The Horrors of War in Regeneration and All quiet on the Western Front

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As Bertrand Russell once said “War does not determine who is right - only who is left.” No one ever truly wins a wart. The horrors of war are devastating; both mentally and physically. The horror is not only ever present during life on the Frontline, it lives on in the survivors guilt. I believe that althought the horror of war is represented in the soldiers, we are all too quick to forget about the feelings of those at home, the friends and families, and the effects the war had on them. The effects of war are prominent throughtout the Novels “Regeneration” and “All quiet on the Western Front” and is also explored deeply in Wilfred Owen’s “Selected War Poetry”. Throughout these works we discover that war was inescapable for these men, they had no choice, and it+++++s events were also inescapable. We discover that the men would rather die defending their country as a hero than live with the flashbacks, the guilt, the both mental and physical scarring. They would rather lose their lives than their limbs. I find these works encompass this question fully, as it covers all angles. Pat Barker never really shows her opinion in the novel, it is more factual, and as it is based upon real events and real people it’s a reliable source of information on the horror of war and it’s effects, without bias. Erich Maria Remarque had first hand experience in the First World War, and he gives us an insight into what life on the frontline was really like. Althought fictional, I believe his suffering would have still haunted him years later, compelli...

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...ripple, and would rather end his life than suffer. I believe that Remarque has used this matter of fact style to show his thoughts on suicide; it was plain and simple for Albert, he had nothing to live for. I believe that this is in result to the things he has witnessed also, although he is being fitted with an artificial leg, he has lost the will to live. Much like many of the other soldiers we encounter. Where All Quiet on the Western front uses brutality and the horror of war as its pinnacle, I believed it important to consider the human cost of tragedy, rather than the mutilated dead. All Quiet on the Western Front is used to address the pre 1914 romanticization of war, and although wrote many years after the event it is seen as one of the only true representation of the gruesome catastrophe.

Works Cited

disabled, all quiet on the western front, regeneration

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