War and Its Costs Essay

For Paul and his comrades, who had sacrificed so much to participate in the war, the unfair leadership created tension between the ranks. For example, when Paul was on leave and strolled the streets of his hometown, a nearby Major became furious at Paul because he had missed the opportunity to salute. This man, with the considerable power to overthrow Paul’s leave, orders Paul, “Twenty paces backward, double march!” Paul complied, but was infuriated and contemplated the validity and relevance of these men. This, “ruins everything” (163), for Paul, as he abandoned wearing his uniform to avoid another confrontation. It was shown that the most controlling officers were so often those without combat experience on the front. In fact, Himmelstoss, a Corporal that trained Paul and his company, showed fear toward the battle when he was called to participate. In Chapter Six, he was found, “pretending to be wounded.” The thought of him progressing made his, “lips quiver, his moustache twitch” (131-32). Pretending to represent their country, these men showed no respect for the soldiers, resented them, and expressed the deepest inhumane actions in the name of

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

Through out this book the author shows that war is not about heroism and fighting nobly for your country, war is a terrible thing. Paul and his friends are on the frontline in the shelters for days and the pressure gets to the men as Paul says here. "The recruit who had the fit earlier is raving again and two more have joined in. One breaks away and runs for it." This shows that the frontline, added by lack of food, has driven the young recruits mad and so much so that one recruit runs away out into the battle field with inevitable consequence of death. Paul describes the front line in many ways to show the reader and give the reader a good picture of what the frontline is like for a soldier, as Paul expresses here." The front is a cage and you have to wait nervously in it for whatever happens to you", and Paul also says. "I can be squashed flat in a bomb-proof dugout, and I can survive ten hours in the pen under heavy barrage without a scratch." This shows the reader that it is very unpredictable on the frontline and that a soldier owes his life only to lucky chances that they have not yet been killed.

A solider biggest fear is dyeing. Paul and many soldiers have a fear about dyeing in battle they just want to go home. Most soldiers do not want to go back after a leave. They want to be safe, but during the time it was common and everyman wanted to fight for their country. No man would pass the opportunity to join the military. Soldiers become brothers. Before joining the war Paul felt alone in world. He joins the

“We loved our country as much as they; we went courageously into every action; but also we distinguished the false from the true, we had suddenly learned to see. And we saw that there was nothing of their world left” (Remarque, 13). From the top of the pyramid to the youth of the nation were imposed nationalistic ideals. Through teachers and parents, young kids in high school were taught to be patriotic. Peer pressure didn’t help, for to decline service of their country was to be ostracized from their peers. Paul learned quickly that the idea of patriotism and military service was

4. Men of Paul 's age group fear the end of the war because the war has taken up so much of their lives and personalities that they wouldn 't know how to function in a world without the war. They were conditioned to violence and battle. Moreover, they spent quite a few of their formative years in the war, and essentially grew up in combat. Older men in the war have jobs and families to which they can return; Paul and his friends have nothing of the sort. They often joke about becoming postmen like Himmelstoss, solely because they want to best him in his own field. In reality, though, they have no idea how they will operate in the world, even if they escape the war alive.

Along with personal feelings, the same goes for everyone Paul witnessing his best friend’s death have impacted their group so that they cannot feel or care for each other. After a battle that left many injured. While Paul rests he thinks of how everyone is left on their own, claiming, "We have lost all feeling for one another. We can hardly control ourselves when our hunted 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). During another day in the trenches Paul sees many bodies everywhere, soldiers being killed in front of him. Losing everyone that was close to him has caused him to lose himself mentally making him unstable. He carries the pressure of telling the families which furthermore carriers his depression. He carries a comrade’s boots as they are passed down from soldiers after each owner dies, Paul carries these boots to represent unimportance of human life. In addition to young soldiers have to follow and look up to older generation and higher rank officers which lead to betrayal. Propaganda played a huge role in World War 1 giving everyone biased opinions and bad judgements of others. These opinions gave Paul a false perspective of older generations.

The young men at the front had a distant relationship that seemed to grow as the war went on. The men that fought at the front became alienated through all of the gruesome scenes they encountered and the problems they faced daily. After just two weeks of battle only half of the men that went to battle with Paul remained at the battle front. Paul along with all of the other soldiers at the front had to see their “brothers” shot and killed or wounded while fighting right by their side. Paul

At one point during the story, Paul Baumer returns home for a short leave from the front line. While at home he is faced with old faces, some who want only to hear of the war. Those who want to hear the war and stories constantly put a strain on Paul’s psyche. He describes in several occasions that when the conversation of war came up he would only others funny stories but nothing of his hardship. Some, like his mother, asked about the conditions of the front line. Paul is unable to describe world of the front line because he is afraid once the conversation starts he will be unable to control his feelings. “I am afraid they [words] might then become gigantic and I be no longer able to master them” (Remarque, 165). This is paramount to the life a soldier, he must be able to control his emotions in order to survive. In other circumstances, the older men wish to know of the progress of the war. In one part of the story, a few elderly gentlemen were speaking of strategy and how to win the war with Paul. The older men do not appear to be very sympathetic to Paul’s struggles and ask him sensitive questions. Paul, though angry, does not react to their prying. At one point one of the men talks of destroying the “froggies” and “johnnies”, in reference to the French and English soldiers, and remarks that Paul and the army should “shove ahead a bit out there with your

Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War is a novel that is a personal view of the Vietnam War from the perspective of a Vietnamese soldier. Like the American novel “The things they carried”, this novel brings about the effects of war on people, and especially how it defeats the human capacity for things such as love and hope. Bao Ninh offers this realistic picture of the Vietnam War’s impact on the individual Vietnamese soldier through use of a series of reminiscences or flashbacks, jumping backwards and forwards in time between the events most salient in memory, events which take on a different theme each time they are examined. His main protagonist Kien, who is basically Bao himself, looks back not just at his ten years at

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

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.

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

Yet another example of the brutalization and dehumanization of the soldiers caused by the war occurs during Paul’s leave. On leave, Paul decides to visit his hometown. While there, he finds it difficult to discuss the war and his experiences with anyone. Furthermore, Paul struggles to fit in at home: “I breathe deeply and say over to myself:– ‘You are at home, you are at home.’ But a sense of strangeness will not leave me; I cannot feel at home amongst these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies, and there the mahogany piano – but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a

As mentioned previously, the story is told from Paul's point of view. This view of his is parallel to that of Remarque's. Remarque's characterization of paul and the other soldiers is intended to convey information and instruction to the reader. For example the way these characters are described instructs the reader in the needless suffering and loss brought on by war. The author makes a point about military leaders through one of the characters. Kropp notes about rise in rank, "As sure as they get a stripe or a star they become different men, just as though they'd swallowed concrete" (43). Kat mentions that military life brings out the worst in men, particularly the abuse of power over lesser men. This is a significant part that the author adds into the book because it illustrates a metaphor of the greater powers wanting to attack the weaker countries to gain more power; imperialism, which is one of the main causes of the war. In chapter 4, one of the most dramatic in the book,