God Sees the Truth But Waits Themes

Composed as a parable, or didactic moral tale, for children, “God Sees the Truth, But Waits” follows the false accusation and imprisonment of a merchant named Aksyonov for a murder that he did not commit. As state officials—a police inspector, soldiers, and even the tsar—participate in Aksyonov’s wrongful punishment, a brutal flogging followed by 26 years of hard labor in Siberia, Tolstoy sets up a highly visible contrast between the state institutions of law…

From the beginning of the story to the end, Aksyonov undergoes a dramatic development from a good-natured but casually sinful man concentrated largely on materialistic pursuits to a true “Man of God” (as his fellow inmates call him) absorbed almost exclusively in spirituality and the pursuit of salvation. Tolstoy very clearly establishes Aksyonov as a spiritual exemplar (or icon) by tracking the ways in which Aksyonov’s persecution and suffering lead him to atone for his…

In “God Sees the Truth, But Waits,” forgiveness emerges as a central concept in the story’s project of edifying readers. By showing the repeated failure, incompletion, or withholding of forgiveness in earthly (or social) contexts, Tolstoy suggests that the only ultimately reliable and worthwhile form of forgiveness is that of atonement from God, in which Aksyonov learns to trust. Importantly, Tolstoy never explicitly narrates the fulfillment of Aksyonov’s spiritual forgiveness; he simply presents a protagonist…