Effects Of All Quiet On The Western Front

No one wants to go to war. The presence of war in a country can destroy the economy and any stability there was. One of the more noticeable effects is the negative impact war has on the availability of food, which is harmful for both civilians and soldiers. It is possible to see this through the lenses of All Quiet on the Western Front and A Long Way Gone, as well as their real-world counterparts World War I and the Sierra Leone civil war.

In ALWG, food is mentioned often, from both before and after the rebels reached Ishmael Beah. Food is a reminder of home, a signal of safety, and a major stressor for Beah throughout the book. During flashbacks, Beah talks about food from home, everything from his grandmother insisting he learn how to cook (Beah, 22-23) to ________. However, once the rebels get to his village, food becomes rarer. Beah is forced to

Germany was no exception. In order to help control food shortages, the government placed numerous controls on food production and sale. Paul Cornish reported that “Germany introduced numerous government controls on food production and sale”. However these efforts proved ineffective. Cornish later writes” …these proved to be badly thought out and worsened the effects of the British naval blockade. Substitute foodstuffs were produced from a variety of unappetizing ingredients, but their nutritional value was negligible and Germans became increasingly malnourished from 1916 onwards.” Unlike the successful U.S.A. food rationing, Germany’s efforts to help the war didn’t do much besides make civilians angry. And most German soldiers didn’t fare well either. “There’s no doubt that the British troops ate better than their German counterparts…” The same article reported that occasionally British rations included K-Brot, something similar to bread that was made of a lot of things, including straw. All things considered, a warring Germany was not a culinary