By depriving Paul of the things he used to comfort himself with, Remarque is showing how total war is as psychologically destructive as it is…
Victoria Mestre Ms. Kiefer All Quiet On The Western Front: PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD takes over the lives’ of people everyday. PTSD is a debilitating anxiety disorder that is often found in individuals whom have experienced traumatic or traumatizing events. PTSD is common in individuals whom have served in the military and have witnessed traumatic events, therefore, making it next to impossible to live their everyday lives. http://www.bing.com/search?q=ptsd&src=IE-TopResult&FORM=IETR02&conversationid=…
A perfect example of this is when Paul says “We are not youth any longer... We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces” (Remarque 87). Before the war they were youthfull teenagers, but after all the death and despair, that is no longer true. The men that they once were has been cut away by the violence. One of the first true losses of innocence for Paul is when a recruit is suffering and he says “Yes Kat we ought to put him out of his misery”(72).…
After experiencing the war, nothing is the same as what it once is, books which Paul read many times are no longer valuable to him, his own house has an eerie strangeness to it. Going from having to be on guard at any mosoldierst and living with constant anxiety and stress, to going back to a time when Paul still had his youth, his innocence, and is carefree, is a big change. The experience of war will take away Paul’s and his fellow soldier’s curiosity and aptitude for fun and learning for the rest of their lives. The soldier’s relationships with their environment and peers will never be the same after the…
(Remarque 172-173). Reading quotes like this one provoke thought and emotion in the reader’s mind. Think about the thoughts and emotions that the soldiers felt as they witnessed an atrocity like in the above quote. Something as traumatic as such could cause the soldiers to develop post traumatic stress disorder. Post traumatic stress disorder is a semi-treatable condition that Paul and his friends would have had to cope with because of their time spent fighting in World War One.…
After being assigned to practice All Quiet on the Western Front duties for chapter two as homework, Mr. and Mrs. Davis set out to perform thorough checks to ensure that everybody has done their jobs. The assignment was honestly quite tedious, but it has given students a firm grasp on the understanding of the book. Mrs. Davis gave a clear explanation of what was going to transpire while they went around class for any time All Quiet on the Western Front work was due. While they checked, the students were to go around amongst their table and practice sharing their best IMG_1098.JPG Students engaged in AQWF discussion question for each job.…
He gave the impression that the ground was muddy from not only the weather but from blood of the young men who had been killed in battle. He talked about men being shot and falling into the trenches onto him and other men. Once while heading back to the trenches Paul and his comrades come across a man in a tree that is said was thrown out of his cloths from the weapon that Kat calls ‘trench mortars’ (Remarque & Wheen, 1996). A tube that as designed to fire projectiles at a 45-degree angle, this came straight down on the soldiers in the trenches (Duffy, 2009). Despite the horrible conditions of the trenches when Paul was coming back from no man’s land he was anxious to get back to their trenches as if it was a place of safety (Remarque & Wheen,…
The war experiences, as narrated by Paul, reveals that these were dangerous moments, whereby anybody would have possibly gone mad, deserted duty or even died. Death is the most obvious effect of war, and all frontline soldiers like Paul were constantly exposed to it. For instance, Paul describes one of the scenes when he was exposed to death during an air raid in a cemetery. In Paul’s account, the air raid in the cemetery had been reduced to a mass of wreckage with corpses thrown everywhere. Paul proceeds to say that the corpses had been killed the second time, but is grateful for every corpse that was sprung as they saved a soldier from death (Remarque, 2004, p. 71).…
This situation profoundly shows the effect of dehumanization on soldiers in war. Was his breaking point when he had close contact with someone? Or was it because he had to sit there with the body forever? From the beginning of the book, Paul always had many doubts about his life after the war. Compared to the older men, he had no career or love to reunite with after the war.…
World War I was one of the deadliest wars in human history, killing sixteen million soldiers alone, with a total of thirty seven million casualties including civilians. Mankind has been shaped by war throughout its existence. War can vary with type such as guerrilla or nuclear warfare. However, one aspect of war that remains the same is its ability to lay waste to all in its path. War has killed, not only the promising young men and women, but it has killed their dreams and goals.…
During Paul’s leave, he memorialized his childhood, “ Above me on the wall hangs the glass case with the coloured butterflies that I once collected” (74). His inability to show emotions is due to the fact that Paul already knows what it is like to grieve and does not want the pains associated with grievance. He looks at them but feels nothing toward them because he recognizes they are no longer with him. One morning while the Second Company was on the front, two butterflies play in front of their trench and on the teeth of a skull (60). A beautiful creature lands on the dead but thinks nothing of it, just how Paul has to think when he sees all of it.…
In order to be a good soldier, a person must become like everyone else. Remarque writes about how Paul and his comrades went to enlist eager to fight for their country,…
After experiencing the death of his comrades and the destruction of land, Paul felt mentally injured/handicapped. He does not see a future for him without war; yet, he cannot remember his life before it. The longer he stayed, the more he hated the war and all it stood for. All these feelings reflect the author’s views on war and how he perceived the people who endured…
One soldier says to Paul "If your father came over with them, you wouldn't hesitate to fling a bomb at him". This is showing how that because Paul is so focused on Killing anyone who comes from the opposition's side so that he can survive he wouldn't notice if he knew them or not. Paul, along with the other German soldiers are made to become mindless puppets. They have no knowledge of who they are killing and why. War has striped Paul and the other soldiers of knowing who they are, and of individual actions.…
Paul and his friends realized the hardships they are going to face ahead due to seeing their friend in such misery. Paul was concerned about Kemmerich, but he also knew that the war was cold and tough and his boots would be beneficial. They were making use of something that the death could not. Muller talks about how the boots will suit him, ““They would fit me perfectly. In these boots I get blister after blister…””…