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The front is draining Paul of his humanity. It is a “mysterious whirlpool” which sucks him, his humanity “slowly, inescapably, irresistibly into itself” (55). He is being pulled towards the fighting and the front, and consequently away from his humanity and identity as a civilian. However, his humanity is not fully gone. Paul feels that he is in the “still water away from its centre”, not yet inside the whirlpool (55). Inevitably, it will pull him in, but he is not yet completely lost to the front. Without anyone to truly comfort him, Paul turns to nonhuman forms of refuge. He seeks out safety and love in the Earth, rather than in people around him. To Paul, the Earth is “his only friend, his brother, [and] his mother” (55). He finds it difficult
In the Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett, Homer and Mother Maria both display straightforward, hardworking, and stubborn character traits. Firstly, Homer and Mother Maria both display a straightforward personality by being brutally honest about their opinions. For example, when Mother Maria asks Homer to build a chapel, Homer speaks his mind by telling her he does not want to build it. Mother Maria shows her straightforward behavior during Homer’s stay at the convent. One morning, when Homer sleeps in late, Mother to becomes extremely upset and is not afraid to show how she feels about him. Secondly, both Homer and Mother Maria display a hardworking spirit. Homer is a hardworking man because after finally agreeing to build the chapel,
As if something is inside us, in our blood, has been switched on. " The front makes Paul more aware and switched on as if his senses and reactions were sharpened. I think Paul and his friends are frightened when they are near the front line. After they wire the fences and they are heading to the barracks, their group starts to be fired at by the enemy. They manage to get through the shell unscathed, but they hear a horse that has been shot.
John Knowles wrote a fantastic novel entitled A Separate Peace. Some important character in the novel were Gene, Finny, Leper, and Brinker. Gene and Finny were best friends; Leper was the outcast; Brinker was the “hub of the class” This was a novel about friendship, betrayal, war, peace, and jealousy. Although Gene and Finny were similar in many ways, they also had numerous differences.
... While the corpse represents each of these concepts, in the end it is Paul’s faith – his own luck – that saves his life once again. What, upon first glance, appears to be a hectic and confused account of a destructive shelling becomes a wonderfully connected verse of one soldier’s struggle to preserve himself against all odds. What more can be said about Paul?
... his friends but also, on a deeper level, for other soldiers. When Paul becomes stuck in a hole, while a bombardment was on going, an enemy soldier falls on to him. Paul reacts as any hardened soldier would, with his knife. But while trapped in the hole, he has time to ruminate over his actions. Paul becomes sympathetic towards his enemy and attempts to soothe the man of his pain. He continually states to the man “I am trying to help, Comrade, comrade, comrade” because that is what they have become. While trapped Paul understands the similarities between him and the now deceased enemy. His empathy turns into genuine sympathy for the man’s plight but also for all soldiers, as he leaves the hole “I promise you, comrade. It shall never happen again” (Remarque, 226).
All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque, is a classic anti-war novel about the personal struggles and experiences encountered by a group of young German soldiers as they fight to survive the horrors of World War One. Remarque demonstrates, through the eyes of Paul Baumer, a young German soldier, how the war destroyed an entire generation of men by making them incapable of reintegrating into society because they could no longer relate to older generations, only to fellow soldiers.
Paul’s books symbolize the shadow of war that has been casted upon him through the horrid violence. Paul’s
All Quiet on the Western Front shows the change in attitudes of the men before and
Paul and his friends move back and forth between their camp and the front lines and for Paul almost nothing else exists but the game of war and the ground it is played on. life is extremely horrible for the men due to constant bombing lasting for days and rations of mouldy bread, these conditions show the literal effects on the soldiers. There are also rats living with them in the trenches that crawl over them in the night and the soldiers are forced to kill them like they are the enemy. Living in the trenches at the front surrounded by constant shelling and bombing means that the men live with a lot of anxiety and fear, causing some recruits to become mentally unstable. In the book some of the newer soldiers attempt suicide, showing that the war has damaged them to the point of them not caring for their lives
The emotions of the average young man are lost at war as their entire lives are put into perspective. Paul's young adulthood is lost and he does not feel shame in frivolous things any longer. His emotions are not the only thing he loses, as he also disconnects from his past, present and future.
In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul is morphed from an innocent child into a war veteran who has a new look on society. Paul used to have a carefree life where he was able to be a kid, but when he enlisted into the army it all changed. Paul became a person whose beliefs were changed because of the war. Paul doesn't believe in society anymore especially parents, elders, and school, which used to play a big part in his life. He changed his beliefs because society does not really understand how bad war really is and pushed many young men, who were not ready, into the army. Paul connects with his fellow soldiers because they are going through the same situation and feel the same emotions. Paul's beliefs were changed by the lies that were told to him.
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.
Paul was suddenly faced with a situation where the success and fulfillment he was planning to reach had to be completely eliminated. Paul then decided that if he was going to go, he wanted to be able to share his experience through the expression of writing based on his intellectual knowledge and personal realizations. This ideology is similar to what this religion course has elaborated on in relation to morality and the decisions we make based on different circumstances. In the face of a life and death crisis, it is human nature to try and find spiritual peace, which is what Paul does. He uses past experiences and current ones, based on his belief system to help him accept the inevitable and realize what matters most in life. Three core concepts Paul exhibited the most during this process that we explored in this religion course are, finding and exploring one’s vocation, the dignity of the human person and its impact on one’s sense of responsibility towards ourselves and others, and the use of revelation and how it affects humans when put in circumstances that are personally
The author's main theme centers not only on the loss of innocence experienced by Paul and his comrades, but the loss of an entire generation to the war. Paul may be a German, but he may just as easily be French, English, or American. The soldiers of all nations watched their co...
Paul describes the front as a “mysterious whirlpool” that “irresistibly, inescapably” (55) sucks himself in. “irresistibly” grimly explains how overpowering battle can be—it is impossible to avoid and draws him into without his consent. “Irresistible” is a word to describes objects that one desires, and many soldiers desire to fight at the front. Many young men have been led to believe that war will result in one becoming a hero—which may be true in some situations, but Paul finds this propaganda used by Kantorek and others to be false. It supports the idea of appearance versus reality; war seems like the breeding ground for heroism, yet it often results in selfishness and death. “Inescapably” conveys the feeling of suffocation Paul experiences. Later in the passage, when the connection a solider feels to the earth is described, “buries” and “stifles” are two verbs that are used. These verbs also bring connotations of suffocation and no escape, which are recurring feelings throughout the novel. Paul’s life should be carefree, yet he is thrown into this situation of war, which cuts off an important period in his life—his maturing into an adult. He feels trapped in his life because he has two conflicting feelings—he does not want to be in war, because of obvious reasons like the danger and terror. Yet, it has become what he is used to, and his past life is very vague. Unlike older soldiers, which can recall their past lives and have a strong desire to return to them, Paul and his comrades have no connections to any life. This realization contributes to the smothering he feels.