Returning Home

“We will be superfluous even to ourselves, we will grow older, a few will adapt themselves, some others will merely submit, and most will be bewildered;– the years will pass by and in the end we shall fall into ruin.” (294)

In All Quiet on the Western Front, the above passage is stated after all of Paul’s friends have died and Paul is the only one of the classmates left.  He is thinking of the soldiers’ futures and how they will adapt to society when the war is over.

There are a few paths in which a soldier can take after a brutal and violent war.  Some soldiers adjust to society well, some not as well.  Some soldiers even suffer from shellshock or other mental illnesses.  Because “they can take nothing more,” by the end of the war, Paul is no longer concerned about the war, but with how his surviving comrades will live after the war is over.

The fear of what will happen after the war is somewhat distilled in Paul.  His fear of post-war life may be one of the reasons why, after he was shot, “his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.” There is a good chance that Paul will not adjust to society well.  If he dies in battle, he will be known in society as a hero, but if he lives and goes back, there is no telling what the rest of his life will be like.  Once he dies, there is final relief.

He even fears not only how he and his comrades will react to society, but also how society will react to them.  When Paul states, “And men will not understand us—for the generation that grew up before us…and the generation that has grown up after us will be strange to us and push us aside.” He has no idea how society would respond to his actions, which are also unknown.

Paul does not know if he will suffer from shellshock forever after he returns home.  The thought of suffering from shellshock takes a toll not only on the person suffering from the illness, but also his loved ones.  Paul’s thoughts mentally disturb him.  Once he dies, his expression of relief is that of sympathy toward not only himself and his comrades, but for his family and society as well.

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A Day One Pig Would Die

“He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping.  Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.”(Remargue 296)

 

These lines are the last lines of the book.  In the lines it is explained that Paul has just died and a fellow person has just come and turned him over to find a look of calmness on his face.  He died on a day that they called all quiet on the western front.  In the quote Paul is no longer the narrator of the book but another party allowing for a different tone that what Paul would have given.

 

Paul before he died experiences a mental battle within himself.  He thinks about how he is that last one out of all of his classmates.   He thinks about how his generation is a lost one because of the war and so much death.  He thinks that the war and everything that has happened caused him to never be the same or feel right ever again.  He feels alone.  He has also come to know nothing but war and won’t know what to do when it’s over.  He doesn’t really agree with it anymore either after his experience with the French soldier etc. He is lost and really there is nothing left for him to do.  The war has changed Paul completely as all wars have changed soldiers.  Whether is has been through death or just traumatizing experiences war changes most soldiers involved for the same reasons that Paul thinks about.  I believe this is why Paul looks as though and has a calm look on his face when he dies is because he is happy to finally be a peace after all of that and never being able to be the same.

 

Paul died on a day they named all quiet on the western front due to almost no fighting taking place on that day.  It is odd that Paul gets killed on that day of all days he had the opportunity of being killed.  It is odd to think about this because the soldiers were always trying to escape death but Paul was killed on a day that death didn’t seem that close at least not compared to the regular days he spent in the trenches.  And it is odd he made it so far just to die on a day like that.  It shows that in all war death can come in many different ways and with no warning.  But this also shows that Paul’s death was insignificant as well has his time spent in the army.  It showed that none of it really matter it was just insignificant because he was only one man compared to millions that had died and on such a quiet day, which shows that as a group maybe we are significant but as singles we may not be.  I think most soldiers have trouble with the fact because everyone wants to matter but what really matters is the greater good and that their single life may be insignificant to the war.

 

Paul experience one of the worst wars mankind as ever seen.  He experienced everything there really is to experience in war.  And after years of war he died on a day they titled “All Quiet on the Western front”.

