In the story “All Quiet on the Western Front,” WW1 is narrated by a German soldier, Paul. The war is explained as having mainly negative effects on the soldiers: “...men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war.” (1)
There can be no war without death. For some that meant that they were wounded, and for others it meant truly dying. For Robert Graves, that death came in the form of the ideals of his childhood. In Good-Bye to All That, Graves puts to rest his respect for authority figures. He entombs the religious values instilled in him from his youth. Finally, he inhumes the values of the British schooling system. However, the death of those values gives life to others. To replace his respect for authority, he learns a newfound loyalty to his fellow soldiers in the trenches. The abandonment of religious values leads way to accepting new stoic values. He supplants the values of his school with his own sense of honesty. In Good-Bye to All That, Robert Graves buries the beliefs of his youth and replaces them with the values he learned fighting in the trenches.
Combat, loyalty, enmity, bloodshed, and duty, all words that fit under the category of war. The novel Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is about Louis Zamperini a strong willed man raised in Torrance, California. He started as a young troublemaker until he discovered his passion for running in high school. That very passion led him to compete in the Olympics. Later he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, a brave decision that would change his life. War and its affinities have various emotional effects on different individuals, whether facing adversity within the war or when experiencing the psychological aftermath.
In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the young men in battle quickly learn that the war is a awful, destructive force that ruins lives. The boys, who are pressured by their teacher to join the army for glory, soon discover that the war is not glorious, but rather devastating. Paul, the narrator of this novel, goes through a lot of pain as a result of this war. The war destroys Paul and his friends’ lives, both physically and mentally.
In the harsh, dreaded winter at Valley Forge, your enlistment has finally retired. But now there is a decision to be made. Will I stay and be loyal to the Continental Army. Or will I abandon and never look back at the Continental Army. The decision must be made. It would be so easy to leave and not have to deal with all the death. But it also would be hard because my freedom could rely on this decision and the Continental Army needs my help. Therefore, I choose to stay at Valley Forge, for there is a chance for me to not die of sickness because of the medical care, there is also patriotism, and people are willing to fight for our freedom.
The world has been prospering from war for a long time. But, we do not always see the problems it causes. For instance, it tears families apart, it clashes generations, and finally it shows us principal versus reality. So, if war brings more bad things than good it defeats the purpose of even having a war in the first place. The authors of My Brother Sam is Dead also feels that war is pointless and unnecessary. War would be considered futile for many reasons including the fact that it splits families up. “Get out. And don’t come back until you come dressed as my son, not as a stranger.” (Collier and Collier 22). This quote from the book is representing how war split the Meeker family up. If it was not for the war Sam and Mr. Meeker would not
In the novel Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers, the main character is Richie Perry. At seventeen he graduated high school in Harlem, and he wanted to go to college, but his mother couldn’t afford to send him to college since she was an alcoholic. So he joined the army to escape his unfortunate future, but joining the army meant he had to leave his little brother Kenny, who saw him as a father figure since their father left when they were younger. Perry was sent to Vietnam and through his journey, he made lifelong bonds with many different people such as PeeWee, Monaco, and etc. Also in his journey, he suffers from mental and physical wounds. In the end of the book he was completely changed, he has lost his innocence, his sense of normalcy and morality, their hope, and his faith, and the
“It is well that war is so terrible-- otherwise we would grow too fond of it,” were the words once said by the Confederate General, Robert E. Lee. Indeed, even opposing nations can agree that war is full of destruction and devastation. Despite this, there are those who believe that war is glorious. Too often, movies and literature depict war as a virtuous endeavor. Young men are often told during war that they should become a soldier, for honor and glory. As a result, many young men are pressured into joining the military, or even join willingly, due to this over glorification. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen discuss this very topic. Quite similar works, both feature ex-soldiers as their authors.
Human kind have experienced many processes of changes throughout the history, and World War I was a new process that Winston Churchill talks about in his excellent article “Mass Effects in Modern World” written in 1925. He mentions that the new mode of life is different from previous because “collectivization” becomes more significant than individual independent, and he talks about the destructiveness of the WWI and its difference with previous wars. He also predicts some features of the future wars that would be seen in WWII.
In the short story The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty, a main theme is that war is cruel. This is supported by many details within the story. War makes people do things that they normally wouldn’t do, mostly because it is their duty to protect what they believe in or their country. For example, the
The war forces people into situations where the pressure is too much and the environment forces a change on how one views himself. Curt Lemon and Norman Bowker held themselves to standards that they couldn’t reach. They let the war determine how they live and who they would become. The war causes the human spirit to change so vastly that it leads to a demise, so quick and drastic, that it is hard to
Early themes in the beginning of the book point to the feeling of guilt and shame from not making the choice of going to war the thought to flee or fight a common human instincts were you going to be a “coward” in the public view and not fight or make the choice to defend your countries freedoms
In the past, the ultimate outcome of war has been freedom and sovereignty, but along the way many casualties had to be made. Many wars in history have rewarded nations with liberation and freedom from tyranny. For example, the American Revolution provided America with independence from Britain and proved that they could prosper on their own. Although independence was gained, some say that the end result could have been attained without the fatalities and violence of war. They don’t believe the freedom was really worth the fight. In My Brother Sam is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, Tim Meeker is torn between his brother and father on whether or not the American Revolution is worth the loss of life. Tim’s ultimate decision
The winter that George Washington’s soldiers spent at Valley Forge was backbreaking, cold, and the men had little clothing. Smallpox ran rampant, with a 40% death rate and a painful inoculation process. Because of the lack of clean water, the soldiers suffered from dysentery. After a few weeks, they had run out of meat, and were forced to survive on firecakes, a crude mixture of flour and water. Many froze or starved to death, causing the death rate to grow to 10 men per day. However, George Washington was an powerful inspiring force, doing everything he could to uplift his men, he worked day and night without leaving like all of his officers. He tried to do everything in his power to get his army through the winter. The soldiers, despite
Have you ever heard of a war without having a tragedy, war without peace, or even a war without innocent people dying? Any war in the world has impacted the economy, people and other countries. The outcome of war and death that Author Kurt Vonnegut shares is a reality of war, intended to improve the lives of people, but always leading to the death of human life(Overview Slaughterhouse Five). Author Kurt Vonnegut endorses this view in his novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, he shows that war can never be justified as long as innocent life is lost. "The nicest veterans in Schenectady, I thought, the kindest and funniest ones, the ones who hated war the most, were the ones who'd really fought."(Vonnegut). Soldiers risk their lives day and night to not only protect their country but protect their own lives, even if they don’t agree on what they are fighting for in the war. In Slaughterhouse-Five the death of