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All Quiet on the Western Front Blog
DUE: 1/6 Essential Questions:
Assignment: Students will compose a blog entries while reading All Quiet on the Western Front journal in which they reflect and respond to the text. Students must post a minimum of 3 insightful & reflective comments on their peers’ blogs. Blog Entry Requirements: Each entry must reference the text. Students may cite a specific chapter, page, or passage from the text, or respond to a large section of reading, using quotes to bring the text into the blog. The response should demonstrate critical thought and do one or more of the following:
Kortnie
12/26/2013 10:18:37 pm
On pages 115-118, Paul and his crew is attacked by the enemy, leaving mass friendly casualties and brutal injuries, like bayonets through the back and chest, decapitations, etc. During this, Paul and his friends must push on, stumbling over "slippery lumps of flesh" (p.117) to disarm the enemy. Paul has been reduced to the melancholy soldier's motto: "if we don't destroy them, they will destroy us" (p.115). And, once the crew finds tins of food, they don't hesitate to take them; not even thinking about the mass number of people, enemy people, but people nonetheless, they had to kill to scrape up a bit of food and survive through the horror. Paul's tone isn't even disgusted nor fazed when he describes how Kat's bread was "a bit bloody at one corner". The calm with which he describes it all is somewhat concerning; he feels no pity nor disgust at the men dying in horrific ways at his feet. After the fight, Paul and his friends are exhausted, yet they aren't the least bit guilty feeling nor haunted by the dead. They weren't even bothered at the hundreds of hands reaching up for help on the battlefield; men from their own side asking for help when they had been blown up or shot.
Matt
12/27/2013 02:56:47 am
I'm glad you incorporated the "a bit bloodied at one corner" quote because as I was reading I had similar thoughts about the absence of worry the Paul has towards this usually disturbing sight. I'm glad to see that I was not alone in picking up on this tolerance of death and gore that the war has made part of the soldiers.
Kortnie
12/27/2013 05:17:48 am
Yes, I found that to be really strange that it didn't bother him nor the others at all. Usually, a person would be worried and thinking about who it could've been and who that person could've been like. Not to mention the fact that it should have bothered them; eating off of something that had someone's blood on it.
harry lancaster
1/1/2014 04:40:24 am
I find it ironic how as we read this part WE were surprised at the lack of consideration the Second Company had for what they were eating, and then later once Paul returns to training camp after his visit home, HE becomes the one surprised at how his fellow comrades treat the Russian prisoners in the prison neighboring the camp. This is definitely the author's use of irony to show how humbling returning home was for Paul. Paul ends up giving them food that his mother made for HIM, although it is not mentioned in the text I kind of saw this as a way of him "repaying" the enemies for the food they once took at the cost of many lives. Either way, the dehumanization shown throughout the book that the Germans show the enemies is stomach turning and unbelievable.
Joetta Nuahn
12/30/2013 01:14:07 am
Kortnie,I like how you briefly mentioned how Paul's life will be like if he goes back home. You saying his life will be effected by the war is really insightful and accurate. Though in some parts of the book the soldiers talk about going back home to their normal life again,wondering what jobs they will get and think about doing things they didn't get a chance to do. The soldiers talk as if their lives will resume from when the left, but I agree with you that when they do go back home their lives won't be the same.
Kortnie
1/1/2014 06:48:35 am
Yes, like when he goes back home, Paul feels really out of place and wishes his father would stop talking about the war and asking what it's like because he feels like no one at home really understands what its like. His father finds it exciting and thrilling but in reality the war front isn't that at all; it's gruesome and, when it isn't boring, it's obscenely dangerous.
Jade
1/1/2014 09:30:33 am
Kortnie I completely agree that Paul and the other soldiers have become almost entirely desensitized but I do believe atleast Paul has a bit of humanity left considering he says on page 95, "I love him, his shoulders,
Stephanie Martindale
1/2/2014 06:54:06 am
I thought the way you were able to use little snippets from the story was great, and then after when you explained your answer and how the evidence supports it I was able to make the connection clearly and easily. Over all you did a terrific job explaining everything.
Maddy
1/3/2014 09:31:52 am
I have a question, do you feel as though every soldier goes to the melancholy state that Paul went through on the battlefield? I had noticed that you put the quote " if we don't destroy them, they will destroy us" which you had explained was a kind of motto for the soldiers, I was just curious. Great job by the way!
Meghan Cooper
1/3/2014 11:24:49 am
Wow, Kortine excellent job. I really enjoyed how you compared the soldiers to robots and showed that they had become nothing but empty shells because of the war. Its sad that after reading the book we learn Paul never gets the chance to return to normal life.
Alexa
1/5/2014 04:33:29 am
I found it unnerving and strange as well that Paul barely took notice to the bloody sights of death and gruel around him. i like how you described the soldiers as robots because it seems like that is what they have become during the war with no feelings.
Emma T
1/5/2014 09:21:45 am
I really like the way you used many pieces of the story in explanation, it made it very interesting to read the way you got your point across about how the war was affecting him and others around him.
Jason
1/5/2014 09:55:26 am
Its amazing how in only three pages the book can show the tru brutality and horors of the war and give people an insight into how it looked and felt to be i their position.
Johnathan Sandoval
1/5/2014 12:25:23 pm
Very well done Kortnie! I love the choice in quotes said in the book. "slippery lumps of flesh" really gave me a visual of soldiers walking over flesh of dead and exploded soldiers. Nice job identifying the author's tone and using evidence such as how Paul reacted to soldiers dying around him to prove that his mood was calm.
Kelley Almada
1/5/2014 01:36:23 pm
I like how you used a lot of the vocab as well as quoting direct pieces of evidence. It really helped me to remember specific parts of the reading and be able to connect them with issues we discussed in class.
Autumn Scott
1/6/2014 03:55:16 am
I think it was really beneficial to add the part about "slippery lumps of flesh" because I thought it was especially gruesome. It really emphasized the fact that the soldiers were almost senseless to these horrific events and I think it made your connection much stronger along with the other few quotes you used. Nice job
Joetta Nuahn
12/30/2013 01:04:19 am
On page 127, Paul and the rest of the Second Company's first time battle at the front was brutal. There was even a wounded soldier stranded in the feilds and cried out for help, after countless attempts to find him, Paul and his fellow soldiers couldn't rescue the soldier and they stopped trying. After all that chaos, suddenly, 2 brimstone-butterflies appeared. Paul recognizes them because of the identifying red spots on their yellow wings, and he's shocked of their existence in a war zone, of all places. "What can they be looking for here? There is not a plant nor flower for miles. They settle on the teeth of a skull... The birds too are just as carefree they have long since accustomed themselves to war". The fact that the butterflies appeared shows that within all the horrors of a war, and amongst all the deaths there's still life. Also, due to there being no vegetation because of all the explosions that have occured the butterflies had no where to land but on an abandoned skull in the feilds, the skull symbolizes death and seeing the end of war, while the buttterflies and birds have become accustomed to war and are still free spirited. This beautiful sight indicates a cliche theme, life goes on. Which is a known universal similarity across all of humanity. There's something more overpowering than humans, which is the enviornment, and once all of humanity is gone. Nature will still prevail and continue to exist as represnted with a lifeless skull and a butterfly adventuring about.
Kortnie
1/1/2014 06:54:35 am
I like that you addressed how the environment kind of swallowed all the death and debris the war had left in its wake; I found it strange how in the book, between pages and pages of death, there was a few paragraphs of just how nature seemed to evolve and come back despite the shell holes and everything the war had done to the place. I think you were right in suggesting the butterfly landing on the skull was important; it was almost like foreshadowing; that even when people are gone and Paul and his company eventually die, life does go on.
Stephanie Martindale
1/2/2014 06:50:05 am
I liked how you were able to relate the two butterflies to the thriving life that continues on which you clearly explain in your answer. Over all I thought you did a great job.
Lucas
1/2/2014 10:31:02 am
I also thought it was strange to find butterflies in a warzone. But after hearing you're connection it all makes sense to me. Nature doesnt just die out because of war but it continues to go on to provide life to the people on earth. Great connection.
Maddy
1/3/2014 09:28:22 am
I had thought it was interesting how you had said that it gives off a cliché theme. You did a wonderful job pointing out that despite the war going on nature continues to do its own thing. That the war doesn't really affect what nature does. Great job!
Andrew Solari
1/5/2014 12:44:31 am
The symbolism of a lifeless skull representing the end of humanity was great thinking
Isabelle
1/5/2014 02:14:20 am
I also noticed this symbol reading the book. I understand your interpretation, although I took it a little differently. While you took it as the survival of nature, I thought of the butterfly as hope. Landing on the skull, which represents death, shows that despite the seemingly endless suffering, there is still hope for the soldiers and the war effort. Even though the German side does eventually loose the war, and Paul dies, I think that the butterfly represented that there had to be hope somewhere or else there would be no need to live. I agree with your version, as well. The simple beauty of the butterfly against the war does show that the world doesn't just stop because of a war. Great job Joetta!
Mrs. T
1/20/2014 06:10:58 am
Nice response, Isabelle. I like how you acknowledged Joetta's analysis and still offered your own. Bravo.
Camryn Liberatore
1/5/2014 07:37:36 am
That was very insightful how you connected that to the theme life goes on. At first I didn't know where you were going with the butterflies but I think you tied them in very nicely. I also found it touching how they could find something so meaningful in such a little thing like butterflies.
Johnathan Sandoval
1/5/2014 12:34:39 pm
I love how you didn't just tell me that they saw butterflies on the war zones and this caused them to be amazed. Instead you explained the harsh environment of the war zone and even told me how there was not one flower to be seen within numerous miles of the war zone and then told me they saw butterflies be caused it helped me realize how amazed the soldiers really were because they were wondering why the butterflies were there. Good job using the butterflies to symbolize a theme. I'm still wondering as well though why there were butterflies if there weren't any flowers for miles?
