Comparing Journey's End 'And Oh What A Lovely War'

Penned during two distinctly disparate eras in American military history, both Erich Maria Remarque's bleak account of trench warfare during World War I, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Tim O'Brien's haunting elegy for a generation lost in the jungles of Vietnam, The Man I Killed, present readers with a stark reminder that beneath the veneer of glorious battle lies only suffering and death. Both authors imbue their work with a grim severity, presenting the reality of war as it truly exists. Men inflict grievous injuries on one another, breaking bodies and shattering lives, without ever truly knowing for what or whom they are fighting for. With their contributions to the genre of war literature, both Remarque and O'Brien have sought to lift the veil of vanity which, for so many wartime writers, perverts reality with patriotic fervor. In doing so, the authors manage to convey the true sacrifice of the conscripted soldier, the broken innocence which clouds a man's first kill, and the abandonment of one's identity which becomes necessary in order to kill again.

George and all readers learn from this story about the merciless and callous effect the human nature has on mankind. The general theme of the novella highlights the voracious and often malevolent aspect of human nature. The novella in its essence flails at the idea of ‘every man for himself’. George learns many lessons throughout the book that can be applied to a reader’s everyday life. Loyalty and Sacrifice

The theme of suffering can come in numerous varieties; under categories both physical and emotional. Suffering is presented as a key concept in ‘Othello’, ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’. All three texts explore many aspects of suffering in parts, however the most obvious and concentrated facet leans towards the psychological aspect rather then the physical side. In the three chosen texts many of the characters suffer from some sort of emotional trauma. Psychological suffering and distress is a major topic in all three chosen texts as the authors use this ailment in order to drive the storyline forward,

In the incredible book, All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, the reader follows Paul Baumer, a young man who enlisted in the war. The reader goes on a journey and watches Paul and his comrades face the sheer brutality of war. In this novel, the author tries to convey the fact that war should not be glorified. Through bombardment, gunfire, and the gruesome images painted by the author, one can really understand what it would have been like to serve on the front lines in the Great War. The sheer brutality of the war can be portrayed through literary devices such as personification, similes, and metaphors.

The defining characteristics of WW1 were its sickening violence and its immense death toll so, understandably, many pieces of war literature aim to present the horrors of war in order to unflinchingly reveal the true experiences of the soldiers. However, Journey’s End by R.C Sherriff and A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry also focus on the emotional aspect of war and the relationships it created and destroyed. The war forced people of every background to rely on and interact with each other while it also wrenched soldiers away from their families, introducing unique tensions between people that would not have existed otherwise. However, it is debatable which form, Sherriff’s play or Barry’s novel, is most effective in presenting these relationships.

2. Do you think most readers are apt to respond to Eighner's essay with sympathy? Pity? Impatience? Contempt? Disgust? How do you react? Why?

Tim Winton’s novel “the turning” has 17 short stories throughout it. Some of these stories connect through the character and theme in many ways. Two of Winton’s stories that connect well through character and theme are ‘long clear view’ and ‘damaged goods’. This text will be analysing these two short stories and showing how they connect by finding out what characters are the same or similar and how the themes connect.

Memoirs of war often reflect the positive or negative experiences endured throughout battle. Considered by many to be one of the best memoirs of World War I, Hervey Allen’s “Toward the Flame”, recalls his own experiences of battle. His recollection of events shows that he had a negative image of war and that there was nothing glorious about it. What started out looking like a man’s greatest adventure turned into a shell-shocking reality that war is actually horrible and trying. Allen’s experiences with consistent hunger, mustard gas, and artillery shellings led to his disillusionment with war, and left him with a permanent hatred of battle.

