Tuesday, September 06, 2011 11:10 AM
Throughout the time we have been reading All Quiet on the Western Front, we have talked about the importance of animals and the psychological effects of war on the soldiers. What I feel brings both of these together is the subtle theme of orders. When Paul discusses the horrible nature of Himmelstoss and what he’s made them do, he still mentions that ‘an order is an order’ and they do what he says, because he is their superior. Furthermore, whenever Paul goes back home and he sees his high school teacher as a recruit, taking orders from Paul’s friend, his teacher obeys because despite the drastic age difference, Paul’s friend is his superior.
Whenever humans attempt to tame animals, they do so by training them to obey orders: Horses are told by the reins when to stop, go, turn left, or turn right. Dogs are taught to sit, lay down, roll over, stay, and so on. Both of these animals are mentioned in the story and Paul relates the soldiers to them (and the Russians to dogs). Psychologist B.F. Skinner did a series of experiments where he compared an animal’s (in this case, a rat) ability to learn using positive and negative reinforcement. He came to the conclusion that negative reinforcement generates a quicker learning acquisition than positive reinforcement. Relating back to the story, both in boot camp and in war are negative reinforcement elements used to train the soldiers how to act in war and essentially, how to survive.
Continuing on the theme of orders, I feel as if many of my classmates were astounded when they discovered the lighter nature of the soldiers during war. Partially, we discussed, that is due to the fact that if they are serious all the time, they wouldn’t be able to deal with it. But on another level, I feel as if since they are told by a higher authority, even higher than Himmelstoss or his superior officer, to go out and kill the French and other soldiers because they are wrong, they feel as if another’s death is not ‘on them’ so much. In the 1950s, after World War II, psychologist Stanley Milgrim did an experiment on obedience to authority. What he discovered was that even if the subjects knew they were inflicting serious pain on another individual, however they continued to do it because someone of authority told them to do so. Milgrim’s hypothesis on why people acted this way was because they felt less guilty because they could put the blame on someone else. Even though this was discovered after World War I and after the story was written, I feel as these findings still apply. In the story, Paul frequently references how he knows what he’s doing is wrong and that the other soldiers are people just like him, when it comes down to it his instinct is to kill them. Essentially it boils down to not only survival, but because he’s doing what he’s been told.
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