Feeling a stronger connection with his grandfather, Carl Joseph idealizes the glory of the Hero of Solferino’s village. Knowing nothing of Sipolje except that the village lies “cradled between unknown mountains, under […] an unknown sun”, Carl Joseph’s firm faith in his grandfather induces his veneration of the “lovely village” (60). The irony of his admiration for the unknown shows how his perception of the village relies solely on his idealization his grandfather. Though Carl Joseph claims that he would “gladly [trade] places with any of the privates” (61), Roth’s statement that he is “no peasant, [but] a baron and a lieutenant” (60) suggests Carl Joseph’s lack of self-awareness induces his distorted viewpoint. His desire to fit in within the military, rather than love for the peasant life attracts him to Sipolje. Unaware of the true implications of life as a farmer, Carl Joseph notices only the simplicity of their lives, yet not the hardships they have to endure. By idealizing his grandfather, Carl Joseph becomes increasingly imperceptive.
Carl Joseph’s ideals of his grandfather magnify his incapability and lack of confidence. His comparison of himself with his grandfather repeatedly reveals his incompetence. Through his awkward relationship with his servant, Onufrij, he realizes his social ineptitude extends even to servants, whereas “grandfather would have said something pleasant.” (64). His inability to associate with Onufrij causes him to feel inadequate. When writing to his father, Carl Joseph again feels incompetent because his lack of command appears to be inferior to what “the Hero of Solferino [would] have done in his place” (97). Roth clearly expresses the effect of Carl Joseph’s grandfather on him through his confession that he “constantly felt he lived in his grandfather’s shadow” (65). This burden to continue the Trotta legacy causes Carl Joseph’s to feel inferior.
Having chosen his grandfather as his role model in place of his father, Trotta idealizes his grandfather, but his inability to continue the family legacy diminishes his self-esteem. In the cruel and selfish military society, Trotta’s lack of self-assurance hinders his adjustment. Carl Joseph’s infatuation with his grandfather also inhibits his moral development and his vague sense of his own values will profoundly affect his relationships and even his mental health.
FIRST
23.9 “He loved them all sincerely, with a child’s devoted heart—more than anyone else the Kaiser, who was kind and great, sublime and just, infinitely remote and very close, and particularly fond of the officers in the army.
192.6 “The porcelain-blue eyes of the supreme commander in chief—eyes grown cold in so many portraits on so many walls in the empire and now filled with a new fatherly solic itude and benevolence—gazed like a whole blue sky at the grandson of the Hero of Solferino.
33.7 “The green shade of the trees flashed on the grandfather’s brown coat, the dabs and brush strokes merged back in to the familiar but unfathomable physiognomy, and the eyes regained their usual remote look that blurred toward the darkness of the ceiling.”
33.8 “The portrait seemed to be growing paler and more otherworldly, as if the hero of solf were dying once again and a time would come wen an empty canvas would stay down upon the descendant even more mutely than the portrait'
SECOND
60.5 “But CJ felt he knew the village... The village lay cradled between unknown mountains, under the golden glow of an unknown sun, with squalid huts of clay and thatch. A lovely village, a good village! He would have given his whole career as an officer for it. Ah, he was no peasant, he was a baron and a lieutenant in the lancers!”
61.2 “He would have gladly traded places with any of the privates. There they sat, half undressed, their coarse yellowish army shirts, dangling their bare feet over the edge of their bunks, singing, talking, and playing harmonicas.
61.5 “Back home they lived in dwarfed huts, making their wives fertile by night and their fields fertile by day…They were peasants. Peasants! And the Trotta dynasty had lived no differently. No differently!
THIRD
97.3 “ What would the Hero of Solferino have done in his place? Carl Joseph felt his grandfather’s imperious gaze on the back of his neck.
65.2 “He lived in his grandfather’s shadow. … He was the grandson of the Hero of Solferino, the only grandson. He constantly felt his grandfather’s dark enigmatic gaze on the back of his neck. “
88.6 “I live off my grandfather.”
64.6 “He would have liked to say something pleasant. Grandfather would have said something pleasant to Jacques.”
“ They were grandsons, they were both grandsons.”
61.5 “CJ’s grandfather might still have understood them! His enigmatic portrait blurred under the ceiling of the study. Cj’s memory clung to this portrait as the sole and final emblem bequeathed to him by the long line of his unknown forebears. He was their offspring. Since joining the regiment, he felt he was his grandfather’s grandson, not his father’s son; indeed, he as the son of his strange grandfather.”
