World War II Essay

Prompt 1 Bourne's statement reflects accurately what the government hoped to do with its people. The War was something the president was hesitant to be involved in. In fact he declared America as neutral in the war on August 4, 1914 (Nash, 496). Many Americans especially young men had forgotten the hardship of war. Only remembering the Splendid Little War (Nash, 497) they were eager for action and adventure.

Throughout history, many novels and films have been created to portray what life is like for soldiers in different wars. Back when Erich Maria Remarque first came out with All Quiet on the Western Front, it was quite the altered point of view from what most people were saying. During this time period, people tried to cloud others from the reality of what was actually going on for the soldiers on the battlefront, and lots of men and women had questions that were not being answered. Remarque’s reason for publishing this book was to provide an insight to all that were curious about what the soldiers went through during the traumatic experience of World War I in a hope of deterring war in the future. He correctly depicted this through certain themes, which helped shape the novel into the amazing, perceptive work it still is today.

The text begins with Private Ernst Junger 's arrival in Champagne, France on December 27th, 1914, just shy of twenty years old. Junger had “ran away from school to enlist in the Foreign Legion,” (1) and was about to begin his career in the military that would change his life forever. In the beginning, he describes the grey December sky and the “breath of battle” (5) that blew across the soldiers, stirring up fear, uncertainty, and a realization of their fate. Each soldier had a unique background: some students, others factory workers, eventually

Accompanying the great horrors of the war was an extraordinary sense of comradeship that was forged between the soldiers as they went through countless hardships and unimaginable suffering together. Throughout Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul and the men of the Second Company received strength, both mentally and physically, from one another. As the war created a sharp distinction between soldiers and civilians,

Lastly, the mechanized war, taught soldiers to strive for victory, even if it was through death and suffering. Nationalism and a sense of belonging, played a major role in the soldier’s courageous actions. Often, they fought their civic duties without empathy for their victims or comrades. Lives did not hold value, in fact humans, were just a component in the game of war. Soldiers were emotionally detached and desensitized from their surroundings. Ernst Junger recollects the battle in

My mates and I sat there and watched as 600 men geared up for battle. While the mysterious truth was hidden deep, so very deep down in the mind of an unknown. The fact that could have very well saved six hundred lives that dreadful day. A slight depressing mood surrounded and darkened the part of generals. The soldier’s however had a strangely different character about them. They were satisfied, hopeful and armed for anything that they may come across. Loyalty, honour, glory and courage stood out clearly in their eyes. The looks they expressed were nothing compared to usual. It was the look of nothing. However, the war was about

Shortly after the start of WW1, young Paul Baumer was a high schooler with his friends graduating soon. Flyers and rumors were everywhere about the war, encouraging people to join the German army. It wasn’t until they were being influenced by their teacher’s stirring patriotic speeches that they were really entailed to join. Thus started the beginning of these boys road to the end. After experiencing ten weeks of brutal training, Paul realized that the ideals of nationalism and patriotism for which he enlisted are simply empty promises. He no longer believes that war is glorious or honorable, and he along with his friends live in constant physical terror. When Paul’s company receives a short reprieve after two weeks of fighting, only eighty

The 1944 Allied attempt to gain a foothold on Western continental Europe remains to this day the grandest military operation ever undertaken, according to Ambrose (1994, p.2). But for all the logistical planning, armaments, and manpower that went into Operation Overlord, the heart of the mission can be distilled down to small groups of infantrymen struggling up the slopes of five heavily fortified beaches. The deeds that transpired on those beaches- codenamed Gold, Juno, Sword, Omaha, and Utah - have been endlessly glorified in print and film. The names of the men who orchestrated the Allied invasion have been elevated into the great pantheon of human achievement. And the phrase “D-Day” has entered the collective lexicon to describe a moment

Battalion, the Canadians and Private Wiggins of the Winnipeg Rifles spoke at meeting in Westwoodside Schoolroom. Both men had been sent back to Britain after the battle ‘to recover from the effects of the abominable gas used by the Germans.’ They had given up good jobs to help the British Empire in its hour of need. The Bells went on to report on the, ‘homely way in which they told their experiences and the pointed illustrations they used to impress on the young men of Westwoodside the urgent importance of each one volunteering his services at this time of great need which were sufficient to move the most indifferent.’ Their talk did not, however, succeed in its primary aim as only two men came forward as potential recruits by the end of the meeting.

Guy Sajer gives a personal narrative, based on his personal recollections of an intensely chaotic period in German military history. His book challenges its readers to reevaluate the way in which war in remembered. Sajer has an often-overlooked perspective on war. The experience of defeat, thought history little is ever written about the vanquished in battle. Sajer gives us this in vivid detail as he recounts the horrors his unit encounters during their time on the Eastern front.

The day was 11/9/1918. I was heading home from the war, and I was more tired than I ever thought a man could be. It was the last few day of the war, and we knew that Germany couldn’t fight much longer so we took lots of troops back home. We were a few hours away from shore, and I couldn’t wait to see my children. I wondered how big they might have gotten. They were only three years old when I left, and it has been two years. I also wondered how much they wanted to see me, or if they even remembered me. I thought that they had to remember who I was. They were three, they could remember things like that. I was In my room and I was talking to my roommate trying to pass the time. We had been sleeping in the same room for a couple of days, and

War kills millions, but in reality, the battle is only between a few selfish men. Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front tells the story of the horrifying events of WWI and the destruction it left behind. Twenty year old Paul Baumer and his friends are convinced by their teacher to enlist in the German Army. Through the character, Paul, Remarque illustrates the terrors of the front lines and the corruption of war. He paints the picture of a young soldier that had his life destroyed by war and lost his identity to the animalistic behavior that came from it. Using the motifs of comradeship and a lost generation, Remarque conveys strong themes throughout the novel.

Rugged terrains, food shortages, harsh bootcamps, and deadly diseases were just a few problems that soldiers had to face during WWII. The war brought many challenges to soldiers. One veteran named John Conde explains his experience of his journey through the war. He speaks about the many challenges and sacrifices made by himself and his country. To see the war from the point of view of veterans, it is important to consider their experience at army camps, combat struggles, and the sacrifices made by the unsung heroes of the war.

“I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another” (Remarque 263). This quote shows how World War I affected soldiers in more ways than we could ever realize. Throughout “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Paul, a German soldier on the front line, explains the how the war changed him. The book also explains the settings and conditions of the war during this time. Remarque explains the weapons and strategies used during WWI in good detail.

Erich Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front tells the story of a group of German soldiers and their experience as soldiers during World War I. Paul Baumer, the main character, and his friends, Stanislaus Katczinsky, Albert Kropp, and Mueller, whiteness extreme brutality and bloodshed unfold around them, as the war begins to take its toll on each character one by one, fighting in the trenches of WWI. Remarque tells the audience of the intensity of the war, as well as the horrors that the characters experience fighting in the trenches. All Quiet on the Western Front tells the story of WW1 as it really was. WWI would forever transform the way wars would be fought, introducing new technology, such as aircraft, tanks, machine guns, and gas that would cause much more casualties than wars before it. WWI would forever dash the ideas of warfare romanticism by highlighting the bloodshed and horrid conditions that the soldiers would experience. As the author of this book, Erich Remarque, was himself a soldier during WWI, he provides the audience with a credible idea of how this war would be experienced through the eyes of an infantryman, fighting and living in horrid conditions within the trenches of a WWI battlefield. Remarque takes an anti-war stance, as he critiques the past ideas of nationalism, patriotism, and the romanticism surrounding the ideas of warfare.