Matt
12/30/2013 03:26:05 am
All Quite on the Western Front is a literary depiction of a soldiers life in WWI. Paul is a soldier who fights in trenches similar to the ones that we have learned about in class. He rotates through the trenches and every so often he is stationed on the front, which we have learned is the battle line between the two sides. Paul fights on the German front which is a part of the Central Powers. Across the zone that the soldiers call "no mans land" are English, French and Russian troops that are a part of the Allied Powers. All of these terms and ideas were both discussed in class and are present in the book. In chapter 7, Paul states " We want to live at any price; so we cannot burden ourselves with feelings." This idea of detachment from feelings is present throughout the whole book. In chapter 9, Paul's ability to do this is tested when he must battle a French soldier who confronts him face to face. Paul stabs the man, but sits and waits with him as he dies. While the soldier is dying, Paul explains that "did not want to kill you. . . . But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response." And after Paul sees the pictures of the mans wife and child, he feels that "We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us." This is a moment in the book when we see the universal similarities across humanity. Paul realizes that he and the soldier are the same person... fighting a senseless war against an enemy who is just as afraid of death and agony as he is. In this section a how it is possible for a soldier to kill another human if he only sees him as an obstacle and not another living being. We also see the agony caused by doing so when on realizes that himself and his victim are both human. This similarity is represented through the simile Paul uses comparing them both to "poor devils" and setting them as equals. Paul starts to question his decision of joining the war more and more after each one of his friends is killed, but non more than when Kat is killed in Paul's arms. Kat is Paul's dearest and only friend remaining on the battle field, and in chapter 11 is killed when he "caught a stray splinter in the head". This kill happened while Paul was carrying Kat through a shelling. This must be a time of great anxiety for anyone involved. I assume that this is a similar feeling to what modern soldiers go through on the battle field today. With the advancements of military technology, soldiers can never be sure of what to expect on the battle field and are constantly in a kill or be killed situation. Like the soldiers in All Quite On the Western Front, this must be both mentally straining and scaring. But alas, in the final chapter, Paul falls while battling in the Great War. When he died, "his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come." Death was the best option for Paul because even after the war, most soldiers could not find peace. War destroys human spirit and leaves only shells of the men that once were. It is important to recognize this because it shows that there is no true benefit from war. Even if one survives a battle, they are never the same person that went into it.
harry lancaster
1/1/2014 08:44:22 am
Wow, Matt, you definitely nailed it with this lol. I also found it interesting when you talked about the trenches in the beginning of your blog how Paul was a boy of the trenches, I connected this to when he discovers Himmelstoss curled up in the dugout faking an injury. This showed to me how unforgiving the trenches were, Himmelstoss having never been in war before yet was a full grown man, couldn't bear the same circumstances that the boys had been living in for months. This also proved to me how vulnerable children are to their environment as we discussed in class, the boys were able to block out their past and be molded into impassive warriors.
Lucas
1/2/2014 09:19:34 am
Great job. I really like how you wrote about the death of Paul and how it was the best option because he believes he won't be the same after war because that is where he lost his innocence. He spent a good amount of his childhood in the war. I thought of his death to be ironic because he died in peace rather in the bombardments or shell fires.
Meghan Cooper
1/3/2014 11:21:29 am
Great job Matt. I really liked how you described Paul's lack of empathy and really showed how the soldiers felt about the death they were seeing and facing every day. This was a very well written blog.
victoria
1/5/2014 03:56:47 am
Great job Matt! I really liked how you said that as the book went on Paul kept talking more and more about joining as each one of his friends died. I feel that in doing this, the reader sees Paul question not only why he signed up, but how different his life would have been if he didn't. Always thinking in that way, the emotional toll his friends death has on him increases, and one can imagine that mentally, having to deal with constant regret of signing up added to the horrors of seeing his friends, like Kat die, would leave him mentally damaged, and make the reader more sympathetic to the soldiers lives as a whole.
Jade
1/1/2014 09:32:48 am
'All Quiet' describes the hardships many soldiers had to endure during WWI. On page 120-123, Paul describes his memories and how calm they are. However he states that those memories are nothing but the past and if they were to be relived he wouldn't feel the same emotions he did when they happened. The author uses a remorseful and yearning mood to show the reader how much the constant fighting can affect the soldiers and their own feelings towards each other and their old lives. Also the soldiers talk about their lives when the war is over, some soldiers believe the war will never end but others believe they will go home to their jobs and wives or worrying about having to go home and find a job. This also connects to what we learned in class about mutiny, though the soldiers constant surrounding of just fighting and death caused many of them to stop feeling any kind of remorse or sorry for other soldiers, like helping the wounded instead of just running by them and leaving them to die, they didn't lose their humanity altogether. Through all of the conflict Paul still describes his close bond with Kat. He also describes in such sorrowful detail the look of the dead soldiers and dying soldiers both young and old. The soldiers who turned to mutiny after so much conflict are much like the soldiers in 'All Quiet' they don't want to give up and be thought of as cowardly, they only want the fighting to come to an end.
Stephanie Martindale
1/2/2014 06:46:33 am
I like how you talked about what the mood does to the story line and how it can affect the soldiers who are fighting in the war.
Isabelle
1/5/2014 02:19:21 am
I loved your connection of Paul's memories to the mood. Paul' experience in the war has changed his outlook on life, creating a weary sort of mood to the whole novel. As he looks back on his memories, he discovers that even after the war ends his outlook on life will be forever changed.
Julia W
1/5/2014 04:44:21 am
I like how you used the mood to help support you entry. Also how you connected the past and future to the present to show the tone of the book was interesting.
Isidra
1/5/2014 07:38:17 am
I like how you connected the mood in entry to Paul's memories
Camryn Liberatore
1/5/2014 07:44:43 am
I liked how you gave your answer a sort of universal meaning that this wasn't just happening in war it could happen everywhere people could rise past terrible things that were happening and still have self respect. I also noticed while reading the book that even though Paul tried to move on after Kat's death he was changed and didn't see the war the same because it had taken his last friend.
Johnathan Sandoval
1/5/2014 12:40:06 pm
Good job Jade. I like how you told me about the different feelings and opinions that soldiers had towards WW1 and the emotions of soldiers who watched other soldiers die right next to them. I like your connection to mutiny in which we discussed in class. Good use of specific details from the book to back up Paul's personal feelings and experience. Very well done!
jack
1/5/2014 07:23:29 pm
Good job with the connections and really liked the part where you talked about the mood and Pauls connection to it. i liked how you showed effects and affects of certain aspects of the story to the mood tone ect...
Mrs. T
1/20/2014 06:21:31 am
The quote Matt discussed " We want to live at any price; so we cannot burden ourselves with feelings." seems relevant to your discussion about the soldier's disregard for other soldiers. In this quote "feeling" is presented as an obstacle in the way of survival.
harry lancaster
1/1/2014 10:21:21 am
In chapter nine, something caught my attention and I was unbelievably surprised at what happened in the story. When the kaiser is said to be visiting the army, all of the soldiers are given new clothes to impress him. This greatly raises the hopes of the soldiers and they become excited only to be let down once again by the realization of how plain he ends up being. What's more to crush the hopes of the German army, is the new clothes that were supplied to the entire army are taken back by the government. This made me question- if the resources were available to clothe all of the soldiers for a day, why were they not just given to the soldiers, of all people, who were in need and fighting for their country? This idea of impressing the kaiser to make everything look fine on the front brought me back to our discussion of how misleading propaganda can be to the citizens of a region. The governments on both sides of the war control how life on the front is perceived in the eyes of the public. This illusion created to persuade men to join the battle could've also been a major factor in their unstable mental conditions that followed the war. It is totally disheartening for someone that has an image of what they predict something will be like, to watch that image unfold in complete opposite and gut wrenching ways. This is what happened in WW1, which is quite possibly a major factor in the loss of an entire generation of boys. Even those who survived physically, many lived the rest of their lives distant from those they loved, because they left their sanity on the battlefield along with their innocence and faith.
Lucas
1/2/2014 09:13:37 am
I liked how you connected the attempt to impress the Kaiser to the propaganda we learned about in class. I also felt like the government was being too misleading to not only the citizens of the region but to the soldiers, who were already misled to join the war. Overallyou did a solid job connecting the two things.
Alec Rubenstein
1/4/2014 01:40:07 am
I was also surprised when I read that the new clothes taken back by the government. If they had the resources the soldiers should be able to keep them. I like how you connected it to how the to the governments used propaganda to mislead the people.
Jada Fisher
1/4/2014 02:33:16 am
Your connection to propoganda was well done. I also liked how you brought up the clothing portion because that surprised me as well. If they used clothing to impress someone, why not just let them keep the clothes? It was misleading towards the soldiers, just as the propoganda was. You had a well thought through connection.
victoria
1/5/2014 04:13:24 am
Great job! In class, I didn't understand how persuasive propaganda really was. But after your analysis I see just how misleading it can be. If it can be used to not only persuade people to join the war, but to give people a false impression of war conditions, even ones of high power, then how does one determine if what they are viewing is the full truth, or propaganda?
Autumn Scott
1/5/2014 11:35:54 am
I had the exact same thought about the availability of resources when I was reading chapter nine. If the government could provide the clothes, why couldn't the soldiers just keep them? It makes me wonder if occcurances like this were common during WW1. Anyway, nice job
jack
1/5/2014 07:27:02 pm
i agree with you Harry on a lot of the topics you talked about and you made very good connections also. I liked how you used propaganda in your blog.
Stephanie Martindale
1/2/2014 06:43:21 am
On page 115 Paul is talking about the raid they did on one of the trenches and how you can't let your fears dictate you or else you will get killed. The soldiers have to show no emotion and become killing machines due to the fact that if they let every death get to them then they would focus on grieving for their fallen comrades and not pay attention to their own life. An example of this could be" But we are swept forward again, powerless, madly savage and raging; we will kill, for they are still our mortal enemies, their rifles and bombs are aimed against us, and if we don't destroy them, they will destroy us". The similarity between everyone is they want to live. Soldiers are dedicated to fight for their country and if it means killing others for the benefit of their country and their own life then they will do it. An author uses elements of fiction to create a story and achieve its purpose by making the character relatable and how the plot of the story goes along and if it interests the reader. In class we had learned about how in the trenches it was difficult for the soldiers keep hold of their sanity and stay calm because the soldiers could get scared and mentally scarred by what they see around them. In the book it talks about the soldiers down in the trenches who are becoming shell shocked because they see things that drive them mad. Also, when Himmelstoss becomes shell shocked it shows that it can even happen to people who are higher up and been in the military longer then others.
