Critique of "The Man Delusion"

Critique of "The Man Delusion"

This is an excellently written paper with an accurate thesis and a clever title. The striking point of the thesis, that the general force of the novel is this idea of turning away from the self, or realizing the falsity of holding ourselves as idols or heroes, is in my understanding the most narrow yet still comprehensive way of looking at the novel's diverse themes. The title they chose is particularly clever, though of course anachronistic.

I feel that this paper does not contain very terrible flaws; in fact, it is very nice. Nevertheless it does lack some important and necessary aspects of the book which could have been but were not addressed. The themes of Napoleon and Kutuzov were fleshed out very well; those of Pierre and Andrew, however, lacked some important themes. Furthermore, there existed some crucial aspects of the book which were not addressed at all.

The discussion of Andrew glosses over his struggle with death. The horror of impending death, and the pressure this exerted on his thoughts and actions, is a crucial theme of the book which could have been related to their title. As for Pierre, his life did not end after Platon, and it did not end with the main part of the book. He has some development in the first epilogue which is could have been useful to their thesis.

The most crucial error of the paper is: what about Nicholas? What about Mary? Natasha? Vasili? Old Bolkonski? Mary's struggle to balance God and earthly loves continues even beyond the book's last page. Natasha's personal journey is probably the most emotional, and one of the most dynamic; she finds a solution to her difficulties as well. There are themes in War & Peace which, though able to be related, are not covered in this paper. This is an excellent paper, especially given the time and space constraints; but we were asked to critique the paper's argumentative faults, and this argument's problem is its lack of sufficient breadth.