All Quiet On The Western Front And La Grande Illusion

During World War, I (WWI) nationalism was the fuel that kept the war among Europe. Germans were fighting for their country as French would also do it. The pride of fighting for one's country was the major achievement a young man could get. The book “All Quiet on The Western Front” depicts the adventures of a group of German young men when they are off to the war. In this book instead of depicting what really happens in the war, the author focuses on the depressing and harsh journey that this group of young men faced to serve their country. The book describes explicitly how the main characters risk their lives and even lose it because of the war, and even in many instances many of the characters show where they stand regarding the war and the

meaning of it. The film “La Grande Illusion” tells the story of a working-class French man who is imprisoned on a German prisoner-war-camp along with a French aristocrat.

The film showcases the point of view of French and German soldiers regarding the reason for the war and how civilians see soldiers. The films grasp many themes regarding the war but one of the main features is the nationalism and the repercussions caused by it. In both works, the authors prioritize what nationalism played on the lives of women during this time. In All Quiet on the Western Front, the author during a chapter describes the encounter of the German soldiers with a group of French ladies. In La Grande Illusion the two French soldiers meet a German widow who helps them hide from the authorities when they are trying to go back to France. In both works, those women play an important role for the viewers to understand the catastrophic era of WWI and to have a deep understanding of the outcomes of nationalism. All Quiet on The Western Front and La Grande Illusion both use gender role to prove the advantages and disadvantages that nationalism caused for civilians related to

soldiers

On both, the film and the book the meaning of serving for their country represent a big part of their lives for the soldiers but also for those who surround them.

In All Quiet on The Western Front, the boys enlisted for the war because of the recommendation of one of their high school teacher, which referrers to them as “Iron youth”. Also, the book emphasizes civilians constantly praised those who serve in the war. However, one of the most surprising consequences of nationalism is the impact it had on women related to soldiers. In All quiet on the western front, Paul narrates when he and his comrades go swimming in the canals that separates Germany from France. Paul explains that on the other side of the canals live women. During this time of war, men had been deprived of women and most of the soldier would take any risk to be with a woman. When they are finally swimming on the canal, a group of young ladies approach them and start to flirt with them. While they are flirting back and forth Tjaden went for a loaf of bread to hand to the young ladies, this is crucial for them to secure their spot with the French ladies. During the wartime food was limited and hard to get so for many civilians, thus having someone on the army could facilitate obtaining food. This issue was not unknown to the soldier, who with no doubt see this issue as a two-way street, in which they all could get benefits. The book portrays women as depended on men, and for these French ladies having a

relationship even with soldiers from the opposite country meant to have at least bread. They invited the soldiers over but the author mentions that there was a request from the blonde one, “Bread-good”, behind all the flirting these young ladies were looking for an advantage from the soldiers’ benefits. Paul mentions something that makes a huge emphasis about the precariousness that most civilians, especially single ladies were facing, he says “Eagerly we assure them that we will bring some with us. And other tasty bits too, we roll our eyes and try to explain with our hands. Leer nearly drowns trying to demonstrate a sausage. If it were necessary we would promise them a whole quartermaster's store.”. Everybody was aware of the issue countries involved in the war were living, they knew the more they offered, the more benefits they will get from those women. Another quote that shows the interest of the women for the food was when the soldiers arrived at the house, in order for them to go in they had to show their food packages. Paul mentions that as soon as they were handed the packages their eyes glowed because of all the hunger they had been through. Later on, in the book Paul narrates when he talks to the French girl about leaving home and her immediate reaction, which later on he discusses with Leer, “Yes, Leer is right: if I were going up to the front, then she would have called me again "pauvre garçon"; but merely going on leave--she does not want to hear about that, that is not nearly so interesting.”, The girl who had some sort of intimal relationship with him did not see to care about him any longer because he was not going to fight, but rather going home. The young lady interest for Paul faded because she knew that once he was back home, she would not be able to benefit from his food packages and it was pointless for her to feel anything towards him. These section on the book demonstrates how nationalism had advantages for those who had close relations with soldiers. The French lady would have preferred to see Paul going off to the front and knowing that he could die, but at least she knew that if he survived she would have secured her food supply, but knowing that he was going home just meant that he would not provide any benefit that she actually needed. Nationalism meant fighting for your country and serve proudly, and also came with benefits and advantages for those who had a close relationship with them.

