In the film adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front, sound differences allow the older generation to control the conversation within the film. The constant noise helps to conceal the internal contradictions within the German army, and makes it difficult for the soldiers to achieve class consciousness. The background tended to be light-hearted or heroic when the older generation was speaking, as well as being less prevalent, allowing them to be heard and understood by all. These sound differences allow the older generation to control the conversation within the film. From the beginning of All Quiet on the Western Front to the end, the background music and sound accentuated the power struggle between classes in many situations, affecting who had control over conversations. Kantorek’s speech that …show more content…
convinces Paul and his classmates to join the military, is preceded by upbeat, cheerful music (All Quiet on the Western Front). This put the audience in a light mood, causing them to expect that what Kantorek is about to say is positive. As he begins to speak, the music stops, allowing the audience and the impressionable students to understand every word clearly. The lack of background noise improves the efficiency of Kantorek’s speech, ensuring his control over the younger generation, or the proletariat. While the students make their decisions to join the army, the upbeat music returns, instilling the feeling that they made the correct choice, and it gives them a false sense of control (All Quiet…). On the other hand, whenever the soldiers begin to criticize their leadership, the older generation, or the bourgeoisie, there tends to be frequent distractionary noises, for example, as they plan to attack Himmelstoss, the ruckus of other soldiers around them distracts from the roots of their class consciousness (All Quiet…). The growth of Paul’s discontentment with the older generation coincides with the bombardments. Chaotic sounds of gunfire and falling bombs prevent any furtive discussion during these times, when the soldiers would feel the most resentment towards the older generation, stifling any remonstration (All Quiet…). However, some events in the film counter the absolute power of the bourgeoisie.
Himmelstoss’ abuse of the proletariat as he trains Paul and his friends turns on him as soon as he is forced to fight in the trenches (All Quiet…). Instead of the creation of a communist society, the proletariat begins to oppress the bourgeoisie. This is seen when Paul treats Himmelstoss poorly on the front as a sort of revenge. Paul’s power over his former sergeant contradicts the state of the older generation being in control of the younger generation, as in this circumstance Paul has control over Himmelstoss. Due to this the soldiers have a slightly increased feeling of control, which encourages a possible uprising, but their morale was quickly destroyed by the heavy casualties from that bombardment (All Quiet…). Background sounds and music heavily affect who controls the conversation in All Quiet on the Western Front. Comparing the chaotic, almost annoying sounds present during the soldier’s conversations to the heroic marches or absolute silence behind the older generation’s propaganda, the audience and other characters are more easily influenced by the clearly heard
bourgeoisie.
At the beginning of chapter seven, the Second Company is taken further back to a depot for reinforcements, and the men rest. Himmelstoss wants to get on good terms with the boys and shows them kindness. Paul starts to respect him after seeing how he carried Haie Westhus when he was hit in the back. Tjaden is won over too after he learns that Himmelstoss will provide extra rations from his job as sergeant cook.
In Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, characters such as Paul and his friends become indifferent to shocking elements of war through constant exposure to them. For example, the characters are unconcerned about the dangers of the front because they are accustomed to being on the front. In another instance, Paul’s friends show no emotions when they witness snipers killing enemy soldiers. Also, Kat finds the unusual effects of mortar shells amusing. These examples prove that through war, characters of the book have become indifferent to things that they would normally find shocking.
Training camp was the first actuality of what war was going to be like for the men. They thought that it would be fun, and they could take pride in defending their country. Their teacher, Kantorek, told them that they should all enroll in the war. Because of this, almost all of the men in the class enrolled. It was in training camp that they met their cruel corporal, Himelstoss. The men are in shock because he is so rude to them; they never thought that war would be this harsh. Paul and two of his friends are ridiculed the most by him. They have to lie down in the mud and practice shooting and jumping up. Also, these three men must remake Himelstoss’ bed fourteen times, until it is perfect. Himelstoss puts the young men through so much horror that they yearn for their revenge. Himelstoss is humiliated when he goes to tell on Tjaden, and Tjaden only receives an easy punishme...
