Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein
Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Mary
Shelley's Frankenstein shows how the change in society has an effect
on people. But they both take different methods of showing it. All
Quiet on the Western Front shows how war takes the lives of others and
the effects on people during the war.Frankenstein, even though it is
fictional, tells a story of a distraught dream of science by
artificial means of life. Both stories have different effect
surrounding each character want and needs throughout the plot. First,
to understand All Quiet on the Western Front and Frankenstein it must
be analyze first. Then, they must be broken down for a compare and
contrast.
All Quiet on the Western Front takes place in Germany. The war that is
being fought is World War I. There, the young are basically joined the
military for the idea of adventure. First, they go to training relaxed
and basically thinking nothing of the war that is ahead. As they enter
the war, they are shocked to see the conditions of it. When on the
battlefield they rush into trenches to avoid the on coming fire and
shells. When solider go to hospital it wasn't uncommon for there boots
to be taken. It was a way to how war leave mental scare on people. It
was a kind of respect to show that a solider was important to others.
After the death of Kemmerich, Paul kills a Frenchmen and looks at as
he has killed a man. Instead of looking at the Frenchman death as a
victory it is more of remorse because it was a death of a human being.
Paul then goes though a metal state to help the family of the
Frenchmen. He lost his frontline position and was sent home. As he
tells his war stories, friend a family believed him to be a fool. The
people in the town had no idea what effects of World War I had on
people and left old soldier to be 'coward'.
A few of the symbols in All Quiet on the Western Front where the boots
of other men that dies in World War I and the life of what they missed
at home. A pair of boots showed the loss of a fellow soldier as a way
to move on. It leave behind that though that this was a man that died
here, not a pawn that is uses for war. Also, the boots stood for a
friendship that other soldier might have had for him.
Although their physical loads did not weigh the soldiers down, they definitely became their necessities. Certain physical burdens became items that helped them escape from the reality of being at war. Even though these men had things they had to carry, they elected to carry more. The items they carried were intended to illustrate aspects of their personality. All of them carried great loads of memories, fears, and desires. These abstract objects were an essential part of them and therefore could not be put down. They continued to carry these emotional burdens along with them throughout the war. And as Lieutenant Jimmy Cross came to realize, “It was very sad…the things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to
While on the way to reach their objectives, they uncovered a cache that was the property of the Union. Amidst the freezing cold and the weather, a female legionnaire’s leathers winter boots happened to be stepping on it, her boot prints revealing what appears to be a steel handle. The girl behind her, the last one who followed in the formation, was the one who took note of it. “Stop,” the girl told the others, “I think I found
The autobiography Night by Elie Wiesel contains similarities to A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. These works are similar through the struggles that the main characters must face. The main characters, Elie Wiesel and Lieutenant Frederic Henry, both face complete alterations of personality. The struggles of life make a person stronger, yet significantly altering identity to the point where it no longer exists. This identity can be lost through extreme devotion, new experience, and immense tragedy.
“Kiowa was gone. He was under the mud and water, folded in with the war…” (O’Brien, 155). Many soldiers in war may lose an extremity or get bumps and bruises, but Kiowa did not make it out so lucky. Lieutenant Cross got commands to take the route he knew was much
Whenever one reads or hears about World War I or World War II, you hear of the struggles and triumphs of the British, Americans or any of the other Allies. And they always speak of the evil and menacing German army. However, All Quiet on the Western Front gives the reader some insight and a look at a group of young German friends who are fighting in World War I. “This story is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war.....” The soldiers of this war felt they were neither heroes nor did they know what they were fighting for. These soldiers were pulled from the innocence of their childhood, and thrown into a world of rage. Yet somehow they still managed to have heart and faith in man kind and could not look the opponent in the eye and kill him. For he was man too, he too had a wife and children at home, he too was pulled out of his home to fight for a cause he didn't understand.
This affects each soldier when the war is finished. When a soldier returns back to his home after the war, he is unable to escape his primitive feelings of survival.
Remarque, Erich Maria, and A. W. Wheen. All quiet on the western front;. Boston: Little,
raw to and a yellow fog, a filthy fog, evil smelling fog, a fog that
O'Brien describes the variety of encounters him and the Alpha Company experience while in Vietnam. O'Brien also describes the various items his fellow soldiers carried. Most of these things are physical items such as pocket-knives, dog tags and matches. Other things the men carried are burdens of emotional fear and guilt. O'Brien's many descriptions of what is carried on these men's backs makes the reader feel the weight of what these men were fighting for. This powerful writing also makes the reader feel as though they too are walking next to the Alpha Company in the battle field.
As Bertrand Russell once said “War does not determine who is right - only who is left.” No one ever truly wins a wart. The horrors of war are devastating; both mentally and physically. The horror is not only ever present during life on the Frontline, it lives on in the survivors guilt. I believe that althought the horror of war is represented in the soldiers, we are all too quick to forget about the feelings of those at home, the friends and families, and the effects the war had on them. The effects of war are prominent throughtout the Novels “Regeneration” and “All quiet on the Western Front” and is also explored deeply in Wilfred Owen’s “Selected War Poetry”. Throughout these works we discover that war was inescapable for these men, they had no choice, and it+++++s events were also inescapable. We discover that the men would rather die defending their country as a hero than live with the flashbacks, the guilt, the both mental and physical scarring. They would rather lose their lives than their limbs. I find these works encompass this question fully, as it covers all angles. Pat Barker never really shows her opinion in the novel, it is more factual, and as it is based upon real events and real people it’s a reliable source of information on the horror of war and it’s effects, without bias. Erich Maria Remarque had first hand experience in the First World War, and he gives us an insight into what life on the frontline was really like. Althought fictional, I believe his suffering would have still haunted him years later, compelli...
Remarque, Erich Maria, and A. W. Wheen. All quiet on the western front;. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1929. Print.
Frankenstien Many punishments for crimes are often given to innocent people. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, there are several instances in which the punishment is given to an innocent person. Justine, a maid at the Frankenstein residence, was killed for a crime she did not commit. Felix, a character the Monster encounters, was exiled from his country, for helping an innocent man escape from jail. Lastly, Victor himself was jailed for a murder, which he did not commit.
World War I, also known as “The Great War”, was a global war that revolved mainly around Europe. It took place from 1914 to 1918. This was a very brutal war that caused many casualties. The soldiers who survived experienced severe trauma and mental discomfort. This trauma was a direct result of the violence and agony they experienced during the war. Motivation for this war was the idea of nationalism and the pride in one’s country. This war was the cause of disillusionment among many of the soldiers that were involved in it.
The World War One novelist Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “There were many words you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity. Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene” (Hemingway, ‘A Farewell to Arms’, 1929). Hemingway knew the horrors of war. He was a veteran of World War One. This was a war where 65 million troops were mobilized, and 37 million were killed, wounded, or went missing. War was seen as glorious until these views were brought in. Hemingway became famous for his writing as a member of the ‘Lost Generation’ of American writers. He, along with writers such as Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and T. S. Eliot made up the great American writers of the time. However, they did have their European
"World War I Casualties." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 17 May 2010. Web. 30 May 2010.