Maddy
1/3/2014 09:25:38 am
I really thought it was interesting how Himmelstoss had turned all frightened. The way he had acted to the fellow soldiers had me thinking he would act all tough during the real action. This really explains how war brings out the true side of some people. Nice job!
Matt
1/5/2014 12:28:38 am
This is a very detailed blog. all of your evidence shows how the war not only forced the soldiers into becoming "killing machines" but also forced them into maturity. Similar to when Paul calls himself a "vetrain" in comparison to the new recruits although he is only two years older. And also can be seen when the immature recruit dashes out of the trench and is immediately hit by an incoming shell. Maturity is a necessity on the battlefield and I believe that this blog demonstrates that.
alex whittingham
1/5/2014 04:00:22 am
I like how you incorporated the part where Himmelstoss is shell shocked and you mentioned how it can happen to people higher up in the military too.
Ryan E
1/5/2014 05:45:58 am
I like how you connected how none of the soldiers are emotionless and not fazed by the killing of their friends and the killing of others to shell shock.
Mrs. T
1/20/2014 06:29:28 am
It is interesting that you cite wanting to live as a commonality between all soldiers, but in the next line you say they are fighting and killing for their country. Can it be both? Is one more of a driving force than the other? How does disillusionment fit in to this idea?
Katelynn Colpitts
1/22/2014 08:13:40 am
I really like how you said they had to change into killing machines because of the war because the soldiers really did have to act nonhuman to be able to act effectively in combat. good job.
Alec Rubenstein
1/3/2014 01:03:34 am
In All Quiet on the Western Front Paul and other German soldiers are fighting in the trenches of World War One. In class we learned about trench warfare. Many people died in the war. On page 2, Paul’s “company of one hundred and fifty men” “suffered severely and came back only eighty strong”. Almost half of the company was killed. Soldiers also got to rotate between front line trenches and reserve trenches. On page 2, “fourteen days ago we had to go up and relieve the front line”. Paul rotated from the reserve trenches to the front line trenches. The book also connects to total war. Total war affects people at home and includes the rationing of food and goods. When Paul was on leave he told his mother “you ought not to send your things to me”, on page 184. Food was being rationed at home and Paul knew his mother needed all of her food. The book also connects to the Christmas truce of 1914. When Paul was stuck in a shell hole a French soldier fell into the hole. Paul then killed him and was stuck in the hole with the dead soldier. Paul then said to the dead man “I did not want to kill you”, on page 223. The soldiers also did not want to kill each other during the Christmas truce. They came out of the trenches and interacted with each other. They did not want to fight just like Paul did not want to kill the soldier.
Jada Fisher
1/4/2014 02:23:48 am
I like how you connected the Christmas Truce because I would have never thought of that. This is because he actually killed the man but during the Christmas Truce they didn't kill eachother. Even though my point is valid you proved your point just as well. You are completely right in the comparison of Paul not wanting to kill the enemy soldier and the Truce. Your point may have been stronger if you added the point that Paul cared for the wounded soldier by giving him water after he tried to kill him. Good job!
Matt
1/5/2014 12:15:39 am
I liked your connection to the Christmas Truce because we spent a whole class talking about it. We all had prior knowledge of the event from class so it made this section of the chapter easier to understand and relate to.
Andrew Solari
1/5/2014 12:41:12 am
When reading that part i hadn't thought of the the Christmas truce but after you made the connection it makes perfect sense to me.
alex whittingham
1/5/2014 03:57:20 am
I liked how you used the Christmas truce to describe how they did not want to fight. It connects with Paul's reaction to killing the man very well.
Alexa
1/5/2014 04:37:12 am
I liked how you incorporated the Christmas truce into your connection. I agree that it is similar to how Paul did not want to kill that French soldier in the trench. It also shows that all humanity is not lost during war.
Ryan E
1/5/2014 05:43:49 am
I like your use of the Christmas truce and how the soldiers stopped fighting on Christmas to how Paul spared that soldiers life and said “i did not want to kill you.”
Katelynn Colpitts
1/22/2014 08:07:40 am
I like how you used the quote "they came back 80 strong" because to me it is a huge realization of how terrible the war really was on the soldiers and all the men that were lost during the entire war.
James Boudreau III
1/27/2014 03:26:24 am
I really like how you connected this to the Christmas truce because it makes you think about how the soldiers didn't just want Christmas to not fight, but the fact that Paul apologizes to the dead soldier makes you think about how none of the soldiers wanted to fight at all, upon realizing the gruesome effects of trench warfare.
Maddy
1/3/2014 09:22:23 am
In "All Quite On The Western Front", the soldiers face obstacles in war that harden them, and destroy their human spirit. In order for soldiers to survive they can't let their feelings get the best of them because that can lead to a hesitation to kill. This hesitation can be their downfall. On page 114 the passage states "If your own father came over with them you would not hesitate to fling a bomb at him." This means that they wouldn't want to stop focusing on saving themselves and their comrades for one second because that one second could be their last. The war completely turns the soldiers into savage animals that are hungry for blood. This is when they are on the lines. Despite the soldiers wanting to destroy the enemy, they are all humans doing what they are instructed to do so by their leaders. They all have humane qualities inside of them they that toss away during the war to insure their own safety. All soldiers no matter who they are or what they are they all possess qualities that still make them seem human. However this all changes on the battlefield as the soldiers release their dark side and push all their humanity to the back of their minds and focus on striking down their foes. The setting the author uses really plays a huge part in this story. The setting highly effects each of the characters thoughts and actions. Most soldiers tend to have their minds collapse due to the fierce conditions they are put up against during the ferocious battle to the death. The soldiers would never have thought the war was this terrible so they charge into the trenches feeling like they are invincible at first, but then some soldiers get consumed by fear due to their harsh surroundings. During WW1 this had occurred a lot. Soldiers would suffer after battle with different types of mental illnesses which change their lives forever. There are many things that had caused the soldiers to become this way such as it being their first time taking the life of someone else, or facing everyday knowing it might be their last.
Meghan Cooper
1/3/2014 11:28:45 am
Good job Maddie. I really like how you brought up Paul's statement about his father on the battlefield. This shows how deeply altered and affected the boys had become through fighting in the war and the dire and stressful circumstances they were under at all times. I also liked how you connected the author's use of the setting in the story.
Jada Fisher
1/4/2014 02:14:49 am
I agree with Meghan, great job! Including the quote about the father really helped show how little hesitation they had to kill people. It also supports your claim that they toss away their human qualities. Without knowing that they would kill their own fathers I would just think they were protecting themselves, but by using that quote you brought it to a whole other level.
Isabelle
1/5/2014 02:04:18 am
Maddy, I really enjoyed reading your reflection. It opened my eyes to some of the parts of the story that I didn't catch reading the first time. I agree that the war forced the soldiers to almost forget themselves so that they wouldn't have to face the reality of war. The brutal truth that you described here, the soldiers turning into savage animals, is one of the main parts of the novel. I think the author wanted to get that point across, that soldiers have to take their own thoughts out of the war in order to complete their job.
jack
1/5/2014 07:32:17 pm
Maddie... you made very smart connections and i liked how you used the use of Pauls father in the blog this really shows the mental change the men on in the trenches were experiencing.
Mrs. T
1/20/2014 06:34:54 am
You touch upon a recurring idea in the novel: the animalistic nature of the men in war. The descriptions of the men that dehumanize their behavior and the comparisons to animals build this idea throughout the book.
James Boudreau III
1/27/2014 03:36:01 am
Maddy, this response was very well done, I like how you compared the soldiers to beasts that were hungry for blood, it expresses how terrible the conditions were, and how desperate the soldiers were just to survive. I also very much like how you explained how the soldiers had to harden themselves to survive, even kill their own fathers should it resort to that.
Meghan Cooper
1/3/2014 11:12:51 am
“All Quiet On The Western Front” is a World War I veterans’s gritty depiction of a soldier’s hardships fighting in the war. The book revolves around Paul Bäumer, a 19-year old boy who joins the war along with his school class. Once at the Western Front, Paul and his friends realize that all they had been told about the war undermined the true devastation of the war. During WWI the men fought in the form of Trench Warfare, which featured large trenches that provided some cover from the enemy’s fire. There were different kinds of trenches, but the trench Paul talks most of are the trenches of the front. The front was where the majority of the fighting took place. At the front, many young soldiers died terrible deaths and suffered in pitiful and unsanitary working conditions. In the trenches Paul saw the true brutality of the war and watched many of his closest friends and fellow soldiers die. Paul would then got to a resting trench to think about his time spent in the trenches and to calm himself up for his next rotation back to the front. An example of the horror of the front trenches is shone by the reaction of the new recruits during their first time in the trenches. One of the recruits, as stated by Paul on page 111, “seems actually to have gone insane’ and “butts his head against the wall”. This young boy, only after one day, is losing his mind trying to escape the horror he has seen after just one day in the trenches.
Alec Rubenstien
1/5/2014 02:53:55 am
I liked how you said that death did not affect Paul because he was accustomed to the war but the new recruits that were not accustomed to the war went insane. I agree that this shows the horrors of the war.
Katie Furtado
1/5/2014 04:31:27 am
Beyond the physical horrors, I like how you summarized the mental tolls of war Paul experienced. Reading this book exposed me to a new understanding of how one’s mind had to compensate to survive the cruelty of WWI.
Abby Whittingham
1/5/2014 04:41:32 am
Hey Meghan, I really enjoyed reading your piece. You were very descriptive throughout your entire blog and I especially liked when you said "Paul looses his last bits of human spirit and slowly looses his ability to mourn fully.." I feel your use of diction and description really enhanced your piece. Great Job!
Justin
1/5/2014 07:06:07 am
Your blog was very descriptive and had very accurate details from the book and I really liked your Inclusion of the part "In the trenches Paul saw the true brutality of the war and watched many of his closest friends and fellow soldiers die". It was a nice thing to your blog as it represents Shell shock as Paul sees the reality of the war.
