What Causes Humans To Blindly Destroy One Another

The Man I Killed is the story of the man that Tim O’Brien killed. However, this story is not true. He later mentions that he did not in fact kill the man, yet he was present and that was enough. This story, according to him, is told to show the reader how he feels, because O’Brien feels as though the truth is that by doing nothing, he killed the man, so in his story, he does kill the man. Imagery is the biggest literary device seen in this story, but diction also helps make the story seem more true, it helps the reader to truly believe that O’Brien did in fact throw the grenade that killed the man. This story is told from O’Brien’s point of view, which would be first person, despite the fact that the word “I” is

The French soldier dies an agonizingly painful and prolonged death; his gurgling and whimpering haunting Paul, but when the soldier finally dies, the resulting silence is even more haunting and debilitating. “Paul describes the trenches, the shelling, the screams of wounded horses and men, the poison gas attack, and the rain that drenches everything. [He] describes the tension and the horror of a major battle, with the confusion, the noise, and death turning the soldiers into numbed, unthinking machines.” (All). Paul recognizes how war forces people to think and act in ways that differ from their values and beliefs, as they are desperate to survive. Remarque uses imagery and sensory details to skillfully formulate a raw and grisly atmosphere that leaves no aspect hidden. Towards the end of the novel, many of Paul’s comrades have died, and he is the only person left in his class who is alive. He expresses the desolation and misery he feels, “I am very quiet. Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear.” (Remarque 295). Paul has nothing left to lose at this point, so he faces his enemies free of fear and obligation to return back to his friends and his home. His sorrowful tone conveys his indifference towards death and his desire

While on leave, Paul also visits his father and some of his father's friends, but does not wish to speak to them about the war. The men are "curious [about the war] in a way that [Paul finds] stupid and distressing." They try to imagine what war is like but they have never experienced it for themselves, so they cannot see the reality of it. When Paul tries to state his opinion, the men argue that "[he] sees only [his] general sector so [he is] not able to judge." These men believe they know more about the war and this makes Paul feel lost. He realizes that "they are different men here, men [he] can not understand..." and Paul wants to be back with those he can relate to, his fellow soldiers. Paul wishes he had never gone on leave because out there "[he] was a soldier, but [at home] he is nothing but an agony to himself." When Paul returns to the battlefield, he is excited to be with his comrades. When he sees his company, "[Paul] jumps up, pushes in amongst them, [his] eyes searching," until he finds his friends. It is then

Even if they had joined the army voluntarily, they fast realize that there is no honor on the front. There is an unspoken mutual understanding of this mentality between all soldiers, even from opposing sides. This is displayed in All Quiet on the Western Front when Paul takes cover in a shell-hole during a bombardment. A Frenchman jumps into the same home, and Paul mindlessly stabs him to near death. When he realizes exactly what he had done, he says to the dying soldier “Comrade, I did not want to kill you. . . . But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response […] now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship […] Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?” (Remarque 223). Paul now understands that the man whose life he took was a real human being. He was not a faceless killing machine to be picked off like a fly and forgotten; he was Gérard Duval, a husband, father and printer. As soldiers become familiar with the reality of war, they quickly lose all desire to kill their enemies but continue to do so because they have to. This aversion to killing only becomes more grossly apparent in the face of death. Despite hailing from different countries, soldiers are all the same. They just want to go

In many parts of the world, being a soldier is considered or seen as heroic. As a young boy I too idolized being a soldier for the movies, books, and video games made them look as superheroes. Yet, in reality it is a gruesome immoral act that should never be thought of as heroic. The act of war is something that should not be done for obvious reasons. In the story Paul first has the romantic

His solitary time waiting for rescue makes him realize that the Frenchman had a family and life before he joined the war. He tells the comrade out loud, “But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me...Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?”(223) Paul’s realization of the true person that is locked away inside of every soldier but is an experience that solidifies his promise. Later, as he returns to the barracks away from the front, he learns the deaths of more of his friends and comments saying, “Then I know nothing” (291). Furthermore, he adds that he no longer possesses a fear towards death as it has already taken everything from him (295). The losses Paul encounters at the end of the book show how little by little what he knows as life is being taken over by death. This further cements his promise so that nobody will encounter the same fate as

At the beginning of the novel Paul and the other soldiers are taking a rest from being in constant battle for 2 weeks. Only 80 men of 150 make it back alive and the cook unwittingly made enough food for 150 men. The men are all excited at the idea of eating double portions, this show that the soldiers have a type of detachment that they have unfortunately attained from bloodshed on the front. Paul tells of the letter from his school master calling him and his comrades “Iron Youth”, they are irritated at the idea of how they were manipulated to join the war by this teacher that they once looked up to. He feels that his past is a dream and everything he thinks about in the past is just an unreliable memory “only facts are real and important to us.” In chapter 2 Kemmerich is dying and Muller selfishly is only

All the soldiers have identifying features back at home. But when they fight, they are no longer the same teens as they are a home. The war takes their identity. They “march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers” and “reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animal”(56 Remarque). This metamorphosis into barbaric creatures, develops as a result of the toll that war has taken on these men. As they approach the front, they turn into animals with beastly instincts which they cling onto for survival(Wagener). They have no identity which causes them to feel confused at times. Paul claims, “We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost”(123 Remarque). With this paradox, Paul understands that his past no longer defines him. He only knows life as a soldier on the front. Paul know he can never return to a normal life as he says, “A terrible feeling of foreignness suddenly rises up in me. I cannot find my way back, I am shut out”(172 Remarque). When Paul goes home to see his parents, it feels like years have past. This distance that he feels, results from the war taking over life and identity. No longer a studious and creative child, Paul takes on his new role as a strong and experienced soldier, giving testimony to the horror that occurs from

We can hardly control ourselves when our 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). Paul’s description of himself and his comrades does not sound human; rather, it sounds as if he were describing a pack of wolves. Furthermore, when Paul becomes trapped in the middle ground during a skirmish, he realizes he must defend himself. A French soldier jumps into his hole, forcing Paul to kill him. Paul “strike[s] madly at home and feel[s] only how the body suddenly convulses” without any thought (Remarque 216). The language employed by Remarque suggests Paul’s behavior is animalistic and brutal. His mad stabs into the body of the Frenchman imply the violent and impersonal nature of man that coincides with war.

