A Growing Conflict

“I do not go for the bridge,” Pablo said, looking down at the table.  “Neither me nor my people.”   Robert Jordan said nothing. He looked at Anselmo and raised his cup.  “Then we shall do it alone, old one.”

 

In For Whom the Bell Tolls  a man named Robert Jordan has been sent to blow up and bridge in the mountains.   He meets an old man named Anselmo, who acts as his guide.  Once in the mountains he meets Pablo, who is a leader of one of the local bands for the republic; however, Pablo is against blowing the bridge, which causes a conflict between Pablo and Robert Jordan.  The quote shows Pablo saying how he doesn’t want the bridge blow and Robert saying how he is going to do it anyway with or with out him.

 

            The quote begins a book long conflict between Pablo and Robert.   Robert feels he has to blow the bridge because it his job and it’s what he does.  He wants to do it for the republic.  Pablo doesn’t want the bridge blown because he fears that once it is they will be hunted and run out f the mountains.  Pablo is scared of the bridge to be blown.  When the conflict is aroused everyone even Pilar sides with Robert on blowing the bridge and it even goes as far as to where Robert is supposed to kill Pablo.  This also causes Pilar to fight with Pablo about how she is head of the band, which Pablo finally agrees too.  The conflict at that moment is settled but it will continue on for the rest of the book.

 

The quote also is of some significance to war itself.  In war you have soldier and you have soldier types that are only going to do what they want.  Robert is a soldier, he is going to blow that bridge because it his job, which is what a soldier is supposed to do. It is what a soldier does do.  Pablo on the other hand is a soldier but he’s not going to do something for the well being of his country or his cause but for himself and at the same time scared.  The quote shows a growing conflict between Robert and Pablo through the book as well as describe some aspects of war.

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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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The Swift Maturation of a Soldier

“For it was younger than his youth, last year.

Now, he is old; his back will never brace;

He’s lost his colour very far from here,

Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,

And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race

And leap at purple spurted from his thigh.”

“Disabled” – Wilfred Owen

These lines describe the extreme effects a year of war has had on the man at the subject of Wilfred Owen’s “Disabled”, both mentally and physically. He is physically deteriorated as a result of the continual effects of battle. Not only has he lost his legs, but he has even lost his “colour” so that the young man who was too young to even enlist, as the poem hints, now looks “old”, and more importantly feels old. The lines describe the reasons the man now feels embarrassment and even disgust with what he has become. He has lost all that he once enjoyed: women, football, even the pleasures of his hometown. Now, he is a disabled and exhausted war veteran, who earns a polite respect, but nothing more. This is result of a war that has left him unnaturally aged, both physically and mentally.

The situation that is described echoes a common theme found throughout literature of war. Both soldiers and writers have often described the incredible aging one endures while in battle. The physical aging is more obvious, whether it is a serious injury or simply a loss of color as Wilfred Owen describes. What is more striking is the mental maturation almost every soldier undergoes from even just a small time in battle. Most young 18 year old recruits learn and experience more in their first few days of war than in their entire lives to that point. These experiences will also be their greatest test of character. Henry sudden and drastic emotional development in The Red Badge of Courage, in which the entire plot takes place within two days, is a prime example of how quickly many soldiers grow or mature on a battlefield. These same sentiments are voiced in All Quiet on the Western Front. As the narrator recounts, the war sweeps young recruits like him away and distorts their entire way of thinking. As he states young soldiers soon learn that the education they have been working for their whole life is worthless compared to simple physical skills of warfare. If a soldier survives a war, he returns home physically deteriorated, emotionally ragged, and with an entirely new set of values and priorities.

Such effects can only come from war. Soldiers experience the worst and the best of human nature. They suffer through appalling death and destruction yet also witness the strongest forms of camaraderie and courage. Such fantastic experiences are why so many writers and soldiers describe a dramatic aging during battle.

