I have read a short story called The Sniper. It is a story about two brothers tried to kill each other without knowing the identities because of a civil war in Ireland. The story has an irony ending that they tried to kill each other desperately, but the one they were trying to kill is their blood brother. Similarly, Paul tried to save his enemy after he has stabbed a sword into the one’s body. The only thing they know is that they were fighting and killing their enemies for the peaceful life. They didn’t even know each other and they has done nothing wrong. Paul was upset when he saw the man’s photo of his family. People were suffering from the war. No one wants the war. “‘ A mountain in Germany cannot offend a mountain in France. Or a river, or a wood, or a field of wheat.’” (Pg 175) Who are they fighting for? Why are they fighting? Soldiers were fighting for themselves, their comrades, and their families. People who have never been to the front would not know the horror of the war. They could be friends if there was no war. The only reason to cause the war is to gain benefits for those people at the top. Both of the stories tell that there is actually no winner. In The Sniper, one person killed his brother. He won, but once he killed his brother, he lost. Likewise, France won in WWI; whereas, they had received so many sadness. The horror of the war threats everybody. The nationalistic elders in the novel pushed the youth into the war. Most of young soldiers joined the war after they graduated from school. The teacher didn’t tell them the truth, and the youth have never thought about how awful the war was. The teacher was expressing an idea that people who don’t volunteer for the war were coward. Young soldiers were givin...
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...haracters died at the end of the novel. Even though the war was just, it could not wake the dead heroes up. Innocent people died in the war. Although some people were evil, human being has no rights to take away others’ lives. War means sadness, pain, sorrow, and death. Paul’s flat tone in the novel shows his numbness. He treated his friends’ death as a common occurrence. Paul knew that he couldn’t let himself being sentimental if he still wanted to be alive. The physical and mental damages of the war made a strong impact on the soldiers who were very young. The sudden death of their friends, comrades, or families were happened frequently. Imagine we are the one whose friend is killed yesterday. We don’t even have time to feel sad for this friend because another friend died today. When this happens several times, we would feel numb about death. War ruined everything.
All Quiet on the Western Front is a book written by Erich Maria Remarque. It was a book written to reflect the human cost of war. It shows us how war has a hidden face that most people do not see until it is too late. In the novel, he describes a group of young men who at first think war is glorious. But as the war drags on, the group discovers how war is not all it is set out to be. As the war went on, they saw their friends either die or be permanently wounded. Then the end comes when there was only one person left.
War in the end does kill Paul, but not before his closest friends are killed. Katczinsky is hit by shrapnel and is horrifically described by the author here "Kat got a splinter of shrapnel in his head on the way. The war has ripped apart Paul's life and now his closest friend is dead. The final chapter describes Paul's last days and how he is resigned to dying. The novel goes from first person narrative to third person when Paul passes away. "He fell in October1918 on a day that was so still and quiet along the entire front." This line is important as it refers to the title of the book and how it is still and quiet on this day because it is the end of the war. The death of Paul stresses to me that war is pointless and is only a destructive force which rips apart family, friends and lives.
... Paul wanted to get out of the war. Maybe Paul died on the right day; he loves quiet, and he dies on possibly the quietest day of the whole war. Maybe he just wanted to end his misery. In any case, Paul cannot accept the philosophy of war and thus gives himself up for death.
use nature as the judge to condemn war, along with shocking imagery, so that his
All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel that greatly helps in the understanding the effects war. The novel best shows the attitudes of the soldiers before the war and during the war. Before the war there are high morals and growing nationalist feelings. During the war however, the soldiers discover the trauma of war. They discover that it is a waste of time and their hopes and dreams of their life fly further and further away. The remains of Paul Baumer's company had moved behind the German front les for a short rest at the beginning of the novel. After Baumer became Paul's first dead schoolmate, Paul viewed the older generation bitterly, particularly Kantorek, the teacher who convinced Paul and his classmates to join the military. " While they taut that duty to one's country is the greatest thing, we already that death-throes are stronger.... And we saw that there was nothing of their world left. We were all at once terribly alone, and alone we must see it through."(P. 13) Paul felt completely betrayed. " We will make ourselves comfortable and sleep, and eat as much as we can stuff into our bellies, and drink and smoke so that hours are not wasted. Life is short." (P 139) Views of death and becoming more comfortable with their destiny in the r became more apparent throughout the novel. Paul loses faith in the war in each passing day. * Through out the novel it was evident that the war scarred the soldiers permanently mentally. Everyone was scared to go to war when it started.
