Nihilism

Pierre Anthon, the student that leaves school to set in his plum tree espousing his philosophical views all day, is a proponent of the school of thought known as nihilism. Basically, nihilism states that nothing has inherent meaning and, therefore, nothing matters. The very first chapter, probably from Pierre's point of view, is an outright statement of that belief as true -- "nothing matters...so nothing is worth doing" (1). The first chapter is a mere four sentences long and it outlines Pierre's philosophy, which he will follow religiously throughout the entire novel.

Pierre repeatedly insists to his fellow students, whenever they come to visit him, that nothing matters, specifically honing in on all the things they care about, which angers the students. Significantly, most of his views are pretty hypocritical and do not seem to make sense. For instance, when he tells Agnes and Ursula-Marie that...