The topic of war is hard to imagine from the perspective of one who hasn't experienced it. Literature makes it accessible for the reader to explore the themes of war. Owen and Remarque both dipcik what war was like for one who has never gone through it. Men in both All Quiet on the Western Front and “Dulce Et Decorum” experience betrayal of youth, horrors of war and feelings of camaraderie. While the young men at the ages of eighteen to twenty signed up for the war they believed that they were going to have a well off time, meanwhile the older generation is betraying them. The men that came before them do not tell them they are going to see there best friend shot to pieces. Also that they are going to be stuck for days in tiny trenches running out of food because then they would get the bodies to …show more content…
Most soldiers have that epiphany when they know that they are okay because they have these men around them that are there to help and support them. These men that make it out with or without the men they came with leave with an understanding of the camaraderie that they did not have starting out. Paul has just killed a man and as a realization, “Camard I did not want to kill you... but you were only an idea to me before an abstraction... now for the first time, I see you are a man like me” (Remarque 223 ). He has gone through so much fighting this war and then to kill this man he finds that they are equal, they are just fighting for the same reasons. There was no real enemy just an idea of one. These men have just been gassed and are under attack “ Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling, fitting the clumsy helmets just in time” (Owen 9-10). These men have to communicate fast in order to save lives, and if they do not have that togetherness they are going to lose the men that they desperately need. The camaraderie kicks in when they have to help put on one's another's mask even if they do not have theres on
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.
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
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
"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.
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
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.
In the beginning of the 20th century, as European countries were getting ready for war, people were rushing to sign up in what is now known as the Great War. The thought of war used to be romanticized by many because of how imperialists were able to win battles and take over so easily with their technological advances. Men thought they could go off, make a name for themselves, and then return home safely to their families; it was the ultimate romantic adventure. However, they soon found out that wasn’t the case. The war turned out to be one of the most tragic, all consuming wars in history of worldwide conflicts. The novel, All Quiet On The Western Front, depicts the lives of soldiers in trench warfare who, even though may have escaped shells, welre ultimately destroyed by the war.
“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
Accordingly, as the frail Kemmerich was dying, Muller ceaselessly tried to convince Kemmerich to give him his boots, saying "Do you think he will last till tomorrow after drill? If he passes out in the night we know where the boots-" (p17-18), as Kemmerich was departing in front of him. As Muller showed an emotionless disregard for human life, he represented the costs of war mentally, as Kemmerich's represented the cost of war physically. Our protagonist, Paul commits another of these bestial alacrities that occur within this story. When Paul first entered the war he, like many others, thought that they were doing a noble and gracious deed, and thought little of what fear war brought into his heart and who else suffered this horror. Moreover, he thought none of the emotional consequences of pulling his gun trigger. When our prime exemplar was in the middle of a battle, he best exemplifies the heartbreak of war.
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.
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.
Before, Erich Maria Remarque wrote “All Quiet On The Western Front”, a book respectfully known as ‘The Greatest War Novel of All Time’, war was glorified by man. The author wrote the book to give an accurate summary of the Great War by portraying the mental toll soldiers faced, the great number of deaths, and the fact young soldiers fought other men’s battles against each other. The main character in the true story, Paul Baumer, describes warring against the French in the battlefield. He tells of how they “have become wild beasts” who “not against men that [they] fling [their] bombs”, but death itself (Remarque, 113). Remarque, captures the mental toll on the soldiers by illustrating that the war turns soldiers into animals,
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.
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