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Leadership in War

“Kropp on the other hand is a thinker.  He proposes that a declaration of war should be a kind of popular festival with entrance tickets and bands like a bull fight.  Then in the arena the ministers and generals of the two countries, dressed in bathing-drawers and armed with clubs can have it out among themselves.  Whoever survives, his country wins.  That would be much simpler and more just than this arrangement, where the wrong people do the fighting.” (Remarque, 41)

 

            This excerpt is taken from a conversation between the soldiers about the best way to end World War I.  Remarque makes it clear that the men feel they are fighting for a cause that is not their own, and this quote clearly illustrates that opinion.  This is contrary to the romantic view of this subject, which is that soldiers fight because they are obedient men who will gladly die for their leaders without second-guessing their motives.  Kropp and the rest of the men in All Quiet on the Western Front lost this general faith in their leaders shortly after arriving to battle.  “It’s simply amazing, I tell you, that the ordinary tommy sticks it all up here on the front line. Simply amazing!” (Remarque, 45) says Kat, astonished that average men risk their lives without any practical benefits for themselves. 

The scene of the wounded horses provides a metaphor.  “Like to know what harm they’ve done,” (Remarque, 64) says Detering, frustrated about the slaughter of the innocent horses.  The men feel the same unfairness about their own situation as the horses.  They are also unconcerned with the political motives of the war, and have little to gain but everything to lose by fighting it.  As Kropp says, “the wrong people do the fighting,” (Remarque, 41).

The quote also exemplifies an interesting statement about leadership.  Kropp mocks the national leaders by suggesting that they dress in “bathing-drawers”.  He, like the other soldiers, does not respect the men in authority over him until they earn it.  Himmelstoss and Katczinsky provide opposing examples.  When Himmelstoss mocks Paul and Kropp who are carrying the latrine bucket, he gives them strict orders when they accidentally spill it on him.  But the two refuse to follow the orders.  “…that was the end of his authority,” says Paul.  Himmelstoss did not respect his men, so his men refuse to respect him.  This is the same disrespect Kropp feels for the German national leaders, although to a lesser degree because he is at least still willing to fight.  Katczinsky is the leader of the group, and the men have great respect for him because he goes out of his way to provide for them.  When the men are hungry and without food, Kat magically appears with hot bread.  When there is a gas attack, Kat is the first to warn his men to put on their masks.  Because he cares for his men, Kat’s men respect him.  This statement about leadership is repeated throughout the book.

          Kropp’s proposal to end the war provides an example for repeated themes of respect and proper leadership.

 

 

 

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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 Separation of Humanity from Nature

Wilfred Owen’s poem “Futility” compares humanity and nature and their respective roles on the earth.  The poem discusses the meaning of life for both nature and man using “the king old sun” representing nature and “him” representing man, more specifically, a soldier.

Human kind’s role on the earth is unknown according to the poem when it states, “- O what made fatuous sunbeams toil/ To break earth’s sleep at all?”  This line, in translation, asks the question, “why does the sun rise to wake the earth?”  Essentially, the line is asking why God has mankind alive in the first place.

The king old sun’s role on the Earth is to provide for the rest of life.  The poem reveals nature’s role in the beginning of the second stanza, “Think how it wakes the seeds…”  The sun’s role is to wake the rest of the earth.  The sun brings life trough its light and heat to give to nature.

In the beginning of the poem, nature interacts with human kind: “Move him into the sun -/ Gently its touch awoke him once…”  Nature does its job to bring life to the earth, awakening him.  God created the sun for just this reason.

God put humankind on the earth to contribute to nature as well, but at one point, the human race broke off from nature.  There is now a distinct separation between nature and man.  To the narrator, human kind does not have a roll on the earth.  Because humans have broken away from nature, humans no longer have a roll to contribute to nature.  Selfishly, humans only contribute to themselves.  Examples of these contributions are war, science, even philosophy.

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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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A Universal Understanding

Throughout all of time, from the very beginnings of civilization to the present day, war has been the focus of countless literary works, consuming many of history’s great minds in an attempt to understand its place among humanity. The classic pieces of literature, those that ultimately will be regarded as the greatest compositions, run the gamut of drama, mystery, tragedy, comedy, and romance. However, warfare equals these genres as one of the most popular and successful topics in literature considering its universal presence and the sentiments that war creates among the peoples involved.