The Wars, written by Timothy Findley, is a story about World War I, and consists of many shocking images passed over to the reader. Findley accomplishes to pull the reader into the narrative itself, so that the reader manages to feel an impact upon him/her-self about what is read. If it was not for this specific skill, or can also be seen as a specific genre, the novel would not have been as successful as it is now. Also, something that helps the book be so triumphant, there is the fact that Findley never overwhelms the reader with too many gruesome details about the World War I. Instead, he breaks the book down to help the reader calm down from everything that is happening. Throughout the essay, there is going to be some commenting on a

was not the truth. This book showed the harsh reality of war that most people

Throughout human existence war has been a glorified way of settling disputes and asserting dominance, a place where powerful men have proven themselves, a place where glory and honor were achieved and a place where noble heroes died. Continuously through history humans looked past the horrors of war and misleadingly saw it as a glorious manner. This glorious view on war went unchallenged for centuries when finally the general William Tecumseh Sherman spoke out about the horrors of war and famously quoted that “war is hell”. In All Quiet On The Western Front William Tecumseh Sherman’s words can been seen in Remarque’s portrayal of the First World War by making display of the close similarities that war and hell have. Remarque exposes how truly horrendous the conditions at the front were displaying similarities between the conditions at war and to conditions described of hell. Remarque shows how the weapons used in the war turned man into ashes and countrysides into dead zones creating a real hell like environment. Lastly Remarque manifests that the horrors that war brought were so deep that the suffering would become eternal just as the suffering of hell. Therefore in the novel All Quiet On The Western Front Remarque brings life to William Tecumseh Sherman's famous quote “War is hell” by exposing how alike war and hell are by virtue of their similarities: How the conditions at the front were so horrendous they resembled conditions of hell; How new warfare technology turned

When defining the possible limitations of the “Empathy and (Film) Fiction”, it is in high priority to consider the experimental set in the research and the film examples Neill provides in the essay. The set of examples the author uses in the essay does correspond only to the award-winning or highly-rated films that are assumed to be “good” in evoking the empathetic or any other emotional response. This excludes possible alternative response to “bad” or “not-so-good” films. In addition, Neill does not cover many other cases of the empathetic response to the fictional character; thus he ignores the complex set of emotions the audience usually expresses (e.g. the antagonist as the main character, disgusting scenes etc). As a result, deficiency of the elaborate experimental set generates more questions in the issue. At the same time, however, the strength of

In contrast, the author uses George as a metaphor for those who would fight, kill, and die in the war; this element is an important part of the author’s persuasive strategy. W.D. Howells wants to appeal to the values and the emotional sensibility of his audience, for this reason, Howells portrays George as passive and unsure of himself. George is fearful of the war and he sees no glory in it. He believes that God is peaceful and the idea that God would advocate for war runs counter to George’s belief in peace. In short, the author uses George’s story to illustrate the consequences of war for the reader. This strategy works to persuade a resistant audience to relate to George, hence, lowering their resistance to the anti-war message of this piece.

The Great War, also known as World War I, is a defining moment in Europe’s history. Its aftermath consists of the demolition of Germany’s economy, the rise of Adolf Hitler, and the loss of an entire generation of young men who were sent into combat. All Quiet on the Western Front chronicles the experiences of Paul Baumer, a 19-year old student who volunteers for the military during World War I along with his classmates Muller and Kropp. They are compelled to enlist by Kantorek, their fiercely patriotic but misguided schoolmaster. Paul’s life in the military is told in short entries that reveal the reality of war: horrifying battles, violence, alienation, emotional indifference. His accounts of war are personal and emotional, and the bleak tone

In war, both violence and fear revokes a soldier’s humanity. These elements of war cause a person to shut down their emotional instincts, which causes the soldiers to mature rapidly by taking innocence along with joy and happiness in life. Through the experiences that the soldiers encounter, their humanity is compromised. Thus, as war strips soldiers of their innocence, they start to become disconnected from themselves and others. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque illustrates the negative effects war has on a soldier’s humanity, through his use of Paul’s books and the potato pancakes by revealing the soldiers loss of emotion that causes them to become detached from society. Through these symbols they deepen the theme by visually depicting war’s impact on Paul. Paul’s books helps the theme by depicting how the war locked his heart to old values by taking his innocence. Likewise the potato pancakes reveal Paul’s emotional state damaged by the war with his lack of happiness and gratitude.