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Impact of war and conflict
Two kinds of literary analysis questions
Two kinds of literary analysis questions
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1) On page 271 Paul says “We have almost grown accustomed to it; war is the cause of death like cancer and tuberculosis, like influenza and dysentery. The deaths are more frequent, more varied and terrible.” Why does Paul compare war-related deaths to disease-related deaths? Why are war-related deaths so common like the other kinds of deaths?
Tuberculosis, influenza, and dysentery are all very deadly diseases which were very common in the 1900s. It’s terrible that war-related deaths are just as awful. Paul is so used to the deaths in war that he compares it to deaths from diseases. Everyone is accustomed to the thought of death because so many people have died. Death is a motif in this novel because it has happened so many times that it won’t be a surprise if it occurs again. Many
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“Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.” Paul dies with a smile on his face. Why would Paul be happy if he has died?
Paul has gone through a lot and he has suffered a lot, so he is glad that now he won’t have to endure any more pain. On page 293 Paul says that he is the only one left from his class. This means he has seen all of his friends die which must’ve left him traumatized so he’s glad that he won’t have to go through the pain again. Paul is finally at peace and that’s what he wanted all along. On page 296 the narrator is no longer Paul because he has died. The new narrator describes Paul’s death as a fall and nothing more. The new narrator’s diction is very casual to Paul’s death because death is so common.
3) On page 296 the narrator says, “He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front.” Why does the narrator say "All quiet on the Western Front” and what does it
All Quiet on the Western Front includes many clear-cut examples of irony throughout the duration of the novel. From word play in the names of the characters that led to dramatic irony, to the paradox that is obvious in the setting, and finally the situational irony that is critical to the impact of the character’s death on the reader, Remarque provides depth to the novel and the emotional connection that the reader has to the characters in the book.
In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, the quote “A hospital alone shows what war is,” (263) has so much meaning to me. In my mind, hospitals are places where people get healed and become better. However, this hospital as well as other hospitals during the war make patients feel worse instead of better. Before Paul arrived at the hospital, I assumed it would serve as an escape from the terrors of war. Instead with all of the other ill soldiers surrounding him including his friend Albert whose leg was amputated, were constant reminders of how gruesome and horrific the war truly has become for Paul. This quote reveals the larger theme of survival in the novel because the entire novel Paul fought to stay alive, especially in the hospital.
...ly he went home, back to his hostile environment, never escaping reality. Paul refused to give up on his dream and refused to go back to reality. Instead of giving up his dream on a glamorized, extravagant life, Paul gave up on his average life and killed himself.
Soldiers faced diseases like measles, small pox, malaria, pneumonia, camp itch, mumps, typhoid and dysentery. However, diarrhea killed more soldiers than any other illness. There were many reasons that diseases were so common for the causes of death for soldiers. Reasons include the fact that there were poor physicals before entering the army, ignorance of medical information, lack of camp hygiene, insects that carried disease, lack of clothing and shoes, troops were crowded and in close quarters and inadequate food and water.
On page 227 paragraph 13 it says, “I saw you face down Erik and those other guys, and I saw Arthur Bauer hit you with a blackjack.” This choice impacts Paul because Luis was someone that Paul cared about and to know that it was Erik and his friend Arthur that hit Luis that caused Luis’s death, will cause Paul a lot heartache and emotional pain. But this inevitably makes Paul stronger because now he has the drive to somehow get back Erik for all the horrible things that Erik has done. On page 245 Paul is very distraught because he finds out that Luis has died and knows the reason why. This bothers Paul an incredible amount that he even goes home early from school. This shows that Erik’s choice affected Paul because Paul will forever acknowledge himself as Erik’s little brother, the brother of the person that killed Luis Cruz and this is something that will take Paul a long time to get
to deteriorate the human spirit. Starting out leaving you're home and family and ready to fight for you country, to ending up tired and scarred both physically and mentally beyond description. At the beginning of the novel nationalist feelings are present through pride of Paul and the rest of the boys. However at the end of the war it is apparent how pointless war really is.
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.
Life for the soldiers in the beginning is a dramatic one as they are ordered up to the frontline to wire fences. The frontline makes Paul feel immediately different as described here. "As if something is inside us, in our blood, has been switched on." The front makes Paul more aware and switched on as if his senses and reactions are sharpened. I think Paul and his friends are frightened when they are near the front line. After they wire the fences and they are heading to the barracks their group start to be fired at by the enemy. They manage to get through the shelling unscathed but they hear a horse that has been shot. The horse makes a terrible noise of anguish and is in terrible pain and it has been shot as the author describes here. "The belly of one of the horses has been ripped open and it guts are trailing out." This shows that there are not just human casualties of war; the innocent lives of animals can be affected as much as humans who fight in wars. Detering-one soldier in Pauls group-says." It is the most despicable thing of all to drag animals into a war." I agree with Detering, as animals had no choice about going to war. On the way back to the trucks that would take them back to the barracks Paul Baumers company are hit again by heavy shelling and they have to take cover in a military graveyard. The shells blow huge holes in the graveyard and create large...