Lucas
1/3/2014 11:52:30 am
In All Quiet On The Western Front, the horror and effects of war was evident in Chapter 1 and Chapter 12. In Chapter 1, Paul and his comrades hear about their fellow soldiers' deaths. "there is a double ration of sausage and bread". Instead of mourning the deaths of the fellow comrades, they see it as an extra ration of food and cigarettes. Basically, they are benefiting from the deaths of other soldiers. Also when Kemmerich is dying the most important thing among his friends is who will inherit his boots. This shows they believe boots are more valuable than one of their comrade's lives. This also shows the effects of war because the soldiers are accepting the conditions of their lives because they know they can not change the outcomes of death but accept the outcomes and try to benefit from them. In Chapter 12 the main character, Paul Baumer dies due to inhaling poison gas. Paul is one of the last remaining young men in his original group of classmates. This epitomizes the war’s devastating effect on the generation of young men who were forced to fight it and symbolizes the end of that generation of soldiers. Also in Chapter 12 "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. The life that has borne me through these years is still in my hands and my eyes. Whether I have subdued it, I know not. But so long as it is there it will seek its own way out, heedless of the will that is within me." Paul becomes unable to imagine a future without the war and unable to remember how he felt in the past. These chapters connect to our class discussions about shell-shock and desensitization. Paul and his comrades have become so accustomed to killing and trying not to be killed so their heads become messed up and they cannot imagine a peaceful future. In chapter 1, they don't care about Kemmerich and other comrades death but rather food or boots. The tone in which the death is described is flat showing that they are beginning to be desensitized to death.In chapter 12, Paul can't think of a peaceful future. This shows that the shell-shocking he experienced from the war is still there. These chapters are similar to everyone because everyone goes through a period of time when they have to adjust to a huge thing such as a death of a pet or a wedding of a cousin.
Andrew Solari
1/5/2014 12:35:39 am
I like how you related the beginning of the book to the final chapter. It made your post more complete
Victoria
1/5/2014 04:26:29 am
Great job! I also loved how you used the beginning of the book and end to describe your point. It seems to me that the death of Kat really effected the way you described that Paul felt at the end of the book. One question I have is do you feel that Paul had an emotional attachment to Kat , and that if Kat hadn't been killed that Paul would have made it through the war?
Andrew Solari
1/5/2014 12:32:22 am
On page 17 of All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul, Muller and others are visiting Kemmerich in the hospital. His leg was blown off in battle. While lying in the extremely packed hospital, Kemmerich was in agony. The author includes details such as " the dressing room smelt of puss and sweat. We are accustom to a good deal of billets but even this made us faint" pg 13. These sensory details are included because an emphasis is being put on the unpleasantness of the hospital. Trying to ease their friends pain, Paul asked an orderly for some morphine. In response the orderly said " if we were to give morphia to everyone we would have to have tubs full" pg. 17. Paul slips the orderly a couple of cigarettes and gets the drugs he is looking for. This shows that the orderly has learned through the experiences of war injuries that a missing leg isn't worth putting medicine on. Kemmerich's well being was equated to material objects. And the orderly isn't the only one who devalued human life. On pg 16, Muller tries to convince Kemmerich to give him his nice leather boots. Muller has learned through training to us resources to their maximum potential. Knowing Kemmerich will never have a second foot, he puts the boots under his bed so he can take them once Kemmerich passes. This part of the story shows how when humans who were trained to be desensitized are put into an unpleasant environment are forced to make the best out death.
Alec Rubenstein
1/5/2014 03:03:56 am
I liked how you included the part with the boots. The soldiers are used to death but a good pair of boot are important. I agree that their environment forced them to make the most of death.
Alexa
1/5/2014 04:43:44 am
i agree that when Muller wants Kemmerich's boots, being a soldier has taught him that resources are important and that nice boots can be more important to a soldier than a death.
Julia W
1/5/2014 04:49:12 am
I like how you connected the bribing to get morphine to the experience of the orderly. I didn't make that connection at first. The fact that all the soldiers could be so desensitized to another humans life is very sad.
Steve Hamerski
1/5/2014 06:55:05 am
I all around really liked you piece and I thought your examples really explains what you were trying to prove in the piece. I really thought your example of the boots and how he put them under the bed really explained how they have to make the best of death
Sabrina
1/5/2014 07:58:16 am
I really like how you talked about the sensory details like how awful it smelt. It really shows how terrible it must have been in the hospitals.
Katelynn Colpitts
1/22/2014 08:19:48 am
I really like how you mentioned that a blown off leg was not enough to be given medicine to ease the pain. It makes me realize that a blown off leg is basically seen as a small injury due to what the doctors have been seeing and treating.
Isabelle
1/5/2014 01:58:34 am
All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, is a description of life during the war that holds nothing back. The novel tells the story of Paul, a young man fighting for the German side of World War I. Many parts of this book left me feeling innerved, although none so much as Chapter Nine. In Chapter Nine, Paul volunteers to find information on the enemy by crawling out into "No Man's Land." While there, Paul get's lost during a bombing, and crawls into a shell hole for protection. He waits out the attack, but soon is joined by an enemy soldier. Terrified, Paul attempts to kill him instantly. After he is dead, Paul looks through his belongings and finds out that he has a family at home. Paul is ridden with guilt over the man's death. This section of the book is critical in the author's use of point of view. The French soldier whom Paul killed simply because he was the "enemy" has a life outside of the war. He has a family, a job, and he has a name. Yet, when Paul killed him, he was only thinking of him as someone who would kill him if he did not strike first. Seeing the other side of the war, and the actual human beings who were fighting the characters we have grown attached to, is a wonderful yet devastating way for the author to highlight on the way that a soldier's mindset must change during battle in order to kill other people. Paul feels so guilty that he determines that he will "send [the soldier's family] money anonymously" and even says that since the soldier was a printer, that he "must be a printer." The reader begins to see this vulnerable side of Paul, who is no longer the toughened soldier he pretends to be. on page 225, Paul begins to talk to the soldier as if he was a friend, saying "I did not want to kill you," and calling the man who was once an enemy "comrade." This shows that Paul is beginning to understand that war is not beneficial for anyone, and that he sees that the opposing side were on the same playing field as he is.
alex whittingham
1/5/2014 04:06:43 am
I like how you put the part where Paul kills the Frenchman because it shows what needs to be done to succeed in a war and the circumstances mentally and physically.
Justin Torres
1/5/2014 07:12:08 am
I like the last portion of your reflection a lot because it shows that Paul is finally realizing that war is not to be taken lightly it is serious, like you said war is not benefical to anyone.
Jocelyn
1/5/2014 10:49:03 am
I like how you put in the part where Paul began to talk as if the man were a friend. I think it shows that even though he has the mindset of kill or be killed, he also understands that the enemy are people.
alex whittingham
1/5/2014 03:47:54 am
All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, is one of the best war stories that have come out of literature. The story gives you a very deep illustration of what World War 1 was like for the soldiers of the German military. The main character is Paul Bäumer, a German 19 year old boy who registers with his friends into the German military to fight in World War 1. Not only did Paul and his friends receive unfair rations, but Paul’s family and community did as well. In class, we learned about how total war can affect people at their home who don’t fight and how it can affect the rationing of food and goods. On pg.184 Paul tells his mother that she should not send things to him and “…you can make much better use of them here.” This shows how total war affected people who live at home and don’t fight in the war; however, the war makes people send soldiers food and goods and there is nothing left for them. Paul also witnesses tragic and horrific events while fighting for his country. For example, on pg.116 Paul witnesses a Frenchman who held his hands up, but then gave up and shot himself as “…a spade cleaves through his face.” The way the author uses the word “spade” and “cleaves” to represent the bullet and how it went into the man’s face, makes it descriptive when reading and illustrates the scene for us in our minds. To me, the soldiers never wanted to fight in a catastrophic war that affected the lives of everyone in Europe. They were simply influenced by propaganda posters; therefore, they went to go fight but regretted it once they did join. The author incorporates this into All Quiet on the Western Front on pg.223 when Paul gets stuck in a hole made from a shell explosion and a French soldier falls into that same hole. Paul knows that the only solution is to kill him but he does not want to. After he does kill him though, Paul tells the dead man “Comrade, I did not want to kill you. If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too.” This quote shows how Paul regretted what he had done and wished he could take it back, but this was war and he had to defend his country.
Steve Hamerski
1/5/2014 06:48:13 am
I really liked your response and I thought the example that u first gave the quote from page 184 really showed how people rationed for food and goods
Olivia Mangion
1/5/2014 08:05:27 am
Hey Alex, i really liked you connection that you made about what its like on the home front and the total war to when Paul visits his mother and his sister on page 184. Great job!
Jocelyn
1/5/2014 10:55:59 am
I like how you included the bit about how you think it shows that some people never actually wanted to fight and regret their decision to join. But I think some men who are fighting may not have been able to decide for themselves whether or not to join as some men may have been drafted,
Abby Whittingham
1/5/2014 04:14:21 am
All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, described the brutal and painful years that Paul Bäumer (the main character) and his classmates had to endure while fighting for Germany in World War 1. Once Paul and his friends entered the front line, they realized that the war was not even close to their expectations. This connects to our classroom discussions of propaganda because Paul and his classmates were influenced to join the army but found out it was nothing like a fresh start. For example on page 32, Paul’s friend Kemmerich has his leg amputated and dies. Kemmerich’s death goes to show what Paul and his other friends are in for, due to the fact that Kemmerich died as soon as chapter 2. His death also shows how quickly Paul has to start dehumanizing everyone around him in order to stay alive. As I continued reading, I noticed chapter nine had another piece of propaganda. On page 201, Paul and the other soldiers were informed that the Kaiser was going to “review them.” Everything was cleaned and the soldiers even got new clothes. All the soldiers had high hopes that were instantly smashed when the Kaiser arrived. Paul said he felt “disappointed; judging from his pictures I imagined him to be bigger and more powerfully built, and above all to have a thundering voice.” In addition, all the new clothes they were given were taken away after the Kaiser left. This connects to our class room discussion of propaganda as well because the only reason everything was polished and the soldiers received new clothes was to make it look like they were well put together. One thing in the story I found extremely eye-opening was that Paul had completely blocked out all human emotions until page 216 when he was able to slow down and watch the innocent man he stabbed die a slow painful death. At first, Paul still acts defensive wanting “to stop his mouth, stuff it with earth, stab him again,” but very quickly, he feels extremely guilty that he took Gerard Duval’s life. Paul most likely acted defensive at first because he was so used to killing people and watching people die without showing any real emotion. I feel Gerard Duval’s death shows that Paul still has human emotions and that the war did not completely warp his mind.
