All Quiet on the Western Front vs. Lord of the Flies

Remarque’s novel seems to keep referencing and bringing up this argument of if these soldiers are only men or if they are displaying characteristics that are animalistic. A great example comes straight from the text of these animalistic qualities, “We have become wild beasts. We do not fight we defend ourselves against annihilation. It is not against men that we fling our bombs, what do we know of men at this moment when Death is hunting us down” (Remarque 113).

Another novel that displays these animalistic characteristics is from Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The following website takes you to a summary of chapter 9 within the book where the boys who are already in a very wild state mistake their own friend for a wild beast and tear apart and actually kill him. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/flies/section9.rhtml This book gives another example of how these animalistic qualities do not only take place in Remarque’s war novel but also with a group of stranded children on an unknown island.