All Quiet On The Western Front 'And Dulce Et Decorum'

Penned during two distinctly disparate eras in American military history, both Erich Maria Remarque's bleak account of trench warfare during World War I, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Tim O'Brien's haunting elegy for a generation lost in the jungles of Vietnam, The Man I Killed, present readers with a stark reminder that beneath the veneer of glorious battle lies only suffering and death. Both authors imbue their work with a grim severity, presenting the reality of war as it truly exists. Men inflict grievous injuries on one another, breaking bodies and shattering lives, without ever truly knowing for what or whom they are fighting for. With their contributions to the genre of war literature, both Remarque and O'Brien have sought to lift the veil of vanity which, for so many wartime writers, perverts reality with patriotic fervor. In doing so, the authors manage to convey the true sacrifice of the conscripted soldier, the broken innocence which clouds a man's first kill, and the abandonment of one's identity which becomes necessary in order to kill again.

"Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die"- Herbert Hoover. The leaders who decide to start the war do not have to fight, but the people who do not want to fight, like nineteen year old Paul and his friends, are the ones who are killed and injured. In the book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul changes physically and emotionally through war. Set in Germany during World War I, Paul and his friends must do the unthinkable to survive the war and it causes them to slowly lose their identity. Paul is changed by the harsh effects of the war through his dehumanization, rapid personal growth, and alienation from the rest of the world.

In the incredible book, All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, the reader follows Paul Baumer, a young man who enlisted in the war. The reader goes on a journey and watches Paul and his comrades face the sheer brutality of war. In this novel, the author tries to convey the fact that war should not be glorified. Through bombardment, gunfire, and the gruesome images painted by the author, one can really understand what it would have been like to serve on the front lines in the Great War. The sheer brutality of the war can be portrayed through literary devices such as personification, similes, and metaphors.

All Quiet on the Western Front and Dulce Et Decorum Est are similar in that they show the brutality and bloodiness of war. In All Quiet On The Western Front they had to put gas mask on because the enemy throws gas at the soldiers and if one of them didn’t put the mask on and he would die and the other soldiers couldn’t do anything about the situation. Paul went to help his friends put his gas mask on before he dies, he grabs “his mask and pull(s) it over his head”(Remarque 21). From the poem it says GAS! GAS! Quick boys -- which mean quick put mask before the gas kills you he said in the poem of Dulce Et Decorum Est.

“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.” In the beginning Paul describes the soldiers as “We are satisfied and at peace.” he goes on to say how they are no longer the “Iron Youth” as they were once described, they are “Old Folk”. Paul explains how throughout training they all learned more than they did throughout school, they became men.

“Dulce Et Decorum Est” and All Quiet On The Western Front in both of these story are explain of horrors of war“Dulce Et Decorum Est” Wilfred Owen is talking about the warfare on the field and talking about the gas, “All Quiet On The Western Front” Paul Baumer also talk about the warfare and the gas. “Dulce Et Decorum Est” Wilfred Owen and his army buddy were at war they was under attack by gas. Wilfred Owen is scary to his friends “Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!” he scream that to protect them. “All Quiet On The Western Front” When Paul Baumer was at the trench he was also attacked by gas. “I hear nothing, he rattles me, come nearer, in a momentary lull his voice reaches me: Gas-Gaa-gaaas-pass it on” Paul Baumer was warned by his fellow teammate

The emotional struggle of soldiers losing comrades showcases the dehumanizing impact of war. After witnessing the deaths of his friends in combat, Paul is overwhelmed by despair and hopelessness, with him reflecting, “I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death,[and] fear” (Remarque

World War I is a War where many lives were lost and got many people sick in the mind because of the brutality of war. All Quiet Of The Western Front and the song “Dulce Et Decorum Est” both show Horrors Of War. Know ones how bad people in the war suffer until they're in it. In the book All Quiet Of The Western Front shows Horror of war “Kemmerich is dead, Haie Westhus is dying. Martens has no legs anymore”(Remarque 45). When all the soldiers friends die it makes the others feel nervous and rethinking about them entering the war. In the song “Dulce Et Decorum Est” it shows horror of war “Many had lost their boots but limped on, blood-shod”(Owen) The second piece of evidence that shows Horror Of War in the book is All Quiet Of The Western Front

Erich Remarque’s 1929 novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, serves as a times capsule of the Great War. Throughout his novel, Remarque explores the horror of WWI, portraying the animal qualities it possesses. Going deeper he examines the effects the war had on soldiers lives and mindsets. Furthermore, the politics that go into war and the disconnect between those who start it and those who fight it, is discussed.

Teachers, in their ignorance, spoke easily about the war believing they understood it better than the soldiers. Claims of understanding the war as a 'whole' were part of the older generation's rationale.

War has brainwashed soldiers and people to always believe and obey what they are told. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul killed a French soldier, an enemy, and tries to deal with the guilt gained by the traumatic event. Paul says, “ I did not want to kill you. If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too. But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response… But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me… Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us.” (Document B) Paul is regretting killing the French soldier as he realized he is exactly like him and his friends. Soldiers are trained if an enemy approaches without hesitation to go and kill, and Paul

To a civilian, war is a simple and glorious thing, but to a soldier who is fighting and experiencing the war, it is brutal and terrible. The contrasting views of war between civilians and soldiers is stressed in Erich Remarque's war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, which puts an emphasis on the realities of war. Patriotism and nationalism led civilians to believe that it was one’s duty to fight for their country, prompting men to enlist for the war. These men knew nothing of what life would be like out on the front.

The loss of innocence is an evident yet bitter theme in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front. The group of young men, introduced at the beginning of the book, had no idea of the hardships and brutalities of war that come. Following their disclosure to battle and the front, the boys instantaneously become men. They are no longer naive and innocent. The theme is also shown with the protagonist, Krebs, in the short story “Soldier’s Home.” Krebs is home on leave, and does not have passion for life anymore. This saddening topic is also shown in the poem “Anthem for Doomed Youth.” All three of these works of literature have the same surreal and sorrowful characteristics, that dismally happens to many young men.

Creating all these horrifying images of war creates images in these men that will be there forever and change the men and how they see things forever creating the teens into men. In “Like Toy Soldiers” It say’s “Wouldn't have to about one of worry about one of your people dyin”( “Like Toy Soldiers” by Eminem). This quote is showing how your thinking about all of your comrades and friends dying and never knowing when or if they are going to die. When Paul is going on leave and getting on the train after Kat and Albert say goodbye. Paul “becomes filled with a consuming impatience to be gone”(Remarque 154). Paul has to bare with that he never knows when the last goodbye will be because of how brutal this war is on the men and

Dulce Et Decorum Est relates to All Quiet on the Western Front in many different ways relating to the war. Both of the stories show how the soldiers are reacting to the attack “Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!” as the soldiers are trying to do everything in their power to survive and fight through it(Owen line 9). Both stories show horrors of war as everybody was “deaf even to the hoots of disappointed shells that dropped behind”(Owen line 7,8). This shows how they did not have enough incoming soldiers to take the place of the soldiers that were there. The existing soldiers were too tired to do anything that they couldn’t keep their eyes open long enough to see what the enemy were doing. AQWF and Dulce Et Decorum Est both show how the soldiers are very