Olivia Mangion
1/5/2014 07:54:40 am
hey Abby, i really like the pieces you choose for your blog. the one on page 201 about the inspector i did not think about it as propaganda. that was a really good connection to class great job!!
Sabrina
1/5/2014 08:03:18 am
I think you did an awesome job on this. What you wrote about is kind of like the symbolism assignment sheet that we worked on together. Like about how killing Duval changed Paul and how he felt about killing.
Katie Furtado
1/5/2014 04:20:39 am
In Erich Remarque’s fictional novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” the harsh realities of a nineteen-year old WWI German soldier, Paul Baumer, were vividly portrayed. In addition to describing a violent war, Remarque utilized symbolism throughout his story. The first symbol was Kemmerich’s boots, as we discussed in length during class. A second symbol was the horses. These are majestic, beautiful and innocent animals. In the story, horses were brutally injured during battle and left to slowly die from their wounds. The cries of the wounded horses symbolized “the moaning of the world, it is the martyred creation, wild with anguish, filled with terror, and groaning.” (pg. 62). The third example of Remarque’s symbolism involved butterflies. Prior to becoming a soldier Paul collected butterflies and displayed them in a case (pg 158). The symbolism of the butterflies here represented his innocent youth. Another scene described how two butterflies played in front of his war trench and “settle(d) on the teeth of a skull.” (pg. 127). The symbolism of the butterflies in this scene focused on how they were fragile and vulnerable beings, like the human soldier. A fourth example of symbolism was birds. Despite living in “No Man’s Land”, the birds were “carefree, they have long since accustomed themselves to the war….A year ago we watched them nesting; the young ones grew up too” (pgs 127-128). This symbolized how life will continue, despite the war. By writing a fictional story, Remarque was able to create scenes depicting how he wanted to utilize symbolism. Universally, nature is appreciated and it was clever for Remarque to utilize horses, butterflies and birds as symbols
Abby Whittingham
1/5/2014 04:51:41 am
Hey Katie, I really like how you focused in on the symbols of the story such as the boots and horses. I really liked when you described the butterflies as "fragile and vulnerable". Your connection from the butterflies to the soldiers was one of my favorite because when you look at it, soldiers really do have the same qualities. Great job!
Justin
1/5/2014 06:58:52 am
I was intrigued that you used symbolism of the boots,horses and butterflies,etc to really make your reflection cemented together. The Symbolism made a great connection to what we have learned in class and I thought it was very clever how you decide to use it, Not only that but the way you shaped your reflection by using symbolism was very well done.
Emma T
1/5/2014 09:27:35 am
It was really interesting how after you listed the symbolic examples you explained what each meant to the story and to real life.
Jason
1/5/2014 09:52:44 am
Symbols can show a lot about the theme and characters of a story and i liked how you used three big symbols to show how the author used the symbols and what they meant.
Autumn Scott
1/5/2014 12:10:12 pm
I think your use of specific evidence really enhanced your explanation of the symbols. I specifically enjoyed your explanation of the butterflies, because I remember reading about them and thinking how it was odd for something so small and fragile as you described them to be in a war zone, and I thought it was interesting how to linked that to the likeness of a soldier. Great job
ryan q
3/7/2014 03:34:03 am
I like how you focused on symbolism, took it to a new level of understanding. you really understood the little details that added so much depth to the story.
Alexa Zielinski
1/5/2014 04:26:04 am
All Quiet on the western Front is about a soldier named Paul who experiences the horrors of war. On page 195, Paul is at a training camp next to a prison where German soldiers have been captured. Paul does not understand how these Russian soldiers live with so little. He feels bad so he gives the soldiers cigarettes and sometimes food. Paul visits the prisoners a lot and one of them learns Paul can play the piano. The Russian soldier plays his violin while other soldiers hum along to the music.
Katie Furtado
1/5/2014 04:48:16 am
I too was astonished how war enemies found a common human bond. As Paul thought, “A word of command has made these silent figures our enemies; a word of command might transforms them into our friends.” (pgs. 193-194). It was amazing to see that Paul could look beyond “war” and see the bigger picture of humanity.
Julia W
1/5/2014 04:53:49 am
I like this connection. How can all the soldiers be so desensitized but then Paul have a sweet heart and help his enemy? He thinks of them as common as himself but then helps them out even though they are the enemy.
Steve Hamerski
1/5/2014 07:00:24 am
Good job! I agree with the example of the German soldier camp and Paul and I believe it really shows that during the war the soldiers were forced to live on.
Julia W
1/5/2014 04:40:57 am
In the book All Quiet on the Western Front it emphasizes the harmful aspects of war both mentally and physically. In multiple parts of the book the characters suffer from shell shock and injuries that test their mental stability for them and their comrades. For example in chapter ten it describes how Kropps leg gets injured and gets an infection. Kropp decides that if his leg is going to be amputated he will kill himself. Kropp feels that this is the only option for him and Paul fakes a fever to join Kropp and help him. During their time in the hospital the men ponder the future for their generation, and how the war will affect them in the future. In class we talked about the harshness and after effects of ww1 and this part describes how the soldiers were aware of the consequences once they got into the war. Many soldiers after the war ended had nothing to go home to, Paul ponders this in multiple part throughout the book. For many soldiers this caused anxiety. The author shows this in the last chapter when describing Paul’s death. In the book Paul is bombarded with everything that has happened in the war, everything just hits him all at once. He says that he actually wishes he will die and thinks that his life has been destroyed. For a human to want to die because their life has been consumed by war many traumatic things had to happen for this outcome. Unfortunately many soldiers during ww1 felt this way. Overall in the book All Quiet on the Western Font it demonstrates they struggle that soldiers endured both mentally and physically in ww1.
Abby Whittingham
1/5/2014 05:01:24 am
Hey Julia, like your connection from soldiers mental stability and Paul's death. It truly shows just how much war can do to your mind. I also like your connection to Paul and Kropp when you said Paul faked a fever to be with him. It shows that Paul still has human emotion and still cares for his friends. Your piece was very well written as well. Great Job!
Andrew Milliken
1/5/2014 05:21:21 am
This was very well written Julia. I liked how you talked about how the soldiers could only guess what their futures held. This aspect of the story stuck out a lot to me because in the end, the war ruined the futures of the soldiers like Paul.
Katie Furtado
1/5/2014 05:28:03 am
I agree, it was sad WWI left soldiers consumed by their experiences, not able to truly in vision happiness in their futures. As Paul said in chapter 5, “The war has ruined us for everything”.
Autumn Scott
1/5/2014 05:23:10 am
In chapter one of All Quiet we are introduced to Kantorek, Paul's former schoolmaster. Before the war, Paul thought of Kantorek as someone who was wise and could be trusted. So when Paul's class went to enlist, they placed their faith in Kantorek's hands, believing they were doing good for themselves and their country. However, these young men didn't have a clue what they'd really signed up for. After having some first hand experience in the war, Paul admits that war was not in reality how it was portrayed by his schoolmaster. He says that although Kantorek thought he was 'acting for the best", all he had done is severely let down his class. The young men thought war was an opportunity and would reward them with a title of honor, rather than taking the lives of their comrades and destroying their mental stability. Kantorek's misinformation can be compared to the war propaganda we learned about in class. Posters meant as encouragement towards young men to fight for their country only portrayed it in a positive light. Propaganda suggested war as an opportunity to make something of yourself, never revealing the horrible truth of what occurs on the front line. Soldiers only found out what war was really like when it was too late, they were already in the middle of it and had no way out. Both Kantorek's misleading encouragement and the deceptive war propaganda ignored the terrors of war and led young men into making a decision that would change their life forever.
Emma T
1/5/2014 09:30:50 am
I really liked the fact that at the end you were describing all the things that had tricked people into joining the war, like the propaganda and Kantorek's encouragement. .
Andrew Milliken
1/5/2014 09:58:49 am
I agree with Emma. Your response strongly connects to the material we learned in class, how the war was falsely portrayed to the soldiers. I also liked how you added a cause and effect situation at the end of the response, that made the piece stronger as a whole.
Ryan E
1/5/2014 05:42:25 am
In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul a young German college student noticed a piece of propaganda that enticed him and his fellow classmates to join the military. They wanted to help their country during WWI. After they joined the military they find out it isn't what they were told it was going to be and they wanted out. This connects to what we learned in class when we read how many soldiers wanted to leave the military after they were lied to about what war was like. Paul along with many other German soldiers are on the front line in the trenches, piling bodies on top of each other for protection from the enemies, fighting for their lives. This also connects to what we learned when we read an article about trench warfare and about life in the trenches. On page 2 Katczinski says “ … it would not be such a bad war if only one could get a little more sleep … fourteen days is a long time at one stretch”. This is another example of how All Quiet on the Western Front connects to what we have read in class and how the soldiers would spend 14 days at each level of trenches while at war. The further the soldiers are in the trenches the less violent it is, this helped the soldiers keep their mind off of war. On page 114 “... the sweat stings in our eyes, we wipe it off on our sleeves and often blood with it.” This connects to our learnings in class because we talked about the harsh conditions that the WWI soldiers were put through during the war. “Beside me a Lance-Corporal has his head torn off. He runs a few steps more while the blood spouts from his neck like a fountain.” This connects to what we read about in class because it is an example of total war. This is an example of total war because there is no rules in what can or will happen.
Steve Hamerski
1/5/2014 06:45:23 am
All Quiet on the Western Front is a book about a young college student named Paul and his life in the trenches during World War One. In class we have learned that the process in which the soldiers of world war one work in the field is they rotate among lines. In the story Paul is part of one of these lines that rotate among the different ones that there are. In chapter 1 page two it says "fourteen days is a long time for one stretch" one stretch referring to one rotation in his lines rotation of position. And so Paul and his friends on his line are part of one rotation in the possible trenches they could be in. In class we also talked about how world war one was very violent and caused many deaths to soldiers. In chapter five, page 84 it says "out of twenty , seven are dead, four are wounded , one in a mad house" speaking of the soldiers that have fallen or affected in a negative way that were part of Paul's line. Lastly in class we discussed how terrible conditions that were in the trenches and that the soldiers had to live through day in and day out. In chapter ten page 261 it says "even the death room is no use any more , it is too small; fellows die during the night in our room." This is saying that the conditions of there room were they had to sometimes sleep with dead people ,also he conditions were so bad people died every night. Which can relate to what we learned in class.
