Dulce Et Decorum Est And All Quiet On The Western Front

“The truths are contradictory”(80). Based on Tim O’Brien, many argue that war is grotesque, but war could also be beauty. Although war is not lovely because of all the killings and awful moments, it could also be beautiful. As O’Brien mentions, war is like a cancer under a microscope. The soldiers can see horrifying moments in the battle, but the battle scene is glorious. The soldiers admire on the harmony of nature and the troops. Basically everything in a war could look beautiful in humans eyes, but every soldier hates war at the same time. The truth reached by the reader from this contrast is that why some might like going to war and what makes soldiers to keep going in

All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque is a story of a young man named Paul Bäumer who volunteers to be a soldier in the German army during World War One. Being at a very young age Bäumer, and three of his friends whom also enlisted to the German army from the same school he attended, felt proud when enlisting “we were a class of twenty young men, many of whom proudly shaved for the first time before going to the barracks” (AQOTWF p.21). Very soon, however, Bäumer and the young men he enlisted with begin to feel indifferent and embittered of being in the army “At first astonished, then embittered, and finally indifferent.” (AQOTWF p.21/22). Joining the army for Bäumer changed the way he felt about everything he knew in the past, and the way he thought of the people who stayed back home. Bäumer said that as soldiers they “saw that there was nothing of the world left.” (AQOTWF p.13) and that they “were all at once terribly alone; and alone we must see it through.” (AQOTWF p.13). Meaning that Bäumer knew that people back home wouldn’t understand what they had gone through so they had to see it through alone, together as soldiers. As if they were different from the people who stayed back home.

That the war has inhumane effects on soldiers becomes evident by looking at the during the Vietnam War widely spread appearance of an action called “fragging”. Literally this term describes “the employment of fragmentation hand grenades” , which are used in an attempt to kill unpopular comrades, or more often higher ranked officers. Although this has existed ever “since the earliest days of armed conflict” , as George Lepre describes it, but at no time it “became so frequent as during the Vietnam War […] [where] between 1965 and 1973, several hundred fragging incidents occurred within U.S. military units in Vietnam, resulting in dozens of American and Vietnamese deaths and hundreds of injuries.” An example for this can also be seen in the movie

Many people wonder if war is a necessary evil. War can end injustice and brutality. It can lead to freedom and liberty, and ensure the safety of future generations. However, war also costs lives, and it leads to brutality. War can tear apart families, and cause pain and suffering. In the book My Brother Sam is Dead, the main character, Tim Meeker, has to weigh these factors and choose what side he is on. Throughout the book, he is indecisive, and constantly debates which side he should choose. By the end of the book, Tim decides to become neutral after seeing and experiencing the deaths of Ned, Life Meeker, and Sam Meeker.

"The first casualty of war is innocence.” Said by screenwriter Oliver Stone. A Separate Peace by John Knowles is about a set of boys at a boarding school in New England. The reader can clearly see the theme war is unforgiving though war affects friendships, changes lives, and war kills a lot of people.

Within “Speaking of Courage” by Tim O’Brien and “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemmingway there is one underlying theme, it is hard for soldiers to readjust after coming home from war. Both authors use multiple devices to illustrate this theme, the symbolism of women in the protagonist 's’ life, the conflict between the protagonists and their parents, and the juxtaposition of the protagonists against other people their age.

War is a harsh reality that is inflicted upon the unwilling through the “need” of it’s predecessors and those whom wish it. All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is about 19 year old Paul and his friends in the “Second Company”. Even though they are just out of school age, they have already seen things that many could not bear to even think about. Eventually, all of his friends die, and even Paul too, dies. Remarque uses diction and syntax as literary devices to express his anti-war theme, or lesson.

As Herbert Hoover eloquently put it, “Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.” War has no mercy. It takes homes, tears families apart, and steals childhoods from innocent people. Such is the case in A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. While people of seniority make all the impactful decisions that have to do with the war, the young boys of Devon School are forced to accept the realities of war and join the fight. In the novel A Separate Peace, Knowles showcases a sinister tone throughout the first pages, when Devon School is described. Using diction and figurative language, Knowles integrates this tone into Gene’s narration.

Throughout the ages, wars have wreaked havoc and caused great destruction that lead to the loss of millions of lives. However, wars also have an immensely destructive effect on the individual soldier. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, one is able to see exactly to what extent soldiers suffered during World War 1 as well as the effect that war had on them. In this essay I will explain the effect that war has on young soldiers by referring to the loss of innocence of young soldiers, the disillusionment of the soldiers and the debasement of soldiers to animalistic men.

Millions of people have gone through life-altering experiences in their time in World War I. In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Bäumer, a 19-year-old German soldier, narrates his personal memoirs of this war. He describes the mental change and suffering he goes through as he is forced to mature from a young boy to a soldier in order to survive, leaving him permanently scarred from the throes of war. By employing juxtaposition to contrast Paul’s mindset, before and after the war, Remarque demonstrates how the mental health of the World War I soldiers is damaged because of the abrupt loss of their youth, leaving them in a state of survival and mental instability.

The short story by Steve Gillman was written on the bases of his personal beliefs on the praises military received from just by joining. He starts the essay with a short paragraph saying “It is about cultural mythology that has been created in the United States, which makes all soldiers into “heroes” (Gillman 679). The most important part of this quote was that by reading it the readers would understood that he was clearly against that all soldiers where no heroes. Gillman later supports the quote with some facts later in the essay.

War is something won by a country, but lost by every soldier. The inevitable reality of war, causes soldiers to lose attributes, he or she would not have thought they could lose, one of which is their innocence. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque, this concept of loss of innocence is conveyed through the iron youth. As the book progresses, innocence possessed by the boys quickly decreases as they realize the true horrors of war.

All people are constantly changing based on their experiences, but there are few circumstances in life that can alter a person more than war whether it be physically, emotionally, or both. World War I was one of the bloodiest wars with over 31 million deaths, wounded, and missing people. Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, is a novel set in this bloodshed, and focuses around the changes brought by the war on one young German soldier. This text depicts the overwhelming effects and power war holds to weaken the human spirit and is able to scar the soldier not only physically but mentally. This is done through the authors ability to convey the unrelenting realism and agony of battle action. During his time in the war, Remarque's

Throughout history, countries are inevitably pulled into conflicts that result in war. These conflicts usually occur because of interests in: economic gain, territorial gain, religion, and nationalism. America, like every country, needs a military to defend itself, especially when tensions arise in other parts of the world and when militia numbers start to decrease. This then allows the government to draft its population to serve in the military. People argue that young men and women’s bright lives are often cut short, and not allowed their Constitutional right to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”, but there are many benefits for the nation and the individual by serving one’s country. Due to the current state of the military and

Fighting for the homeland means fighting for freedom, but how can men defend their country against enemies if they lack of the ability to fight? Conscription is strategy that utilized by nations to assemble a large and powerful military, prepared to be deployed in times of war or when the need to ensure the power of the state emerges. Mostly, conscription is for male and in some cases and some countries have also for women, and usually begins as soon as the end of the study; at the age, 18 years old. It consists of basic training and serve for two to three years maximum. Countries depend on their soldiers to protect and defend them, and that is the reason why various countries have compulsory service, such democratic nations as Germany, Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Israel, and Turkey. Most people maintain that serving the community should be voluntary, and each individual has the absolute freedom to join or not to join the military service. However, it is argued that military service builds