All Quiet on the Western Front A soldier in World War I tries to escape death, but death is all around him. In the anti-war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front by the German author Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Baumer is cast as the main protagonist as he tells his accounts of how it is being a soldier in World War I. As the war becomes a strong part of Paul Baumer life’s and defines who he is, Paul becomes physically and mentally affected as he may leave the war, but the war will never leave him. The war leaves Paul Baumer physically scarred. As they are engaging in war against the enemy, Paul describes his comrades and himself as he proclaims: “We have become wild beasts.
Not the form of growing up that most young men these days go through, but the growing up a man does when he watches friends die. The growing up that is necessary to stay alive during war. Howard Fast’s quote at the beginning of chapter seven states, “And you’ve lost your youth and come to manhood, all in a few hours....Oh, that’s painful. That is indeed” (111). These words best describes the point I’m making about the theme of this book.
Paul Baumer, the narrator, starts off with him and the other members of the Second Company, a unit of German soldiers, recovering after being taken back after two weeks of fighting in the front line. He reveals that only eighty soldiers from the original company of hundred fifty man were left after the last attack. Paul introduces himself and his fellow soldiers Leer, Muller, and Kropp - all nineteen years of age. All four boys were from the same class in school and each enlisted in the army as volunteers. He also introduces their close friends Tjaden, a locksmith that eats a lot and remains thin, Haie Westhus (also nineteen of age), a peat-digger, and Katczinsky, a forty year old soldier - the unofficial leader of Paul’s small group of comrades.
Paul Baumer, the main character and narrator in All Quiet on the Western Front has been enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Throughout this novel, the author, Erich Maria Remarque expresses the horrors of war and how Paul’s friends and his life was impacted negatively because of such a bloody, terrifying war experience. Before the war, Paul was a compassionate and sensitive young man who loved his friends and family very much. The war had done horrible things to him and destroyed him both mentally and physically. Paul and his friends experienced death scenes from the ones that stood by them since they stepped foot on the battle field to the ones on the other side.
Fireshadow Chapter Two Essay Fireshadow is a love and war story written by Anthony Eaton which explores the life’s of two teenage boys showing us the similarity of people’s problems facing them through time and how people from other countries for example Germany are not so different to us . The story is set in the Marinup internment camp in Western Australia during late world war two. The second part of the story deals with Erich Pieters, the German 17 year old boy with blonde hair and a strong positive view towards Hitler. He has a great national pride inherited from his fathers work in the army but as the story progresses after important events and Alice challenging his views and values we find him having a philosophical transformation as
Tim O’Brien A Coward In an attempt to relieve some shame and guilt about his involvement in the war O’Brien writes a story about himself that he has never before told anyone, titled The Rainy River. The story starts off at the summer of 1968 when he was 21 years old and was drafted to serve in the army. Before he was drafted, O’Brien had taken a stand against the war by doing things such as campaigning for the presidential campaign of anti-war advocate Eugene McCarthy and writing college newspaper editorials against the war. O’Brien recounts his thoughts on receiving a draft notice, feeling that he was not good for war and should not have to because of his educational accomplishments. O’Brien in the story tries to leave
A Man For All Seasons : In All Quite on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the question of who’s a hero and who isn’t is in World War I. Relationships between soldiers, officers, and the government led to the question being answered.A hero doesn’t expect to be rewarded for their efforts. Paul’s former teacher in high school filled his students minds’ with propaganda. Kantorek was a part told the boys lies of how war was. The boys got hooked onto this propaganda and registered for WWI.
Irony is the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect. We see this a tremendous amount in the book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. The novel is a story based on one man, named Paul Baumer’s time during World War I. Paul joined the German army with his friends from school. The way Remarque portrays irony is perfect, as soon as you read it you sense that irony is being used. Irony is an important part in this story because it shows how Paul is battling himself, others and everything around him during the war.
Coming of Age Facing war at age 18 is a difficult challenge, especially during WWII. A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a book about a group of boys at a boarding high school called Devon School. John Knowles was born in 1926 and raised in West Virginia. He attended two years of high school there and then went to Philips-Exeter in New Hampshire, until graduation in 1944. He then joined the air force after high school, and then went to Yale, eight months later.
Blakley 1 Stephanie L. Blakley October 10, 2011 English 91 .002 Leyton/McCormick PACT ESSAY The Pact is about three young men Drs. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt, who bonded as young boys growing up in a lower class community in Newark, NJ. In there senior year of high school they were tired of their life style and decided to make a pact to attend college and become doctors. I chose to write about Sam, and how his social life involving peers, mentors, girlfriends, and friends played a great role in achieving his goal. When Sam was growing up in a poverty stricken neighborhood his peers were a great influence in his behavior.