Dialogue Essays: All Quiet On The Western Front

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Recommended: Mental and physical consequences of war for soldiers

The dawning sun rose upon a crimson sky, its heat and light struck Tommy’s face. He opened his eyes. He had been dreaming of home. His mother, father, little dog Pip, the taste of homemade bread was still fresh in his mouth when Michael chucked a sliver of salted beef over to him. Tommy tried to re-adjust himself; a stone had been sticking into his back all night. It was difficult, to move among his petit space, only a foot or two of room per solider. The trenches were cramped, hundreds of men and their rifles suppressed into a meagre space. As he chewed the repugnant, leather tasting food he tired wiggling his toes, to bring the life back into them, after the raw and soaking night.
Tommy eyed the captain, as he made his way down towards them, …show more content…

Michael scrambled to his feet. The captain handed Michael a curl of barbed wire, Tommy suddenly realized what his intention was. The barbed wire fence was more than 100 yards out from the trench, each morning it must be reassembled, from the prior days fighting. Michael hadn’t taken the wire yet, he was just standing there, quivering. As ghastly and atrocious the trenches may be, no one wanted to go onto the battlefield alone. “I’ll do it,” Tommy said, standing up. The captain eyed him suspiciously, having never fought on the front line himself; he couldn’t understand why a man would volunteer for another. He couldn’t grasp the camaraderie that had been forged here, partly in a joint distaste of those in charge such as him.
Tommy remembered back to when he first met Michael, down in the barracks, they had shared a bunk. Michael was only sixteen; it had taken him three attempts to enrol. But after a year fighting in the trenches, the glorified ideal had worn away. He was simply a boy and the captain craven.
Tommy stared down the captain, Michael was beside him now, hovering uneasily, objection on his lips but relief showed in his eyes.
“Alright lad, all the same to me,” the captain finally replied, with a shake of his head. ‘Of course, it’s all the same to you’ Tommy thought bitterly, as the captain wandered back down the line, he probably wouldn’t even spare a glance at the condolence letters he signed,

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