Paul reminisces about the times before he was a soldier, when he still had dreams and aspirations to become a writer, but now, those dreams have become irrelevant and seemingly unreachable. He also brings up the memories of him as a fresh soldier, required to do embarrassing as well as arduous tasks which made the recruits tough and durable, prepping them for the harsh realities of war. Paul also finally experiences the death of Kemmerich, but his mostly emotionless response to his death reveals that soldiers do not and are unable to show their emotion. This type of thing occurs a lot, and the soldiers do not really display their emotion and have lost their capability to properly mourn for their lost brothers. The author juxtaposes the soldiers’ previous lives before they became who they are now with the experiences they currently face to demonstrate how war destroys their sense of personality and emotions. When Paul talks about the soldiers’ experiences first being recruited into the military, he mentions how “[they] recognized that what matters is not the mind but the boot brush, not intelligence but the system, not freedom but drill” (Remarque 22). Paul illustrates the fact that when soldiers are recruited, the soldiers had to completely disregard themselves. The war has become their entire life, and all that really mattered from that point of recruitment on was not their character or personality, but their skill and how well they do on the battlefield. The author wants us to realize that war is a massive detriment to the soldiers enlisted to fight for their country, because it rips away their dreams and personalities, and forces them into an entire life

and affection even for his enemies. This is shown after capturing Russian soldiers and keeping them as slaves Paul comes across as seeing them as human, where Paul says, "A word of command has made these silent figures our enemies; a word of command might transform them into our friends" (Remarque, 193). Showing hostility for the Russian slaves that he feels can be friends. Questions to why they are enemies, he sees that commanding the silent soldiers make them enemies but with no war they are friends. With all these men having families and children he cannot kill take a father away from their family. In an end result Paul has no reason to live and can’t live in a world the constant killing of innocent lives. This is seen when Paul sees no more healing to life, after meeting his family on leave he cannot feel the same way for others. Unable to express his feelings or talk about the experiences from war, Paul becomes ready to die, “He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come" (Remarque, 296). Entering a situation

Yet, this sense of nationalism divides and drives these soldiers to kill mercilessly and struggle to survive. In the end, it is which nation’s pride is the strongest that clashes with one another, with soldiers as collateral damage. Paul’s close encounter with the Russians shows that the prisoners are no less human than him and his fellow Germans. “Their life is obscure and guiltless-if I could know more of them…then my motions would have an object and might become sympathy. But as it is I perceive behind them only the suffering of the creature, the awful melancholy of life and the pitilessness of men” ( Remarque 193).

Paul, the main character, often reflects on how war can damage a person both mentally and physically. He understands that even if the soldiers were to return to their former lives, they would not know what to do with themselves, because they have changed and no longer identify with civilians. This can be seen as Paul reflects on his life while he is in the hospital: “I am young. I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, deaths, fear [...] I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another” (page 263). This quote also expands on the theme mentioned above- Paul sees how people are purposely set against one another and told to

‘The Man He Killed’ was written in the nineteenth century during the Boer War that took place in South Africa in 1898. This war was because the British Empire wanted to take control over the land because of its rich gold and diamonds. The poem is written in a conversational tone, with speech marks, making us feel that the soldier is talking directly to us reminiscing about killing a “foe” whilst at war. The speaker in this poem is a man of low class who was unemployed and had already sold all his possessions and consequently had no choice but to join the army; this can be seen when the man states “just as I- was out of work-had sold his traps”. Hardy is showing us that some people join the army just out of desperation not because they believe in the political side of war. These unemployed, low classed people have no other way of earning the money to help them survive so they turn to the only other option the have- joining the army. The speaker is forced to kill another man which he claims was his ‘foe’ and later on realises that he and the man had a lot in common.

Tradition is a big part of a cultural identity. Traditions are not loved nor understood immediately, however with time the importance of tradition becomes evident as it makes people unique. As a kid, serving meals every thanksgiving may feel insignificant and tedious, but as an adolescent the small amount of time spent as a family doing something annually has a lasting impact on one’s values. Frank Waters’ fictional novel, The Man Who Killed the Deer, Martiniano struggles to find a faith after he illegally kills a deer. Neither the whites not the Indians seem welcoming because he offends both by breaking the law and not showing respect to Indian ideology. The deer continues to haunt him until he understands the role of nature and the cycle of life. The poem “I Have Killed the Deer”, written by a Taos Pueblo Indian, emphasizes the importance of equality and the mystical connection with nature. Both works highlight the unique Indian perspective of nature and its contribution their identity. Both Martiniano and the Taos Pueblo Indian use nature to provide life; Martiniano’s self-centered view on the old Indian traditions prevent him from finding peace in a faith, while the Taos Pueblo Indian fully appreciates and understands his role in nature.