use nature as the judge to condemn war, along with shocking imagery, so that his
He is described as a little power hungry man who torments his subjects and is thus despised by them. He shares similar attributes with Kantorek in that he believes in certain ideals. He trains the new recruits for a war which he has not directly been involved in and which he does not intend to be. Paul and his friends speculate at a little power has significantly changed the man. The Corporal has ideas of what the war is like. But these are false. The front is a substantially different place than what he assumes it to be. Himmelstoss is eventually conscripted into the army as a result of his cruelty. In a frontal charge Paul discovers him in a trench refusing to join. Paul forcefully reprimands him but “he does not stir”. Then, when Paul physically attempts to move him, “he draws up his legs, crouches back against the wall, and shows his teeth like a cur” and “barks” when Paul tries again. This imagery of a dog serves to reinforce the fact that he is a hypocrite. This is a very significant event. It acts as the second part of the proof which acts to heighten the overall hypocritical nature of the society which he
Silence — the sound of quiet, the state of mind, the lack of meaning — all these pertain to its definition. Communication is expanding, noise is increasing, music is becoming more obtainable as people search desperately for a moment of peace or a breeze of silence. As the scarcity of physical silence increases, its value as a rare commodity increases as well. The idiom “Silence is golden” may perhaps only grow closer to reality as time passes, as exemplified by the white noise machines or silent fans entering the market and fictionalized in Kevin Brockmeier’s short story, “The Year of Silence.” In light of this, Brockmeier explores the value of silence and noise in his story without putting one above the other. Through strange clues and hidden
Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel All Quiet on the Western Front is based on World War I; it portrays themes involving suffering, comradeship, chance and dehumanization. The novel is narrated by Paul, a young soldier in the German military, who fights on the western front during The Great War. Like many German soldiers, Paul and his fellow friends join the war after listening to the patriotic language of the older generation and particularly Kantorek, a high school history teacher. After being exposed to unbelievable scenes on the front, Paul and his fellow friends realize that war is not as glorifying and heroic as the older generation has made it sound. Paul and his co-soldiers continuously see horrors of war leading them to become hardened, robot-like objects with one goal: the will to survive.
...the 1979 film adaptation of “All Quiet on the Western Front” failed to live up to the novel. Because it was made in the 1970's, the special effects were unrealistic and inferior to what one pictured while reading the novel. Compared to the novel, the film was also practically censored in terms of how graphic it was. Remarque intentionally made the novel graphic in order to present the anti-war theme, therefore the effectiveness of the film was diminished. The acting in the film was also mediocre and disappointing, and the cast was not well chosen. The trenches in the movie were also slightly softened from how they were described in the novel. Paul Baumer's thoughts and feelings were also not presented as well as they were in the novel. Ultimately, the novel was much more effective at delivering its anti war message, and telling the story. I is not happy. Penispuffer.
Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel that takes you through the life of a soldier in World War I. Remarque is accurately able to portray the episodes soldiers go through. All Quiet on the Western Front shows the change in attitudes of the men before and during the war. This novel is able to show the great change war has evolved to be. From lining your men up and charging in the eighteenth century, to digging and “living” in the trenches with rapid-fire machine guns, bombs, and flame-throwers being exposed in your trench a short five meters away. Remarque makes one actually feel the fun and then the tragedy of warfare. At the beginning of the novel Remarque gives you nationalist feelings through pride of Paul and the rest of the boys. However at the end of the war Remarque shows how pointless war really is. This is felt when everyone starts to die as the war progresses.
In the book All Quiet on the Western Front, author Erich Maria Remarque reveals a dimmer sense of the cost of war. The main character in the book, German soldier, Paul Baumer, embodies the cost of war before he reaches his ultimate fate. The tactics and weapons used in World War 1 were more advanced compared to the past as a result of the industrial revolution. Germany was forced to fight a two-front war and this intensified the losses suffered by soldiers like Paul and the other men in the Second Company (Gomez 2016, German Strategy for a Two-Front War – Modern Weapons: War and the Industrial Revolution). Remarque’s observations that he shares with readers are not to World War 1 because it portrayed not only the physical but mental consequences of combat. Regardless of what era of war soldiers were involved in they were the ones who paid the price for facing so much death.
Even when the novel begins, all Paul has known is death, horror, fear, distress, and despair. He describes the other soldiers in his company, including his German school mates with whom he enlisted after constant lecturing from their school master, Kantorek. The pressures of nationalism and bravery had forced even the most reluctant students to enlist. However weeks of essential training caused any appeal the military may have held for them to be lost. Corporal Himmelstoss, the boys’ instructor, callously victimizes them with constant bed remaking, sweeping snow, softening stiff boot leather and crawling through the mud. While this seems to be somewhat cruel treatment, it was in fact beneficial for the soldiers.
Throughout their lives, people must deal with the horrific and violent side of humanity. The side of humanity is shown through the act of war. This is shown in Erich Remarque’s novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front”. War is by far the most horrible thing that the human race has to go through. The participants in the war suffer irreversible damage by the atrocities they witness and the things they go through.
World War I had a great effect on the lives of Paul Baumer and the young men of his generation. These boys’ lives were dramatically changed by the war, and “even though they may have escaped its shells, [they] were destroyed by the war” (preface). In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Baumer and the rest of his generation feel separated from the other men, lose their innocence, and experience comradeship as a result of the war.
The author's main theme centers not only on the loss of innocence experienced by Paul and his comrades, but the loss of an entire generation to the war. Paul may be a German, but he may just as easily be French, English, or American. The soldiers of all nations watched their co...
The older generation had an artificial illusion of what war is and although Paul's generation, the soldiers, loved their country, they were forced to distinguish reality from illusion. Because of this disti...