Shoes play a significant role in revealing an individual’s character, personality, and perspective, obtained through important life experiences. In Cinderella, glass slippers are used to portray Cinderella’s character. Glass is fragile and easily broken; However, Cinderella’s glass slippers never break, despite the impact of weight and occasional dropping. Similarly, Cinderella never breaks under the harsh conditions of her disrespectful step-sisters and the never ending list of chores (Cinderella’s gla…). In mythology, Hermes’ personality of superiority as a god is expressed through winged sandals, which Homer referred to as “divine and of gold” (Talaria). In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the united perspective of the soldiers, formed through the hardship of World War I, is portrayed through boots.
The soldiers experience a change in perspective when emotion and sensitivity are replaced by the ethics of survival at all costs. After Kemmerich’s leg is amputated, Müller’s sole focus is inheriting Kemmerich’s boots. The expected mourning and comforting were nonexistent. The soldiers had learned not to yield to their feelings amongst the devastations of war. “We have lost all sense of other considerations, because they are artificial. Only the facts are real important to us. And good boots are hard to come by” (Remarque 21).
Good boots make for healthier feet, leading to a stronger soldier, better protected from blisters, frostbite, cuts, etc. “World War I claimed the lives of approximately 6,000 men a day” (40 Amaz…). The war resulted in the survival of the fittest, and the strongest soldiers were more likely to survive.
The value of boots seemingly outweighed the value placed on a human lif...
... middle of paper ...
...
Works Cited
"All Quiet on the Western Front." SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.
"Boots." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.
"Cinderella's Glass Slipper: Symbolism of Lasting Beauty in a Classic Fairy Tale."
Voices.yahoo.com. Yahoo Contributor Network, 08 Dec. 2008. Web. 09 Apr.
2014.
"Quotes About Comradery." (11 Quotes). N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
"Real, Random and Relevant." Real Random and Relevant. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr.
2014.
yourselfforget-you-are-what-you-wearwear-what-you-are/>.
Remarque, Erich Maria, and A. W. Wheen. All Quiet on the Western Front. Boston:
Little, Brown, and, 1929. Print.
"Talaria." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 May 2014. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.
"40 Amazing World War Facts." Daily Express UK RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
"Queen's University Archives - World War I." Queen's University Archives - Home. Web. 23 July 2010.
"World War II (1939-45)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Ed. John G. Royde-Smith and Thomas A. Hughes. Encyclopedia Britannica, 5 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
He arrives back at his town, unused to the total absence of shells. He wonders how the populations can live such civil lives when there are such horrors occurring at the front. Sitting in his room, he attempts to recapture his innocence of youth preceding the war. But he is now of a lost generation, he has been estranged from his previous life and war is now the only thing he can believe in. It has ruined him in an irreversible way and has displayed a side of life which causes a childhood to vanish alongside any ambitions subsequent to the war in a civil life. They entered the war as mere children, yet they rapidly become adults. The only ideas as an adult they know are those of war. They have not experienced adulthood before so they cannot imagine what it will be lie when they return. His incompatibility is shown immediately after he arrives at the station of his home town. ”On the platform I look round; I know no one among all the people hurrying to and fro. A red-cross sister offers me something to drink. I turn away, she smiles at me too foolishly, so obsessed with her own importance: "Just look, I am giving a soldier coffee!"—She calls me "Comrade," but I will have none of it.” He is now aware of what she is
Another unique aspect to this book is the constant change in point of view. This change in point of view emphasizes the disorder associated with war. At some points during the book, it is a first person point of view, and at other times it changes to an outside third person point of view. In the first chapter of the book, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien writes, “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity (2).
The Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger once said “Perjor est bello timor ipse belli”, which translates to: “the dread of war is worse than war itself”. With this quote, Seneca identifies that war has both its physical and mental tolls on its participants. The psychological and emotional scars of war do much more damage to a solider than the actual physical battles. Tim O’ Brien repeats this idea many years later in his novel “The Things They Carried”, by describing how emotional burdens outweigh the physical loads that those in war must endure. What keeps them alive is the hope that they may one day return home to their loved ones. Yet, the weight of these intangible “items” such as “grief, terror, love, longing” overshadow the physical load they must endure since they are not easily cast away.