After their first two days of fighting, they return to their bunker, where they find neither safety nor comfort. A grizzled veteran, Kat, suggests these ‘fresh-faced boys’ should return to the classroom. The war steals their spiritual belief in the sanctity of human life with every man that they kill. This is best illustrated by Paul’s journey from anguish to rationalization of the killing of Gerard Duval; the printer turned enemy who leaps into the shell-hole already occupied by Paul. Paul struggles with the concept of killing a “brother”, not the enemy. He weeps despondently as war destroys his emotional being.
“No, I never had any experience in nursing,” said one; “but one just nurses, doesn’t one?” (pg 139). This quote would give readers an idea of what kind of aid that was given to the injured. The inexperienced nurses do not have proper training in safety and may cause the injured to only get worse. This would then lead to infectious diseases, such as smallpox, scarlet fever, diphtheria and more. “ Smallpox, scarlet fever, scarlatina, diphtheria rated along the great roads and in far villages, and already there were cases of cholera, which was sure to spread with the coming of the summer in the that devastated land; where battle fields, villages, and roads stank with lightly buried dead, and the streams were polluted with the bodies of men and horses,” (pg 143). Thus this would cause readers to have a negative view on the war due to lack of trained nurses and infectious diseases spreading.
One of the worst things about war is the severity of carnage that it bestows upon mankind. Men are killed by the millions in the worst ways imaginable. Bodies are blown apart, limbs are cracked and torn and flesh is melted away from the bone. Dying eyes watch as internal organs are spilled of empty cavities, naked torso are hung in trees and men are forced to run on stumps when their feet are blown off. Along with the horrific deaths that accompany war, the injuries often outnumber dead men. As Paul Baumer witnessed in the hospital, the injuries were terrifying and often led to death. His turmoil is expressed in the lines, “Day after day goes by with pain and fear, groans and death gurgles. Even the death room I no use anymore; it is too small.” The men who make it through the war take with them mental and physical scarification from their experiences.
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. Though the book is a novel, it gives the reader insights into the realities of war. In this genre, the author is free to develop the characters in a way that brings the reader into the life of Paul Baumer and his comrades. The novel frees the author from recounting only cold, sterile facts. This approach allows the reader to experience what might have been only irrelevant facts if presented in a textbook.
...l’s legs and forearms, and the river’s rapids colliding with rocks. The viewer is shown that this is a battle between two giants; two entities that Norman has, and will, never fully understand. In the end, Paul is swept underwater, and reappears in a calm part of the river, holding the fish high in celebration. The river is tamed, and Paul is finally victorious in his rebellion. This is the final scene of Paul in the film, and he dies in a bar fight of which the details are not fully disclosed.
In conclusion, the point of view in paul’s case provides a sort of feeling to this story that could not be shown. If the point of view where any different, the readers would not understand why paul killed himself or why he enjoyed frustrating his teachers and making people nervous. Or why he was so kind and let go at the theater. Who would not know the reason he stayed awake all night in the basement rather than just go to his room and confront his father.
Around the end of the story, Paul decides to run off to New York for a week to finally live his dreams. However, by making his dreams a reality he exposes himself to something he wasn't prepared for, the truth. At first, everything is all Paul ever wanted it be. He is able to finally live life as he sees fit. He spends his money without care, and is able to live up to all his lies. (Although this reaches its climax when Paul meets a young man in the street), "The young man offered to show Paul the night side of the town, and the two boys went out together after dinner, not returning to the hotel until seven o'clock the next morning" (Cather 11). After this, Paul's fake reality falls apart quickly. Faced with the reality that he will have to return home, Paul decides to take his own life. Instead of ending it quickly with a gun, he decides to go a different route, "When the right moment came, he jumped. As he fell, the folly of his haste occurred to him with merciless clearness, the vastness of what he had left undone. There flashed through his brain, clearer than ever before, the blue of Adriatic water, the yellow of Algerian sands. He felt something strike his chest, and that his body was being thrown swiftly through the air, on and on, immeasurably far and fast, while his limbs were gently relaxed. Then, because the picture-making mechanism was crushed, the disturbing visions flashed into black,