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Man I Killed: Compare And Contrast Essay

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“The mountains, the forest, and the sea, render men savage; they develop the fierce, but yet do not destroy the human.” A quote by Victor Hugo that suggests the ability of humans to become savage and animalistic in the face of nature. All Quiet on the Western Front discusses the story of a young soldier during WWI including the dangers and problems of the war. The Man I Killed discusses the similar topic of a soldier who kills a man and spends some time talking to the man's decomposing corpse. All Quiet on the Western Front expresses that the dangerous situations a person can be placed in, specifically during war, can expose the savage or bestial aspects of humanity. The Man I Killed corroborates this. Both uses imagery, but All Quiet on the Western Front uses simile and metaphor while The Man I Killed uses repetition. All Quiet on the Western Front and The Man I Killed use imagery to show the savage and animalistic nature of soldiers during WWI. All Quiet on the …show more content…

It says on page 2, “His jaw was in his throat. His one eye was shut and the other was a star-shaped hole,” then on page 5, “He lay with one leg bent beneath him, his jaw was in his throat, his face neither expressive nor impassive. One eye was shut. The other was a star-shaped hole.” These are examples of the repetition in this short story. To have this impressed onto one's mind certainly would make them go a little mad. No matter what would happen to them, this image would haunt them forever. Seeing all of these people die would also make them think more about themselves and making sure this didn’t happen to them. On page 5 Kiowa says, “Come on, man, talk,” and later says, “Talk.” This is another demonstration of the impressions on a soldier’s mind. He tried to convince himself that this man wasn’t dead and it only made him frustrated which would make his savagery

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All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque is a story of a young man named Paul Bäumer who volunteers to be a soldier in the German army during World War One. Being at a very young age Bäumer, and three of his friends whom also enlisted to the German army from the same school he attended, felt proud when enlisting “we were a class of twenty young men, many of whom proudly shaved for the first time before going to the barracks” (AQOTWF p.21). Very soon, however, Bäumer and the young men he enlisted with begin to feel indifferent and embittered of being in the army “At first astonished, then embittered, and finally indifferent.” (AQOTWF p.21/22). Joining the army for Bäumer changed the way he felt about everything he knew in the past, and the way he thought of the people who stayed back home.

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