All Quiet on the Western Front

[jcrane]

Now that we have finished with the novel, what do you think? Do you think that Remarque has a message for us in the 21st century? Find one section of the text which you think is particularly meaningful, cite it in full, and then explain why you think it is significant.

[ata]

We are two men, two minute sparks of life; outside is the night and the circle of death. We sit on the edge of it crouching in danger, the grease drips from our hands, in our hearts we are close to one another, and the hour is like the room: flecked over with the lights and shadows of our feelings cast by a quiet fire. What does he know of me or I of him? formerly we should not have had a single thought in common- now we sit with a gose between us and feel in unison, are so intimate that we do not even speak."

One of the book's themes is brotherhood built by the war. This passage shows how Paul and Kat become almost like brothers. The soldiers have nobody else to rely on on the front. Gradually the soldiers form families within companies, and soon their fellow soldiers become closer to them than their own families (this will be shown when Paul takes his leaves).
On the topic of brotherhood, in the passage Paul describes their friendship as "... so intimate that we do not even speak." This could be due to the fact that because they are all alone in such a big world, without Kat Paul would have been all alone.

[downward_spiral]

"Their stillenss is the reason why these memories of former times do not awaken desure so much as sorrow - a vast, inapprehensible melancholy. Once we had such desires - but they return not. They are past, they belong to another world that is gone from us. In the barracks they called forth a rebellious, wild craving for their return; for then they were still bound to us, we belonged to them and they to us, even though we were already absent from them. They appeared in the soldiers' songs which we sang as we marched between the glow of the dawn and the black shillouettes of the forests to drill on the moor, they were a powerful remembrance that was in us and came from us.

But here in the trenches they are completely lost to us. They arise no more; we are dead and tey stand remote on the horizon, they are a mysterious reflection, an appariting, that haunts us, that we fear and love without hope. They are strong and our desire is strong - but they are unattainable, and we know it.

And even if these scenes of our youth were given back to us we would hardly know what to do. The tender, secret influence that passed from them into us could not rise again. we might be amongst them and move in them; we might remember and love them and be stirred by the sight of them. but it would be like gazing at the photograph of a dead comrade; those are his features, it is his face, and the days we spent together take on a mournful life in the memory; but the man himself it is not.

We could never regain the old intimacy with those scenes. It was not any recognition of their beauty and their significance that attracted us, but the communion, the feeling of a comradeship with the things and events of our existence, which cut us off and made the world of our parents a thing incomprehensible to us - for then we surrendered ourselves to events and were lost in them, and the least little thing was enough to carry us down to stream of eternity. Perhaps it was only the priveledge of our youth, but as yet we recognised no limits and saw nowhere an end. we had that thrill of expectation in the blood which united us with the course of our days.

Today we would pass through the scenes of our youth like travellers. We are burnt up by hard facts; like tradesmen we understand distinctions, and like butchers, necessities. We are no longer untroubled - we are indifferent. We might exist there; but should we really live there?

We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial - I believe we are lost."


I find this passage important because it epitomises the generation gap that the war has created, and we see in full the grandiosity of the 'lost generation' of soldiers, who never 'came of age', but were thrust bluntly into the adult world with its cares and worries. It shows how in some aspects they are still youthful - they have the ambitiions and the passions and the emotions of youth, yet their futures lie barren in front of them like those of old men; they have nothing to look forward to, they have no futures, really, because their lives have become swallowed up by the war. this passage is critical because it describes in detail what is said by a sentence in the prologue of the novel - "It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escapeed the shells, were destroyed by the war." The soldiers never had and now never will have the choices that were given to others of their age in the past.

