Why does the world need to kill two million men just because two countries can’t agree with each other? War is devastating to countries and most indefinitely to individuals and soldiers. A war can ruin families, friendships, education, economy, and the minds of innocent people. Most young men, who were just approaching manhood, were pulled of their innocence of childhood, and thrown into a world of rage and destruction. Soldiers that luckily survive a horrific war often find their lives turned completely upside down since they enlisted, and sometimes it is just impossible to forget the vicious past and start over again as a civilian. Many older men believe that wars being fought are wars of dignity and glory, but truthfully, wars are …show more content…
Another point that the author creates about the negative aspects of war is that there is never an abundant supply of food to support the well-being of all the men out there in the war. In the novel, the men who were used to eating decent meals every day before the war face severe hardships because in the army, they do not receive opulent nor tasty rations. “Long time since you’ve had anything decent to eat, eh?” Kat asks one of the [new recruits]. “For breakfast, turnip-bread, ㅡlunch, turnip-stew……it’s nothing new for it to be made of sawdust.” (Remarque 36) If these poor soldiers had better nourishments and more rest, the already-harsh environment would have been easier to survive. Many more recruits have actually died from a lack of sleep and food than from actual hand-to-hand combats. Another issue about the war is the complete loss of sanitation, or hygiene. “We must look out for our bread. The rats have become more numerous lately because the trenches are no longer in good condition.” (Remarque 101, 102) Because it is very unclean and pathogens float all over the place, various soldiers have deceased from an infection somewhere in the body. Maybe, just maybe, if the army had more suitable circumstances for the men in the war, fewer soldiers would have died. In addition, a concept that Remarque makes regarding the adverse effects of wars is that wars have killed many frank young men, who
In Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, characters such as Paul and his friends become indifferent to shocking elements of war through constant exposure to them. For example, the characters are unconcerned about the dangers of the front because they are accustomed to being on the front. In another instance, Paul’s friends show no emotions when they witness snipers killing enemy soldiers. Also, Kat finds the unusual effects of mortar shells amusing. These examples prove that through war, characters of the book have become indifferent to things that they would normally find shocking.
War causes death, poverty, diseases, destruction, and many more devastating and unavoidable consequences. The government drafted men into military service, giving them no choice but to separate them from their daily lives, friends, and families. Soldiers fight in wars while putting their lives on the line and are only rewarded with physical or psychological injuries. Countries wage war against one another in order to resolve disputes and disagreements between them. Individuals, such as nurses, soldiers, and civilians undergo traumatic events when they are caught in the middle of a war. Although some may argue that war does not impact the self the most, based on the informational text, “War Escalates” by Paul Boye, the short story, “Where
Foremost, it is imperative to note that many soldiers fighting in WWI were around the age of 20 if not younger. This is crucial when the fact that many studies have shown the human brain does not fully develop until the age of 25 is considered. This means that many of the soldiers were still immature and gravely unprepared for the horrors of war. Being thrown into the war requires them to mature quickly and leave their youth behind. Remarque depicts this in his piece where he states, “We are youth not youth any longer…The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in war” (Remarque 46). Nonetheless, the only thing they believed in betrayed them in the end. With the innovation of new forms of weaponry in warfare such as mustard gas, tanks, planes, machine guns, etc. and
The living conditions in the trenches where never sufficient enough for living in, especially when the soldiers had to stay in them for a few years. The trenches where just ditches in the ground with no sleeping arrangements. Many of the soldiers would go days without sleep. The rations of food that the soldiers received were often boring and sometimes inedible because they were rarely given fresh food. This would limit a soldier’s stamina in battle and make it more likely for that soldier to get killed. The
In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque progressively shows the brutality of war through the eyes of soldiers claiming their innocence, and also the effects of war on the people in the home front . In this essay I will be discussing the effect of war on both the combatants and non combatants in this novel.
