In "All Quiet on the Western Front," one major theme that remains constant throughout the story is that of starvation. The amount of pain, anxiety, loneliness, and sheer terror these soldiers have to suffer throughout the war is incredible. The soldiers' helplessness is a result of both their young age and their utter unpreparedness to enter the graphic world of war. They are barely able to ward off death, knowing all the time their world could shatter around them at any moment; that reality haunts them twenty-four hours a day without ceasing. It seems that in such times-when stress is spiked to astronomically high levels; when men are killed and blood and guts are spewing everywhere one turns; when a man can barely hear himself think over the never-ending drones, whines, and blasts of explosive devices drown out everything else- food would be the last thing on a young soldier's mind.

But food is all these soldiers can think about. The very opening scene of the book, in fact, takes place at the military base's kitchen, where the cook doesn't realize he has prepared meals for tongues that will never taste again. In class, we talked about how this scene sets up a rather domestic picture of life on the front line; the diction in this first scene is almost like young boys enjoying a picnic: "We are satisfied and at peace. Each man has another mess-tin full for the evening; and, what is more, there is a double ration of sausage and bread...The cook...is begging us to eat...He does not see how he can empty his stew-pot in time for coffee" (Remarque, 1). At the beginning of the story, therefore, the author has not nearly established these men as three-dimensional characters. Because he chooses to make the reader first see these soldiers in a relaxed state of camaraderie, Remarque establishes an important message: When soldiers are full, content, and at ease, they are exactly like any other group of friends; virtually indistinguishable from their civilian counterparts who might socialize at more conventional locations like bars.

However, when the illusion of safety and security is shattered, it becomes very clear that soldiers do not merely enjoy food, but will risk their lives to scavenge it. Consider a very different group meal scene near the end of the book that starts out remarkably like the first one. The soldiers are in an evacuated village and have procured themselves a feast. A couple of men play piano and sing while the others heartily prepare the meal. Suddenly, the house is shelled heavily. Everyone launches into action, grabbing the dishes and making a run for it. They somehow manage to reunite and resume the meal as though nothing has happened. Even though in the gap between these events they have experienced more death, destruction and suffering than ever before, the group of soldiers is still able to become human again once they have food in their stomachs.

These two events from the book show the importance of just how central sharing a meal with someone is to friendship. Even though each man knows he could die out on the battlefield, their troubles seem manageable, even when they can still hear the bombs falling outside and are well aware that the war is still around them.

Chronic hunger can cause serious physiological issues that affect not just soldiers in wartime, but households worldwide today:

http://medanth.wikispaces.com/Chronic+Hunger+(linked+to+food+security)

Coming of Age

In the beginning of the book Paul decides to join the war effort, which begins his process of transferring from boyhood to manhood. While on the front, Paul has many experiences that strip him of his child like innocence, and force him to become a man. He witnesses friends wounded and dying, animals being forced to suffer, and even has to take an enemy's life in hand to hand combat. For many people their transition from to childhood to adulthood is much more normal and slow-paced, however with Paul his transition must occur rapidly otherwise his life could be in immediate danger on the front. His rapid transition becomes even more clear when he gets to leave the front and return home for a few weeks. When back in his hometown at his own house, Paul sits in his room and wishes he could return to his childhood and just forget about the war; "I want to think myself back into that time. It is still in the room. I feel at once, the walls have preserved it. My hands rest on the arms of the sofa....There are a couple of flowers on the table. Pencil holders, a shell as a paper-weight, the ink-well-----here nothing has changed."(171) This quote demonstrates that Paul wants to return to his childhood, he wants that innocence back even if just while he is on leave. Sadly, the fact of the matter is that Paul cannot return to his childhood, he is now a soldier and a man, for better or for worse.

Here is a experience of coming of age during a war, from Lance Cpl. Ernest Prempeh from the war in Afghanistan.

http://www.marines.mil/unit/iimef/Pages/ComingofagethroughwarLanceCplErnestPrempeh.aspx

All Quiet on the Western Front

Courtesy of Paige Yeager:

 

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.

 

 

 

http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html

 

http://cnr.berkeley.edu/ucce50/ag-labor/7article/article35.htm

War Food

It is no surprise to learn that food in the trenches was anything but high class. Typical food included canned beef and bread. Although the food was far from delicious, soldiers still found delight in war food in various ways, whether it was from receiving extra rations, or from finding other types of food while patrolling villages. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul makes many references to food and the time soldiers spend sitting around eating. At one point, Paul and others soldiers are put in charge of watching a supply dump, which contains great amounts of food, means to prepare fresh dishes, and even several mattresses. For most soldiers, this is extremely rare so it makes sense that Paul and the others seize the opportunity. As Paul explains, “we zealously set to work to create an idyll-an idyll of eating and sleeping of course.” Later, enemy troops spot smoke leaving the supply dump and open fire. Despite being under attack, the soldiers stay long enough to finish preparing their meal. Paul barely escapes the attack because he must finish cooking potato cakes, his favorite dish. At first it seems silly that men would risk their lives to cook food. Then, at a closer look, it makes perfect sense. These men have spent months or years in the army and take great pleasure in what would seem typical to most civilians. Despite the grim outlook of battle on the frontlines, Paul and the other soldiers are able to take hours out of their day to just sit and enjoy a simple meal. It is luxuries like these, fresh food and a soft mattress, that provide an opportunity for the troops to momentarily escape the war. Perhaps it is a meal like this that keeps the men sane, if only for a little while.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWtrenchfood.htm

This website further describes some of the situations Paul and the other men experience. It also highlights the significance of the men's feast and provides some insight as to why men might be willing to risk their lives for just one meal.

