would not be the same without him. I realized my "what if" would never work because Andrew has completed his journey while Pierre has not. What do I mean by this? Andrew led good life. While he and Natasha never ended up married (insert sobbing), he had a pretty fulfilled life, and in the end he figured out where his place was (i.e. actually on the battlefield instead of in a high-ranking position and discovering a divine love over the worldly love he previously experienced). If one of the main characters had to rip our hearts out, it is better Andrew dies than Pierre because the latter has so much to learn still. Pierre has yet to discover what his purpose in life is or even to hold a single purpose for longer than a few weeks. I think his own foolishness might save Pierre from being killed off in the novel because he has yet to discover what the heck he is doing, and it certainly would not be a fulfilling ending if he died without discovering so! What do you think?

8 comments:

  1. I agree Liz! At the beginning of your post, I was on board with killing Pierre. As many know, he makes me completely crazy, so I would be happy if he was gone. But after your very insightful post, I fully agree Liz. I now also am able to better accept the fact that Andrew is dead. I really enjoyed this thought!

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  2. Not a problem Ash! Let us hope that Pierre becomes a wonderful, common-sense using gentleman like Andrew by the end of the novel.

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  3. When I was mourning for the loss of Prince Andrew, I surprisingly found that Andrew kept living in the form of Pierre. I don't know if it is appropriate to say so since we have not finished our reading yet. I just read that after Pierre experienced the life of being a prisoner, Tolstoy writes that "the look of his eyes was resolute, calm, and animately alert, as never before."(892) I feel like seeing another Andrew from Tolstoy's description of Pierre. For a long time, Andrew was the man Pierre admired and longed to become. I think the death of Andrew also implies that Pierre is behaving more like Andrew. Thinking in this way, can we just pretend that both of them are living? :)

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    1. Kaiqian, that's an interesting observation! I never thought about Pierre's changing in that way, and while I hope he doesn't die too, it might be nice to have Pierre simmer down.

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  5. Andrew's life is a process from everything to nothing. He had a family. He knew what he wanted to do. But then he lost his father and Natasha, and at last his own life. There are signs that Pierre's life is going the opposite direction as Andrew's. Pierre didn't have a life goal or family in the beginning, but recently he started to have ambition on killing Napoleon and saving the world. Is he able to find out his position in this world? Will he have everything at the end? Family, a wife, something he wants to do?

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    1. We can hope so, Yang. And while I agree with you that he has lost many people that are dear to him, he has also gained a great deal of insight into what is actually important in impacting history (or at least in the way Tolstoy believed) by becoming an actually-on-the-battlefield soldier instead of just a side guy to an important general.

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  6. I agree almost entirely with your post. While Andrew got to die with loved ones and find religious peace, Pierre is still hounded by despair and hysteria. Tolstoy communicates a lot through Tolstoy's death, but if Pierre died in his present mental state it would be much more cruel and depressing.

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