Virtually every corner of the Earth has seen the destruction and the loss of life that war creates. The vast majority of the world, from small, remote islands to dense jungles and high mountaintops, has been affected by human conflict. These people have heard the stories of or seen firsthand the battlegrounds, the stench of corpses, or the roar of a victorious army. They have experienced the fear at the sight of an invading force, the exhaustion of battle, and the pure joy of freedom. While most have never been the victim of such a sea of emotions, they have nevertheless been told of the battles of their ancestors and the histories of their nation’s conflicts. In one capacity or another, everyone is able to relate to war. With such widespread and complete association with the topic, the literature of war has made its way into the hearts and minds of so many. The inhabitants of one nation, in knowing their own history, can relate to the battles and wars of another kind, forming a worldwide network. Similar to the great aforementioned genres, war involves the people of every nation and every background, making it truly universal

Literature is essentially the attempt of an author to convey a series of events and emotions to a reader. While many of the great tragedies or comedies accomplish this task, war conveys an uncomparable range of emotions. Works recounting the stories of battle carry with them fear, excitement, happiness, uncontrollable grief, and ferocity. Without a doubt, every man and woman can understand these emotions and have likely experienced them. A modern work of war, Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead, relaying the personal experiences of a First Gulf War Marine, helps to portray the emotional turbulence of war. “Swoff” is a young soldier anxious for the thrills of engaging a dangerous enemy on foreign soil. However, his book takes the reader through his depression from training with such intensity only to see none of the fight. Towards the end of the story, Swofford nearly attacks his commanding officer when he is denied the opportunity to fire a shot at Iraqi leaders. Jarhead additionally gives insight into the relationships between the Marines. The stress of living for months at a time in a dangerous war zone often leads to violent tensions between the men and anger toward allied forces. Swofford also describes the scene at his base the night that the war is ended. The men were terribly drunk, firing their weapons into the air while dancing and singing. As Anthony Swofford recounts, war is a time where emotions go unchecked. Jarhead presents a realistic war experience, clearly proving that war is as much a psychological challenge as it is physical. The emotions that arise in battle are extremely difficult to understand, and that is why war literature is so widespread. Everyone, at some point in time, is seemingly suffocated by heavy feelings, and the literature of war presents a common sensation.

As do the works of genres like tragedy and romance, war provides a clear portrayal of people’s true inner character. The transformations participants undergo in battle are truly unpredictable. Soldiers one may expect to rise as a leader under pressured moments may shrink to a follower while the common man may become a beacon of strength and example for others. Thus, war can ultimately be a great romance or tragedy in itself. Perhaps the work that best explains this phenomenon is Steven Crane’s Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage. Henry Fleming exemplifies both the fall and rise of a soldier. He initially panics in the heat of battle, throws down his rifle, and deserts his army. He justifies his escape by concocting a variety of excuses, showing him as cowardly and unfit for the rigors of battle. However, when he hears of his force’s victory, he is unable to continue to deny his guilt and decides to return to his men. In the subsequent battle, he serves with bravery and valor, displaying the meteoric rise and fall in character that war can cause. It is this metamorphosis prevalent during war that makes its story an enticing subject for literature and for those who can relate to such situations.

Finally, war has been an ideal for so many throughout the generations of man. In ancient Sparta, young men were raised to fight with honor and glory during battle. They were taught to idolize the strongest warriors and to fight with similar valor. Just as in ancient times, war has been a fantasy, an arena where the bravest and most skilled fighters overcome extreme challenges and either are victorious after a bloody battle or die honorably with their chest, and not their backs, facing their enemy. An excellent portrayal of this fantasy is the epic poem, Beowulf. The great warrior Beowulf volunteers himself to confront the most feared beast in Denmark, Grendel. Beowulf displays the traits of the idealized fighter: nearly inhuman strength, utter lack of fear, sound decision-making under the pressures of combat, wisdom, and leadership. He additionally dies in glory after slaying a poisonous, fire-breathing dragon, just as a great king should pass. Beowulf, like a great deal of other literary works concerning battle, presents the fantasy of every generation, the powerful, honorable warrior that so many hope to become through reading these works.

The literature of war has existed because it is an integral part of human life. Every people and every nation knows conflict, and the literature describing man’s innate need for battle and competition and the emotions felt by all are included in the genre of war literature. While each separate work portrays war in a unique way, the literature of war is ironically a unifying subject that is truly universal.

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