Camryn
1/5/2014 07:33:10 am
I thought your connection were very good. Your quotes did a god job at supporting your answer. You could have went on to explain a bit more on your quotes though. At one point you said soldier were affected negatively which could be connected to my essay where I said that the soldier suffered from shell shock. Overall well done.
Kelley Almada
1/5/2014 01:41:16 pm
The examples of evidence you used really helped to connect all of your answers together. It was nice how the explanations were organized as well, but it would help if they were a bit longer.
Justin T
1/5/2014 06:52:44 am
In fictional the book "All Quiet on the Western front" by the author Erich Maria Remarque Is a Interpretation of WWI In the point of view of the soldiers brutal lives represented int the book. In the book the harsh and unsanitary environment played as a critical obstacle towards the soldiers throughout the book, this was especially the case for Franz Kemmerich, in Chapter 2 where his slight injury had became infected and he had contracted gangrene, which lead to amputation of his leg. On Pg 27 the doctor states that Kemmerich was lucky when he said "You must be thankful you've come of with that" and he resumes "It might have been both legs,Franz". He also mention that Wegeler had lost an arm which is far worse. This represents the brutality and harsh conditions the soldiers must face to survive during the times of WWI. The harsh and unsanitary environments are also represented in Pg 103 where the book mentions the Trenches, the book describes the trenches being in poor conditions with Corpse rats swarming the vacant trench. In Class we have discussed the Trenches and how they were pretty much a breeding ground for bacteria and it was unsanitary as Soldiers commonly got diagnosed with diseases and suffered from a condition called Trench foot. In the book even more harsh conditions were represent such as "Shell shock" in chapter eleven when detering suffers from shell shock after realizing the the fact that war is nothing more than imprisonment. Detering and his classmates were forced to see each other suffering and being brought down by enemy fire, Detering couldn't help but just desert everyone and attempt to leave the war because he was too homesick and couldn't see anymore death, But shortly after Detering was seen as a traitor and suffers his penalty. This very well shows the harsh and brutal expectations that were represented in World war I.
Camryn Liberatore
1/5/2014 07:26:13 am
World War 1 was a painful and sorrow filled time “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque gave readers a look into what it was like for soldiers in the trenches during WWI. The book focuses in on the Germans but doesn't focus on the group as a hole it focuses in on a particular group of friends. You see how these characters have to deal with their everyday lives, in the trenches and have to keep fighting through friend’s deaths and injuries, through the eyes of the main character Paul. In class when learning about WWI we went over the topic shell shock. Shell shock is when soldier in WWI would encounter something that would send them into shock that would uproot their mental stability. Paul was in a sort of shell shock when he murdered Gerard Duval. In chapter 9 page 219 Paul says “The eyes follow me. I am powerless to move so long as they are there”. When Paul realizes that he so eager to kill this man to save his own life and he doesn't even think about this man’s family or friends he becomes ashamed and is sent into a sort of shock that terrifies him that he could dehumanize someone so quickly to save his own life. During and after the man’s death you could feel the pain and sorrow that Paul was going through. Also throughout the whole story readers are revealed to the true horrors associated with the war. The way the author really helps you feel like you’re part of the war and like you know the characters is by having the story be from Paul’s point of view. After reading this book I was distraught because I knew that this was real people who had to go through these tough times. Also it made me mad that useless wars happen like this that progress to the point that people don’t even know what their fighting for anymore and so many people die because of it.
Olivia Mangion
1/5/2014 08:00:06 am
hey Camryn, i had the same example of the death of Duval i though you did a great job at explaining it and you connection to shell shock was great i did not even think of connecting that to it great job!!
Isidra Roman
1/5/2014 07:34:05 am
In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque the main character Paul a soldier in WWI fighting for the German side speaks of the mental and physical brutality that the soldiers went through. On pages 115 to 118 Paul speaks of how the attack happened and the feelings that the men felt. Paul described that the men "...lost all feeling for one another." "...hardly control ourselves" and "....insensible,dead men,who through some trick, some dreadful magic, are still able to run and to kill" and when Paul and his crew find tins of food the men don't stop the think of others because they are so hungry and are looking out for themselves so they are able to to survive. Paul is not disturbed by how the men in the battlefield died or even if he saw the deaths of men. Paul's sense of humanity is gone because he no longer felt pity or remorse for killing or watching kills of his comrades or enemies. Paul soon came to a realization that the since the death surrounding him did not faze him or his comrades that something was wrong with them. What was wrong with those men was that they were all shellshocked and dehumanitized because they no longer held an once of humanity for other creatures within them. At the end it of the book in the last chapter Paul realizes all the events at once and it seems to consume his mind. By the end of the book Paul wishes for death. How the author gets his purpose across with fiction is he uses Paul and his friends going off to war as a symbol of them leaving society as Nationalism and joining military which causes Militarism and the effects of the war on characters that really did happen to soldiers in WWI.
James S.
1/5/2014 07:47:26 am
All Quiet on the Western Front is a depiction of a veteran's story as he travels through the horrors and terrors of fighting in what was arguably the greatest war of all time. The Soldier's name who we follow throughout the story and whom we share the experience of the war with, is a boy named Paul. Paul was originally told by one of his very own professors to join the war, and heavily influenced his decision to join the war. The very fact that this is what made Paul and his fellow students join, is a connection to propaganda. The teacher heavily influenced their decision and made the war seem heroic and would make them champions of their country. This what the idea of propaganda was to make the war seem like the place to be. It would be easy. That it would be enjoyable, and they would march right over the French and English. This, as was the case with almost all propaganda, was false as this particular advertising led to the death and desensitization of several million men. Paul and fellow company, were thrown with basic training right into the trenches. People were having their limbs blown off right before their eyes. They merely see it as another fallen comrade. Nothing further, They felt no emotion as body parts flew past their eyes and simply left men to die. The War hammered all emotion, sympathy and otherwise, out of these boys, who were forced to give up their childhood. This desensitization refers to Shell-shock we discussed in class previously. Soldiers were dismissed, but this was a serious medical problem. These men were face to face with blood, guts and severed body parts for the better parts of their time at the front. Some would be so horrified that they could not speak and were sentenced to be put in mental hospitals due to their illness. They were severely wronged in the head. But no one could help them as no one cared enough to even try. The men fighting for their country were seen as honourable people, but they didn't care enough to even attempt to heal them.
Stephanie P
1/5/2014 01:18:17 pm
I agree with what you said and how you connected Paul's schoolmaster, Kantorek, persuading his class to enlist to propaganda. How both Kantorek and propaganda falsely glorified war although for patriotic reasons. I also agree with what you said about the desensitization of soldiers. How Paul and his group had been exposed to gruesome deaths that they eventually disregarded.
Olivia Mangion
1/5/2014 07:48:29 am
In “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque the main charter Paul goes though many changes by enlisting in the army. He faces dehumanization, shell shock and the impact of realization. For example in chapter two Paul’s friend Kemmerich has his leg is amputated and it is most certain he will die. Kemmerich was a good friend of Paul but Paul is not the least bit sad about his certain death for instance he states “But as it is the boots are quite inappropriate to Kemmerich circumstances, whereas Muller can make good use of them. Kemmerich will die; it is immaterial who gets them.” though their friend is dieing all they can think about is his boots and how Muller will inherit them. This is dehumanizing Kemmerich they are no longer seeing his death as a loss but more of a gain for them. The authors tone at this part is un emotional and makes the part brief to make the death unimportant to show that in the solders heads the deaths are unimportant. In class we talked about the Christmas truths and how both sides of the war said their opposing side were pretty kind people. This was one of the reasons for shell shock in the war the soldiers refused to fight anymore there was no real reason for fighting agents a side that you like. Another event that occurred in the book was the death of Gerard Duval . On page 222 Paul starts to get extremely up set about his death because he killed him . Paul before he had killed Duval he had not really thought about killing someone because all around him his friends were dieing and there was so much death he had started to dehumanize and made the death of his friends unimportant to him. But after he had killed Duval the realization hit him that the man he had killed may have had a wife and children and the guilt started to eat at him. It states “But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. It was that abstraction I stabbed, but now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me.” he asks the man many times to forgive him but the man is dead and there is nothing he can do. The authors mood during time is remorse and regret showing how helpless Paul feels at the moment. Human emotions during the war are not as strong and change greatly. Noncombatants will have a bigger reaction to a death than a soldier at war because of their surroundings because the soldiers have seen so much death they only think about the gains that will come out of that death. This death surrounding them is destroying the human spirt that shows compaction and replacing it will the acts of dehumanization. The author Erich Remarque writes this book as a fiction because it was not a actually true story though this could actually happen and the world war 1 did happen.
Jason
1/5/2014 10:01:19 am
I like how you talk about the boots and the soldiers looking on how they will use them not thinking about how that was one of their friends that had just died.
Sabrina
1/5/2014 07:51:03 am
Paul and the other soldiers had to do whatever they could to stay alive.They couldn't let fear get in the way of what they were doing. At the beginning of the book it talks about when they went into battle they had 150 men, but when they came back only 80 men survived. This connects to what we learned about dehumanizing. The men in war couldn't let all the killing get to them, they just tried not to think of them as people. The soldiers couldn't feel guilty about every man that they killed or morn all the men that died fighting along side them. Paul couldn't let the raids bother him, he just had to do what he had to do. He just took all the things useful to him and ignored all the dead and the injured people begging for help. This also connects to shell shock. When the soldiers killed someone or saw someone that got killed, it was just another person that died and it wasn't a big deal. They became numb to everything around them. Like when Paul was cooking pancakes and started to get bombed, he didn't panic or worry that he might die. He just stayed until he finished cooking his pancakes. Its like they stopped caring and got used to the horrible life of war. Shell shock changes you. Like when Paul went home, it didn't really feel like home. After all that happened in war, going back to regular life wont be easy. Life wont feel normal anymore.
