Albert expresses it: “The war has ruined us for everything.”
He is right. We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm….We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. 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. (88)
Erich Maria Remarque’s classic war novel is famous for its depiction of World War I and its effect on the common soldier. It relates the story of Paul Bäumer, a German soldier in the First World War. Paul and his friends join the war on a patriotic whim, expecting heroic and romantic battles. They soon come realize that war is not romantic. But amid the horrors they encounter, war becomes a part of them, and they experience the same delights of war presented by Gray in The Warriors.
In his work, J. Glenn Gray states that men have multiple attractions to war. The first attraction Gray mentions is the delight in seeing. Soldiers enjoy watching war and its effects. Paul is no different. At many points throughout the novel, he marvels at what he sees on the battlefield. He describes the moving of munitions vehicles as “strangely beautiful and arresting” (57). He is moved by these guns and trucks and compares them to knights and horses. Later, in the midst of battle, he and his comrades stop fighting to watch the artillery crush the oncoming enemy attack. He is captivated by the bloodshed it causes. In spite of the horrors of the battlefield, Paul is intrigued by the sights of war.
Gray’s second attraction is a soldier’s delight in destruction. Paul constantly finds himself caught up in battle, enjoying the power he has and the destruction he causes. He tells of a soldier’s “animal instinct” that is awakened upon reaching the battlefield (56). He tells of the “ferocity” they fight with that turns them “into thugs, into murderers, into…devils” (114). He also refers to the destruction caused by shelling as “amusement” (128). Paul is no longer the innocent youth he entered the war as. He now finds an innate delight in, not only watching, but also causing the very horrors of war that he is transformed by.
Gray’s final attraction of war is the delight in comradeship. This is the factor that affects Paul most. The friendships he builds in war are unlike any he has ever known. He says that comradeship is the “finest thing that arose out of the war” (27). He also says that the connection he has with his comrades is stronger than that of lovers. Throughout the tragedies of war, it is these friendships that keep Paul going. He believes that his relationships with his comrades are so powerful that he is completely separate from the outside world now. He is at his happiest when surrounded by his friends, even if on the battlefield. His finds his comfort in this comradeship.
Although Remarque’s novel is meant to show the horrible realities of war, it confirms all of Gray’s delights of war. The young men are no longer affected by what they were when at home. They miss their homes, but they no longer belong there. Paul finds that he is happiest when he is on or near the front, not at home. He and his comrades have found the delights of war. They no longer hold their old believes. They believe in war.
Literature of War STC 