Instead, it rests with a simple, loving peasant named Platon Karataev who is sent to fight the French against his will.
But even though Platon has little control over his situation, he
has a greater ability to touch others than the authoritarian Napoleon, who only sets a pernicious example.
For example, Platon offers the motherless hero, Pierre Bezukhov, an almost feminine
and maternal kindness and shows him that the answer to his spiritual searching lies not in glory and blistering speeches but in human connection and our inherent connectivity.