Andrew Milliken
1/5/2014 09:53:03 am
I liked your connection of dehumanization to the loss of soldiers. While I was reading I also found it interesting how the soldiers couldn't view their enemies as equal humans, and the fact that overtime the soldiers start give in and don't care about life anymore. I found these two topics as a trend while I read.
Owen
1/5/2014 08:48:47 am
In pages 115 to 118 Paul and his men are attacked by enemy forces, resulting in major losses for the central powers and horrific injuries, such as bayonet wounds to the chest and back, various decapitations and much more. While this happens, Paul and his comrades must move on, tripping over "slippery lumps of flesh" as stated in page 117 to weaken the allies. Paul has resulted to the cynical soldier's motto: "if we don't destroy them, they will destroy us" as said in page 115. And, after the men come across tins of food, they don't hesitate to seize them; not even thinking about the giant number of people, the allies people, but still people, they had to mow down to get that scrap of food and make it through the horrific events. Paul's tone isn't even sickened or daunted when he tells how Kat's bread was "a bit bloody at one corner". The lack of concern with which he describes it all is concerning in itself he felt no mercy nor anguish at the soldiers dying in brutal manners around him. After the battle, Paul and his comrades are drained, yet they aren't feeling the slightest bit of guilt nor are they haunted by the dead and dying. They weren't even concerned for the dozens of hundreds of hands reaching for assistance on the battlefield; soldiers from their very side asking for help when they had been shot or blown away.
Emma Theroux
1/5/2014 09:18:04 am
In All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque the main character Paul was a soldier in WWI in the trenches on the German side, and in chapter 6 page 115 it says "we will kill, for they are still our mortal enemies, their rifles and bombs are aimed against us, and if we don't destroy them, they will destroy us." that reminds me of when we were reading about the Christmas Truce, because during the Christmas Truce , the Germans and the British were friends, they didn't care about the war that day and they were playing soccer together and a Britain was an old German's barber so he gave him a haircut. That quote reminds me of this, because when people higher up heard of this they were angry and confused. Adolf Hitler said to the Germans " Such a thing should not happen in wartime. Have you no German honor?" Just because they had stopped the war for a day, it was Christmas, the best day of the year and they were already questioned about their honor.
Andrew Milliken
1/5/2014 09:40:22 am
All Quiet on the Western Front describes the physical and mental hardships the soldiers are put through throughout the war. The events of chapter 7 show how a soldier's life is ruined after the war. After suffering from a major attack on the front, Paul receives seventeen days of leave. As he goes back to his hometown to see his family, the pain and shock of the war follows him. Paul struggles when asked questions about the war from his family, and many sounds frighten him because he is so used to the shells. Also with his mother suffering from cancer, Paul cant find happiness anywhere in the world. He describes his mother's hands as "white and sickly and frail." As he tries to comfort his family and himself, the images of the war are stuck in Paul's head. The war ruined Paul's life and many other soldiers lives as well. To be unable to find happiness and peace anywhere is unthinkable. Paul also realizes that after the war, he has no goals for the future. By this thought, the war has affected Paul so much that he will never be able to go back to his life before the war. WWI ruined the futures of the soldiers in combat.
Kelley Almada
1/5/2014 01:47:29 pm
I really liked how you fully explained your quote and connected it to the outside world, as well as expressing the symbolism behind it. It may have helped your argument a bit if you had more pieces of evidence to back up your answer though.
Andrew Milliken
1/5/2014 09:49:41 am
Paul's struggles outside of the war connect to posttraumatic stress. His life will never be the same because the events of the war will always haunt him.
Johnathan Sandoval
1/5/2014 10:00:46 am
All Quiet on the Western Front Blog All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque, tells of the brutality of war and gives readers a look into the lives and deaths of WWI soldiers. Erich shows this brutality with not only diction but symbols like Kemmerich's boots (in chapter 2) which show that humanity means nothing in war as the soldiers fight over who gets their friend's, who has just passed, boots.But as one soldier inherits them they will soon be passed on to the next sowing that a good pair of boots is more important than a soldiers life. This scene can be seen in two different perspectives, that of the soldier and that of the reader. The soldier sees this as an oppurtunity because there are limited supplies and you must fend for yourself whereas the reader may see this as an animalistic or cruel act. erich also had this book built on many different themes such as the effects of war on a soldier or nationalism and power. There is always one theme above the rest though and in All Quiet on the Western Front this theme is the horror of war. This theme very much described WWI because WWI had changed people's views on military conflict and the technological advancments of the people like trenches or machine guns. An area of the book where this theme is very clear is at the end where almost every main character has been killed off showing the devastation of the war on the generation of people fighting it.
Jocelyn
1/5/2014 10:41:09 am
All Quiet on the Western Front
Stephanie P
1/5/2014 01:21:51 pm
Great connections. I would've never thought to connect All Quiet to Maggie. Although I think that along with desensitization, when Paul went home, he was also faced with shell shock, unable to re-adjust to the life of a normal civilian.
James Boudreau III
1/27/2014 03:40:30 am
Wow, Jocelyn, I would never have thought to connect All Quiet to Maggie, its such a great connection, they both indeed were consumed by their own environment, despite how confident you might be at first. I also like how you described the mist over the bodies as a symbol of people's lives being forgotten, seeing how many people died and how quickly.
Jada Fisher
1/5/2014 10:42:55 am
The war impacts the soldiers mentally and physically, both in terrible ways. On page 88 Erich Maria says "We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war." This represents how they were completely "cut off" from the world around them and that all their life was made of and all that they lived for was the war. Being enlisted into the war made the soldiers grow up and become men, but in the process took away their hope. They become unconfident, no longer trusting themselves. The world that they had grown up in and were starting to love was falling apart, and in their own hands. Destroying something they had come to grow fond of wounded the mental sability of the soldiers. They no longer had any hope that they would live. Of course they all wished to live, but never expected to. Of course they all wished to win the war, but they never expected to. When it says that when the first bombs exploded it "burst in their hearts," it shows how they were suddenly impacted and how they suddenly realized what the war would do to them. The war caused mental harm on the soldiers. From shell shock, to home sickness, to losing all hope and trust, the soldiers' bodies were destroyed in the war, as well as their souls.
Jocelyn
1/5/2014 10:59:12 am
I like how you said that the world they had just began to love started to crumble i think it adds to the fact that the soldiers minds were destroyed in the war because of how the world around you can shape how you think or feel.
Stephanie P
1/5/2014 01:10:48 pm
I like what you said about how the soldiers during the war no longer had hope nor trusted themselves because of the destruction of their world by their own hands. How they didn't expect to come out of the war. I think that the fact that they innocently/blindly trusted authoritative figures might have contributed to their hopelessness as well since the people that they had believed in throughout their lives had betrayed them, causing them to question and re-evaluate their situation as soldiers in the war.
victoria
1/5/2014 10:58:25 am
In All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, the tale of a German soldier’s life is told, showing us the unexplainable horror soldiers faced, and the different mindset that they had to take up to survive the hostile environment of World War 1. The soldiers name is Paul. Like all of the soldiers, Paul had an emotional disconnect to the horrors he saw but the emotion he did feel for his comrade Kat was his undoing.His story begins when his friend he had grown up with, is dying, and the only thing the rest of his friends are worried about is who will get his boots? The boots serve as an early symbol of the emotional disconnect soldiers had, and how they had to adopt the mindset of survival over relations with others because human life was so invaluable. Although the boys had been close, the urge to protect themselves overpowered the friendship they had. We then meet some of his old classmates, and his friend Kat. He describes Kat as being “having a sixth sense” and “being the smartest man he knows”, and we see the two going out and finding food together, and as it cooks, not talking, but Paul still tells us “I love him”. We further see the emotional detachment of Paul and the soldiers when after losing half of their regiment, Paul and the others are rejoiced to get double rations, because having the energy to survive was more important to them then the men's lives that were lost in order to receive the food. The new mentality they adopted was also seen when using the restroom out in the open, something embarrassing to the normal person, was one of the most joyous events for the soldiers where they could talk and regain a little bit of normality, although in a foreign way.After witnessing countless deaths , Paul finally gets leave. But, finally home seeing his sister, Paul is made “powerless”. He describes how “He is not himself their, there is a distance, a veil”.Old comforts such as his books no longer entertain him, and when asked about the war, Paul can only act as if it were no big deal, in order not only to keep his mother unworried, but to keep himself from reliving the horror that, if he let himself dwell on, would eat him up inside and make the war unbearable.On his way back he feels as though “he never should have come on leave”. This idea is further supported when, back in the “inescapable vortex” of the front line, Paul lets fear get the best of him, and is only brought back to the mentality of survival when he hears Kat talking and “it means more than life” to him to here Kat's voice the “strongest most comforting thing there is anywhere”takes precedent over the fear of death. But Paul is eventually injured and is brought to a hospital, where much sorrow and many deaths occur, but is a referenced as a place of “good food and good conditions”, showing us just how horrid life in the trenches was by the comparison of pain and injury and death that happened here to be a great improvement of life to the trenches. After healing, Paul goes back to the trenches with his comrade Kat .And in 1918, the soldiers are all talking about an end to the war, or an armistice, when Kat falls from an injury to the leg. Paul immediately goes to his aid and breaks down the tough guy facade the fighting has made him have, and starts sharing with Kat his favorite memories with him, and pitifully says how after them “he cried”, but still has hope of saving his only true friend. But on the way to the dressing station, Kat takes a splinter to the head, and Paul “is very miserable, the man he knew like no other man” was dead, and so was his will to survive.The repetition then used by Paul “we are not related, we are not related”when the orderly was confused that Kats death meant so much to Paul shows the toll that Kats death had and the denial that the man he felt so close to had died, to the point where he says “I feel so alone”. And on a day described as all quiet on the western front, an end comes to Paul’s life, but he died with a smile on his face as if “glad the end had come”, symbolizing the death of the soldiers spirits and hopes of living a normal life after the unexplainable horrors they had faced day after day.
