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Example of symbolism essay
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In chapter six of the book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque symbolism is mentioned everywhere. Symbolism can be interpreted differently and it can mean different things depending on the person. Some important symbols in chapter six are the rats. The rats are fat and Paul mentions seeing them crawling all over the battlefield and all over the fallen bodies of fellow soldiers “we call them corps rats (102).” These rats could be a symbol of defeat because they like to feed off the dead bodies on the battlefield and it reminds them of all the men they have lost. The rats could also be a symbol of disease and plague. They could even be associated with life. They are one of the only living beings left on the battlefield after
Irony is not always funny; verbal, dramatic, and situational irony are often used to assert truth or to add depth to an author’s writing. In Erich Maria Remarque’s book, All Quiet on the Western Front, the reader experiences years of life on the front of World War I through the eyes of a young German man, Paul Bäumer, who has enlisted with his classmates at the expectation of their schoolmaster. Remarque uses irony throughout his novel, best displayed in the names of the characters, the various settings, and in the deaths of the characters.
Imagine being in an ongoing battle where friends and others are dying. All that is heard are bullets being shot, it smells like gas is near, and hearts race as the times goes by. This is similar to what war is like. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the narrator, Paul Baumer, and his friends encounter the ideals of suffering, death, pain, and despair. There is a huge change in these men; at the beginning of the novel they are enthusiastic about going into the war. After they see what war is really like, they do not feel the same way about it. During the war the men experience many feelings especially the loss of loved ones. These feelings are shown through their first experience at training camp, during the actual battles, and in the hospital.
Symbolism In "The Things They Carried" In Tim O'Brien's story "The Things They Carried" we see how O'Brien uses symbolism in order to indirectly give us a message and help us to connect to what the soldiers are thinking and feeling. During a war, soldiers tend to take with them items from home, kind of as a security blanket. The items they normally take with them tend to reveal certain characteristics of their personality. Henry Dobbins is the guy who loves to eat, so he made sure he took some extra food. Ted Lavender was the scaredy cat of the group, so he carried tranquilizers with him.
The Comradeship of War in All Quiet on the Western Front War can destroy a young man, mentally and physically. One might say that nothing good comes out of war, but in Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, there is one positive characteristic: comradeship. Paul and his friends give Himmelstoss a beating, which he deserves due to his training tactics. This starts the brotherhood of this tiny group. As explosions and gunfire sound off, a young recruit in his first battle is gun-shy and seeks reassurance in Paul's chest and arms, and Paul gently tells him that he will get used to it.
Many soldiers who come back from the war need to express how they feel. Many do it in the way of writing. Many soldiers die in war, but the ones who come back are just as “dead.” Many cadets come back with shell shock, amputated arms and legs, and sometimes even their friends aren’t there with them. So during World War I, there was a burst of new art and writings come from the soldiers. Many express in the way of books, poems, short stories and art itself. Most soldiers are just trying to escape. A lot of these soldiers are trying to show what war is really like, and people respond. They finally might think war might not be the answer. This is why writers use imagery, irony and structure to protest war.
All Quiet on the Western Front shows the change in attitudes of the men before and
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.
The story of several schoolmates who symbolize a generation destroyed by the dehumanisation of the First World War, All Quiet on the Western Front tells of the men who died, and the tragically changed lives of those who survived. Remarque follows the story of Paul Bäumer, a young infantryman, from his last days of school to his death three years later. Whereas the journey motif is typically used to portray a positive character development, that of Paul is deliberately the opposite. In what has been dubbed the greatest antiwar novel of all time, Remarque depicts the way in which Paul is snatched away from humanity by the brutality of war. However while Paul and his comrades become separated from society, and begin to rely on their basic survival instincts, in their own surroundings they still show humane qualities such as compassion, camaraderie, support and remorse. Paul’s transformation from human to soldier begins in training camp, and is reinforced by the trauma at the front. His return home further alienates him from society, and Paul begins to feel safe at the front with his friends. Nonetheless throughout the novel suffering and mortality bare Paul’s true side, and he momentarily regains his former self. Bäumer, the German word for tree, is an early indication that Paul must remain firmly rooted in reality to survive the brutality of war.
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.
All Quiet on the Western Front - A Book Review Professor’s Comments: This is a good example of a book review typically required in history classes. It is unbiased and thoughtful. The student explains the book and the time in which it was written in great detail, without retelling the entire story. a pitfall that many first time reviewers may experience. All Quiet on the Western Front is the story of Paul Baumer’s service as a soldier in the German army during World War I. Paul and his classmates enlist together, share experiences together, grow together, share disillusionment over the loss of their youth, and the friends even experience the horrors of death together.
Symbolism is a literary device used by authors to give deeper levels of meaning to objects and better demonstrate the theme. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is a popular novel considered to be a “classic” by many. Golding’s literary work is contains many examples of symbolism to help readers better understand the novel’s themes. Three such cases are the conch shell, the fire, and the sow’s head that was put on a stake. Through closer study of the novel, it is evident that each of these objects possess a deeper meaning leading to the overall theme of the downfall of humanity.
Throughout All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque throws in a fair amount of symbolism to give support to his themes running through the novels. He gathers together symbols such as the soft airman’s boots, the horses in chapter four, and the butterflies flying around in Germany, and hides them. The reader can easily miss these symbols initially reading through, but Remarque relates them all the way from the themes he is writing about to his boyhood in real life.
Reading through several different interpretations leads to one main conclusion: most commentators and critics like to interpret the symbols of the story, but they all have different ideas of what the symbols are or what they mean. In an essay written in 1952, literary commentator Carlos Baker attributes nearly all symbols in the novel to death itself, with close relation to the hyena, the vultures, and the other horrible creatures.
Another example of symbolism used in the story is when the shapeless splotch of white hair on the black cat is signified as a structure to hang criminals, bringing the narrator into madness by the cat’s physique, During one night drunk at a tavern, the narrator who had just finished off Pluto finds a cat who looked exactly like the one he had killed, but with a minor difference, just a white shapeless splotch on its breast. Noticing its affection for him, he took the cat in as his pet, but soon found himself being annoyed by it, and then that feeling turned into hatred. However, he still kept it as a pet until he nervously and frantically realized the white splotch actually meant. He said, “This object, above all, made me hate and dread the monster. I would have gotten rid of it had I