In war, there are no real rules, and as Paul, the narrator of All Quiet on the Western Front will assure you, no glory. He tells of the generation of soldiers who lost so much, who suffered what was essentially mental and physical torture for years, and the generation before them. War causes the loss and destruction of trust in authority, sense of security, and the families of soldiers at home.
Trust and faith in authority were destroyed among the young men who were sent to war with the belief that fighting for one's country would be glorious. Those in positions of authority, such as teachers and parents, told the young men that war was exciting and a great adventure. However, once the men arrived at the battlefield, they were met with an onslaught of death and horror. This was especially true for the narrator of All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul. The passage titled “Joining Up,” starts with a teacher encouraging students to join the war, “I can see him [Kantorek] now, as he used to glare at us through his spectacles and say in a moving voice ‘Why won’t you join up, Comrades?’” (1). Paul and his peers were pressured by the authority into the war but upon arrival, all trust in that authority was lost, “The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us was broken into pieces” (1). Paul and fellow soldiers learned their mistake was blindly following the voice of authority. As a consequence, their trust and innocence were shattered. Similarly, in Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen, the author expresses a feeling of being lied to about war. He says, “My friend you would not tell with such high zest / To children ardent for some desperate glory, / The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori.” The author is angry at those in power for pushing young children towards war and its “glory.” What follows in the next line translates to, “It is sweet and proper to die for one's country.” The author, as well as many other soldiers who fought in World War One, feel betrayed by these words after experiencing the horrors of war. -Ben Throughout World War One, soldiers sense of security was constantly being stripped away from them. They were forced to be alert at all times, whether they were fighting at the front line or carrying a fallen friend to safety. As the narrator described in chapter 6, “In a bomb-proof dugout I may be smashed to atoms and in the open may survive ten hours’ bombardment unscathed” (2). These soldiers are living in a state of suspense and every decision they make is an uncertain one. They have witnessed their friends dying in the most tragic ways and can’t help but think about how long they will be able to last in this unforgiving war. In the poem “At the Bomb Testing Site” by William Stafford a panting lizard is described sitting in the desert looking into the distance waiting for something that is bound to happen. “Ready for a change, the elbows waited. The hands gripped hard on the desert.” This is the same feeling of anticipation that every soldier in the war experienced. They had no protection, and no sense of security. -Audrey Off the battlefield, the effects of war on the families of the soldiers were extreme. The absence of the young soldiers at home, while they fought in the war, could drive their parents to insanity. In chapter seven of All Quiet on the Western Front, the narrator describes his conversation with the mother of a fallen soldier whom the narrator knew. In this excerpt, the mother is in hysterics. “This quaking, sobbing woman who shakes me and cries out on me: “Why are you living then, when he is dead?”--who drowns me in tears and calls out: “What are you there for at all, child, when you--”-...” This woman is pushed into hysterics, to the brink of insanity, by the death of her son in battle. No average woman in their right mind would say “Why are you living then, when he is dead?” to her child’s friend. The poem “War” by Miguel Hernández also describes the effects of war at home. “A tree, withered and alone. / A woman like a log / widowed in her bed. / Hatred has no end.” This woman, widowed (having lost her family to war) lays in her bed (weary and sorrowful). It also says; “Love has no object.”, meaning love has no place. There is no joy or love in towns of parents of soldiers, only despair. -Cass War has been the cause of too much loss and destruction for both the soldiers fighting and the families grieving at home. It takes away trust in one’s elders and a sense of security for the soldiers in battle. The positive effects of war have little effect on these drastic negatives. Therefore, war needs to be abolished. The death and violence accomplish almost nothing and instead of leaving the possibility for future wars, the world should use past wars as a learning experience, never to be forgotten.
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Do you know a veteran? Considering the fact that there are 20.4 million veterans in the United States, it wouldn’t be surprising if almost everybody here does. Wars are a difficult time for humans on and off the battlefield. Families are separated, friends die, and your outlook on life can completely change. Wars are devastating and everybody is affected someway. People lose homes and loved ones. There are also emotional consequences on soldiers and the people around them. Although we have not had personal experience fighting in a war, by reading literature such as All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell, and “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Sara Teasdale we can glimpse into their daily lives and past experiences. After doing so, we concluded that war causes the loss and destruction of humanity, hope, and youth.
