Defense Mechanisms

It's interesting when having read both All Quiet on the Western Front and The Sorrow of War to see how two soldiers have different reactions and trauma from the war. For instance, Paul desperately repressed most thoughts of his past and how things used to be before the war, and even towards the end of the war he doesn't even talk about his future. Additionally, he and his comrades use humor and games to deal with the horrific nature of war that they're constantly surrounded by. On the other hand, Kien constantly tries to relive his past whether it's through his writing and commemoration of battles scenes and the people who lost their lives, or his passionate, loving memories of Phuong before the war. Furthermore, Kien drinks away his sorrows whereas Paul didn't have a problem with alcoholism.

Although both Paul and Kien's reactions to the war were quite different, they both exhibit examples of defense mechanisms. Paul mostly exhibits repression and sublimation in order to cope. Several times in All Quiet, Paul mentions how the jokes he and his friends make may be cruel but they wouldn't be able to handle the war otherwise. As for Kien, he displays attributes of denial in some parts and rationalization. Throughout The Sorrow of War, Kien writes about some of the events he experienced in the war and he will say directly after something along the lines of, "it was so long ago, it seems like it didn't happen at all." Moreover, Kien tries to rationalize why he is still alive and others who he fought with aren't by thinking that he was meant to write about his generation, the 'lost generation'.

Despite Paul and Kien's reactions to war, there is absolutely no doubt that war is a horrific thing with terrible, traumatic consequences physically and mentally.

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/15-common-defense-mechanisms/all/1/