How Simplicissimus Was Plundered, and How He Dreamed of the Peasants and How They Fared in Times of War explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• War and Destruction

  Simplicissimus's home is plundered, and his dream vividly depicts the systematic oppression and suffering of peasants at the hands of soldiers.

• Social Class and Nobility

  The dream allegorizes the social hierarchy, with soldiers and officers above and peasants and laborers at the roots, bearing the weight and being exploited.

Characters to notice

• Simplicissimus

  Returns to find his home plundered, prays in desperation, and dreams of a symbolic tree representing the exploitation of peasants by soldiers.

Key passages

• “Now when I came home I found that my fireplace and all my poor furniture, together with my store of provisions, which I had grown during the summer in my garden and had kept for the coming winter, were all gone.”

  Upon returning home, Simplicissimus discovers that his fireplace, furniture, and summer-grown provisions have been completely stolen.

  Highlights the immediate material loss and vulnerability of a solitary hermit-like existence.

• “And then first did need teach me heartily to pray: and I must summon all my small wits together, to devise what I should do.”

  It was only in this desperate need that Simplicissimus learned to pray sincerely and had to gather his limited intelligence to decide his next steps.

  Shows Simplicissimus's turn to religion out of necessity and his struggle with worldly knowledge.

• “Yet could my foolish mind come to no other conclusion than this—that there must of a surety be two races of men in the world, and not one only, descended from Adam, but two, wild and tame, like other unreasoning beasts, and therefore pursuing one another so cruelly.”

  His naive mind could only conclude that there are two distinct races of men, like wild and tame animals, which explains their mutual cruelty.

  Reveals Simplicissimus's simplistic worldview and his attempt to rationalize the brutal conflict between soldiers and peasants.

• “Then it seemed to me, as if in a dream, that all the trees which stood round my dwelling suddenly changed and took on another appearance: for on every treetop sat a trooper, and the trunks were garnished, in place of leaves, with all manner of folk.”

  In his dream, the trees around his home transformed: troopers sat on the treetops, and the trunks were covered with various armed men instead of leaves.

  Introduces the central allegorical dream that symbolizes the military hierarchy and its dependence on the peasantry.

• “The roots, moreover, were made up of folk of little worth, as mechanics and labourers, mostly, however, peasants and the like; and these nevertheless gave its strength to the tree and renewed the same when it was lost: yea more, they repaired the loss of any fallen leaves from among themselves to their own great damage.”

  The roots consisted of lowly people like mechanics, laborers, and especially peasants, who provided strength to the tree and replaced fallen leaves at great cost to themselves.

  Emphasizes the foundational yet exploited role of peasants in sustaining the military structure.

• “but if the money would not out, then did the commissaries so handle them with rods (which thing they call military execution) that sighs came from their heart, tears from their eyes, blood from their nails, and the marrow from their bones.”

  When peasants refused to pay, commissaries beat them with rods—a practice called military execution—extracting sighs, tears, blood, and even marrow from their bones.

  Graphically depicts the violent extortion methods used against peasants during wartime.