Front Dialectical Journal

In chapter six it starts out with the men discussing a possible offensive against them, meanwhile all of them are in the trenches which are in horrible shape, which are filed with huge rats. The soldiers are all tired and worn down and their leader ,Kat, shows it in his face as well. One night after an earth bomb shakes their trench area a young recruit that seems uneasy and yells at Paul then walks out of the trenches, this showed the toll war does on a man. The same day the men are attacked by the French and attacked bad, Paul described it and says “ We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defend ourselves from annihilation”.

Khanya Ramey Sye English 2 9 September 14 SSR Journal #1 Brave New World In this book the author uses many different characters with different personalities. Some main characters in the book is John, he is the son of linda. John doesn’t really know anything about the world and doesn’t really fit in. In the seventh chapter it says ““Why wouldn’t they let me be the sacrifice?

In almost every scene, there are hardships that Paul and his friends go through. The novel deals with how the soldiers react to those hardships and whether or not they overcome them. For instance in chapter one, Paul and his friends have to comfort their classmate, Kemmerich as he had just had his leg amputated and lays on his death bed. Their classmate is dying, but all they care about is his boots. A cheap pair of boots was more valuable than a human life.

In addition, the entire situation that Paul goes through when his father “drags [him] along to a table with a lot of others. ”(p. 166) He sees that they don’t understand what war is like at all, as when “a head-master shakes hands with [him] and says: ‘So you come from the front? What is the spirit like out there? Excellent, eh?

Paul describes the degeneration and mental instability of the soldiers. Just before his comrade Detering deserts, Paul states, “We are little flames poorly sheltered by frail walls against the storm of dissolution and madness, in which we flicker and sometimes almost go out” (Remarque 275). Traditionally, light is symbolic of hope. Remarque uses metaphors to compare the soldiers to “little flames”, the inclusion of “little” describes that their flames were much bigger, but war is extinguished most of it.

Throughout the story Paul shows that he cares about his comrades by protecting them from the dangers of war, and he also displays that he will guide them in war. Paul uses his skills of intelligence to guide his team in the trenches and at the front, and he passes on his knowledge and tricks of war to the new recruits. Not many soldiers have all of these qualities, which makes Paul stand out more than his comrades. Even today some men don't express the passion and leadership Paul shows in All Quiet on the Western Front, which brings up the fact that the war needs more men like Paul. To sum up, Paul is an honest and true man who will always be there for his comrades when needed, and he is a man the troops are proud to say is a patriotic

This leaves them with no choice other than detaching from all emotions and giving in to primal instinct. This is where Remarque displays another critical theme in his work, the transformation of Paul from soldier to beast on the battlefield. On page 101, separate from the description addressed in earlier passages, Paul further elaborates on the atmosphere he and his comrades feel in the trenches of the front line. Paul explains, “The front is a cage in which we must await fearfully whatever may happen” (Remarque). No amount of training or prior knowledge of war can prepare Paul for the trauma and suffering he endures on the battlefield.

The book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque gives us a good understanding of what war was like for the people fighting on the front. When reading this book people can get a front hand experience of what it is like being in battle. Remarque wrote this book so well that often times you picture yourself actually with Paul and all his friends. The one thing you specifically get to see is how humanity affects warfare. Humanity affects our decisions in warfare because humans are selfish, have fear, and seek revenge.

(page 186) In All Quiet on the Western Front, however, Paul has to do just the opposite. Paul, originally a high school graduate, now had to numb himself to the death and violence of the front. He put it as "Men who have been up as often as we have become thick skinned. Only the young recruits are agitated."

Disillusionment was shown in ¨All Quiet On The Western Front¨ when Paul was think twice on coming to the war and not haven stayed back home to take care of his sister

I was a soldier, and now I am nothing but an agony for myself, for my mother, for everything that is so comfortless and without end. ”(Remarque 185) This quote accentuates the narrator’s separation from his family, when he cries out “I ought never to have come here.” Moreover, commonly, soldiers are exhilarated to finally go home after long periods of time at the front, and the men dread when they have to return to battle. However, in Paul’s case, he desires to return to the front, rather than staying in his home town and seeing his mother in pain, he yearns to feel numb again.

As they fight in the trenches, they lose sight of any cease to the eternal torment. “At the front there is no quietness, and the curse of the front reaches so far that we never pass beyond it” (121). The time that Paul and his fellow men spend at the front is a turning point for their morale. They used to have at least some trace of hope that the war would someday end, yet now it is gone. The ceaseless monotony of the bullets soaring through the air utterly destroys their youth and hope of returning to a normal life.

For example, when Paul describes the new recruits and how they act in battle, he says to the reader “They listen, they are docile- but when it begins again,in their excitement, they do everything wrong” (134) It is practically a genocide, these new recruits are not ready for war and what it takes, they act like eager children, and die like flies. Furthermore, when the battle is at an end, a man calls and counts the men, Paul tells the reader “ And there is a long silence before the voice asks: ‘Anyone else?’- and waits and then says softly: ‘In squads’- and breaks off and is only able to finish: ‘Second Company-march easy’”

This demonstrates how much these soldiers depend and need one another. In the novel it says, “Our only comfort is the steady breathing of our comrades asleep, and thus we wait for the morning” (Remarque 275). I imagine being in a dangerous environment such as an ongoing war it would be difficult to find comfort. However, Paul knowing his comrades are alive and getting some rest brings him comfort.

War is a very controversial thing, there are many reasons for joining. War tends to change people in the very end. “All Quiet On The Western Front” Is narrated by a man named Paul Bäumer. He is nineteen during the time of this war. Her fights for the german army, on the french front during WWI.