All Quiet On The Western Front Poem Analysis

Meghna Thomas

Ms. Schultes

English 2H, Block G

5/24/18

The Dehumanization of War in the Cinema Poem and All Quiet on the Western Front

For centuries, the violence of war has dominated the lives of individuals, forcing them to repress their feelings and to sacrifice their basic human qualities in order to develop animal-like instincts, simply as a means of survival. Along with this process of dehumanization, the violence of war has stripped individuals of their identities. During the First World War, which occurred between July 28, 1914, to November 11, 1918, numerous works of literature emerged, illustrating destructive effects of the war on its soldiers. Various poets, such as Robert Graves, Isaac Rosenberg,

and Charles Hamilton Sorley, reflected upon their own experiences during the war and ultimately illustrated, through their literary compositions, the common idea of the dehumanization of the war.

For instance, the poem “When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead” by Charles Hamilton Sorley depicts how the violence of war has completely depleted the soldiers from their inherent human natures and has transfigured these individuals into mere shadows of the identities that they had lost during the war. Furthermore, Sorley’s poem connects to the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, as both works illustrate the manner in which war forces individuals to abandon their senses and identities, and deprives them of their empathy, compassion, and hopes. Therefore, the literary works, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and “When You See Millions of the Mouthless

Dead” by Charles Hamilton Sorley both illustrate and develop the idea that the violence of war dehumanizes individuals, depriving them of their inherent human nature.

Primarily, the cinema poem based on “When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead” by Charles Hamilton Sorley, conveys, utilizing an unsentimental approach, how the First World War has ultimately dehumanized and stolen the identity of its soldiers. The poem depicts a dream encounter between the survivors and the murdered soldiers during the First World War. Essentially, through his poetry, Sorley attempts to instruct readers not to honor, praise, or mourn for the dead, for the war has dehumanized the soldiers to the point in which tears and words have lost all meaning and significance in their lives. Implementing his own experience in the war during the Battle of Loos, Sorley writes his poem in a stark, infernal style, in order to demonstrate the realities of war and its brutalizing effects. For instance, when Sorley writes, “nor honour. It is easy to be dead” (line 8), he causes readers to feel shocked by his blunt word choice, as he rejects the idea of humanity. Through this line, Sorley highlights the juxtaposition between the living and the dead, with the repeated dismissal of what society may demonstrate as proper or humane in response to the dead. In order

to mirror the juxtaposition of the living and the dead that Sorley creates in this statement, the cinema poem utilizes an image of a soldier struggling to wake a dead comrade, mirroring the feelings of discomfort and shock that Sorley establishes. Additionally, for several lines during the video, the screen faded in order to reiterate the most shocking and descriptive lines in Sorley’s poem, such as, “it is not curses heaped on each gashed head?” (line 6), and “great death has made all his for evermore” (line 15). The absence of pictures during these lines functions metaphorically, in order to symbolize the loss of the soldiers’ identities: they have transformed into barren, desolate individuals, without color or feeling in their lives. Additionally, this technique allows viewers to visualize and create their own interpretations of the poem and the message that it conveys. For example, the blank screen emphasizes the violent imagery of the “curses” (line 6) gashing upon the heads of the soldiers. Furthermore, in order to accentuate the brusque and unsentimental writing style that Sorley weaves within his poem, the video uses the song, “Submerging green” by Podington Bear. Its solemn and dark melody depicts the destructive and evil nature of war as its violence robs the soldiers of their identities and inherent human natures. The lack of variety in the melody reflects the curt and straightforward manner in which Sorley writes his poem. The images and the music in the video all work to reflect the inherent darkness of war and how it strips the soldiers of their human qualities until they have become the ghosts of their once vibrant and colorful identities. Therefore, all of these elements stylistically connect to the idea of dehumanization of the violence of war that Sorely demonstrates in his poem.

In addition, the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque illustrates how the violence of war dehumanizes individuals, depriving them of their inherent human natures.