Stephanie P
1/5/2014 01:02:25 pm
All Quiet on the Western front shows how war can desensitize and wear down a person, stripping away their humanity and weakening them both physically and mentally/emotionally; it shows how soldiers are affected by shell shock, something we’ve discussed in class. Even in the beginning, pg 18, Paul says “Youth? That is long ago. We are old folk” although only being 20 years old. War had matured and battered Paul and his group of friends mentally to the point of finding the concept of youth far away. Along with that, the soldiers during the war had been desensitized enough to joke about the coffins that were made for them (pg 99-100), speaking of death lightly albeit bitterly. Recruits during the war were more easily broken down, to the points of running away during a bombing (pg 109-110) by the pressures of war and the gruesome deaths of their comrades, ignoring the fact that they’d only be getting themselves killed. On pg 113, Paul admits that because of the war, “we have become wild beasts”. Even the once haughty and powerful Himmelstoss, that tormented Paul and his group, hides and cowers in the corner of the dug-out once exposed to the brutal front lines (pg 131). Pg 268, Kropp goes into a sort of shell shock where he has become more solemn and less talkative after he’s seen the war first hand and his wounds have healed. He’ll stare off into the distance, becoming a more silent person than he was pre-war. Such as what happens to many other soldiers who survive the war. In the end, the war has broken down the soldiers to the point where they are reluctant to fight when they hear that the armistice is near and that Paul says that “they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more” since the shell shock, desensitization, and war in general have all but taken his life. The end condition of the surviving soldiers, such as Paul is “so without hope that I can confront them without fear” (pg 295).
Kelley Almada
1/5/2014 02:50:23 pm
In All Quiet On The Western Front, we learn that Paul and his friends all had the same school teacher, Kantorek, whom by which they were trained and taught by for The Great War. In chapter one, readers learn about how the men feel as though they were betrayed by Kantorek. This causes them to have trouble trusting any more authority figures throughout their duration in the war. As said on page 12, "There were thousands of Kantoreks, all of whom were convinced that they were acting for the best-in a way that cost them nothing. And that is why they let us down so badly."
jack
1/5/2014 06:40:15 pm
Throughout this book the text demonstrates the horrors of war, and it is important to understand that when you go through things like mass bombing and seeing parts of bodies hanging in trees and some of the best friends you've ever had die destroys and torments the human spirit. it is important to realize the horrors of war because if you don't understand the horrors of war like the examples above than you cant understand why the soldiers end up the way they do. throughout the book the author uses symbolism to represent the horrors of war for example in the beginning he uses Kemeriches boots and they represent that they represent that death in the war was nothing because they see it so often. the boots outlived 3 soldiers so that really says something about the casualties of war. in the end the author uses the lifeless skull to represent the end of hope. if you don't recognize the horrors of war you can not understand why they destroy the human spirit. i can connect the horrors of war and how they destroy the human spirit back to my grandfather. My grandfather fought in WW2 and he was much like Paul when he went in he was spirited but unprepared. My grandfather was effected in the same way Paul was and because of the horrors of war he came out but he came out bent with a different view of life. the horrors of war effect the human spirit because what you experience develops who you are and war has no limits.
Hadley
1/6/2014 11:44:46 am
When Paul decides to take a leave of absence for a few weeks he goes home and quickly learns that his mother is sick and most of the people in the country are starving. You can connect the many people starving to when the allies created a blockade to Germany so that not much could get in or out. He also realizes how the civilians know more about the war in other places than he does because he only knows his little part of the war. I think that when Paul is pressured about the tragedies he faces he chooses to keep them separate from his home life and doesn't tell them. You can tell that he is suffering from shell shock/ptsd even though they did not know it yet.
Hadley
1/6/2014 11:47:14 am
All Quiet on the Western Front is about the distractions of war and stress of how to deal with everything when there is no hope in humanity. When Paul decides to take a leave of absence for a few weeks he goes home and quickly learns that his mother is sick and most of the people in the country are starving. You can connect the many people starving to when the allies created a blockade to Germany so that not much could get in or out. He also realizes how the civilians know more about the war in other places than he does because he only knows his little part of the war. I think that when Paul is pressured about the tragedies he faces he chooses to keep them separate from his home life and doesn't tell them. You can tell that he is suffering from shell shock/ptsd even though they did not know it yet.
Tresure
1/6/2014 12:54:29 pm
Hadley I think you had releveant connections and I can see that you've put in thought.However maybe next time I think you should expand a little bit more and use better evidence.But I enjoyed your writing about the book.
Tresure
1/6/2014 12:38:01 pm
Even under the best of circumstances war is bad.One of humans strongest instincts is to survive.War puts survival as an immediate concern, even paul himself began to preach the motto:"If we dont destroy them,they will destroy us" (pg115) War asks inherently good people to destroy other people,and this is just not natural or healthy.Were social creatures more prone to help someone survive,rather than to kill someone for what they have. Reading all quiet on the western front allows a reader to understand, that being in a war is asking some one to do something truely horrible. Then live with it for the rest of their lives.And trying to rationalize it,justify it regardless its still wrong. in All Quiet on the Western Front, we step into the worn boots of Paul Bäumer and jump into the trenches to experience the harsh realities of war. We see how various experiences, the deaths of comrades; the killing of the enemy; the feeling that death is approaching, hammer at a soldier’s life until the end result is a man, reduced to harboring eternal feelings of detachment, fear, suffering, and hopelessness. Towards the end of the book, Paul expresses the full extent of the damaging effects of war, stating, “. . . they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more.” He has nothing more to live for with all of his friends dead and nothing to revert to at home. We also get a glimpse of the life of a soldier, composed of meager rations of bread and cigarettes; the constant traveling to and from the front; the reversion to primitive instincts as a means to survive; fear, as a driving force to live. Seeing all these different aspects of war has really opened my eyes. I opened the front cover knowing very little about World i War I, and now I close the book with a totally new perspective of the war.
Katelynn Colpitts
1/22/2014 08:02:22 am
In the first attack Paul and the other soldiers face in the book, they witness countless numbers of wounded men and dead bodies. Paul did the best he could keeping the new recruits calm during the attack, but he himself was not even in the most stable state. Paul had to hear the agonizing screeches of the horses dying until he finally heard the gunshots that ended the animal's life. These horrors changed Paul's spirit by taking away any type of hope he had for the war ending. Once he heard the screeches of the horse his hopeful spirit was taken away and replaced with a more depressed feeling. Another section of the book that shows how the horrors of war change the human spirit is when Paul is stuck in a trench with some of the other soldiers and one of the soldiers keeps trying to leave the trench. This is an example of a solider going through shell shock. In class we learned that shell shock is something that a solider goes through when he can no longer handle the reality of the war. The solider in the book could not handle being in the trench any longer and didn't care if he died. The author's tone in this passage is very subtle which makes the reader understand the solider is going through shell shock by the way the reader analyzes the words while reading the passage. The universal similarities of the horrors of war are seen across humanity by soldiers being traumatized and having to live with all of the events they witnessed in war. Shell shock can be seen in any war across humanity because any solider can not be able to handle the reality of war after a while. Soldiers are affected in all the same ways across humanity while at war.
Dylan Walker
1/23/2014 08:08:38 am
In the book "All Quiet On The Western Front", the soldiers lives and souls are scarred because of the horrors of war. In the book, it explained that the constant gunfire and bombardment took a heave toll on the soldiers. Both sides experienced the same awe full conditions and bloodshed. One thing that both sides had in common was that they didn't know why they were fighting but they just did it anyway because their county said to do so. Many soldiers were convinced signing up for was was honorable and brought pride but, realized that it was mindless fighting. In class we learned that lots of people believed war to be pride full because of the propaganda that the government of their countries posted. These propaganda had images that could connect to the reader and trick them or convince them that what the poster says is the right thing to do. Once the people signed up for the military and became a soldier they quickly realized that they had been tricked and it was not very honorable and pride full. The trenches as mentioned in the book, were horrible because they harbored various diseases and rodents. The trenches acted as a broken shield, they blocked incoming gunfire but held death itself inside of it. One of the affects that the soldiers went through was called shell shock which caused them to be scarred and broken from war for the rest of their lives. In WWI both sides of the fight didn't know why they were fighting, but they fought anyway because it was believed to be pride full and honorable.
Jesse
1/26/2014 03:13:58 am
In All "Quiet on the Western Front" A student named Paul and some of his classmates voluntary join the German military. Together they went into the war thinking they'll strive and feel the glory that was presented in the propaganda to regretting their choice and face the horrors of way. In Chapter 9 Paul volunteers to spy on the enemy in no man's land. But gets lost during a bombing and hides in a shell hole. Soon after he was joined by an enemy soldier, and without thinking or hesitation Paul killed the man. He then searches him and finds a photo of the soldier's family and realizes that they're fighting a senseless war where both sides fear death as much as the other. Each soldier has a story that the other side doesn't know, all that is seen is that the other side is the "enemy". The mindset takes over and they kill eachother without thinking about the other. Paul starts off in his company with his mental state strong due to their training, but as the story goes on and Paul faces all these horrors he begins to think more and more. Realizing that the war was pointless, they were in a war that no one wanted to fight it. It connects to what we learned in class because soldiers were fighting in the trenches endlessly to the point where they just can't go on and go into shell shock. In his first battle along side with the second company, the battle was pure brutality. Something they never experienced before. But even through the harsh conditions on page 127. Two butterflies landed on a skull in the wastelands of the battlefield. This symbolizes that there was still life in the world even if they kill eachother. This connects to the Christmas truce we learned in class, where the two sides celebrated Christmas together, showing that there was humanity in them. But the war itself was spirit crushing that when Paul faced his death, he died calmly, as if he was happy he didn't have to face the horrors anymore. Humanity and spirits were destroyed in the war, but it was a lesson taught to everyone.
James Boudreau III
1/27/2014 03:56:44 am
All Quiet on the Western Front
Kyle Arvisais
2/10/2014 11:22:07 am
I found that while in the battlefields, the care of their dead comrades was gone, and replaced by the desire to survive. When Paul and his group went throught the shellings in the trenches not crouching with the dead comrades to hide. With that, if we don't see what may destroy empathy for others, the spirit of many people will break. After that we all become selfish only desiring to keep ourselves alive.
ryan q
3/7/2014 03:30:04 am
In All Quiet In The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque uses point of view to bring a deeper meaning to the text. This deeper meaning is represented with the emotion the characters show about all the separate happenings. Throughout the book we read about the way Paul acts emotionally and physically towards the war. on page 296, the author makes a sudden change in the point of view causing the reader to understand that to the people in the war Paul was just another person who died for his country. Comments are closed.
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