In The Grand Illusion the gender role is one more time portrayed but in this case, the film showed the disadvantages that nationalism consequences brought to women during wartime. When Marchental and Rosenthal escape from one of the German Prisoner Camp, Rosenthal hurts his ankle which forces them to stop in a country house. When they are hiding in a barn a German lady, Elsa, founds them and despite being scared, at first sight, she offers them her house and hides them from the German Army. After taking care of Rosenthal’s ankle she talks with both of them about her husband and brothers. Elsa mentions that she had become a widow because of the fight on the Fort Douaumont when fighting with the French army, and also she had lost three brothers in combat. After telling how she lost basically everyone she had loved, she says “Our greatest victory”. Germany won the battle to France, but Elsa had lost all the men that surrounded her life. Nationalism consequences represented for Elsa a disadvantage because she had become a widow with a young kid who she had to take care on her own. The film portrays her as a tough woman who is doing everything to support her daughter, but she still feels alone and weak. After Rosenthal and Marchental arrival, Elsa is not longer along and relatively quick relation emerges between Marchental and Elsa which grew stronger as they passed. However, near the end of the film they both, Rosenthal and Marchental must leave Elsa’s house to escape from Germany and go back to France to keep fighting. When Elsa found out about losing once again the men that surround her she starts crying and says that she had waited so long to have once again company in her life and she had lost everything again. In this scene, the film shows a weaker Elsa that needs the company of a man in her life. Elsa mentions that she does not want to be alone again, however, she is not really all alone, she still has her daughter’s company. The film meant to show that being surrounded by men meant for Elsa to have company. She did not have any intentions to obtain any benefits from Marchental and Rosenthal, but their company empowered her and it gave her more confident. It is worth to mention that Elsa lost the men that surrounded her twice due to the same reason, war. Nationalism represented a disadvantage to Elsa because the two times her life had been filled with men surrounding her, they had been removed from her life due to war. Nationalism from Elsa’s perspective was not a beneficial factor because despite being German and winning as a whole the fight over the fort with France, she lost what gave her life significance, and one more time she was losing meaningful men in her life due to the demanding pressure of serving their country.

In conclusion, both works resemble the advantages and disadvantages that nationalism consequence brought to women due to their relationship with soldiers. The works show the consequences from both perspectives, French women with German soldiers and a French man with a German woman. The book and film both agree on the impact that nationalism had on women, but they differ on how it affected women and the way they reacted to it. Both works chose to use the same gender role in the film and book, with women as the weak sex who need to be surrounded by men in order to have a better status or simply company for moral support. However, the intentions of those women in both works were different because while the young French lady just wanted to secure her care packages, Elsa was looking more for comfort and support and not monetary benefits. In the book, the French ladies seek advantage of those who were serving their country, they knew that the hard labor of a soldier came with food rations that they could benefit from it. The French ladies will use the fact that they were away from women in their favor knowing that they would do anything for them, even getting food from their rations. On the other hand, on the film, Elsa does not really get superficial benefits from the soldiers, but she does get some sort of encouragement from being surrounded by men. It is worth to mention that near the end of both opposite gender encounter both relationships end on sad terms, but for different reasons. On the book, the French lady forgets about Paul because she knows he is just returning home, which does not secure food benefits for her, but for Elsa is different, Marchental was leaving to war and the fact that she was once again alone made her sad. Finally, both work describes nationalism in general as one of the major cause for WWI and it brought many consequences for the soldiers, but it also affected women that depended on those men. The way that it initially affected women was similar, but the way that they twisted around and use it on the flavor was different, such as the French ladies using the advantages of soldiers and Elsa losing everything to nationalism,