All Quiet On The Western Front
...riends suffer. The men are subject to constant physical danger as they could literally be blown to pieces at any moment. This intense physical threat also serves as an unceasing attack on the nerves, forcing soldiers to cope with primal, instinctive fear during every moment of the war. They frequently go without food and sleep, adequate clothing, or sufficient medical care. Also the rats and decaying corpses in the trenches shows the soldiers the reality of war at its worst. The longer a soldier fights in the war the more the war effects him, so many lives are lost around some may even be people who have been around you for a long time and still the soldier is expected to continue his duty to serve his country. The only way for soldiers to survive is to disconnect themselves from their feelings, suppressing their emotions and accepting the conditions of their lives. An example of this is during Kemmerich’s battle for life. Soldiers are wondering who will be the ones to get his boots, many not even bothered hoping for his survival, a pair of boots has now become more cherished than a persons life as they are subject to loss of life everyday that it is starting to not effect them. No other place in society would ever find this socially acceptable, it’s all just the nature of war and even the most normal soldiers were eyeing Kemmerichs boots. Strengthening and hardening of the individual are two separate things. Paul is so used to war that when he receives his leave from the front he wishes he had never returned to his home. Seeing his dying mother and causes her more sadness only makes his want to leave earlier and return to war, where his feelings have become more adapted there in that he has become hardened and finds it easier to withstand war, than his sad dying mother. Hardening is an extreme of strengthening. As we grow we lose some of our childish ideals and thinking and become a stronger person. Hardening of an individual is rapid strengthening in which all sensitivity and empathy towards others can be thrown away while we focus on something that is way out of our depth, such as a war. As soon as sensitivity is lost within a person it is hard to regain, especially in the situation of war. Our society as a whole is a fairly tolerant one, which expresses sympathy for each and every individual. Paul shows this sympathy early in the novel even towards the opposition as he sees they are in the same position as he is and is able to relate to them. Paul and his friends were at such an important stage of there life. Only for a war to interrupt there development as a person. Paul is in a transition stage. He is slowly beginning to develop values, relationships, and patterns of living. This issue of being young and lost is explored during the end of the book with the quote “We are like forlorn children, and inexperienced old men; we are crude and sorrowful and superficial – I believe we are lost.” Wars are not fair on the younger generation and for the growth of a nation. Youths are not the right people to be fighting a war. Kropps philosophical idea says it all “all declarations of war ought to be made into kind of a festival, with entrance tickets and music, like they have at bullfights. Then the ministers and generals of the two countries would have to come into the ring in boxer shorts and armed with rubber truncheons, and have a go at each other. Whoever is left on his feet is declared winner.” These young men are fighting a battle they know little about, this says that they are the wrong people to be fighting in this setting of war. These wars are only being fought by nations leaders for power and greed and they will stop at nothing to get what they want, even risking the future survival of there younger generat...