Even when the novel begins, all Paul has known is death, horror, fear, distress, and despair. He describes the other soldiers in his company, including his German school mates with whom he enlisted after constant lecturing from their school master, Kantorek. The pressures of nationalism and bravery had forced even the most reluctant students to enlist. However weeks of essential training caused any appeal the military may have held for them to be lost. Corporal Himmelstoss, the boys’ instructor, callously victimizes them with constant bed remaking, sweeping snow, softening stiff boot leather and crawling through the mud. While this seems to be somewhat cruel treatment, it was in fact beneficial for the soldiers.
All our senses are assaulted: we see newly dead soldiers and long-dead corpses tossed up together in a cemetery (Chapter 4); we hear the unearthly screaming of the wounded horses (Chapter 4); we see and smell three layers of bodies, swelling up and belching gases, dumped into a huge shell hole (Chapter 6); and we can almost touch the naked bodies hanging in trees and the limbs lying around the battlefield (Chapter 9). The crying of the horses is especially terrible. Horses have nothing to do with making war. Their bodies gleam beautifully as they parade along--until the shells strike them. To Paul, their dying cries represent all of nature accusing Man, the great destroyer.
Paul and his company were once aspiring youth just graduating school thinking about having a wonderful life. Sometimes things don’t always play out the way you want. The effects of war on a soldier is another big theme in the novel. Paul describes how they have changed and how death doesn’t affect them anymore. “We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defen...
Imagine being in an ongoing battle where friends and others are dying. All that is heard are bullets being shot, it smells like gas is near, and hearts race as the times goes by. This is similar to what war is like. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the narrator, Paul Baumer, and his friends encounter the ideals of suffering, death, pain, and despair. There is a huge change in these men; at the beginning of the novel they are enthusiastic about going into the war. After they see what war is really like, they do not feel the same way about it. During the war the men experience many feelings especially the loss of loved ones. These feelings are shown through their first experience at training camp, during the actual battles, and in the hospital.
In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front there are many good examples of comradeship. Comradeship should have been and is a major part of this story. Think about it, fighting day and night for your life isn’t an easy task to do alone. Friends and acquaintances are going to come in real handy when in war. Remarque does a very good job implying this trait. In many parts of the book you see cooperation of the friends. Sometimes not even between Paul and his friends, but little things. Such as Paul when he is in the listening post. He is helping his entire side to make sure when an enemy is approaching. A very little thing, but it helps.
There was a drastic change in Paul’s mindset when he came home for his break. For example, he lied to Franz’s mother about his death. He said he had a quick death, but in reality, Franz had a slow and painful death. As a result of the war, many soldiers also gave up on their beliefs as well.
At the beginning of chapter seven, the Second Company is taken further back to a depot for reinforcements, and the men rest. Himmelstoss wants to get on good terms with the boys and shows them kindness. Paul starts to respect him after seeing how he carried Haie Westhus when he was hit in the back. Tjaden is won over too after he learns that Himmelstoss will provide extra rations from his job as sergeant cook.
People who have actually been through war know how horrible it is. Society on the other hand, while it believes it knows the horrors of war, can never understand or sympathize with a soldier’s situation. The only people who can understand war is those who have been through it so they can often feel alone if they are out of the military. Paul cannot even give a straight answer to his own father about his dad’s inquiries about war. Paul’s dad does not understand that people who have been in the war can in no way truly express the horrible things that that have seen and experienced. Nor can Paul fit in with the society who does not understand him. Paul and so many others were brought into the war so young that they know of nothing else other than war. Paul held these views on society as he said, “We will be superfluous even to ourselves, we will grow older, a few will adapt themselves, some others will merely submit, and most will be bewildered;-the years will pass by and in the end we shall fall in to ruin.
World War I had a great effect on the lives of Paul Baumer and the young men of his generation. These boys’ lives were dramatically changed by the war, and “even though they may have escaped its shells, [they] were destroyed by the war” (preface). In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Baumer and the rest of his generation feel separated from the other men, lose their innocence, and experience comradeship as a result of the war.
All Quiet on the Western Front - A Book Review Professor’s Comments: This is a good example of a book review typically required in history classes. It is unbiased and thoughtful. The student explains the book and the time in which it was written in great detail, without retelling the entire story. a pitfall that many first time reviewers may experience. 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.