Paul Fussell At War Summary

In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul is morphed from an innocent child into a war veteran who has a new look on society. Paul used to have a carefree life where he was able to be a kid, but when he enlisted into the army it all changed. Paul became a person whose beliefs were changed because of the war. Paul doesn't believe in society anymore especially parents, elders, and school, which used to play a big part in his life. He changed his beliefs because society does not really understand how bad war really is and pushed many young men, who were not ready, into the army. Paul connects with his fellow soldiers because they are going through the same situation and

In 1975 the Oxford University Press published the first edition of The Great War and Modern Memory written by Paul Fussell. As Fussell states in the opening line, “this book is about the British experience on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918.” In this paper I will argue, that despite the numerous literary awards this book has won, it contains historical inaccuracies and shortcomings in relation to the accurate information provided that takes away from the prestige of the book. Despite the numerous negative aspects of the book, this paper will also briefly highlight the few positive areas of the book, therefore providing an in-depth analysis of the book.

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

Stud Terkel’s “The Good War” is a book of oral histories from World War Two that shows many different accounts and aspects of living life in World War Two or actually being on the battlefield. The interviews range from soldiers, admirals, house wives, kids, nurses and many other people in the world experiencing World War Two. There are also people who had firsthand accounts from Russia, England, France and even Japan. I believe this book of memories is a far more effective way of understanding the history of World War Two rather than a book of hard facts and statistics because “The Good War” demonstrates how firsthand accounts in World War Two makes you feel like you’ve been on the battlefield or out on the home front. It creates visual images in your head with the amazing detail that some of the soldiers described. These stories are compelling to read and it draws your attention in. There are limitations of just having a book about oral histories, the person could emphasize and talk about something that was important to them and not others, they could distort the memories to what they want to remember or they could even exaggerate or do the opposite and leave very little detail. Interviews such as Lowell Steward’s, Akira Miuri, John H Groove, and Telford Taylor show how effective oral histories can be.

War takes effect on almost every aspect of a community. It can alter the way we think about fellow people, it can create prejudices or injustices, it can destroy huge amounts of land, culture, and other tangible parts of a community and it can drastically drop the number of people within a community. Timothy Findley makes a point to show his readers the amount of deaths have occurred as one reads the novel. Effect this has is to remind people that war is not simply an event in which many good stories have came out of it, it is a time of tragedy and the author makes a point to highlight the importance of recognizing the number of men and women who have dedicated their lives to defending their country. Thousands of people die in the war and hundreds

Since it is written to the average person, the author goes into great detail about the information going on during that time period in the war. If it were written to someone who already knows quite a bit about the war; say a historian, he wouldn't need to be so in depth with his writing. So yes, the writing would be impacted with a different audience.

He start his essay by stating an old memory and use it as a metaphor for what he is trying to say. All along his essay Paul states a lot of facts and stories to support his idea of the usefulness that the bombs had at that time. As I mentioned before, Fussell believed that all the morality surrounding the decisions of the bombs’ use is directly related to how far a person was from the experience in terms of time and distance. The experience that he talks about is the idea of standing face to face against your opponent knowing that your death is his goal. Fussell limits this experience only to those that were brainwashed to “close with the enemy and destroy him”. Therefore, the marines, the infantry, the navy and specially those who fought in World War II. If you go back to the quoted sentence, the usage of the word “destroy” is emphasized by Paul later

The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman paints a vivid portrayal of the Europe, pre-World War I. It discussed the actions of individuals and world leaders and how it plunged the world into The Great War that laid the groundwork for the world as we know it today. As most people understand, myself included, it is a common belief that World War I was only caused by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent to the throne of Austria-Hungary. While this is the trigger event that sent the world spiraling into war, it is not the only reason for war. Former president Theodore Roosevelt had returned from King Edwards's funeral completely convinced that war in Europe was imminent. France knew the inevitability of war and the nation

While there is never just a single event that has led to the start of a world war, or any other serious war, there is often one thing that triggers long lived tensions and thus war ensues. Such was the case in WWI with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. There were many tensions that existed prior to his assassination, but it was his assassination which triggered the war, his assassination that served as an excuse, and perhaps the last straw, so to speak, which led to the First World War. The following paper examines the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and its relationship to the start of WWI.

Although the twisted outcome of the victory from WWII is adapted from, the point brought across is that any historical event could have went either way and each way brings a totally different outcome. The idea of ungratefulness and forgetfulness in humanity is something very visible yet not paid much attention towards. Through this Dick wants readers to mentally comprehend that the past is something that clings onto the future and affects it in many different ways, big or small. The presence of every single individual plays a crucial role in these moments and most importantly their actions, good or bad, as Dick’s characters determine

An estimated nine million people lost their lives in the Great War. “War is nothing more than deception”-Sun Tzu The Art of War. “Pro Patria” by Seaman Owen, uses deception to lure young men into modern warfare injecting them with self pride, sense of heroism, fabricating the truth, and understating war. However in “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, the very neat stitching of the lies are unraveled, what seemed to be honor and virtue turns into the last few valuable gulps of breath.

In this article, MacMillan is arguing that the factors which lead to World War I were a collection of decisions made by the powers involved and of the global situation (including non-political events), but that none can be pinned down as the ultimate cause of the war. She also claims that similar events are occurring world currently, potentially setting the world up for another Great War in the near future.

Throughout the piece, Joll continues to maintain the stance that there was not much, if anything, to solidify the argument that the First World War was based off of the tensions that the individual countries faced entirely. There was no deliberate cause of the war due to the ordeals that individual countries were facing, and although the results of the war may have helped solve certain problems that preluded the war, the intention for the war was never so. Joll also presents how although this war was not a choice, it was “inevitable” (Joll 142). The war was inevitable because there was simply too much unrest at once, and although there was little, if any intention to start war originally, this unrest put the pieces of the puzzle together, and in a way, forced a war. The problems within Europe in general had been building up for years, and had come to such a

It is not very often that a historical book is read by both a scholarly and public audience. MacMillan was able to capture the six months after World War I in a way that had yet to be done. Her book is easy to read, but still is able to provide an in depth analysis of what took place. Because MacMillan included multiple personal details and events of the major characters who participated during the Paris Peace Conference, the reader is able to relate more to those men who before would be seemingly unrelatable. Overall, MacMillan’s historical narrative appeals to a wide audience of readers because of her style of writing, attention to detail and added personal information of important historical