Unveiling War's Misconceptions: Media vs Reality

Wilfred Owen once said “the old lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” which means

“the old lie: it is sweet and honourable to die for the fatherland.” Many people are being

pressured by the societies they are raised in to sign up for the military. They are persuaded by

the misconceptions of fighting for one’s country shown in everyday media, but Enrich

Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front and Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road exposes the

misconceptions of war portrayed in media such as the false idea that fighting in a war is a

glorious enterprise, and the false representation of the identity of soldiers. While they take

different stances on camaraderie between soldiers during wartime.

War movies give us the conception

that war brings fellow soldiers closer together, but in
Three Day Road that is not the case. In the novel, war seems to push Xavier and Elijah farther
apart, even to the point that Xavier finds himself “hoping that Elijah will go too far, will be killed
action”(Boyden, 348). Xavier and Elijah start off as best friends who grew up together, but as
the war progresses Xavier finds that he cannot trust and confide in Elijah as much as he did
before. Xavier finds himself questioning Elijah’s integrity by wondering if “Elijah is taking
Greyeyes’ medicine…” [Boyden, 113]. However Xavier thinks to himself, that he know if Elijah is
taking the medicine from Greyeyes. Not only does Xavier question Elijah’s integrity, but Xavier
ends up killing Elijah with his own hands. At this point in the novel, Xavier does not know Elijah
anymore. While Xavier is strangling Elijah, Xavier says “you have gone mad. There is no coming
back from where you’ve travelled” (Boyden, 370). The war has changed Elijah that Xavier feels
that he has to kill the monster that war has turned his friend into. Three day Road does not
show the bonds of friendship but instead shows the destruction of amity caused by war.

Unlike Three Day Road, All Quiet on the Western Front reinforces the conception that war
produces and strengthens bonds between soldiers. Kat and Paul met during the war when they
were placed into the same platoon. Paul, who joined the war at a young age, and Kat, who
joined well into his 40s, are brought together because of the war. Even when Paul leaves the
front and goes back home, he feels that he does not belong there. But when Paul returns to the
front he says that “it will soon be all right again back here with Kat and Albert. This is where I
belong” (Remarque, 130). No matter the status of the social class you belong to, war will bring
you to the same level because you “all share the same fear and the same life” (Remarque, 165).
War gets rid of the social barrier between soldiers that even a 19-year-old and a 40-year-old
can be the best of friends. When soldiers are not fighting, they bond with each other. Soldiers
bond with each other so much that they believe that they “have a more complete communion
with one another than even lovers have…” (Remarque, 94). War gives the soldiers the
opportunity to make friends with everyone, no matter the age, race, or sex.

The second comparison is that both books point out that fighting in a war is not a glorious
enterprise. Xavier goes to talk about how the past couple years have gotten very dangerous
even to go so far to sat that the “last years on river … has led to rapids…” (Boyden, 366). Xavier
has known that killing the man on the other side of the gun barrel leaves you with a guilty
conscience. He believes that every soldier fights on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the
one facing what we do to the enemy” (Boyden, 326). Even after Xavier kills someone “he
replays it over and over…” so that he “doesn’t sleep all night” (Boyden, 75).

Xavier knows that

war is not glorious but instead a horrible thing to ever exist and he wants to end it as soon as

possible. Xavier doesn’t believe there is any honour about killing people, or risking your life to

do so. Nothing is honourable about watching people die left and right.

Similarly to Three Day Road, All Quiet on the Western Front depicts war as an atrocious being

to ever have existed. During the war, Paul had to end the lives of many people. He believes that

war has not given him any glory, but instead leaves him “indifferent and often hopeless”

(Remarque, 187). Paul and his classmates were taught that fighting in a war would bring them

honour and glory, but fighting in a war only has made him realize that “he cannot understand

why there should be so much anguish over a single individual…” (Remarque, 115). When Paul

gets into his first melee encounter, he kills the man, but ends up losing his composure. If given

another chance he “would not do it…” if the other soldier “would be sensible too…” (Remarque,

223). After the encounter Paul realizes that there is another person with another life and

feelings on the other side of the gun

barrel.

The third comparison is that both novels have people who lose their identity. In Three Day
Road, Elijah loses his identity because of war. In the beginning, when Elijah joined the army, he
wanted to fit in with the other soldiers. So Elijah chooses to talk in a British accent when among
the other soldiers: “Dear Henry… would you be a kind chap and make me a cup of tea?”
(Boyden, 144). Elijah drops his Cree accent and picks up a British one. When Elijah returned
from a raid he was chosen to take part in, he was asked if he liked killing, he responded with
“it’s in my blood” (Boyden, 75). Elijah goes against the Cree ways he was taught and decides to
embrace war and bloodshed. This results in Elijah changing what he cared for to only that of his
reputation as an elite sniper. Even when injured all Elijah could think about was getting back to
the war, saying he would “go mad stuck in a hospital so far away from it all” (Boyden, 150). The
war has changed Elijah’s identity to the point that he only cared about his reputation as a
legendary sniper.

Paul also loses his identity in All Quiet on the Western Front, even to the point of no longer
caring when his friends die. When Paul had to give news about his friend’s death, he says
“rather impatiently ‘he died immediately’…” (Remarque, 115). Paul loses his emotions and all
feelings for his friends, while his friends also “have lost all feeling for one another…”
(Remarque, 116). Paul and his friends had to do more killing than anybody should have to do in
a life time. Overall, they do not feel young anymore. They feel that they have more experience
than anyone who is too old to go to war; they feel that their youth has been ruined. Upon
reading a letter that Paul received from his old school teacher, Paul makes fun of it by saying
“Iron Youth. Youth! We are none of us more than 20 years old. But young? Youth? That is long
ago. We are old folk” (Remarque, 21). Paul feels like that war has caused them to lose their
youth and instead he had to become like old people to survive during the war. Many people
enter the military with a sense of pride and honour but most, if not, all the time they end up
desensitized.

Therefore both books, All Quiet on the Western Front by Enrich Remarque and Three Day
Road by Joseph Boyden exposes the misconceptions of war such as the propagated identity of
soldiers and the false idea that fighting in a war is a glorious and honourable enterprise. While
taking different stances on camaraderie during wartime. People believe that joining the military
and fighting for your country is glorious and honourable, but it is actually chaotic and atrocious.
Sometimes the countries resort to inhumane weapons such as chlorine gas, which is neither
honourable nor glorious because it causes unnecessary suffering in the enemy soldiers and
sometimes allied. Soldiers often sign up for the military due to these misconceptions, it is
important that they know exactly what they signed up for.