War and Peace

By:

Adalaine

Explain how the residents of Russia were affected by the war

During a war, all people of different race, age, and sex are affected greatly. Facing the dangers of death or having to move to a different environment are two consequences of a war. In the movie War and Peace , it portrays how residents of Moscow had been affected by the war.

The lower class of Moscow had been affected more than the nobles of Moscow. In the movie, it showed that the nobles lived nonchalant when the war carried on. Because of their great estates and being able to attend parties and plays, the rich were able to get their mind of the troubles of war out. The high ranks in the army, were usually held by one of the nobles. The rest of the army were lower class or middle class men.

The lower/middle class men who left behind their families in Russia, were in great need of help. It was hard enough to survive with dirty conditions and to survive through war. Song being sung out on the streets helped this class to not worry so much about war. The class was usually shunned by the nobles because they did not have the same living conditions. But a few nobles, like Natasha and her family in War and Peace had helped injured soldiers and lower class people when they had to evacuate out of Russia.

The only similarity between the 2 main classes, nobles and lower, shown in the movie, was that both had shown patriotism towards their country, Russia. Peasants who were captured, chose to be executed by the French army, rather to surrender to Napoleon. Dying for ones country, is the greatest way to show ones pride. As Russia burned in flames, both the nobles and peasants came together and sobbed with one another. At that one moment, money had no worth, but their pride did.

War and Peace in my opinion was a great movie to show how nationalism can save ones life and country. If the Russian army did not care about Russia, and chose to abandon it, then Russia would have been ruled by the French. Even though the residents lost almost everything in Moscow, they did not lose their life or their patriotism.