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She smiles at me 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. (156)
The word “comrade” is tossed around so much within literature addressing war topics that modern readers can become desensitized to its magnitude. Here, however, in Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, the protagonist Paul Baumer expresses obvious discontent with the informal usage of the word by a French pedestrian girl. Throughout Remarque’s famous World War I novel, Paul attempts to define comradeship, through his thoughts and experiences in battle, to the best of his ability, yet this situation suggests that everyone outside of combat will never fully understand the tremendous connotations of the word. To Paul, attaining the title “comrade” involves deeds more along the lines of self-sacrifice, not serving coffee. Therefore, the discrepancies between usages of the word “comrade” by soldiers and non-soldiers can help define the inability of soldiers and civilians to fully understand one another.
To the French girl, comradeship means getting someone coffee; to Paul, he and his “comrades,” (those in his regiment both fighting alongside him and lying dead on the battlefield) are “nearer than lovers” (212). Clearly, the girl speaks lightheartedly and by no means aims to offend. However, it is as if the young German soldier wishes to proclaim the word off limits to all civilians because they simply do not understand it. In comparison, today, African-Americans use the “N word” when speaking to one another, yet become upset when a white person uses the same word because those white individuals do not understand that the meaning of the word is different to African-Americans. Basically, the gravity of the word will never be fully understood by those outside of the African-American race and is therefore upsetting when spoken. Paul also declares, “by far the most important result was that it awakened in us…the finest thing that rose out of war-comradeship” (26-27). Therefore, he and his school-mates themselves had no idea what comradeship truly was until setting foot on a battle field and entrusting their lives to one another for the first time. Obviously, the girl has never done either of these actions, so she has no friends with whom the bond is strong enough to label as “comradeship.”
The lack of connection between soldiers and civilians is not a theme unique to Remarque’s writing. This idea of soldiers being unable or unwilling to express or explain their feelings to those who have never been a part of war is one common in war-centered art forms. For example, J. Glenn Gray, a veteran of World War II, writes in his book The Warriors “Many men both hate and love combat. They know why they hate it; it is harder to know and to be articulate about why they love it” (28). In other words, veterans have incredible emotions directed at battle and there experiences therein, yet putting these emotions into words is very difficult. Therefore, only other veterans can truly connect with these emotions, for one veteran does not have to articulate his feelings well for another veteran to understand him. As further evidence, even this idea in itself is an example because upon reading these very lines from Gray’s book, a soldier can relate while one who has never seen combat can only try to understand. The opening scene from the film Saving Private Ryan also echoes this idea. An aged World War II is overcome by emotion at the gravesite in Normandy and falls to his knees. His family tries to help him out and is genuinely concerned about him. They recognize something is wrong, yet they have no idea what bothers their loved one so greatly. They will never understand exactly what images, sounds, and feelings cause the reaction; he will never try to make them understand. One can easily see, then, why Paul Baumer is disturbed by the French girl’s unfounded usage of the word “comrade.”
I honestly have no idea why my posts always have that junk at the beginning and are never in the right font.
I agree. i like how you showed many examples of how noone but a veteran can truely understand war, especially using the readong of this book to convey how one can only try to understand. i also like how you discussed his family. his times in the war have changed him so that heed NEEDs the comradeship he can only find in war, so he no longer fits in with them.