Joekie Annemarie Henriet Kaemingk
Dr. Mangan
English IV
12 April 2017
The Value of Comradeship in All Quiet on the Western Front
How does one survive after all has been lost? 38 million men from 32 different countries were involved in World War I. Over 17 million men died, some of these deaths include Paul and his friends and comrades. “Comradeship” is a unconditional friendship between people who live or work together, especially in a difficult situation. As an example of this strong friendship and fellowship, the author describes the relationship between Paul and his fellow soldiers even stronger than the relationship in family members and even between lovers. Through the novel Paul and his comrades navigate the horrifying conditions
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During the trench warfare countless diseases and infections spread easily like Trench foot, lice, body lice and the Spanish flu. The easily spreading of diseases and infections was caused by rats and the unhygienic transport of food and water. In the Trench warfare water and food was shipped in large buckets that were often contaminated with diseases and infections. Food was rare this caused soldiers to fight often on an almost empty stomach. They smoked cigarettes to reduce their appetite, but this was of course not healthy and would not help restore strength to their immune system. The difficulties that the soldiers had to endure were making it really hard to survive, it took many young men their lives.
Being a soldier in the WWI Trench warfare was a constant and almost unendurable mental fight. According to Paul, every man must believe in chance and trust his luck , because there is not much else that they can rely on and trust. Life at the front was really hysteric and caused soldiers to develop shell shock. Shell shock was was common it was a consequence of the intensity of the Trench warfare, it caused soldiers to be unable to sleep, walk or talk. “I become faint all at once I cannot do anymore. I won 't reveal anymore, it is senseless, I could drop down and never rise up again.” (Remarque 26) Paul describes
Death and disease were omnipresent in the trenches. The health and the living conditions in the trenches were one of the biggest issues faced in World War one. Diseases in the trenches killed more soldiers than bombardment or bullets. Scraps of discarded food, empty tins and other waste, the nearby presence of the latrine, the general dirt of living half underground and being not able to wash or change for a considerable length of time or weeks on end created conditions of severe health risk (1914-1918.net, 2014). The unsanitary living conditions not only caused several health problems but this caused vermin and parasites to be very commonly present in the trenches. The rats were known to grow ‘as big as domestic cats’ according to soldiers fighting in the
Has there really ever been a time in your life when everything has been all quiet? No matter who you are, there is always something on your mind, or something that you have to deal with. There is really only one way to achieve absolute quiet, and that is by death. War unfortunately gives millions of people just that. All Quiet on the Western Front is a book that tells a story of young men and their journey throughout WW1 from the German perspective. Three main points of war that will be mentioned in this paper are betrayal, horror, and friendship.
The diseases that most affected the soldiers,while they were fighting for a cause in the trenches were,Trench Foot,The Trench Influenza and Shell Shock.
Imagine you’re lying on the muddy, damp Earth and all around you can hear the screams of people you know dying. Shells explode, bullets race through the air, and poisonous gas seeps around you, all with the intent to harm you in some way. Yet, you willingly put yourself in that position day after day, year after year. The question surrounding this situation is, why? Who would be masochistic enough to choose to put their lives in danger and live in the most perilous environment possible? Two very different books give us insight into the thoughts of the soldiers who continuously put themselves in these environments. Your Death Would Be Mine by Martha Hanna and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque lets us into the minds of Paul Pireaud and Paul Baumer as they try to survive life as a soldier in the Great War. I argue that Pireaud and Baumer had very different reasons for continuing to fight despite having suffered beyond belief. In this paper I will analyze how the varying degrees of patriotism, brotherhood, family life at home, and age affected how these two men endured the treacherous life on the front of World War I.
World War I was known for its very slow-paced battle and the stage of stalemate. After advancing from Germany on France, battle turned into trench warfare. Trench Warfare is a defensive strategy in a field where the army stays in rows of trenches that were placed along the Western Front during the war. The use of trenches during the Great War was a very significant tactic during battle, by making soldiers hidden but exposed just enough to be able to attack the enemy. On a daily basis, life in the trenches was very scary and filled with horror. Death was upon the soldiers even if there was nobody attacking them. There was a continuous shell fire that would randomly take the lives of many. Some men died on their first day in the trenches, and very few were lucky to make it out unharmed. Shell fire was not the only issue in the trenches. There were plenty of diseases and infections spreading around like a wildfire. Many soldiers got infections and diseases that could not be treated such as Trench Foot or Trench Fever. Although trench warfare acts as a great defensive and offensive measure, it became very dangerous because of the many different causes of death including shell fire, diseases, and infections.
There is no doubt that when war occurs, every single human being is affected by it even if it is just a little. In the novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front” written by Erich Maria Remarque, a group of teenage men, who also appear to by classmates, are in the German army of World War I because they have chosen to leave their adolescence at home and school for grown up work at the army. Throughout this fictional novel, they face many challenges that result in them not seeing each other ever again because of death. War affects individuals by leaving behind necessities such as education or jobs, not being able to watch over others such as their health, and injuries that soldiers receive while they are at war.
