though superficially the characters are of different ranks, social classes, and political persuasions, they all tend to have similar overall experiences after the war as each one has nothing but difficulties with women and is unable to fully adapt to the new political landscape brought on by the revolution. the collective identity is emphasized with the intermingling of the characters’ voices and stories. in the final chapters the voices are so intermingled as to be practically indistinguishable. the novel seems to suggest that the characters have been fundamentally shaped by their common experience in the war and can never become a part of normal society again. although each is given a name, the characters are most often identified by the ranks they held during the war, further implying that their identities were fixed by the experience.