preview

Expression of the Opposing Sides in All Quiet On The Western Front by Remarque and Generals Die in Bed by Harrison

Decent Essays

All Quiet On The Western Front is the German side and The Generals Die In Bed is the Allied side.

The story of All Quiet On The Western Front centers on a young teenager, Paul Baumer the 19 year old German together with his 4 other classmates is persuaded to volunteer for the German army by enlisting at the beginning of World War I and find themselves fighting in the French warfare. The story is told entirely through the experiences of the young German recruits and highlights the tragedy of war through the eyes of an individual, Paul. Erich Maria Remarque creates the world of the ordinary German soldier in the Great War, spanning around late 1916 to just before the armistice of November 11th, 1918. It is a world of slaughter by gas …show more content…

Generals Die in Bed by Charles Yale Harrison is told by a twenty-year-old anonymous narrator, who reminds us that the war is neither a glamorous nor glorious affair. It’s a graphic and poignant story of a young man sent to fight on the Western Front to fight against the German army. The experience of warfare in trenches takes on distinct animation as readers identify with the predicament of the youthful soldiers. It’s written in a blunt documentary style. With its raw and powerful prose, the insanity and destructive brutality of war is shown so realistically that reader start to question the meaning of truth, heroism, God and Devil.

From day one, he’s surrounded by mud and fear, lice and rats, chance and death. Artillery whistles down without notice or invitation. Boys cry out for their mothers. Close combat is worse: hasty and furious encounters with German boys and bayonets that don’t come out of one’s ribs smoothly. A cruel survival game.
Against the idea of conquering the enemy, the soldiers are saying, “We have learned who our enemies are – the lice, some of our officers, and Death.” Against the idea of war’s comradeship, a scene in which soldiers fight each other like animals over a crust of bread is created.
Far from making men out of boys, war in this narrative takes decent humans and brutalizes and dehumanizes them. There are battle scenes,

Get Access