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“Another Brick in the Wall”

“For us lads of eighteen they ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress-to the future.  We often made fun of them and played jokes on them, but in our hearts we trusted them.  The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom. But the first death we saw shattered this belief.  We had to recognize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs.  They surpassed us only in phrases and in cleverness.  The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke into pieces.” (12-13)

 

            In every society the culture and ideas of that society are passed down to the younger generations.  Teachers in schools and everything the youths are involved in changes or structures how the youths will think later in life.  The society does this either subconsciously or not subconsciously.  The training and schooling of the youths is very important to a society because the youths are what will continue their legacy when they are gone and take their country father into the future causing it to be a pretty important task to teach the younger generations lessons.

            The quote above from All Quiet on the Western Front is an example of how countries or societies will influence their youth.   The quote shows that the youths in this particular case are only at war because they were influenced by their society and teachers.  In a larger view this could mean that all youths or people really go to war for their country or do things for their country because from birth they have been influenced by there societies.  The idea of societies influence has been widely spread by Pink Floyd in the song “Another Brick in the Wall”, which means that everything a society does just adds another brick to the wall separating you from who you really could be.  Teachers play a big role because they are the ones that actually do the teaching.  The idea then would mean that all war is caused by the influence an older generation had on a younger one and that all wars are fought by people, who have been influenced by there societies to do so.  In both of these cases the people may have not made the decisions they have made if they were not influenced by their societies.   War can be caused by societies influence on its people.

            The quote is important to the book because it is what causes the young group of men to join the war.  Mr. Kentorek was their teacher and had influenced them to join the war but once they get there they realize everything they had learned didn’t matter anymore and that it was all was false to what they thought.  The quote allows there to actually be a story because if the teachers and the society of the boys hadn’t influenced them they would never have gone to war.  But their wall was shattered the minute they got to the war.  Societies influence on the characters of the book led to them ultimately joining the war.

            The quote explains societies influence on its youth.  It shows how the book was able to take place as well as gives a good example of why wars may be fought.

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The Irony of Death

“Finally, the chest of the doomed soldier began to heave with a strained motion. It increased in violence until it was as if an animal was within and was kicking and tumbling furiously to be free.” (p.43)

The preceding passage is the scene when Henry finds his long-time friend from his hometown, Jim, and realizes that Jim has been shot. He tries to help Jim, but Jim refuses and tells Henry “don’t tech me — leave me be.” The above passage describes Henry watching his good friend die in a very ironically animated and lively way. Henry is then enraged, but only shakes his fist at the battlefield in the name of his friend’s death.

Jim is a soldier who Henry looks up to in terms of bravery, because at that point in the novel, Henry is very ashamed of running away. He looks up to Jim because he is a very brave soldier who seems invincible to him. Ironically, his bravery has caused him to die, showing that he is not immortal at all.

The fact that Jim dies is ironic, initially, to the reader, but the way he died generally does not come to mind. He dies “as if an animal was within and was kicking and tumbling furiously to be free.” (p. 43) The way Jim dies is very lively and has references to the liveliness of nature. The scene not only shows the liveliness of Jim’s naturalistic death, but also the religious references to death in war in general.

The liveliness of his death is evident through this description and, also, a quote from the narrator about the scene of nature at the end of chapter IX, “The red sun was pasted in the sky like a wafer.” (p. 44) The wafer is a reference to communion, which is the remembrance of the last supper before Jesus not only died, but forgave people of all sins so that they may have eternal life. The wafer symbolizes Jim’s eternal life, making the reader’s thought of Jim’s ironical death ironic.

Jim’s death is a symbol of how lively death can be. The scene not only physically depicts his death as being lively, but also figuratively suggests that Jim will live on forever through Jesus Christ. The wafer-like sun symbolizes the body of Christ in communion, referring to Christ forgiving all sins, allowing his spirit to live on in heaven.

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Literature’s Varied Interpretations of War

War has been a primary focus of writers throughout the history of literature. However its popularity as a subject is because of many different reasons, depending on what sort of message writers are trying to convey to their readers. No matter the message, however, these writers agree that war is a subject that dominates not just literature, but society as a whole because of its dramatic and usually destructive results, as well as its ability to bring out an individual’s true emotions like no other human endeavor.

