The War I Left Men Wound Mentally And Physically

The improvements in others shortcomings would involve into a holistically method of thought. In some cases, major battles gained little to no effect yet morals were tested and a brotherhood of soldiers would reflect a type of intimacy in the face of death. These new devastating realities caused PTSD, and confusion and/or abandonment caused improper due process. Many of men (and often women such as nurses) suffered the effects of the trench realities. Of course, men had no choice but to feel the effects through their bodies uniquely from earth shattering vibrations felt

An American machine gunner, Charles Yale Harrison, says in his novel, Generals Die in Bed: “[War] take[s] everything from us: our lives, our blood, our hearts; even the few lousy hours of rest, they take those, too. Our job is to give, and theirs is to take,” (Harrison, 26). In this example, Harrison explains how war is the most selfish and strongest of all evils; war continues to take everything someone has until they have nothing left to take. The war also created long-term effects for soldiers; one being shell-shock. This term is used to describe the damage of constant loud shelling during war which greatly affected those who were not exposed to shelling frequently (Unnamed). Another term that is still used today is PTSD, (“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”), which is used to describe the effect war had on the soldiers afterward (Unnamed). World War I brought major psychological disorders upon the soldiers during and after the war had ended leading to great damage for the rest of the victim’s

The tactics used in World War I were radically different than that of previous wars. The majority of the war was fought in the trenches, and the war itself seemed to have no end. Due to this, the psychological impact of the war was unlike anything that had been seen before. During the early days of the war, the soldiers, on both sides, seemed to lack the dedication that would have been necessary to exterminate their enemy. However, as the war progressed, the desire to avenge their fallen comrades overcame their ethics and they began to kill their enemy indiscriminately. Surviving soldiers experienced a phenomenon that was, at that time, referred to as shell shock. Today we refer to this phenomenon as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. At this time, this psychological condition was misunderstood and the doctors lacked the training necessary to effectively treat this condition.

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.

Veterans emotional numbness is the constant exposure to the war trauma and the panics of

If just the thought of what the soldiers endure would cause anxiety, one could imagine how mentally draining war must be. An example of the draining nature of war is how after Paul attacked adversary soldier named Gérard Duval, he certainly comprehended how war had “taxed his brain beyond endurance,” (Remarque 225). So, there was a major convergence between the German and Indian soldiers due to the emotional trauma of war. But, while there are very strong connections between the Indian and German soldiers through their correlated mental and physical trauma along with their mass lack of awareness of the details of war prior to enlisting, there is some divergence in the experiences of the soldiers. One of the divergences is money, but this could just be a divergence between these specifically soldiers or it could be the differing point on why these ordinary characters decided to fight for their empires. The German soldiers in All Quiet on the Western Front are basically living in poverty when fighting in the

Not only did World War I result in severe carnage, it resulted in the mental destruction of the men involved.

The soldiers face loneliness, isolation, the heavy burden of fear, and the weight of their reputations. The soldiers carry such a heavy weight from the past, in the present, and for the future. Even after the war, the psychological burdens the men carried during the war continues to define them. Those who survive the war carry guilt, grief, and confusion.

In Chapter 5 of “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Baumer and his comrades ponder the idea of life after the war, specifically its effect on their mental well-being and future back home. During their conversation, Baumer mentions to the other soldiers that “The war has ruined us for everything,” (Remarque 87). Because the war is taking a lasting toll on the soldiers’ lives and their time to pursue other interests, it seems as though their grasp on life is slowly slipping through their fingers. In addition, the violent occurrences that the men go through day in and day out are inked in their minds, forever tormenting them on a daily basis. Prior to Baumer’s remark, Albert Kropp points out understandingly that “Two

The war was a terrifying and horrifying experience. But the survivors rarely wanted to speak about it. According to the research, the doctors and the researchers found that the effects and symptoms of psychological failure were not only exhibited in the survivors, but also in their family members. These predominant symptoms included: living in guilt for having survived while the others had not; the fear of undercover police officers; and their inability to work. These conditions ended up creating symptoms involving

This study will investigate the question, “To what extent did WWI impact the mental health of the Lost Generation?” The Lost Generation is the term used to describe the people who were directly impacted by the war. At that time a lot of amazing and influential artwork and literature was being released, but that release quickly ended. Currently, in history, we can look back onto those works of art and capture a glimpse into what life was like for them just after the war, and it doesn’t look pretty. Mental health is a serious issue considering that it can affect every single aspect of everyday life. The articles I have chosen to examine and analyze are that from two different perspectives after the war: a first-person account of a soldier in

When a soldier enlists into the military forces they know they are going in to fight for their country and freedom for everyone. They spend months training and preparing for the war and what to come. They learn to fight, shoot, and kill enemies, but what they do not learn is how to cope with the after math of the war. Soldiers in war every year come home with many post traumatic effects from what they had witnessed. During world war two this was known as shell shock; however what can be concluded is that world war two impacted the soldiers emotionally and physiologically from the time they entered to post war.

The WW1 affected the soldiers physically through severe injuries and often left them traumatized with ‘shell shock’ by the things that they had seen like. The trauma resulted from the soldiers’ experience of the

Throughout History, a major tragedy caused the world to become chaotic, which lead to millions of brave individuals to lose their life. This horrific tragedy, World War 1 (the Great War), was the beginning of a long terrible journey. Many strong and mighty men volunteered to join the War with the persuasion of being “Hero’s”. These men did not realize the terror they would face when walking into this journey. Many soldiers was faced with seeing their fellow soldiers cold-blood drip from their acing bodies, their loving eyes becoming raged with anger by the conditions of their sleeping arrangements, and their hopes of ever returning home or being a “normal” human-being was wiped clean. This was the beginning of a major change of the lives of all individuals throughout the world.

William Tecumseh Sherman said it best in 1870, when he said: “I tell you, war is Hell,” and the First World War gave truth to that statement. From over four years, the entire world was embroiled in the throes of war. The allied nations of Britain, France, Imperial Russia and later America seemingly fought a “just war” against the aggression of Imperial Germany and Austria-Hungary. The “War to End all Wars” may not have done what it’s epithet claims, it was the war that opened up countless boxes for the world to explore. One such box was the coinage of the term “shell shock” This crude and blunt term was the first to recognize what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Millions of men came home from the front with broken minds and people had to find a way to “fix” something that seemingly could not be fixed. In her 1918 novel, The Return of the Soldier, British author Rebecca West tackles the issue of mental health in a time when the human brain was even still an elusive enigma. She takes the example of a shell-shocked soldier to explore the themes of how amnesia can touch the lives of not just the afflicted, the selfishness of those his ailment has affected, and the morality of their actions.