[whatever]

My passage is too long to write and would take a tremendous amount of time. It is the scene where there is an extraordinary response to the death of a horse. The hrose dies in the midst of battle, aand even though many other men are falling around them n one seems to take notice untill a horse falls. Mr. Crane described this in that when bad things happen in a certain persons natural enviroment they hold it down and remain brave. Yet when something that that isn't part of their natural enviroment befalls the same unfortunate event then the person well have a larger reaction with most of the emotions that were bottled up come out. For example when someone at home is being abused and they keep it all and don't cry, ten they go see a sad movie they will cry and ball. This scene struck me as one that stuck out like a sore thumb, because it is very intense and in a way baffeling. My reason for the reaction towards that horse before Mr. crane gave us the psychological explination was that this is a poor animal brought into a war against its own will. It has no idea what it is getting into and the falls in battle. It is sad because the humans even though they are dieing knew that they were probably going to anyway. But the horse was taken from it daly routine of eatng hay, sleeping and running around to the midst of battle and then gets killed only so that a human could have a slight advantage.

[twinklebat]

"We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. 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 the war." (p. 87-88).

Paul and his classmates began life as soldiers with youthful enthusiasm, but soon realise how they have actually been broken from the progress of their young, promising lives before the war. Paul admits that "we are youth no longer." Even if the soldiers were given back the "scenes of our youth," they would hardly know where to start and what to do.

"Today we would pass through the scenes of our youth like travellers. We are burnt up by hard facts; like tradesmen we understand distinctions, and like butchers, necessities. We are no longer untroubled-- we are indifferent.

"We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial-- I believe we are lost." (p.122-123)

In the beginning of chapter eleven, Paul mentions that, "things that existed before are no longer valid, and one practically knows them no more. Distinctions, breeding, education are changed, are almost blotted out and hardly recognizable any longer."

The soldiers have been "burnt up" by the horrors of war. Because they can never go back to the lives they once carried, they are lost and without roots. I especially loved reading about the strange sense of indifference a soldier develops in war; on p. 101 we read that "it is this Chance that makes us indifferent." It is this indifference, and often hopelessness which keeps a soldier in his duty.

"No soldier outlives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck." (p. 101)

[Snake]

"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 showd us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke into pieces."
page 12-13

This passage show us that Paul and his friends were living in an illusion and the realities of war distroyed this illusion. Before the illusions were shattered, Paul and company had trusted the older generation to gide and help them and the war shows them that the older generation is less in touch with realilty and knows less about what is going on then they themselves do. this shattering of illusions and the realities that war impose upon people are two of the themes that All Quiet on the western Front focuses on.

[Idiot]

I think that Remarque had a message for everybody, regardless of generation, or time period. War is something that has happened for as long as humans have been around. Remarque, through All Quiet on the Western Front portrays to us the horrors of war and how it takes its toll on fighting young men. Paul's passage here shows us how he feels about being taken from his life as a youngster:

"We had as yet taken no root. The war swept us away. For the others, the older men, it is but an interruption. They are able to think beyond it. We, however, have been gripped by it and do not know what the end may be. We know only that in some strange and melancholy way we have become a waste land. All the same, we are not often sad."
p.20

I think this passage is especially interesting because it shows how Paul and his friends were swept from their life at a very young age and, unlike older soldiers, know nothing of adulthood except war.

I think that Remarque's message does pertain to us in the 21st century, but not quite so much. Where the weapons developed in WWI, such as the machine gun, were hard core killing machines, many on the weapons in use today are meant for taking out specific factories and such. Today's battles consist of much fewer people and are more about strategy because we have weapons that can hit within like one meter from its target. The novel does accent abuse of power in a great way, which is still a major issue today, as has always been. Except with the Pygmies.

Idiot

[Chris]

After completing the novel, all quiet on the western front, i found a particular scene which i found of value to the novel, and how one would look at the characters and the story. This passage is on page 205. That is where it begins anyway, it ends somewhere around pg 207. This is the scene where they go talking about all the different rulers and such. The scene statrs out with Albert asking whether there would have been a war if the kaiser hadn't wanted one. Then the soldiers go on to talk about who is right in the war, and make references to them, the Germans, defending the fatherland, and the french, defening their fatherland. They go on to say, that pehaps both of them are right, which could cause potential problems. If noone is in the wrong, why fight?
They then go on to talk about the ways that war starts, and how it happens by one country offending another country. They then get into talking and Tjaden says that he doesn't feel offended and can go home. Esentially he is saying it isn't his war, due to the fact that it doesn't really need to involve him.They go on to talk about the rulers, and they comment on how it is the rulers that start the wars, not the common people. I think that Paul says that Why would a french ironsmith want to attack us? It is the rulers. They continue on saying that they don't think war is useful, and ask why is it there. One of them says it's like a fever, noone wants it but then its suddenly there.