During war, people tend to block out their emotions, feelings, and other things which make them human in order to survive. World War 1 caused many soldiers to lose their humanity. In the excerpt “Dead and Dying” From All Quiet On the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the main character Paul states, “The days go by and the incredible hours follow me one after another as a matter of course. Attacks alternate with counter-attacks and slowly the dead pile up in the field of craters between the trenches”(2). Enduring this combat day after day, with generals forcing them to do so, made them numb to the suffering. The soldiers eventually ceased to care. In another excerpt from All Quiet On the Western Front, “Concussion,” Paul describes, “In the branches dead men are hanging. A naked soldier is squatting in the fork of a tree, he still has his helmet on, otherwise he is completely unclad. There is only half of him sitting up there, the top half, the legs are missing”(5). This gruesome sight is followed by Paul’s friend Kat saying, “It’s funny,’ says Kat, ‘We have seen that several times now…”(5) The soldiers have lost much of their feeling. They are walking past mutilated men, but they just keep walking. They have lost care. However, they are forced to do this in order to survive and endure the war. War also caused a loss of hope. When Paul was fighting, he interacted with people who lost all hope in seeing the end of the war. When people didn’t see the end in site, they would become home sick. When Detering became home sick, Paul said to him, “Perhaps you will get to leave soon”(6). The next day Detering couldn’t be found. Detering probably left because he couldn’t see himself coming home any time soon because the war was not coming to the end. He was captured by the military police in Germany. The hope in surviving was also lost. “If a shot comes, we can duck, that is all”(2). In war there is no way to control what happens to you. You can hope to not be hurt, but that doesn’t mean anything in the end. “I stood up [from a dug-out] to go visit some friends in another dug-out. On my return nothing more was to be seen of the first one, it had been blown down by a direct hit. I went back to the second and arrived just in time to lend a hand digging it out”(2). At this moment Paul felt hopeless that he was going to survive. The poem “There Will Come Soft Rain” by Sara Teasdale talks about the harshness of war and about the aftermath. “And not one will know of the war, no one will care at last when it is done”. This relates to the loss of hope because at the end of war everyone is hoping to see the end. Often in times of war parents pressure their own children to enlist regardless of the consequences. They are brainwashed by the parades and persuasive posters to send their young sons off to fight for their life on a brutal battlefield. They are blind to the fact their sons might not come home, but when soldiers see new recruits they feel remorse. They know what will befall them. They will lose long time friends and narrowly escape death if they are lucky. Although most of these soldiers are not much older than the new recruits they have lived life times of experience. In the excerpt “Reinforcements” (3) of All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul, the protagonist soldier, explains how much older than the reinforcements he feels. In reality they are roughly the same age. He compares their faces to “the awful expressionlessness of dead children,” (3). He continues to talk about how they are too small for their uniforms because “no uniform was ever made to these childlike measurements,” (3). Another example of this would be the Death of the Ball Turret Gunner, a poem by Randall Jarrell. “From my mother’s belly I fell into the State,” the poem portrays how to veteran soldiers these new recruits are barely babies when they join the war. In a second excerpt from All Quiet on the Western Front, “Joining up” (1), Paul mentions that when he and his schoolmates enlisted they were merely, “lads of eighteen,” (1). In both aspects these young men were parted from their youth. The men that died physically had their souls separated from their young bodies. The men that survived were forced to mature immediately and face the war. World War 1 was a war of attrition. Like all wars, loss and destruction was rampant. Entire generations are pressured into battle where they must block out their feelings in order to have a chance to survive. Those who come back may not have physical damage, but are destroyed on the inside. Men who fight in battle may never forget the things they see, no matter how many years pass. This is why war must stop. No war is worth the destruction it causes. I think about life and death a lot nowadays. About its meaning, and about its value. About the food chain. There is always a bigger being that preys on a smaller one. It is incredible how emotional it can be for us to take another living being’s life, while for other creatures, it is routine, simply a way of life.
Every year, our family goes on a backpacking trip, where fishing has become a tradition. The species native to the Sierra mountains is the rainbow trout. They are stunning creatures. A dark amber glazes the top of the head, while the top of the body is lake green. The middle of the body is pink as if it were the reflection of a sunset. They are elegant and swift in the water, and delicious to eat. My dad, brother and I were perched on a massive granite boulder, overlooking the water--lines taught and rods resting on rocks. The sun was no longer visible, and the flies and mosquitos were starting to come out. My father was immersed in his newspaper and my brother was on his lap, enjoying the pictures. I gazed blankly at the water. My gaze was disrupted by a movement by one of the rods. My rod. I clumsily stumbled over to the rod, picked it up, gave it a jerk to set the hook in the fish’s mouth, and began to reel. With help from my father and excitement from my brother, I reeled in the fish. It was beautiful. A twelve-inch long rainbow trout, with colors vivid as a painting. My eyes blurry with excitement, I ran back to the campsite, my brother following close behind. When my dad caught up with us, he asked: “Do you want to learn how to gut it?” Seeing I had caught the fish, I felt the need to finish the job. We walked a distance until we found a flat space. I glanced into the fish’s glassy marble eyes, and could see suffering. My dad noticed and suggested ending it’s suffering. He showed me a way to quickly break the fish’s neck, putting the thumb down the fish’s throat and jolting the thumb quickly upwards, snapping the creature’s neck. I did as he instructed and felt the cold teeth of the trout brushing against my finger like thumb tacks. I looked at the suffering trout. “You don’t have to...” my dad told me, but in an attempt to prove myself, I pulled upward. Snap. I watched its eyes as the life in them dissolved. The creature was dead. My dad took the fish from my hands and let me walk back to the campsite. That night, dinner tasted different and I had trouble falling asleep.
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