The corporal’s eyes narrowed. Decades after the war, men who had looked into those eyes would be unable to shake the memory of what they saw in them. Louie dropped his eyes. There was a rush in the air, the corporal’s arm swinging, then a fist thudding into Louie’s head. Louie staggered.
Suddenly, Sergeant Bowen thought he was back in Vietnam- “crouched and rigid, eyes on fire, palms flat, fingers as stiff as he could make them” (620) -and it wasn’t his son jumping out at him, but an enemy soldier, and it was imperative he defend himself. After this incident, Johnny understood “noise alerted [my father] to my presence and prevented his being surprised and reacting on instinct” (621). Johnny has adjusted to the fact that his father is easily startled, yet another symptom of
This passage shows how the soldiers are emotionally and mentally drained by the horrors of war, and how they feel disconnected from the world they once knew. The
On their way to the front, Paul and his comrades hear the distinct sound of a mortar firing towards them, but the “animal instinct that is awakened in us we are led and protected” (56). Unknowingly, the second company dodge all the shrapnel and escape with their lives. When one’s life is in danger, the primitive instincts are able to make split-second decisions that can save one’s life. While reflecting on his time in the front line, Paul realizes that all the soldiers “turn into animals when we go up to the line, because that is the only thing which brings us through safely” (139). Instead of reflecting on the happier times before the war, Paul can only think about the front line.
This description paints the scenes of the poem as they happen, the powerful connotations of the words battling against each other, and to the grievance of the reader, the negative feelings prevail. This battle illuminates the brutality and fear experienced by soldiers, in WWII, during their final moments on Earth - their fear, sadness, and horrified disgust all hidden between the lines of these two sentences. Foreshadowed by the soldier's machine like tone, the speaker alludes to the fact that he will fight for his life, and
In the midst of war, soldiers are so absorbed by pride, fear, and adrenaline, they can't quite grasp the reasoning for their
This chapter explored how war can mess with the mind. O’Brien even mentions "Imagination was a killer" when describing a time when they had to wait on soldiers to tell them a tunnel was clear to enter. This quote leads us to believe that the fear was scarier than an actual
This quote tells the reader about the man that one of the soldiers killed, “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star shaped hole…there was a slight tear at the lobe of one ear …his neck was open to the spinal cord and the blood there was thick and shiny and it was this wound that had killed him.” (O’Brien, 118). This quote contributes to the larger argument that O’Brien is trying to make that while in the war the soldiers had to witness things like no other. The wording in this quote allows the readers to vividly picture what was happening right in that moment in time. This quote vividly describes the muck hole, “There were flares and mortar rounds, and the stink was everywhere-it was inside him, in his lungs- and he could no longer tolerate it,” (O’Brien, 143).
One of the main shifts in the view of war portrayed in All Quiet on the Western Front is through the new soldiers brought into the trenches after their training. As they are in the middle of a shell attack, the
People identify one another in a variety of different ways. Whether it’s their skills, their features, or what they say, identifying people can be difficult, especially while the rest of society preaches the opposite. In the events of the past as significant as war, society’s view of the enemy poses many burdens for the soldiers. One of the greatest war novels of all time All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, starts to draw out these hardships of the war for the readers. The most common and most impactful trial war soldiers face is the a vague notion of the enemy.
Clearly, when the soldiers turned off their emotions because of the abundant trauma, their connection to life without war disappeared. They were left lost and confused, when peacetime occurred, trying to rejoin their two worlds together. They are now living with the very emotions they taught themselves to ignore on the battle field to
Men who have been up as often as we have become thick-skinned. Only the young recruits are agitated” (53). The men who have endured the war thus far and have succumbed a death that possibly awaits them have become stalwart. The inexperienced soldiers are flustered at how disturbing the war is. War changes your sensitivity.
Soldiers feelings War changes people and soldiers carry many different feelings. The power of the intangible things we carry- fear, guilt, in the stories “Where Have You Gone Charming Billy”, “Soldier’s Home”, “Escape” and the Things they Carried. Soldiers carry the very powerful emotion of fear. In the story Charming billy, Paul Berlin carries fear. “Though he was afraid, he now knew that fear came in many degrees and types and peculiar categories…” (O’’Brien 4)
There were flares and mortar rounds, and the stink was everywhere- it was inside him, in his lungs- and he could no longer tolerate it”(149). Since the war the soldiers get flashbacks of different scenarios all the time. It takes a toll on how they think and the trauma, guilt, and grief they felt in that
Feel the Bern “Finally, let us understand that when we stand together, we will always win. When men and women stand together for justice, we win. When black, white and Hispanic people stand together for justice, we win” (Bernie Sanders Quotes). For too long, Americans have been dealing with discrimination, inequality, and racism. Disputes over gay marriage, transgenders, immigrants, and race have preoccupied what is truly important to this country, freedom.
