All Quiet On The Western Front Women Essay

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War may be seen as a story only about men. However, the role of women might change people’s perspective of war’s impact. Remarque in his novel All Quiet On the Western Front describes young soldiers’ struggle in World War I, and O’Brien in his novel The Things They Carried reveals young soldiers’ sorrow in the Vietnam War. Despite the time gap, both novels uses literary devices such as selection of detail, tone and imagery to portray how young soldiers see women as the tint of light and fantasy in their darkness. In All Quiet On the Western Front, Remarque isolates women from the war, reinforcing women’s superficiality. While in The Things They Carried, O’Brien portrays women as human beings equally capable of evilness and savagery as all men, …show more content…

Remarque uses imagery to show Baumer’s fall into the idea and feeling of love and intimacy. The fact that at that moment he throws away his identity as a soldier, and hopes that moment can last forever reveals a young soldier’s desire of belonging and simple happiness. He sees those women, and the interactions with them, as a paradise with only joy and relaxation.
On the other hand, the two novels diverge on the idea of women’s capacity for savagery. In All Quiet On the Western Front, Remarque describes women as only superficial figures who live in a world that is unfamiliar and distant from the world of war. Remarque introduces the appearance of women by stating, “A girl in a light summer dress, with a red patent-leather belt about her hips! She is standing with one hand on a railing and with the other she holds a straw hat” (Remarque 141). The selection of detail Remarque uses to delineate the girl’s clothing shows how the girl is unfit in war. The delicacy of a dress and a straw hat reveals a palpable contrast with the rigidness and strength of soldiers’ combat clothing. “She is a lovely girl with a delicate nose, red lips, and slender legs, wonderfully clean and well cared for” (140) continues to show women’s superficiality in front of men

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