All Quiet On The Western Front Summary

Siege: A Novel of the Eastern Front, 1942 (originally known as Kampfgruppe Scherer) by Russ Schneider is a very gritty war story historical fiction novel. The story branches off and follows many different characters, with each one having a different circumstance, but all eventually meeting their demise in the frigid war torn land of Eastern Europe. The author Russ Schneider, born and raised in Michigan, taught composition writing at the University of Florida for several years before pursuing a Master of Arts in Creative Writing at the University of Florida. Schneider also intensely studied the Russo-German War for many years, going as far as to learn the German Language to be able to expand his sources and studies, which directly impacted his

The conclusion to the writer's theme of the novel is there is no theme. Russ Schneider uses his knowledge of the Russo-German war and use of creative writing skills to create a real war story. There is nothing to be learned, but only to be witnessed. Schneider seems to write like he is actually there, retelling the experiences that these soldiers had to push through, and not to spread a message or argue what is right or what is wrong. Most war stories promote an anti-war message (like the similar novel, All Quiet on the Western Front), but it seems that Schneider has no bias towards inflicting a message that involves a theme of anti-war, or any theme for that matter. Schnider probably wanted to write very real and gritty situations that one could take in on their own and decide want is right and what is wrong, instead of the writer dropping hints of a theme throughout the book. Sadly, this unique style of creative writing does not do this book service in actually being a good and enjoying

First (and most striking to me), are the abundance of weapons and how they work. Schneider goes into detail about many functions of small arms, and even larger weapons. The brutal winter that the Germans, who were very unprepared, had to survive and fight a prepared Russian army also is a very striking fact. The abundance of labor camps that scatter the Russian landscape is a sad part of our human history where millions had to suffer. Obviously, the sieges on both Cholm and Velikiye Luki were very bloody and gruesome parts of history, that are mostly forgotten in place of other events that occurred on the western front of World War II. Even though General Scherer is a fictional character, the real General - General Hellmut von der Chevallerie - of the soldiers of Velikiye Luki was separated from the rest of his men outside the city (“Battle of Velikiye Luki: Surrounded in the Snow.”). The brutalness and suicidal thoughts of the Russian soldiers who would charge at the enemy with no weapons or anything, but the thought that they were serving the Motherland, was also a crude reminder of how devoted the troops of the Soviet Union really