This scene of the book is important i think to the novel as whole. Because the soldiers are starting to inspect the war, they find that it really isn't there war that they are fighting, it is the rulers. This doesn't seem to affect their attitudes later in the novel while they are fighting, although it dos seem to make them realize that the war will be lost. By one person or the other, so therefore, one of those in the right, will lose. (This also seems to go along with a theme i found of people fighting others wars in the novel, and just innocent bistanders. This goes along with the horses near the beginning of the novel.)
Chris

[Voughaan]

A rather key theme in All Quiet On The Western Front appears in the early stages of the novel. On page 55, Paul states, "To me the front is a mysterious whirlpool. Though I am in still water far away from its center, I feel the whirl of the vortex sucking me in slowly, irresistibly, inescapably into itself. This metaphor occurs just prior to another allusion Paul makes about the earth. In approximately two paragraphs, he symbolically alludes to two of the earth’s three primary elements. The statement has more than one meaning. While the whirlpool can be seen as a benefactor to the soldier, sheltering him from the dangers and wrath of the battlefield, it can also be seen as the danger itself, bringing into its vortex those, who are not as fortunate or don’t possess enough moral determination to go on. Yet it can also be interpreted in a third manner, and that of a force that carries the deceased bodies from the desolate battlefield to eternal piece below the Earth’s surface. On the other hand, the front, to which the whirlpool is compared, can only live up to the second role, or that of the murderer. The front can neither provide shelter for the soldiers, nor provide a means of departure to eternal piece, as it is an immortal soul that has no sympathy for mortal beings. It is simply a battlefield, where the wars are waged by the innocent. That is the reality, which makes the allusion between the front and the whirlpool significant, if not bizarre.

[hoony]

I want to talk about the great difference between the propaganda of wars and the "real" war that is going on in the front.

"Yees, that's the way they think, these hundred thousand Kantoreks! Iron Youth! Youth! We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young? Youth? That is long ago. We are old folk." (18)

This passage describes how the people in the country, being protected by the soldiers, think that the soldiers should fight bravely for the country. But the soldiers themselves regret coming into the war. There is also a scene that talks about a soldier who gained fear of fire due to the excessive shell firing that is going on in the front. This also shows the hypocrisy over the war, where in the propaganda we have pictures of brave soldiers, but in reality it is sort of impossible to be in such form. Remarque is trying to say how wars are so hypocrisy.

I also want to talk about the question that Remarque is expecting us to ponder. "What good does a war do to humanity?" Other postings talked about the issue of Paul killing the French soldier in a hole and the Russians that are imprisoned. There are other scenes that came to me to think about such a question. Several times into the novel, we are introduced how infant recruits are brought to the front, just to be wasted due to lack of experience.

"They get killed simply because they hardly can tell shrapnel from high-explosive, they are mown down because they are listening anxiously to the roar of the big coal boxes falling in the rear, and miss the light, piping whistle of the spreading daisy cutters. They flock together like sheep instead of scattering, and even the wounded are shot down like hares by the airmen" (130)

This passage tells us how a lot of young recruits are killed in one battle. Considering the number of battles fought in World War I, literally a whole generation could have been wiped out due to the war.

Wars also make human literally emotionless. Katczinsky says, "It's funny," to a splattered man who was blown out of his uniform. How can such scene be "funny"? I think I would probably be disgusted out of my brain at such a sight.

Remarque's message to the reader is basically the hypocrisy of wars, and the harms that war do to humanity, such as "wipe out of a generation" and "emotionless human."

