The darkness masks the countless clouds that fashion the heavy rainfall, generating a quality of reflections that rebound off the water creating liquid mirrors. These tiny pools of water cast the uncanny reflection of the streetlamps giving the miniature puddles a rather interesting illusion. Capturing scores of amazing reflections appearing as clear as ice formed naturally by a set of boundaries scattered throughout the area, generating highlights of incredible views, at least it looks as such. In a poorly lit alley, on a cobblestone street against a badly damaged brick wall lays Freddie. His reflection is clear in the liquid mirror he lies in. He is not moving, and it is uncertain if he is even alive. Newspapers line the alley along with …show more content…
The spotlights pass the streets in a timely fashion, moving up the walls of the buildings searching meticulously for something. He watches the streets from the darkened and watery alley careful to remain undiscovered. Knowing if spotted, it’s over. About a block north of his location one particular spotlight catches his eye. Probably the command center for the German forces he believes. Perhaps he is right as seven German soldiers marching up the street come from that exact location. His adrenaline reaches levels far beyond the normal status quo, as he watches the soldiers who unknowingly spread a fearful sentiment that has captured the dark and clammy conditions, giving the perfect backdrop to this surreal …show more content…
Hiding behind a wooden barrel, he prays they do not spot him when a figure dressed in black dashes into the alley. The figure approaches the brick building, pushing several bricks as if searching for treasure. The character in black is trying to connect with every piece of masonry it took to construct the building. “What the hell is this damn fool doing?” Freddie remains silent since he has no idea who this stranger really is. The figure in black pushes until a small passageway opens, entering the passage, leaving no evidence it was ever there. Glaring at the entrance as it closes, Freddie checks out the alley to make sure the German soldiers have left the area. Once he sees that it is clear, he sprints to the spot where the mysterious figure disappeared. Somewhere in the wall, there is a secret opening, knowing this to be true he tries pushing at the bricks. However, nothing
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.
use nature as the judge to condemn war, along with shocking imagery, so that his
The novel All Quiet On The Western Front contains many incidents where the readers can hold characters responsible for their actions, however his novel in particular relates to the clash of values. Though fictional this novel by Erich Maria Remarque, presents vast detail through the conflicts at the Western Front. Corporal Himmelstoss a character in the novel is portrayed as a stereotypical military man, whose actions, when all's said and done, speaks for itself as the reader really does not question his iniquitous behaviour. However, apart from just the reader holding such characters morally accountable for their actions the novel concerns the rejection of traditional values, Paul’s disillusionment, and life opposed to death. Through such clashing of values, Remarque creates a confronting novel where the plot is for the most part articulated around values in conflict.
Wisdom does not always relate to how many years we have lived but rather how much we have seen in this world. In All Quiet on the Western Front and They, both Erich Maria Remarque and Siegfried Sassoon created characters who were forever changed at a young age because of what they had seen. The horrors of trench warfare force men to do unimaginable things and become numb to their surroundings symbolizing the alienation of a generation.
The story of several schoolmates who symbolize a generation destroyed by the dehumanisation of the First World War, All Quiet on the Western Front tells of the men who died, and the tragically changed lives of those who survived. Remarque follows the story of Paul Bäumer, a young infantryman, from his last days of school to his death three years later. Whereas the journey motif is typically used to portray a positive character development, that of Paul is deliberately the opposite. In what has been dubbed the greatest antiwar novel of all time, Remarque depicts the way in which Paul is snatched away from humanity by the brutality of war. However while Paul and his comrades become separated from society, and begin to rely on their basic survival instincts, in their own surroundings they still show humane qualities such as compassion, camaraderie, support and remorse. Paul’s transformation from human to soldier begins in training camp, and is reinforced by the trauma at the front. His return home further alienates him from society, and Paul begins to feel safe at the front with his friends. Nonetheless throughout the novel suffering and mortality bare Paul’s true side, and he momentarily regains his former self. Bäumer, the German word for tree, is an early indication that Paul must remain firmly rooted in reality to survive the brutality of war.