While the soldiers risk their life on the front by adapting to different attacks from opposing sides, they are forced to uphold themselves through the tough circumstances with minimal food that is scarce with poor quality; the food a civilian would throw away is something soldiers are forced to be grateful for. On top of having little food, corpse-rats, often filled with diseases, gnaw on the soldiers food that they received, forcing them to “cut off the bits of bread that the animals have gnawed” (Remarque 102). Not only is the bread they get is poor quality and minimal, but they have to cut off pieces eaten by animals; forcing them to choose when to eat their only meal of the day wisely. While having scarce food affects the condition of the soldiers, it is also just one of the many reasons why soldiers are usually in a poor condition; which makes experiencing death daily in the life of a
It is and always has been human nature to become defensive when an opinion that one is passionate about is challenged. Whether or not one turns these opinions into actions is a different story. Throughout history, the passion of mankind’s opinions have turned into conflicts, war, slavery, and one of the most devastating of all, genocide. In (date here) Russia was struggling. In addition to being a part of WW1, the low, hard working class of Russia were starving. In exchange for backbreaking labor in factories and farms they were being paid little to nothing. Despite doing most of the work that supported the government, their existence was hardly noticed and could merely be passed off as machines. The monarch government at the time did no work for their country, and remained rich simply for being royalty. Most of Russia knew what was going on but out of fear and knowledge that they could never do anything about it, remained quiet. The anger fueled by this unjust way of life led a group of men to retaliate, ending in a violent, bloody genocide known as the red terror. The murder of thousands of innocent people during the Red Terror may have been avoided through compromise instead of violence, but the long for change turned The Russian Revolution into the
In Remarque’s book, All Quiet on The Western Front, Remarque shows the true effects on war through means of Paul’s character development. War emotionally destroys people, and the book pushes this fact. Towards the end of this book Paul is an emotionless shell of a human. Plenty of other character the book lose their sanity as well, but for this we focus on some of the main characters.
Tim’s novel gives various examples throughout The Things They Carried for the reader to discover and interpret. A reference of how war changes people from the book is on page 207,
Furthermore, the author helps to reveal the unfavorable side of war by describing the quandary of the Russians in chapter 8. Primarily, the Russians have little to eat and they are found digging the garbage tins of Baumer’s camp unaware of the fact that they too have no food and every ration is eaten up. It states, “ This thin, miserable, dirty garbage is the objective of the prisoners. They pick it out of the stinking tins greedily and go off with it under their blouses.” Although eating out of a garbage may seem like a dreadful thing to do, that doesn’t crosses one’s mind when they have absolutely nothing left to eat. Secondly, the author states that the prisoners used to be more energetic and exuberant about life but they are now incapable to feel the joy they once had for life again. It states, “ and it would often come to blows and knives. But now they are quite apathetic and listless; most of them do not masturbate any more, they are so feeble.” The narrator realizes that they suffer from the desolation of life and that at their present state, they are vulnerable and unable to do anything.
The Great War marked a time of extreme horror for the world, especially for the soldier. The novel begins introducing Paul, a young recruit to the German Army, just coming back from the front lines. Before discussing battle, the soldiers’ poor living conditions are described. Bad hygiene conditions are apparent. This is highlighted when Paul’s friend Kemmerich dies of an infected amputation, that he may have otherwise survived. Although living conditions are less than desirable the battlefield itself is incredibly dangerous. When they are attacked shells fly and people fall and the men have to lay on the ground and in trenches to avoid death, even gas masks are worn at one point. The soldiers have found ways to cope with the terrible situations, Tjaden resorts to scraping lice off himself. Some of these things are even caused by the higher officers, when Himmelstoss found out Tjaden was a bed wetter he forced him to sleep on bunk beds with
While Remarque conveys the disparity between present and past to underscore the human destruction of war, the binary must be dismantled in order to expose the unknowns contained within the text. Indeed, the soldiers feel disconnected from their previous lives; however, they are, in fact, defined by their pasts. Remarque stresses the horrors of war in the present and implies that the past is subordinate to the current action, yet the truths of the present lie rooted in the past. The soldiers' lives in the war do not exist independently of their former existences but as part of a continuum (Leitch 171).
The narrator begins the chapter by explaining that the Martians help each other out by exchanging materials between cylinders. Afterwards, the narrator makes his way towards London. The narrator wakes up to find a curate on his boat. The curate expresses his sadness because the Martians have burnt down the Church in Weybridge. The narrator snaps at him by saying that he should not worry about religion. The narrator finds a soldier crawling in his garden. The soldier explains that they had been “wiped out” by the Martians with their heat ray. The heat ray killed many and the soldier tells us that it smelled like “burnt meat.” The narrator work up on the bridge feeling exhausted and he encounters a group of people. When he asks the group of
The famous author Erich Maria Remarque once said about his novel, All Quiet on the Western Front: “This book is to be 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 shells, were destroyed by the war”. War has a lasting impact on soldiers and changes them significantly. All quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is a book about Several schoolmates who decide to join the army and participate in the war. After hash training and experience on the front line they realise that war wasn't what they thought it to be. The book is written through the eyes of
In literaure especially focussing on war literature, we find that the theme of dehumanisation is frequently present. In this essay the theme of dehumanisation and how it is reflected in a novel – All Quiet on the Western Front, poetry – DULCE ET DECORUM EST*, and an artwork from C. R. W. Nevison will be discussed.