Remarque uses imagery when he says, "The front is a cage in which we must await fearfully whatever may happen," (…) Remarque was trying to get the point across that the soldiers that are on the front feel captured and have no way to get out. The battle on the front is like the soldiers are imprisoned in the vortex. They soldiers don’t know whether they will live or die each day they are on the front because it is that dangerous.
Dylan Knapp Hist/Human 253 Week Four Assignment 1) The opening quote of the book shows that Remarque is telling the reader that every person who fought in the war on either side believed that they were fighting a just cause. In chapter one Paul recollected that his friends and he enlisted voluntarily to prove their patriotism. This goes with the theme of nationalism where Paul and his friends join in the war based on nationalism ideals.
To soldiers, fighting on the front lines is a life changing event that can forever alter the way they look, think, and feel. By using juxtaposition, Erich Remarque is able to capture how feelings and behaviors can change while trying to become free from the war experience in Chapter Seven of All Quiet on the Western Front. The main character, Paul, faces three events that make him yearn to rid himself of the terrible weight of war on his shoulders. It is clear that you can never truly understand what it is like in a war until you are the one doing the fighting.
The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. It was launched, in the dense forest of Ardennes Wallonia in eastern part of Belgium, northeast France, and Luxembourg. This battle was one of the largest fought by the United States Army, on the Western Front in Europe, during World War II. This fierce battle, was between the German Nazi’s, the American Army, Canadian Army, and the British Army, was one of Hitler’s last attempt to split the Allies driving them towards Germany and destroy their ability to supply themselves. Were the Germans able to stop the Americans and the British from getting their supplies? Was the weather a factor and if so, who did it assist in the battle? Was the American Army able to counter attack in a timely manner and stop the German Nazi’s invasion?
17 August 1951 through 18 October 1951 for the hills of 983, 940, and 773, as well as hills 894,
He uses death, tragedies, and brutal events to show the reader the stomach-turning way of life in war. Remarque makes Paul very ostentatious so to speak. He uses all these graphic images to get a point across. Paul explains during a bombardment, horses are hit as well as the men. “Those are the wounded horses. But not all of them. Some gallop away in the distance, fall down, and then run farther. The belly of one is ripped open, the guts trail out. He becomes tangled in them and falls, then he stands up again” (28). The screams of the horses become implanted in the men’s heads, even though they cannot see them. Another gruesome image is that the soldiers go to take cover in a nearby cemetery. Paul illustrates the scene, “With a crash something bears down on us. It lands close beside us; a coffin thrown up” (31). Even the dead are being disturbed by the war. Paul wants it to seem as if the once dead are coming back to life. The last major imagery scene would be in the hospitals. The hospitals are a symbol of war. “It must be all lies and o no account when the culture of a thousand years could not prevent this stream of blood being poured out, these torture-chambers in their hundreds of thousands. A hospital alone shows what war is” (117). War is about killing another living thing. Once you are hit, you go to these “torture-chambers”. You go there
War is a hellish battleground where many lives are taken. In war there is constantly images and events that happen which can change a soldier’s life forever. In the book All Quiet on the Western Front Remarque uses the symbols of boots, butterflies and horses to advance the main theme in the novel, that war takes young men’s innocence away.
It’s no surprise that soldiers will more-than-likely never come home the same. Those who have not served do not often think of the torment and negative consequences that the soldiers who make it out of war face. Erich Remarque was someone who was able to take the torment that he faced after his experience in World War I and shed light on the brutality of war. Remarque was able to illustrate the psychological problems that was experienced by men in battle with his best-selling novel All Quiet on the Western Front (Hunt). The symbolism used in the classic anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front is significant not only for showing citizens the negative attributes of war, but also the mental, physical, and emotional impact that the vicious war had on the soldiers.
Through the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, novelist Erich Maria Remarque provides a commentary on the dehumanizing tendencies of warfare. Remarque continuously references the soldiers at war losing all sense of humanity. The soldiers enter the war levelheaded, but upon reaching the front, their mentality changes drastically: “[they] march up, moody or good tempered soldiers – [they] reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals” (Remarque 56). This animal instinct is essential to their survival. When in warfare, the soldiers’ minds must adapt to the environment and begin to think of the enemy as objects rather than human beings. It is this defensive mechanism that allows the soldiers to save
In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque shows the journey of a world war one solider, Paul, and his experience, journey, and emotions that he goes through during the war. A consistent theme that occurs is what Remarque reference to fear. Paul’s fear about dyeing, fear drives him and his friends, how fear is killing his humanity, how he has to over come fear.
Furthermore, the Front represents animalistic behavior. According to All Quiet on the Western Front, it states, “The Front is a cage in which we must await fearfully whatever may happen”(101). This quote demonstrates how the Front symbolizes animalistic behavior because Paul and describes themselves as animals in a cage. By being in a cage, that indicates an unending suffering, which takes place in their mind. Once they enter the cage, they are trapped there mentally and forever, just like how they are trapped mentally at the Front. Because of that, they have no control over what’s going to happen to them. These soldiers behave like an animal and are helpless just like an animal in a cage. Once they step foot on the battlefield, they are uncertain and they only have their instincts to guide them. Just like an animal who doesn't know what will happen next, they only have their instincts to rely on. The Front makes these soldiers look like they are nothing, but an animal who’s waiting to be killed. In addition, when the soldiers enter the battlefield, they become animals because animals are taught to protect themselves.
In Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, soldiers at the front have a better idea than civilians of the true nature of war because they have experienced the war while civilians have only read about it or listened to government propaganda. Remarque is trying to tell us that only those who experience the war can understand how awful war truly is.
The novel All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, is story of the fictional character Paul Baumer and his troop Troop 9 as they battle in World War I on the Western Front for Germany. This novel differs from most war novels in that it does not portray the men as valiant soldiers protecting their country. The way that the story is told strips away the romanticized view warfare and portrays the raw emotions that come with being on the front lines of a battle. As both Paul Baumer’s life and the battle progress, Paul’s values, along with those of the other soldiers, evolve until they culminate in Baumer’s own passing.
In the novel, Remarque presents the brutality of war. Early on in the novel, he describes the sound of the wounded horses and how brutal the war atmosphere is. “There is a whole world
(1) Content: Determine what information the source can give you. Is it relevant to your subject? Will it help you complete your study?
It is our duty, as soon to be Second Lieutenants in the Army, to learn from history. Learning from mistakes in the past is necessary to understand the responsibilities we will soon have. The Battle of Gettysburg shows prime examples of the nine principles of war: Objective, Offensive, Mass, Economy of Force, Maneuver, Unity of Command, Security, Surprise and Simplicity. In the military today, we are overwhelmingly blessed with every asset that we have including technology and monetary resources the list could go on forever but the most invaluable asset is history. Although all nine principles of war are pertinent to success on the battlefield, only five will be discussed in this analysis.