[jcrane]

"For every one German plane there come at least five English and American. For one hungry, wretched German soldier come five of the enemy,fresh and fit. For one German army loaf there are fifty tins of canned beef over there. We are not beaten, for as soldiers we are better and more experienced;we are simply crushed and driven back by over whelming superior forcrs." (pg.286)
This passage shows that German army went through a lot, they fought with so many countries that their experiences are greater then the experiences of other armies. Even if they are hungry one enemy is not enough to beat him. German planes and fighting strategies are much stronger then their enemies that just entered the war while Germany as fighting long before. But at that time was it so? Even though they lost, do the countries that fought against German would agree that they had better and stronger army and strategies? For the people who fought in the war everything they did was a good stratedgy and their army was the strongest.

[steingruby]

Pages 214-227
There is an attack by the germans are attacking. And Paul looses his way, inorder for him to stay alive he falls into a shell hole. Paul is all alone and await for what he thinks is an attack comming on. He pretends to be dead and then a man stumble into the same hole. Paul stabs that man three times. Paul show heavy emotion over this man that just has come in his hole and now is dying in front of Paul. Paul realises that he cannot handle every little about war. He knows that he is falling apart and cannot handle war by himself. He cant stand the sounds from the man so he trys to help him as much as possible but still he dies. Paul realises that it is his falt and then goes on passing time by as he write to the mans wife and setting the man up so that he could talk to him. Then he starts talking to himself like the man was still alive. At night he crawls bach to his trench but doesnt really no exavtly whitch way to go, but he makes it back and tells everybody about it.

[BBB]

"Still the campaign goes on – the dying goes on ----" page 285 I feel that this passage sentence speaks for it self. No one had enough sense to say enough is enough. The campaign was going on, and thousands of lives were being gone. If just one person from high command said enough it would have been over, but the dying was continuos and there was no one who no one that would put a stop to it.

"But we are swept forward again, powerless, madly savage and raging; we will kill, for they are still our mortal enemies, their rifles and bombs are aimed against us, and if we don’t destroy them, they will destroy us." Page 115. This passage shows that the French are Germany’s eternal enemies. Also they are fighting to destroy other armies weapons before the weapons destroy them. That’s Baumer’s explanation of the war, they should destroy the other army before they kill them.

BBB

[ida]

Pg.58 and pg.112

First passage that starts on pg.58 describes a tensed situation of bombardment. Reader is able to imagine clear pictures of fascinating "balls of light" who unfortunately burn out after a short existence. Nonetheless, new ones immediately replace these and survive to an identical destiny. These stars, how writer also refers to them, might not only illustrate the out look and atmosphere of battles of war but could also represent a description for soldiers. Same like stars, these young soldiers are at first full of sparkle, they do not have the real picture of war is, they are green- immature, red- full of energy and yellow- ready to go and fight. Their main goals, inexpieriends thought about what world is make them "fly" and rise high up until they star to fall down a fade away their existence. This "falling" could be understood literary, soldiers end their lives. Nevertheless, if one refers to pg.112 other way of dying is the lost of their previous lives and they turn into "wild beasts". Therefore, although once who survived their lives will never be their only their own but accompanied with unforgettable pictures from their past.

[fhampus]

When Paul goes home on leave for the first time (starting page 157) we see all that the war has done to him. He can't relate to the people at home, his family or even his pre-army life. The part where Paul is on leave ties in with several of the key themes that Remarque wanted us to think about. The line "the war has ruined us for everything" could probably be a thesis statement for this novel and it is certainly supported when Paul goes on leave. Everything is awkward and it seems obvious that Paul would have trouble living a normal life again. The war is all that is real to him. The only people that Paul can relate to are his comrades. His parents or the old men he meet in the pub don't know anything about the war and therefore there is something between them; a veil separating them. After reading this part you can clearly see why people of Paul's generation are said to be the "Lost Generation". This disconnection from the outside world that the war caused is definitely very significant to the novel. It is a key way for Remarque to show us the horrors of war but also the unbreakable friendships that war creates between soldiers.