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The Virus In John Steinbeck's All Quiet On The Western Front

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The soldiers have grown accustomed to the horrors of war, but they have been forced to endure it for so long that by this point they are all close to breaking. They can no longer envision any life other than the endless repeated days of the war. Paul states that war is almost like a virus. For the longest time, Paul and his comrades have fought off the virus, but they are too weak, too tired, and too hopeless. With this growing fragileness of their brains, the virus is slowly infecting the soldiers. They start to think that their end is coming; and maybe it’s not a bad thing. Germany is losing the war, more people are dying every day, and the ones who are alive can’t take much more.
Paul compares the soldiers to coins. During peacetime, before

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