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Hierarchy And Order In All Quiet On The Western Front

1056 Words5 Pages

Throughout the recorded history of the world, mankind has adhered to the concept of peaceful order. Civilizations have been divided into castes and classes throughout history as a way of creating stability. The world is a chaotic place in which mankind has desired to bring order to in order to feel safe and in control. Such an ideal, however, cannot exist in the face of conflict, specifically war. War throws the notion of rules, regulations, and order out the window as soldiers fight for survival. The enlisted men as shown in All Quiet on the Western Front and Atonement embody the suspension of societal constructs, specifically hierarchy and order, in times of war. One major societal construct that falls away during war is the concept of hierarchy. …show more content…

In times of peace, nations bind their citizens to morals and ethics in order to create a natural order for daily life. In war, however morals and ethics have no place in a soldier’s mind. All Quiet on the Western Front exemplifies this notion when Himmelstoss arrives at the front leading to a violent revenge plot from Paul and his associates. On the night that the soldiers set out to take vengeance, Paul notes: It was a wonderful picture: Himmelstoss on the ground; Haie bending over him with a fiendish grin and his mouth open with bloodlust, Himmelstoss’s head on his knees; then the convulsed striped drawers, the knock knees, executing at every blow most original movements in the lowered breeches... (Remarque 49) In this moment Paul and the other soldiers involved in the attack, focus on their anger and do not care how much harm they are cause to their superior. Atonement brings forth a similar event when Turner, Mace, and Nettle reach Dunkirk. In a random bar, Turner discovers a mob assaulting an officer of the royal air force and notes the ferocity: “A hand whipped out and slapped the man’s face, knocking his glasses to the floor… A kick from a steel-capped boot caught him on the backside, lifting him an inch or two” (McEwan 236-237). The soldiers in the mob have forsaken ethical order to their rage over the lives lost to the unobstructed German warplanes. The conflicts that befall the soldiers of All Quiet on the Western Front and Atonement lead them to care only for survival, and cause them to forgo any ethical or moral order that they had known in times of

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