In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul experiences the brutality of war. He uses similes and personification to explain the pain he saw and the pain he experienced. In this paragraph, I will go over some ways how Paul describes his experiences. When Paul is at the front line, he says “like a big, soft jellyfish, it floats into our shell-hole and lulls there obscenely”. Paul is talking about the poisonous gas that the French are trying to kill them with when Paul is hiding. Luckily he had his gas mask on but he can feel the gas surround him in the shell-hole. Paul hates war at first, but after years there, he became used to it and he doesn't
The soldiers undertook many different diseases and sicknesses, mentally and physically. The faced outbreaks of measles, small pox, malaria, pneumonia, or camp itch. Soldiers would get malaria when camping in damp areas surrounded by mosquitos, while camp
Being in a war zone for years on end can have a huge toll on people and their sanity. For Paul and his comrades in the trenches facing life or death every day, their situation for many men would lead to further problems such as shell shock(PTSD). Paul points this out and explains what had got him through this within the novel, "Had we gone into the trenches without this period of training most of us would certainly have gone mad. Only thus were we prepared for what awaited us. We did not break down, but adapted ourselves; our twenty years, which made many another thing so grievous, helped us in this. But by far the most important result was that it awakened in us a strong, practical sense of esprit de corps, which in the field developed into the finest thing that arose out of the war—comradeship."(26-27) Here
World War I was known for its very slow-paced battle and the stage of stalemate. After advancing from Germany on France, battle turned into trench warfare. Trench Warfare is a defensive strategy in a field where the army stays in rows of trenches that were placed along the Western Front during the war. The use of trenches during the Great War was a very significant tactic during battle, by making soldiers hidden but exposed just enough to be able to attack the enemy. On a daily basis, life in the trenches was very scary and filled with horror. Death was upon the soldiers even if there was nobody attacking them. There was a continuous shell fire that would randomly take the lives of many. Some men died on their first day in the trenches, and very few were lucky to make it out unharmed. Shell fire was not the only issue in the trenches. There were plenty of diseases and infections spreading around like a wildfire. Many soldiers got infections and diseases that could not be treated such as Trench Foot or Trench Fever. Although trench warfare acts as a great defensive and offensive measure, it became very dangerous because of the many different causes of death including shell fire, diseases, and infections.
All Quiet on the Western Front is a book that describes the different struggles of World War 1 from the perspective of someone who was there but may have not necessarily experienced it all. In the book, there is a man named Paul. “…Here hang bits of uniform, and somewhere else is plastered a bloody mess that was once a human limb” (208). When Paul is at home, he is having fun with friends and thinking that going to school is so difficult and then he goes to war, and he sees a person blown into pieces and watches thousands of men dying. It is a very different life.
World War I had affected the health of many soldiers coming back from the war. To begin with many soldiers came home with tuberculosis. The disease spread rapidly in 1920 due to the unsanitary, urbanized conditions of the cities which was similar to that of the trenches. “The close proximity of people in wartime conditions meant diseases such as tuberculosis could easily spread” (Science Museum). In addition, many soldiers that returned home had lost limbs in the war due to trench foot. “Some conditions such as trench foot, an infection of the feet caused by cold, wet, and unsanitary conditions” (Science Museum). Trench foot affected soldiers who wished to go back to work, because most jobs wouldn’t allow handicapped workers to work; however,
The living conditions in the trenches where never sufficient enough for living in, especially when the soldiers had to stay in them for a few years. The trenches where just ditches in the ground with no sleeping arrangements. Many of the soldiers would go days without sleep. The rations of food that the soldiers received were often boring and sometimes inedible because they were rarely given fresh food. This would limit a soldier’s stamina in battle and make it more likely for that soldier to get killed. The
Paul tried to remember his passion that once made him happy, but it is like he got lost along the way to feel those happy memories again. Instead, soldiers learned to just distract and disconnect their minds from emotional feelings. During a situation towards the beginning of the novel, involve Paul and his friends visiting a former class friend who had a leg amputation. Muller wants his boots, and is seen as being completely insensitive but Paul doesn’t think of him as that. No, instead he sees the whole picture of the situation although Paul reflects that war causes a soldier to isolate oneself from emotions which allow you to grieve, sympathize, and feel hurt.
War is hell. The inexorable death, devastation, and mental deterioration brought upon by war exist alongside no redeeming qualities. Those who have seen its relentless atrocities first-hand understand that enthusiasm is hard to come by, especially after years on the front line. The primary force that keeps soldiers going is their camaraderie. The camaraderie of soldiers is demonstrated thoroughly in Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. As Paul Bäumer and the men of the Second Company endure the facets of World War One, their fellowship quickly grows strong—even more so than that of brothers or perhaps even lovers. This fellowship is even found in enemy soldiers. The camaraderie soldiers have for one another