Loss Of Innocence In All Quiet On The Western Front

“The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery. Over all, this story allows us to observe changes within the mentalities of army officers.

All Quiet on The Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque, is a novel composed after World War One to convey the experiences of German soldiers during this horrific time of fighting. He brought to light many important issues that occur during wars. In this book, three horrors of war that had the largest impact were the lack of sanitation in the trenches, the loss of comrades, and the shock that came from unexpected and ongoing shelling.

In the final analysis, the author of Fallen Angels incorporates imagery, irony and metaphors to convey the theme that warfare often forces soldiers to reconsider their traditional notions of right and wrong. This theme is important because it helps show what soldiers had to deal with. After reading Fallen Angels and contemplating the theme, the reader cannot help but wonder what their opinion on right and wrong would

We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers- we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals (Remarque 56). The book, “ All Quiet on The Western Front” , written by Erich Maria Remarque is a book about World War I where soldiers are consistently surrounded by death, fighting, and the bare survival instincts that war brings out in people. World War I effected poetry greatly by the death and bitter pain it brought to people's lives which influenced their writing.

Erich Maria Remarque was a man who had lived through the terrors of war, serving since he was eighteen. His first-hand experience shines through the text in his famous war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, which tells the life of young Paul Bäumer as he serves during World War 1. The book was, and still is, praised to be universal. The blatant show of brutality, and the characters’ questioning of politics and their own self often reaches into the hearts of the readers, regardless of who or where they are.

The novel All Quiet on the Western Front demonstrates a theme, war can be physically and psychologically harming. In this book it constantly shows examples of characters being harmed physically, but they also get mentally torn apart. An example of mental pain is when Paul goes on leave to visit home. He experienced severe PTSD and felt like he didn't belong there anymore because of his experiences. “I find I do not belong here anymore, it is a foreign world” (Remarque 168). While everyone keeps on going, forgetting about the war, he goes on with constant reminders everywhere. While there is psychological harm, physical harm occurs multiple times throughout the book. “Now I see that he is tormenting me, he is merely raking up the wound and looking up surreptitiously at me over his glasses” (Remarque 243). This instance is when Paul is getting pieces of shell picked out of him. The war causes men to

In Tim O’brien’s short story, “The Things They Carried,” O’brien explains more than just what people face at war. O’Brien gives detail of each burden, struggle, and memory each soldier carries into the war. He describes of a battle more destructive than a war filled with guns, bombs, and knives. He describes of a mind battle, one in which is the hardest any man can face. A mind battle controls your every decision. O’Brien explains it is important to have your mind battle-free so distractions will not flood your attempt of making successful decisions.

The Vietnam War was a long war full of casualties, a tragic product of war. Many Americans were drafted to fight for their country, and over 50,000 U.S. soldier were killed in combat. In All Quiet on the Western Front, a World War I novel, by Erich Maria Remarque, the soldiers and even the animals used by the military face the horrors of war by experiencing slow and agonizing deaths. The events that Paul Bäumer has witnessed gives insight to the horrors of war.

The author of All Quiet on the Western Front makes it very clear that he condemns war. The story is told through the eyes of an 18 year old student who enlisted in the army after his professor convinced the his class to serve for their country. From that point on, Remarque leads the reader through the battlefield with Paul and gives an unpleasant idea of the psychological impact the war has on the young soldiers. Paul begins to see his friends suffer from severe anxiety attacks with nightmares and uncontrollable shaking, while the “seasoned” soldiers in the company don’t seem to have any emotions toward the events going on around them. These are only a couple of the things that suggest that the author is against war and the stress it brings

All Quiet on the Western Front is a book about World War I narrated by Paul, a German soldier fighting on the front lines. All Quiet on the Western Front has many different themes, such as the horrors of the war and dehumanization. In the epigraph of the novel, it is said that the book will “try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.” The book claims that war is a force that not only wounds and maims, but also crushes character. Paul directly investigates why countries go to war, later facing issues of existence and mortality.

The Vietnam War was a long and catastrophic war. Among the American people, it caused divisive conflict between the state and those who opposed. However, regardless of U.S Military strength, the Americans lost the war and withdrew forces under the order of President Richard Nixon in 1973. In the late 1960's, younger Americans began to realize that the battles were a waste and men refused to fight in the war. Nevertheless, young adults were drafted into the U.S Army, including a young Tim O'Brien, author of many novels including fiction novel The Things They Carried, a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories, had just completed undergraduate school. In the novel, the protagonist, Tim O'Brien, catalogs a variety of experiences his fellow soldiers and himself endured during their time in Vietnam. In war, soldiers become brothers and their lives become intertwined; talking through their lives before war while experiencing the same disasters of war every day. O'Brien writes, "they carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die" (1141), in which this phrase represents their time together as it might be their last.

World War I was a brutal time period, with over hundreds of deaths each day. The soldiers in this period had great exposure to many harsh environments and moments. The novel

All Quiet on the Western Front began with one school teacher, Kantorek, who convinced Baumer and his friends to join the war. In the result of joining the war, Paul Baumer visits his childhood friend, Franz Kemmerich with an amputated leg. When Franz dies that night Paul realizes that war

The soldiers treat death in a way that is appalling to the average civilian. They simply brush away the death and move on as though nothing has happened. Paul reasons, "Here, on the boarders of death, life follows an amazingly simple course, it is limited to what is most necessary, all else lies buried in gloomy sleep;-- in

The summary of the point of view trying to be made is soldiers, who dealt with the stress and horror of war often unleashed their feelings by hurting other people or animals, or doing things, that seem very childish, but it helps them personally to deal with all of their problems, whether it’s problems from back home, or problems they face every day through the