Andrić je Bosnu oslikao kao zemlju nagonske mržnje, gdje se ljudi bave idejama uništenja i samouništenja, ali je također uvijek govorio da Austrougarska carevina u Bosni predstavlja okupatora civiliziranijeg od Osmanlijske carevine, koja je Bosnom vladala nekoliko stoljeća prije toga.
Andric painted Bosnia as a country of compulsive hatred, whose people espouse the ideas of destruction and self-destruction, but he also always said that the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Bosnia was an occupier more civilised than Ottoman Empire, which had ruled Bosnia for several centuries.