The major focus of the book focuses on reconstruction of the events this group of men participated in. According to Browning, the men of Police Battalion 101 were just that—ordinary. They were five hundred middle-aged, working-class men of German descent. A majority of these men were neither Nazi party members nor members of the S.S. They were also from Hamburg, which was a town that was one of the least occupied Nazi areas of Germany and, thus, were not as exposed to the Nazi regime. These men were not self-selected to be part of the order police, nor were they specially selected because of violent characteristics. These men were plucked from their normal lives, put into squads, and given the mission to kill Jews because they were the only people available for the task. “Even in the face of death the Jewish mothers did not separate from their children. Thus we tolerated the mothers taking their children to the ma...
The two classic war novels ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ by Erich Maria Remarque and ‘Catch 22’ by Joseph Heller both provide a graphic insight into the life of soldiers serving their country in the historic world wars. One distinct theme of interest found in both books, is the way in which war has physically and mentally re-shaped the characters. Remarque creates the character Paul Baümer, a young soldier who exposes anxiety and PTSD (commonly known as Shellshock) through his accounts of WW1’s German army. ‘Catch 22’ however, is written in the third person and omnisciently explores insanity and bureaucracy in an American Bombardier Squadron through its utter lack of logic. The two novels use their structure, characters, symbolism and setting to make a spectacle of the way war re-shapes the soldiers.
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.
While soldiers are often perceived as glorious heroes in romantic literature, this is not always true as the trauma of fighting in war has many detrimental side effects. In Erich Maria Remarque 's All Quiet On The Western Front, the story of a young German soldier is told as he adapts to the harsh life of a World War I soldier. Fighting along the Western Front, nineteen year old Paul Baumer and his comrades begin to experience some of the hardest things that war has to offer. Paul’s old self gradually begins to deteriorate as he is awakened to the harsh reality of World War 1, depriving him from his childhood, numbing all normal human emotions and distancing future, reducing the quality of his life.
In the French coastal town of Saint- Malo in August 1944, War World II is coming to its high point. The allies are landing and fighting against Germany. Anthony Doerr’s “All the Light We Cannot See” is a historical fiction book, with a wide-ranging language and characters who are both courageous and heartbreaking. Doerr brings together the stories of a French girl named Marie-Laure, who has lost her eyesight and a German orphan named Werner. As Hitler upsurges, Marie-Laure and Werner lives and families are torn apart by the war. Anthony Doerr 's’ use of imagery, and metaphor, he stresses the damage of life that war creates. Since the characters were affected by the war and also affected by their experiences, all characters went through a change
As the workers stopped and moved to the factory cafeteria, Jackson hurried outside the factory, oblivious to any possible dangers and hindrances. At the factory gates, he had a better view of smoke which seemed to beckon at him as it towered and curled in the sky. Opposite him was the wall which barricaded the citizens from the outside world, as well as their freedom and their voice. He ran over and grasped the top of the wall, almost losing his grip. He pulled himself up and stoop on top. Jackson was about was to break his chains and unlock the door to a new world, a new
In the book, All Quiet On The Western Front, the character Corporal Himmelstoss is portrayed as a disciplinary, brutal, and sympathetic type of person in the training camps. Although prior to his position as a trainer he was a postman. Corporal Himmelstoss is in charge of No. 9 platoon. His petite size and the sleek moustache is not intimidating at first, until he displays his strict side towards the young soldiers. The brutal strictness of discipline that the corporal is known for changes once he has a taste of the frontlines. Thereafter a new soft tender person is born in the need for companionship.
The audience’s focus was meant to be on the experience and life of a fun-loving German boy named Bruno. Surrounding this eight-year-old boy were conspicuous Nazi influences. Bruno is just an example of a young child among many others oblivious of buildings draped in flags, and Jewish civilians who are seen briefly being forced out of homes and into loading trucks.... ... middle of paper ...
Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel that takes you through the life of a soldier in World War I. Remarque is accurately able to portray the episodes soldiers go through. All Quiet on the Western Front shows the change in attitudes of the men before and during the war. This novel is able to show the great change war has evolved to be. From lining your men up and charging in the eighteenth century, to digging and “living” in the trenches with rapid-fire machine guns, bombs, and flame-throwers being exposed in your trench a short five meters away. Remarque makes one actually feel the fun and then the tragedy of warfare. At the beginning of the novel Remarque gives you nationalist feelings through pride of Paul and the rest of the boys. However at the end of the war Remarque shows how pointless war really is. This is felt when everyone starts to die as the war progresses.
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.