Themes of All Quiet On the Western Front All Quiet on the Western Front is a graphic depiction of the horrors of war. In the short note before Chapter One, Remarque lets the reader know exactly what themes he intends. War is a savage and gratuitous evil, war is unnatural, and war is responsible for the destruction of an entire generation. Remarque is very clear on the strength of his themes, and uses graphic imagery to convey to the reader the physical and psychological impact that war has on humanity. But Remarque uses more than graphic description to support his themes. Remarque also utilizes a very defined nature motif, with the forces of nature constantly rebelling against the conflict it plays battleground to. With the Earth itself, the source of all things, supporting his themes, Remarque has a seemingly unbiased witness bearing testament to his observations. Remarque can use nature as the judge to condemn war, along with shocking imagery, so that his literature remains without a trace of nationalism, political ill will, or even personal feelings. It should be noted that the nature motif is carried consistently throughout the novel, and that it supports many of the author's lesser themes. For the purpose of portraying war as something terrible, though, the nature motif is expressed most dramatically in the following passages. These passages mark the three distinct stages of nature's condemnation of war: rebellion, perseverance, and erasure. The first passage occurs in Chapter Four when the troops are trucked out to the front to install stakes and wire. However, the narrator's squad is attacked unexpectedly by an English bombardment. With no visible enemy to fight, the soldiers are forced to take cover and live out the bombardment. In the process, the earth is shredded and blown asunder. It is during this melee that many of the companies' horses are wounded, and begin to bellow terribly. "It is unendurable. It is the moaning of the world, it is the martyred creation, wild with anguish, filled with terror, and groaning." The bombing subdues, but the bellowing continues. "The screaming of the beasts becomes louder. One can no longer distinguish whence in this now quiet silvery landscape it comes; ghostly, invisible, it is everywhere, between heaven and earth it rolls on immeasurably." Remarque is none too subtle in using the dying horses as a metaphor for the Earth's own anguish. As the men face a new horror, nature is revolting against the damage being done to it. Remarque will return to this usage of the nature motif, with war being anomalous and unnatural in the "natural" world. At the first sign of war, a disturbance in the Earth's eternal peace, nature rebels. "...it is the earth itself raging." The next passage is found in Chapter Six, where the protagonists have experienced constant battle for many days. "The brown earth, torn, blasted earth, with a greasy shine under the sun's rays; the earth is the background of this restless, gloomy world of automatons..." The seemingly hapless and helpless nature can now only persevere. Earth plays the role of the victim, impotent to the forces that mutilate it. Whereas in the first passage, nature accuses man for his aberrance, and reacts violently, but ineffectually, against that which torments it. Now, however, nature is silent. It endures, waiting for the unnatural phenomena to pass. The final passage is more subtle than the two prior. It is found in Chapter Six, during the calm after a massive struggle. The dead are present everywhere, and the earth is marred with innumerable craters. It is in this quiet that the narrator makes the following observation: "My hands grow cold and my flesh creeps; and yet the night is warm. Only the mist is cold, this mysterious mist that trails over the dead and sucks from them their last, creeping life. By morning they will be pale and green and their blood congealed and black." Once again, Remarque uses metaphors with notable success. The mist, which behaves abnormally, is the manifestation of nature. Nature is slowly and quietly erasing the traces of its former anguish. In this instance, nature is at work decaying the dead; beginning the relentless process of repairing itself. This final stage in nature's condemnation of war can be seen consistently throughout Chapter Eleven, where the war toils on, but the seasons pass indifferently as the dead pile up. Nature's victory can be seen as the simple ability to outlast its tormentors. The novel ends with the war's conclusion, and at the same time, the rejuvenation of the Earth in those tortured regions. What then does Remarque accomplish by demonstrating these three stages? Staying consistent with his themes, Remarque is emphasizing the horrors and pointlessness of war. But where Remarque uses vivid and horrific imagery to make clear the former, the latter is clearly supported in his nature motifs. By observing the three stages above, the reader realizes the insignificance of war. Nature is above it, and greater than any war. Despite the immeasurable impact the war had on those involved, it was but a minor disturbance to the forces of nature. The dead decay and the earth mends itself. All traces of the carnage are erased, and although the war is history for humanity, for nature, the source of life, it has passed. Remarque has then accomplished his goal in writing the novel. His theme of condemning war as a gratuitous act of savagery is fully supported with accurate and shockingly graphic imagery. War being both unnatural and unnecessary (and ultimately, insignificant) is expressed clearly with the consistent nature motifs. And while the reader is in the state of suspended disbelief, these themes will be conveyed to him with alarming clarity. It is at this moment that Remarque has truly succeeded. The successful utilization of the nature motifs have given All Quiet on The Western Front a voice and emotion all of its own. This voice compels and influences the reader; for those immersed in Remarque's haunting novel, war has lost its glory, its grandeur, and its meaning.
One of the main themes in All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is Futility of War. The novel takes place during the Great War and takes place in France. Paul Baumer is the main character in the book along with many of his friends. In the book the theme of futility of war appears in the beginning, middle and end of the novel and Baumer slowly becomes more aware of what war is really like.
“Women Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros is an encouraging piece of a woman chained by her culture’s view of a women and having the strength of overcoming it. Although the environment and the people around Cleofila do not bring much hope of change to her she goes and escapes through the joy of watching telenovas. It was the reality of her own situation and the ones around her that gives her hope for a change in herself.
