All Quiet On The Western Front Guilt Quotes

These boys were motivated by nationalism and false propaganda about the heroic nature of the war. As they began to understand the uselessness of the soldiers’ sacrifices, Paul’s comrades develop a bitterness towards the system. Especially after seeing their German leader, they question the government's intentions. Their innocence was manipulated to benefit political officials with no consideration for each individual life that is affected by the war.

Dehumanization is a natural defense mechanism that allows human beings in stressful situations to endure without having the feeling of guilt. There are many textual examples that Remarque includes in his novel All Quiet on the Western Front which proves this point. Such examples can be Paul’s incident with the French man, the case with Kemmerich's boots and how Paul and his recruits lose their humanity to survive the war. All these examples show how Paul dwindles between id and superego.

“Which in the field developed into the finest thing that arose out of the war - comradeship,” (Remarque 27). Throughout the war, soldiers depend on each other to be able to live another day. Through small acts of kindness, sorrow from loss, and never leaving one behind emerges the theme of comradeship, which is clearly represented in the novel, All Quiet On The Western Front.”

Paul and his mother are inseparable knowing that they can only see eachother once in a while. Paul is internally affected because he feels guilty due to war, knowing that he was not there to take care of his mother when she needed assistance. At the end of Chapter 7, Paul receives a leave that is six weeks long and must return to the front when the six weeks are over. When he arrives at his hometown, he realizes that his mother is dying of cancer. He never expected his mother to be in these conditions so he says, “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. I ought never to have come on leave” (Remarque 185). Not only does Paul feel guilty but he also has the feeling of regret. He feels guilty because he was not there to assist his mother when she needed attention.That is also why he calls himself an agony. The relationship between him and his his mother was lost. He also has the feeling of regret because he knows that he should not have enlisted in the army knowing that he has many other responsibilities outside the army such as his education, watching over his parents, and watching over his only sister. Now that there is nothing to do over his mother, he must spend a lot of time with her while he is on leave. When Paul says “I ought never to have come on leave”, he describes how

In the book A Separate Peace Gene the main character struggles with the guilt from when he made his best friend Finny fall out of a tree and broke his leg. Guilt is to make (someone) feel guilty, especially in order to induce them to do something (Google Definitions). Gene’s guilt starts later in the infirmary when he realizes that the he is the reason that Finny fell. “What happened there at the tree? That goddam tree, I’m going to cut down that tree. Who cares who can jump out of it. What happened, what happened?” (Knowles 65). Gene is struggling with trying to figure out what happened at the tree. Then he has an epiphany that the reason that Finny fell was because Gene shook the tree. Now Gene is trying to solve how to tell Finny what happened.

Along with personal feelings, the same goes for everyone Paul witnessing his best friend’s death have impacted their group so that they cannot feel or care for each other. After a battle that left many injured. While Paul rests he thinks of how everyone is left on their own, claiming, "We have lost all feeling for one another. We can hardly control ourselves when our hunted glance lights on the form of some other man. We are insensible, dead men, who through some trick, some dreadful magic, are still able to run and to kill" (Remarque, 116). During another day in the trenches Paul sees many bodies everywhere, soldiers being killed in front of him. Losing everyone that was close to him has caused him to lose himself mentally making him unstable. He carries the pressure of telling the families which furthermore carriers his depression. He carries a comrade’s boots as they are passed down from soldiers after each owner dies, Paul carries these boots to represent unimportance of human life. In addition to young soldiers have to follow and look up to older generation and higher rank officers which lead to betrayal. Propaganda played a huge role in World War 1 giving everyone biased opinions and bad judgements of others. These opinions gave Paul a false perspective of older generations.

