Besides formal transitions to carry specific ideas from one context to another, Tolstoy employs symbols to underscore the moral significance of his narrative. His most frequent symbolic devices are naturalistic. For Tolstoy, nature is not merely a background for human destiny but is a partner to it, and images of nature provide him with the physical manifestations of the inner struggles of his protagonists. In this way, the author emphasizes for individuals his major thesis that historical happenings spring from unconscious impulses and from the instincts of the masses. As Tolstoy associates the indifference of nature to death with its unquenchable impulse to life, we see the peaceful sky over Austerlitz promising death to Andrey, and later, during his talk with Pierre, the same sky promises him a renewal of inner life. The comet of 1812 is another example: whereas it symbolizes the apocalypse to most people, Pierre believes it shines as a beacon for his inmost hopes. The old oak tree, to cite another example, is at one point a projection of Andrey's despair, at another it affirms his renascence. The pagan quality of the wolf hunt shows Rostov's youth and recklessness; later, when the same spirit carries him at a gallop against the French, Nikolay cannot bring himself to kill another human being. As Tolstoy describes the joys of hunting in the same way he describes the primitive exultation of war, the parallel is a symbolic expression that elemental forces may enrich or submerge the humanity of man.
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