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Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

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Recommended: Influence of mass media on society

As a society we have become reliant on the media for information on what is going on in our world. This focus on media gives people a new perspective on a topic that can get them to change how they feel about these important events. Whether it’s movies, books, television, or even the news of the time period, people will absorb a new piece of media that changes how they see things in society. This also lead to more controversial topics becoming popular due to people infusing these topics with their own opinions that are rooted in memorable narratives and reporting. This is best shown during a time of a lot of media incorporating anti-war narratives, which while not new, was brought up heavily again in the controversy of the Vietnam War, with …show more content…

Due to this, the topic of war has been present in them for thousands of years. Books like All Quiet On the Western Front tore down the romanticised depiction of war that were commonly thrown around before the mechanized slaughter that was brought about in the 20th. This book and the brutality portrayed within, make people think twice about war and the consequences of all those involved. The anti-war sentiment is show by Remarque and his personal experiences in WWI in All Quiet On the Western Front, “We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces.”(Remarque, 1918) A more modern example of this anti-war message would be The Things They Carried and its examination of the horrors of the Vietnam War. Tim O'Brien's approach to an anti war novel involves the narrator questioning how a war story should be told, with him saying, “A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible …show more content…

This media first started with newspapers and the radio, much more sanitized depictions of events also stemmed from these limited sources. Due to this, the true suffering and brutality of wars going on during the early 20th century were censored and sanitized in an attempt to keep the public in favor of the ongoing conflict at that time. This all changed during Vietnam. What would have never been seen by the public during Korea and WWII, were broadcasted directly to the homes of millions of Americans who got to witness the suffering of those involved from the comfort of the United States. This ability for Americans to see what was truly going on caused anti-war support to sky-rocket, eventually leading to the US withdrawing troops from Vietnam. This change is shown in Daniel C. Hallen’s The Media, the War in Vietnam, and Political Support: A Critique of the Thesis of an Oppositional Media, “A model for explaining changes in the level of critical coverage is offered, emphasizing media response to the degree of consensus or dissensus among political elites.” (1984) The brutal images of the conflict in Vietnam were accompanied by brutal reporting by some of the most trusted figures of the time period. The anchors of the time were seen as completely truthful and had no reason to lie, thus making the horrors and pointlessness they spoke about all the more troubling for the

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All is Lost in War Before World War I, war was glorified and many a young boy hoped of becoming a soldier. After World War I, war had been given a new darkness of scarring memories from veterans of the debacle. All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque, and In the Field, by Tim O’Brien, help shed the light on this shade that looms over war now. In All Quiet on the Western Front and In the Field, common themes of lost generation and horrors of war are present in a bold fashion.

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Propaganda was also a large contributor to politics during this event, and many portrayed the blind escalation of the war. The Vietnam War stands as an undeniable testament to the

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War, Belief and Emotion People comprehend war very differently; they either hate it, understand it, or love it; there are many literary works with stories depicting these points of view. In 1990, author Tim O’Brien described his view of war with his “work of fiction” The Things They Carried, a book supposedly based on his experiences in the Vietnam War. His descriptive and emotional work richly depicts the feelings and activities of several drafted soldiers in the Vietnam War. Twenty-two years later and based on an entirely different war, came American Sniper, the memoir of a sniper in the Iraq War, by Chris Kyle. Kyle’s proud and rhapsodizing work depicts his strong supportive feelings for the war and what he did there.

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Tim showcases these feelings through this quote, ““If at the end of a war story, you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste…then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie….” (O’Brien 68). The book’s title is apparent throughout the book as the soldiers are shown having various objects that they carried through the war in Vietnam. Tim states how, “… It is safe to say that in a true war story, nothing is ever absolutely true… Sometimes war is beautiful, sometimes it is horrible…” O’Brien (82).

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According to The University of Virginia’s document, “The 6:00 Follies: Hegemony, Television News, and the War of Attrition”: “Vietnam... is often is

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How did the medias portrayal of Tet Offensive change Americans outlook on the Vietnam War? Imagine, sitting in your living room and instead of watching Modern Family or the Bears game, watching American troops fighting a live war overseas. Seeing countless people being killed, bloody battles being tirelessly fought and innocent civilians fleeing in terror. How would that affect your view on America's involvement in the war?

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One of the most controversial wars in history and a turning point in American foreign policy, the emotions and events surrounding the Vietnam War capture the essence of the era. The rise of rebellious youth culture and anti-war and anti-draft movements were key social aspects of American life leading up to and during the fighting. (Doc 2, 3) On the political side, Congress aimed to control the Chief-Executive with legislation such as the War Powers Act of 1973, requiring the president to remove all unreported troops in Vietnam and report any further sent. (Doc 7) To say the country was divided would be a massive understatement.

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World War One was a very gruesome and lengthy war that physically and emotionally wrecked the soldiers who fought for their country. All Quiet on the Western Front is a book written by Erich Maria Remarque that defines what war is like in the eyes of soldiers. Some of Remarque's main characters in his book include Paul, his high school peers, and his schoolmaster Kantorek. These 19-year-old boys were fresh out of grade school and decided to enlist in the military due to Kantorek's forceful pressure for the boys to fulfill their patriotic duties. He pushed nationalism and patriotism in his lectures when recruiting the young boys to serve their country which the boys believed until they became soldiers and quickly learned that Kantorek's opinion

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Erich Maria Remarque was a man who had lived through the terrors of war, serving since he was eighteen. His first-hand experience shines through the text in his famous war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, which tells the life of young Paul Bäumer as he serves during World War 1. The book was, and still is, praised to be universal. The blatant show of brutality, and the characters’ questioning of politics and their own self often reaches into the hearts of the readers, regardless of who or where they are. Brutality and images of war are abundant in this book, giving the story a feeling of reality.

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Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Thing’s They Carried, reveals the author elaborating on his experiences of the Vietnam War through various war stories. While elaborating on his own personal experience from the war, he is also able to delve a little into how the war affects the country. “War has a catastrophic effect on the health and well being of nations. Studies have shown that conflict situations cause more mortality and disability than any major disease” (Lakshiminarayana and Murthy).

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The war in Vietnam to do this day has gone down as one of the influential and controversial wars in United States history. The war lasted from 1955 to 1975.The nation as a whole began to uproar over the war and the major consequences of the war. There were many reasons why so many Americans were against the war. Public opinion steadily turned against the war following 1967 and by 1970 only a third of Americans believed that the U.S. had not made a mistake by sending troops to fight in Vietnam (Wikipedia). Not to mention, many young people protested because they were the ones being drafted while others were against the war because the anti-war movement grew increasingly popular among the counterculture and drug culture in American society and

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Also, newspapers revealed stories and government secrets that proved that the American people were being lied to ( New York Times vs. the United States). The Vietnam war is believed by some to be a war deeply rooted in economics. Many aspects of the United States were affected directly. The Great Society programs were suffering because the money that was put towards the war, could have been used to help poverty programs.

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The American media was informed regarding the US military involvement in Vietnam. With the support of new technologies, American reporters supplied with modern video camera or audio recorder were able to take more photographs and record video materials. Additionally, since television became more common to American families during the Vietnam War (from 1960 to 1975), Americans at home used to watch evening news programs daily. The American public increasingly relied on visuals to follow the situation of the Vietnam War. Erin McLaughlin, a famous international CNN correspondent, criticized that, “Television coverage brought images of the war home to the American public, yet these images were rarely a true reflection of the war itself.

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