The earliest great works of literature incorporated war as a means to not only tell a story and a history, but often as a way of glorifying a nation or civilization. Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid are the most obvious examples of classical epics that attempted to retell the story of a war that was a critical landmark in a civilization’s history. However the incredibly heroic nature in which the stories are told is meant to glorify war as well as energize those who read it. At the time Homer and Virgil epics were meant to be a form of propaganda; with the fantastic plights of characters such as Achilles in the Iliad and Aeneas in the Aeneid designed to make Greeks and Romans respectively feel pride in their country’s heritage, whether the story told was real or not. Most importantly, writers of these classical epics recognized that an account of war was the most effective way to make readers feel this pride because of the abundance of opportunities for heroics from its characters.

However after these classical epics and works of the Middle Ages like Beowulf adapted a relatively simple interpretation of war as an opportunity for glory and heroics, works of the last few centuries have slowly taken more varied and complicated opinions on war and the disastrous effects it can have on both individuals and entire nations. Novels such as The Red Badge of Courage begin to study how war affects the normal human being. Instead of the typical depiction of soldiers as constantly heroic and courageous, Stephen Crane portrays a character who struggles to find the will to fight and to kill another person. Upon the outbreak of World War I, war literature grows increasingly negative and critical. Poems like Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen begin to describe in vivid detail the true horrors of war. Such works create a scene that is anything but heroic.

Though authors’ motivations for writing about war vary greatly, none question its significance, not only to whole nations, but to every individual involved. Wars can lead to great victories that bring needed progress, but can also cause unimaginable death and destruction that can ruin civilizations. And for every individual involved, war promises the truest and deepest test of character. Such magnificent stakes provide the opportunity for the best premises for any work of literature as well as the context for the deepest debate.

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A Condition of Active Antagonism

War is depicted by humans, since Biblical times, as one of the few inevitable occurrences. It seems that it is in man’s nature to make war over the things he desires. In literature, humans have fought over such things as love, territory, religion, and honor and have, to the reader justified the reason to go to battle. In literature, because war is personal and primarily one-sided (it is told by a person or a country), the reader is more knowledgeable about that one side and tends to parlay his sympathy with that individual or that country. The effects of war is usually told through those eyes, therefore the reader’s emotions are not global. When placed in the context of war, literature entwines emotions and violence in a way that captivates its readers and puts them in the context of those belligerent times.

There are feelings and emotions that the humans demonstrate throughout these literary works that could include anger, fear, jealousy, sorrow, and impulse. Literature that express some of these feelings include Hamlet, because Hamlet is constantly displaying a shower of sorrow over his late father; The Iliad, where Achilles avenges his cousin’s death by killing Hector out of pure rage; and Lord of The Flies, in which the children overcome their fear of the wild through violence and there is an obvious split between those who wanted to maintain order and society, and those that followed their natural belligerent instincts. Older and more fictional works, such as Beowulf and ancient Greek Literature such as the Homer’s The Odyssey and other mythology involving gods, display sometimes unrealistic acts of bravery and sense of duty. Throughout Beowulf’s life he fights three battles, each one demonstrating his growth and development as a character. Although he demonstrates monstrous strength and unlimited bravery, he never shows fear and seems superhuman to readers. However, by looking at his alteration of character during the epic, it is easy to see that he is human by how he fights the battles. In the first battle, the young Beowulf fights unarmed and defeats the monster Grendel who had been terrorizing Heorot, demonstrating how many people feel invincible during youth. When he is an old and significantly more knowledgeable but weaker hero, he fights the dragon knowing that it will lead to his death and so he dies honorably as a hero. Humans may seem invincible in literature and even if they do not fall to their demise during the novel, they will reveal their weaknesses and prove their humanity even if it is only through the emotions they display.