Vernon Kroft once said, “War changes everything. The world is never the same after a war. Any war. There are holes… missing parts… The best you can do is pick up the pieces that are left and start to build again. It’ll never be the way it was before.” War is detrimental to the world and leaves it in shambles. Nothing escapes the terror that war strikes in the world. In Erich Maria Remarque 's book All Quiet on the Western Front the ramifications caused by World War I become detrimental to nature. Paul Bäumer, a German soldier, experiences the horror because of the war and he realizes that the natural world is disastrously affected. Throughout the story nature condemns war and its malicious acts. The repetition of nature as a motif portrays war as vile. Through Paul 's experiences he comes to
A common form of neurotic behavior is caused by isolation, the separation of one from one or more people. In the short story “Adventure”, the main character Alice Hindman expressed her insanity through actions: “Getting out of bed, she arranged a blanket so that in the darkness it looked like a form lying between the sheets and, kneeling beside the bed, she caressed it, whispering words repeatedly, like a refrain”(101). Alice’s former lover Ned Currie had left to work in the city, and while he was in the busyness he had come across many different people to fall in love with; Alice, on the other hand, was shy and reserved, and because she did not want to let go of her first love, she committed to only loving Ned Currie: “The outer crust of her life, all of her natural diffidence and reserve, was torn away and she gave herself over to the emotions of love”(95). At that rate, Alice continued to wait for Ned to return, only eventually finding her self longing for just someone to be with, and later discovering that she had completely wasted her life over the wait for Ned instead of looking for new love.
The imagery in the poem is quick and dramatic. The title of the piece is ironic "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "dulce et Decorum est" which means it is fitting and right. In the Poem "Everything is tired" in the first stanza "Of tired, outstripped" Five-Nines" This is hyperbole as bombs don't get tired. The whole of the war became a sluggish battle. It is also a slow pace to start.
In the story "Woman Hollering Creek" Sandra Cisneros discusses the issues of living life as a married woman through a character named Cleofilas; a character who is married to a man who abuses her physically and mentally .Cisneros reveals the way the culture puts a difference between a male and a female, men above women. Cisneros has been famous about writing stories about the latino culture and how women are treated; she explain what they go through as a child, teen and when they are married; always dominated by men because of how the culture has been adapted. "Woman Hollering Creek" is one of the best examples. A character who grows up without a mother and who has no one to guid and give her advise about life.
In his realistic wartime novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque utilizes animal and nature imagery in order to reflect the destructiveness of war. Initially, as the gang trundles towards the front line in the truck and the artillery shells begin to whistle, "...there is suddenly in our veins...a tense waiting...a strange sharpening of senses. The body with one bound is in full readiness," (54). As this change in their blood occurs, the men become more animalistic, more aware and alert, losing their humanity to primal instinct in order to survive. With shocking ease, Paul and his veteran friends accept this change and manage to barely flinch as the bombing begins, demonstrating their war-hardened attitude. However, they
William Wordsworth, the age's great Bard, had a significant impact on his contemporaries. Best known for his beautiful poems on nature, Wordsworth was a poet of reflection on things past. He realized however, that the memory of one's earlier emotional experiences is not an infinite source of poetic material. As Wordsworth grew older, there was an overall decline in his prowess as a poet. Life's inevitable change, with one's changes in monetary and social status, affected Wordsworth as well as his philosophies and political stances, sometimes to the chagrin of his contemporaries.
Throughout their lives, people must deal with the horrific and violent side of humanity. The side of humanity is shown through the act of war. This is shown in Erich Remarque’s novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front”. War is by far the most horrible thing that the human race has to go through. The participants in the war suffer irreversible damage by the atrocities they witness and the things they go through.
All Quiet on the Western Front is the story of Paul Baumer’s service as a soldier in the German army during World War I. Paul and his classmates enlist together, share experiences together, grow together, share disillusionment over the loss of their youth, and the friends even experience the horrors of death-- together. Though the book is a novel, it gives the reader insights into the realities of war. In this genre, the author is free to develop the characters in a way that brings the reader into the life of Paul Baumer and his comrades. The novel frees the author from recounting only cold, sterile facts. This approach allows the reader to experience what might have been only irrelevant facts if presented in a textbook.
not so much the size of the war that really made an impact as to how
A romantic poet, William Wordsworth examines the relationship between the individual and nature. In the poem "Nutting," Wordsworth focuses on the role that innocence plays in this relationship as he describes a scene that leads to his own coming of age. Unlike many of his other poems, which reveal the ability to experience and access nature in an innocent state, "Nutting" depicts Wordsworth's inability as a young boy to fully appreciate nature, causing him to destroy it. Addressing a young girl, most likely his sister, he writes to poem as a warning of what happens within oneself when one does not fully appreciate nature. In his youth, the speaker is too excited by duty and too tempted by the wealth that nature holds to control his desire to destroy it. His defilement of nature's innocence, however, immediately disturbs him, causing him to question the value of material wealth and to realize the importance of nature, something that the speaker in the present now recognizes and shows in his interjections throughout the poem.
Wordsworth, William. "Strange fits of passion have I known." Wordsworth, William. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8. Norton, W. W. & Company, 2006.
Through his letters, essays and poetry William Wordsworth is perhaps the most ardent Romantic poet whose work speaks out against the destruction of nature in the name of industrialism. Concerning specifically his poetry readers can find multiple
William Wordsworth is considered to be the greatest among all of the English Romantic poets. Although he did not always get the recognition that he rightfully deserved in the early part of his career, only through trials and tribulations did he reach the pinnacle of the literary world. "Wordsworth said of "the Prelude" that it was "a thing unprecedented in the literary history that a man should talk so much about himself": " I had nothing to do but describe what I had felt and thought" and " therefore could not easily be bewildered.""(Sinatra, 1) Wordsworth's innovative concept of nature and his frank exploration of his feelings and philosophical ideas created his own original poetic theory. Asserting himself as a noted figure in the English literary world, his accomplishments are unprecedented through out the world.