Emotions Paul and soldiers today face

"I imagined leave would be different from this. Indeed, it was different a year ago. It is I of course that gave changed in the interval.... I find I do not belong here anymore, it is a foreign world. Some of these people ask questions, some ask no questions, but one can see that the latter are proud of themselves for their silence.... I prefer to be alone, so that no one troubles me. For they all come back to the same thing, how badly it goes and how well it goes.... Formerly I lived in just the same way myself, but now I feel no contact here." (pg. 168)

When Paul first finds out that he gets to go on temporary leave he is quite excited and ready to leave the war scene for a little while. This is of course how any solider would feel in this scenario. Once he returns home he actually realizes how much the war has affected his thoughts, his personal emotions and even the emotions he feels towards others. This is where the above text comes into play. Before coming home Paul imagined it so much differently and then when he got home he was disappointed. He came to the realization that the war has played a huge part in his life. He’s seen things no back home has ever seen and he is forever changed. He doesn’t know how to talk about what the war is like, so he decides not to even try. Bottling up your emotions is one the the worst things that anyone could ever do. You will never get any sort of relief unless you vent to someone about your problems. Its extremely hard to do, especially if the person your talking to has never experienced the things you have. But it is still so important and crucial.

This is what many soldiers that are coming home from war today are facing. Its called post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. This is basically a type of anxiety disorder that is brought upon someone when they experience a traumatic event. This article does a good job of explaining it and how it is affecting our soldiers. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/141375/20110504/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-on-soldiers.htm. I feel that this is exactly what Paul is going through. One of the symptoms of PTSD is avoidance of discussing the event. This is exactly what Paul was doing when he was coming home. So I truly think this is what Paul had and its so great that we have finally figured out why and what makes a soldier feel the way they do after they come home from war. They have served our country greatly so we need to appreciate them and help them get back to as much of a normal life after they return home from war as possible.

Worse Than Death

"Wearily I stand up and look out the window. Then I take one of the books, intending to read, and turn over the leaves. But I put it away and take out another. There are passages in it the have been marked. I look, turn over the pages, take up fresh books. Already they are piled up beside me. Speedily more join the heap, paper, magazines, letters. I stand there dumb. As before a judge. Dejected. Words, Words, Words - they do not reach me. Slowly I place the books back in the shelves. Nevermore. Quietly, I go out of the room." (pg. 173)

A major theme of All Quiet On The Western Front is war's ability to destroy not only lives but what life is left of the ones who survive. War kills and maims but it also does something much more sinister. In the excerpt above, Paul comes home on leave and realizes what his experience on the front has really done to him. He loved reading before he became a soldier and now he tries to rekindle that pre-war interest and yet finds an emptiness. The front has changed the way he sees the world. Paul finds that he cannot go back to the life he had and that tears him up inside. His family and community seems different and there is a quality of disorientation when he returns to his old life. The darkest aspect of war is that it is waged by older generations and fought by the younger ones. The reason why Paul feels like the life he had is gone is because it is the only one he knew as he was so young. It is a horrific cruelty of war and its advocates to send the youth to fight and die, but it is even worse to watch them come back with invisible scars and not be able to find where their lives went.

The following link describes the contrast of emotional damage in younger veterans to older ones.

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20060206/war-rough-young-soldiers

Separation of Realities

In All Quiet on the Western Front, I think the author really emphasizes that war is not at all the life that the soldiers were born for. He starts the novel out, as we discussed, in a domestic environment. This shows that this camp is their reality; what they have adapted and what they live for. The others become family figures to Paul, such as Kat role playing as a father. When they go into the line of fire, I look at it as their career that they have built in their life in the military. The new recruits are almost described as naive and shy children who have yet to learn the ways of life: the military life. It is as though they were just born when they signed up. Paul even describes most of the soldiers, including himself, as only boys even though they are seen as men. Inside, they are little boys in a man's body, which is symbolically noted when he takes off his uniform that makes him look bigger than the small boy he really is. This life, or reality, is different from their lives they created at home.

When Paul is at home, he is in a familiar but foreign place because he is in another reality and he has trouble separating from his military life. At home, he received schooling for a career that would require such information. However, in Paul's military life, he knows that the school gave him useless information. At home, they look at the war from a big picture. On the front, Paul has been looking at the added up details, and the others from his home cannot comprehend it because it is not a reality they know of.

When Paul leaves from home, though, he has trouble separating from the life he tried to get back into. Therefore, he is caught up in a limbo where he trying to combine the two realities he knows of: he tries to look at the big picture but still pays attention to the detail of who is the enemy and who is the ally. Paul has lived two different lives, but his life in the military is not accepted at home and his life at home is useless and stressful in his military life.

Mentions of Alternate Realities:
I also wanted to add that Paul thinks of the poster girl when he is with the brunette as an example of creating an alternate reality for the purpose of being successful at the moment. Also, when Paul is with the dying Frenchman, he creates the life he thinks the Frenchman has outside of the war so that he thinks of the man as a stranger with a "normal" life rather than an enemy who he is trained to kill.

Websites:
This website has some critical essays on the major themes of the novel. I am only referring to the first essay, The Lost Generation, which hits on the idea of there being two separate lives that the characters prepared for.
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/All-Quiet-on-the-Western-Front-Critical-Essays-Major-Themes-of-All-Quiet-on-the-Western-Front-Major-Themes-of-All-Quiet-on-the-Western-Front.id-6,pageNum-26.html
This other website is a description of how returning soldiers behave.
http://www.4militaryfamilies.com/articles/returningfromthewarzone.htm