Dehumanization not only affects the soldier physically but internally as well, both on and off the front. Being affected internally by dehumanization means that these soldiers are stripped of their emotions, have a changed their point of view on war, or are given a different mindset. When Paul and others go to visit Kemmerich, a former classmate whose leg was recently amputated, they can tell he is on the brink of death. Instead of being concerned, Paul’s classmate Muller is insensitive and is only concerned about his boots. Muller has been so dehumanized that all he can bring himself to think about is Kemmerich’s boots, and receiving them after his death. Later in the novel, Kat points out

Paul feels as though his family has lied to him because they said he would be a hero and it would be so great because he would be protecting his nation but then he goes and has to see people being blown to pieces.“…at that time even one’s parents were ready with the word ‘coward’; no one had the vaguest idea what we were in for. The wisest were just poor and simple people. They knew the war to be a misfortune, whereas those who were better off, and should have been able to see more clearly what the consequences would be, were beside themselves with joy” (11). Their families do not understand what his going on there. But then, Paul gets out there and there are men losing legs and arms.

This quote was stated at the very beginning of the book when one of Paul’s old friends, Kemmerich, is on his deathbed from an amputated leg. Paul said this because even though Kemmerich hadn’t died yet, Paul and his friends already debate about who should take Kemmerich’s boots when he does die. In doing so, they also disregard that Kemmerich doesn’t want to give the boots up yet. This grim and unorthodox reaction to a person being close to death at the start of the book really helps the author set the mood for the book as a whole. In the quote, Paul says he and his friends “have lost all sense of other considerations, because they are artificial” is his explanation for why Paul and his war comrades don’t care about the sentimentality of the

Firstly, Kemmerichs boots symbolize death, and the cheapness of life. Kemmerichs boots are described as high and supple. As the story progresses, they are passed from soldier to soldier. The author writes, "Müller can make good use of them. Kemmerich will die; it is immaterial who gets them." This quotation perfectly shows how cheap life is in times of war. Their friend is dying, and all they can talk about are who gets his boots. The novel is suggesting that a pair of boots is more important than a human life. Therefore, through the use of Kemmerichs boots, it is seen that the author uses the boots as a tool to represent how cheap life really is. Moreover, After the death of their dear friend Kemmerich, Müller inherited his boots. Even though Kemmerich is dead, Müller is happier than he had

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque, is a classic anti-war novel about the personal struggles and experiences encountered by a group of young German soldiers as they fight to survive the horrors of World War One. Remarque demonstrates, through the eyes of Paul Baumer, a young German soldier, how the war destroyed an entire generation of men by making them incapable of reintegrating into society because they could no longer relate to older generations, only to fellow soldiers.

Stanley Kubrick directed the movie, Paths of Glory. All Quiet on the Western Front is both a novel, and a movie. The novel is written by Erich Maria Remarque, and the movie was directed by Lewis Milestone. Both Paths of Glory and All Quiet on the Western Front depict “The Great War”, also known as “First World War” or “World War I.” The Great War originated in Europe, it was a Global War that lasted from July 28 1914 up until November 11 1918. involved all the world’s economic great powers, which had all assembled into two opposing alliances. The Allies, which were based on the Triple Entente of the British Empire, France, and the Russian Empire, and the Central Powers which were composed of Germany, and Austria- Hungary. These alliances reorganized and expanded as more nations entered the war. Italy, Japan, and the United States joined the Allies, while the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria joined the Central powers. Both sides of this war were fighting from the trenches, hardly making any progress at all unless one side became brave enough to venture forward and out of the trenches in attempt attack the enemy. The movie Paths of Glory, and All Quiet on the Western Front are both realistic representations of the life for soldiers during this war. However, these two movies differ slightly in the way that the story of “The Great War” is told.

In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque the reader sees World War One from a German’s perspective. The main character Paul Bäumer joins German forces after with his friend. The main character Paul Baumer goes through many difficulties and struggles in time of War. The author suggests that symbols give a better understanding of the brutality of war through butterflies, boots, and women.

The hypocrisy of the power structure in society is also expressed by the wretched condition of the “hapless” soldiers. The following accusatory lines strongly reveal this hypocrisy associated with the bleakn physical environment of London:

In the words of Otto Von Bismarck, “Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war.” Many of the preceding war novels to All Quiet on the Western Front, misrepresented or overlooked the anguish of war, in favor of more resplendent ideals such as glory, honor, or nationalism. The predominant issue of All Quiet on the Western Front is the terrible atrocities of war. The reality that is portrayed in the novel is that there was no glory or honor in this war, only a fierce barbarity that actually transformed the nature of human existence into irreparable, endless affliction, destroying the soldiers long before their deaths.