- This whole time, Pierre has noticed that the French are getting more and more disorganized.
- The army is all mashed together, as are the prisoners.
- Partisans (a.k.a. guerrillas) keep picking off their supplies, and lots of French soldiers are deserting.
- The prisoners keep dying or getting sick and being shot.
- Platon falls sick with a fever and Pierre finds himself pulling away from the old man and starting to ignore him. It’s clearly just a psychological survival mechanism – you can’t think about all the horrors around you without going crazy.
- Pierre just tries to focus on whatever pieces of happiness or contentment he can find – like, for instance, the fact that his foot sores no longer bother him. Oh yeah, that’s happiness – when your festering sores are too painful to feel.