A Fable

The corporal is the central character in A Fable, even if he is absent for much of the narrative. Though he is a lowly corporal from a French colony, he inspires nearly 3,000 men to rebel against their officers and stop fighting. His ability to inspire others with a message of peace is a core aspect of his main function in the novel, to act as an analogy for Jesus Christ. The passion of Christ, in which he is executed by Roman authorities and resurrected three days later, provides the broad template for the corporal’s life. But whereas the life of Christ is replete with miracles and acts of divine inspiration, the corporal’s only notable achievement is to compel his fellow soldiers to stop fighting. In this fashion, the corporal as an analogy for Jesus Christ is a comment on the nature of modern warfare. The contrast between the corporal’s era and Christ’s era is such that the corporal bringing about a temporary but doomed peace is analogous to Christ performing miracles, such as a resurrection. In the contemporary era, the brutality of World War I has devastated people’s ability to believe.