Writers sometimes depict war as realistic and unglamorous and therefore the book becomes a protest against war. In the book, “All Quiet on the Western Front”, the narrator is a 19 year old boy who suddenly becomes a soldier. He quickly becomes disenfranchised because he sees the horrors if hand to hand combat and does not glorify killing another youth because he is from another country. When his friends horrific deaths, or are court marshaled, he realizes that being a soldier has aged him and robbed him of friendships, youth, life and it is dehumanizing

The Warriors is a movie that was released in 1979, based on the Anabasis by the Greek author Xenophon, the story of the Spartan army that return to Sparta after a certain treacherous act that based of the other Greek armies against them. The movie takes that story and places it in New York during the time of gang violence in the different barrows of New York. This helps to give modern readers a better prospective of the type of violence and strategy that it may have taken to for the Spartans and the Warriors “bop back home.” This view point that the viewer or reader receives promotes war literature in itself. From the stand point of the Warriors, they were afraid, but they knew that they would be safer when they arrived back at Coney Island, their home “turf.” Their view made the opposing gangs that were after their lives appear sinister and blood thirsty even though the Warriors would have been put in the same position that had a different gang been blamed for the murder of Cyrus. Cyrus had been the leader of the Riffs, the largest gang in the state. During his emotional speech consisting of how New York’s gang members outnumbered the New York Police Department and if they unified they could control New York and put and end to gang wars, he was shot and killed by a member of the Rogues gang who were quick to blame the Warriors and put them into their current predicament. The perspective of war literature can completely shape how the story is told through bias for the side telling the story and, sometimes, unnecessary hatred and prejudice for the opposing side. Sometimes both sides of the war cannot be told; however, it should be attempted to read and learn from both sides of the war so that the reader can get a sense of why the wrong side may have justified there cause for action.

Violence, gore, heroism, and loyalty are several of the words that many novels of war encompass and use to appeal to readers, especially in the 21^st century, where the majority of people turn to television and video games in order to satisfy their cravings for bloodlust. The general public would much rather read a journal of a World War 2 soldier, than a legal document that was processed after the war. People can relate to violence because it captivates their interest and brings them the reality of something that they will most likely never see or experience. The war literature can also give past accounts of how people handled situations whether it was honorable or disgraceful and how it changed them.

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The Human’s Relation to War

War is something that everyone has to deal with.  Some may actually fight in a war, some may protest a war, some may learn about a war on the news, and some may read about a war that happened hundreds of years ago.  In some way or another, war is something everyone is involved in. Because of everyone’s involvement and contribution, or lack of contribution, to war, war literature is and will be one of the greatest genres of literature.

Not only does war affect people’s physical lives, but war also affects people psychologically.  War is something that affects almost everyone psychologically in one form or another whether it is through the violence and deaths involved in war, the lessons learned, or the lives of the soldiers in general.

Readers want the book that they are reading to affect them psychologically.  There have been countless war stories about a friend lost in battle or a husband who died and the family must cope with their loss.  Most of these stories are either true or about a war that happened, making the story very realistic allowing the reader to relate to the characters and to think about how things really were for people at that time.  This affects the reader psychologically possibly because the reader and the character are both from the same nationality,

Even fictional novels about fictional wars, like the epic “The Odyssey,” are very popular because they cause the reader to think about the life lessons the protagonist learned to apply to their lives.  For instance in “The Odyssey,” whenever Odysseus’s men do not listen to God, they are killed.  That is not to say that the reader will die if they do not listen to God, but it does mean that religion is important and that God will guide them along the way if they listen.  Life lessons like these may engage the reader and allow the novel to relate to their lives.

War literature also gives the reader violence, which naturally appeals to most people.  It is human nature to fight for what one believes in and to conquer those who threaten them.  It is human emotions that naturally get the best out of people.  The urge to fight for one’s honor and integrity runs through every human being’s veins.  Because it is a human’s natural urge to fight for things they believe in, that is another relation between war literature and the reader.

People need a story that they can relate to.  War literature is a genre that provides the reader with a story they can connect with whether it is because a family member or distant ancestor fought in a particular war, or that they want to learn the hardships of war, if the reader would like to learn lessons about life, or even if the reader has the human urge for violence, war literature is, and always will be, one of the greatest subjects of literature.

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