World War Two - American Memory Timeline- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress." World War Two - American Memory Timeline - Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress. Library of Congress, n.d. http://www.loc.gov/item/item/item/item/item/item/item/item/item/item/item/item/item/item/ Web. The Web.
"World War II Fast Facts." CNN. Cable News Network, 27 Jan. 2014. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
"World War 2 Casualties." World War 2. N.p., 17 Mar. 2010. Web. 05 Dec. 2013. .
"World War II by the Numbers." National World War II Museum n. pag. Web. .
Through Baümer, Remarque examines how war makes man inhuman. He uses excellent words and phrases to describe crucial details to this theme. "The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts," (page #). Baümer and his classmates who enlisted into the army see the true reality of the war. They enter the war fresh from school, knowing nothing except the environment of hopeful youth and they come to a premature maturity with the war, their only home. "We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. We are not youth any longer" (page #). They have lost their innocence. Everything they are taught, the world of work, duty, culture, and progress, are not the slightest use to them because the only thing they need to know is how to survive. They need to know how to escape the shells as well as the emotional and psychological torment of the war.
It is apparent that the topic of war is difficult to discuss among active duty soldiers and civilians. Often times, citizens are unable to understand the mental, physical, and physiological burden service members experience. In Phil Klay’s Ten Kliks South, the narrator struggles to cope with the idea that his artillery team has killed enemy forces. In the early stages of the story, the narrator is clearly confused. He understands that he did his part in firing off the artillery rounds, yet he cannot admit to killing the opposition. In order to suppress his guilt and uncertainty, our narrator searches for guidance and reassurance of his actions. He meets with an old gunnery sergeant and during their conversation, our narrator’s innocence
The Forgotten Soldier is not a book concerning the tactics and strategy of the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War. Nor does it analyze Nazi ideology and philosophy. Instead, it describes the life of a typical teenage German soldier on the Eastern Front. And through this examined life, the reader receives a first hand account of the atrocious nature of war. Sajer's book portrays the reality of combat in relation to the human physical, psychological, and physiological condition.
One of the worst things about war is the severity of carnage that it bestows upon mankind. Men are killed by the millions in the worst ways imaginable. Bodies are blown apart, limbs are cracked and torn and flesh is melted away from the bone. Dying eyes watch as internal organs are spilled of empty cavities, naked torso are hung in trees and men are forced to run on stumps when their feet are blown off. Along with the horrific deaths that accompany war, the injuries often outnumber dead men. As Paul Baumer witnessed in the hospital, the injuries were terrifying and often led to death. His turmoil is expressed in the lines, “Day after day goes by with pain and fear, groans and death gurgles. Even the death room I no use anymore; it is too small.” The men who make it through the war take with them mental and physical scarification from their experiences.
A prolific exemplification of the ideal female virtues portrayed in fairy tales is Charles Perrault’s “ The Little Glass Slipper”. Perrault presents the ideal female fairy tale character through his portrayal of Cinderella. Cinderella is a tame and forgiving individual who subjects herself to the will of her father, stepmother and s...
Müller, who in the first chapter expressed his desire for the dying Kemmerich’s boots, is in reality very sympathetic to Kemmerich’s suffering, but he sees that Kemmerich no longer has any need for the boots. Because of this, he feels has more of a rightful claim to them than a hospital orderly. The men now see problems from this perspective and good boots, like Kemmerich’s, are hard to find. There was a time though when they had different beliefs. Before the war they still believed that education was the most important aspect of life. These youthful thoughts were washed away at the Front, where they came to realize that order is what matters. One of the men responsible for this was their drill sergeant, Corporal Himmelstoss, who was a short, mean man. He would force the men to do unnecessary work and torture them with pointless assignments. Paul, Tjaden, Kropp, and Westhus were especially picked on by Himmelstoss, but they were secretly defiant. The training that they received was especially harsh, but it is what has saved them in the trenches. We now see the background that has shaped the men’s ideals so far.