ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

INTRODUCTION

All Quiet On The Western Front is a novel based on what the author, Erich Maria Remarque, experienced as a soldier. Remarque's purpose for this piece is to show the real aspect of war instead of some romanticized version. A fictional character named Paul Bäumer is the narrater of the story and he gives the view point of a German soldier using trench warfare to fight on the front in western France. The other main characters consist of his friends Müller, Kat, Kropp, Tjaden, Kemmerich, Behm, Detering, Leer, and Westhus. The significance of this book is to show what war is really like instead of showing some altered version. It shows how terrible and brutal war is, and it contains the effect war has on the soldiers, whether it be bad or good. War is also worse at this point in time becuase the men are coevolving with the weapons making war more brutal and intense. This book may be fictional but it is real in both the events and the emotional aspect.

foreshadowing- Foreshadowing is when the author uses signs to indicate what is going to happen later on in the story. In this story, foreshadow is key because the author uses several ways to tell what is going to happen. In my opinion, Remarque used it when the guys were talking about death and they say that they will all die at some point. This foreshadows the end because at the end of the story, everyone dies at the end.

satire- Satire is like the use of sarcasm,ridicule, or folly to lighten the mood of a story. An example of this is, " Kat turns his eyes to heaven,lets off a mighty fart, and says meditatively: "every little bean must be heard as well as seen" (Remarque 40-41). This quote is an example of satire because it is like folly and they are all laughing about the joke. It also lightens the mood up and takes their minds off the war for a few minutes.

emotion- The emotional aspect is like the author using emotion to make a point in the story. He uses emotion by having Paul recite the quote above about how he was sorry he killed the French man. When Paul says this it just shows how everyone in the war is a normal person but they still fight when they should get along. It also shows the brutality of war and how people may not understand it as well as the people in the war.

Comrade, I did not want to kill you. If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too. But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. It was that abstraction I stabbed. But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony—Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy? If we threw away these rifles and this uniforn you could be my brother just like Kat and Albert. Take twenty years of my life, comrade, and stand up—take more, for I do noy know what I can even attempt to do with it now (Remarque 223)."

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

< This quote occurred in chapter 9 after Paul killed a French man named Gerard Duval. Paul starts to realize the brutality of the war and he finally starts to realize that every man in the was has a family and is normal like himself.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is exactly what it says. It occurrs after a war, or trauma, and it consists of various symptoms like depression and certain reflexes to things that happen post war. It could be anywhere from nightmares, to having to stop on the side of the road while driving for fear of a bomber. My beleif of the matter is there really is no such thing as PTSD. PTSD is really just a previous disorder, or memorable event, in one's life that causes stress after a drastic event like war. The event prior to the war could have been your father dying, and after the war you will think of the similarities, which in turn causes stress.

Some people can talk about the war at will, proving that there is something other than PTSD causing stress. Also, stress leads to heart attacks which leads to death, but some of the oldest people living were in the war, therefore proving that ther is no such disorder. Also, it could just just be depression that a veteran is suffering from. My grandfather was a medic in World War II and he saw more people die than half the army saw, and he didnt even have a gun to defend himself. After the war, my grandfather would tell stories about the war and he never had a problem doing it. He also continued to be a doctor and he never had any signs of depression. In the book All Quiet On The Western Front, one of the characters named Paul, goes home but he ends up going back to the war, and that goes to show that he obviously did not get PTSD since he wanted to go back.

The opposing side of the argument may say that some men experienced a bad attack, while others suffered a more mild attack. My side of the matter would say that this should not effect them any differently because people die in events other than war. On september 11th a lot of people died but no one has PYSD from that incident. Also, my grandfather didn't get it and he saw a lot of people die.

As you can see, PTSD is nothing other than depression, which is very common among all types of people.

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This letter is written to the editor of a newspaper explaining why i think PTSD is not truly a disease but simply just depression. In the book All Quiet On The Western Front Paul has symptoms of what they think is PTSD but it really isn't, it is just depression from what i can see. He goes home and ends up not knowing what to do with his life so he goes back to war. He could also not speak to his mother about anything because it hurt too much to talk about it. This letter relates to the book very well because it includes my opinion of the disease along with a part of the book, and it includes another story from another war proving that there is no such thing.

Remarque, Erich M. All Quiet on the Western Front. New York: Random House Group, 1958.