Subjects:
lines for a short rest at the beginning of the novel. After Behm became
Paul's first dead schoolmate, Paul viewed the older generation bitterly,
particularly Kantorek, the teacher who convinced Paul and his classmates to
join the military, feeling alone and betrayed in the world that they had
left for him. Paul's generation felt empty and isolated from the rest of
the world due to the fact that they had never truly established any part of
themselves in civilian life. At boot camp, Himmelstoss abused Paul and his
friends, yet the harassment only brought them closer together and developed
a strong spirit amongst them. Katczinsky, or Kat, was soon shown to be a
master scavenger, being able to provide the group with food or virtually
anything else; on this basis Paul and him grew quite close. Paul's unit
was assigned to lay barbed wire on the front line, and a sudden shelling
resulted in the severe wounding of a recruit that Paul had comforted
earlier. Paul and Kat again strongly questioned the War. After Paul's
company were returned to the huts behind the lines, Himmelstoss appeared
. . .
ideals coincided very closely. The constant questioning of war and its values
was presented very frequently and in fact may have included a few of
Remarque's own questions of society and biases against the immorality and
murder committed during war. During a bloody battle, 120 of the men in Paul's unit were
killed. Many conflicts of values were presented constantly
throughout the course of World War I. He left in agony knowing
that his youth was lost forever. With the
return to his unit he again felt the presence of belonging. The physical aspects of death and wounds did not begin to portray the
mental anguish that the soldiers experienced during and after the war. Paul's unit was assigned to guard a supply depot of an abandoned
village, but he and Kropp were soon wounded when trying to escape from the
village. During an
attack, Paul killed a French soldier. This book has simply given me new views of war. The depth of the emotions that soldiers experienced created a
very believable example of the psychological impacts of war.
I have gained a great deal of insight into World War I from this novel. The emotional state of characters developed
very genuinely throughout their endeavors; this realism forced me to look
at the purpose of war more closely and examine its results on the militia. After discovering that this soldier
had a family, Paul was deeply shattered and vowed to prevent other such
wars.
Essay's Topics
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