Recommended: Shaping the american literary identity
It provides insight into a very important period in American history. For those who do not like history or this period of history, this memoir will be dull and the reader will most likely dread reading it and give
Drew Gilpin Faust’s, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, is an intensive study that reflects on the impact of the Civil war had on the soldiers and civilians. Faust wanted to show that, as they dealt with and mourned over the overwhelming amount of carnage, the nation and the lives of the American people were already changed forever. Although there are many other publications relating to the Civil war, she is able to successfully reflect upon the morbid topic of death in the Civil war in a new and unique way. This book shows the war in a whole different perspective by focusing less on quantifying and stating the statistics of the civil war deaths. Rather, she examines more closely on how the Civil War deaths transformed the “society, culture and politics,” and the impact it had on the lives of the Americans in the 19th century.
There are two volumes of this book which the author called a narrative history of America. It comprises the information about the years from 1932 to 1972. And, unlike other typical (and boring) history books where the information is usually jumbled in decades, each of the 37 chapters of this book covers only one year. Here, I want to dwell upon The Part 1 (Prologue) and the years from 1932-1941.
War is a harsh reality that is inflicted upon the unwilling through the “need” of it’s predecessors and those whom wish it. All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is about 19 year old Paul and his friends in the “Second Company”. Even though they are just out of school age, they have already seen things that many could not bear to even think about. Eventually, all of his friends die, and even Paul too, dies. Remarque uses diction and syntax as literary devices to express his anti-war theme, or lesson.
D. Clayton James and Anne Sharp Wells inserts the reader profoundly into the time period that the world was at war in their book America and The Great War: 1914-1920. They take the reader through eyes of the Americans on how they looked at Europe engaging in their confrontations and through the eyes of the American soldiers who were prompted to learn how to fight after years of living their lives of normalcy. The minds of the United States citizens were not universally made up on the how they should enter the war. Many Americans and especially leaders throughout the country believed that the war was sickening and “a senseless war” to be fighting.
In Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, the author explores the horrors of the war. Remarque writes about famine amongst the ranks of soldiers, the casualties of war, the constant terror of attacks, and the horrendous diseases that plague many soldiers in his World War I-era novel. Remarque’s novel is centered around a group of German schoolboys, who enroll in the army due to the patriotic and consistent recommendations of their teacher. The novel primarily focuses on one of the schoolboys, Paul Bäumer, and the terrible tragedies Bäumer suffers throughout the war. Before Remarque’s novel, many war novels focused on the patriotism and welfare of war, omitting the dark reality that was
World War I was one of the most barbaric and horrendous events that impacted world history. In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich M. Remarque drives home this brutality through his main character. The theme brutality and carnage is displayed through the presence of death, violence, and the guilt the soldiers must carry within them. The soldiers were permanently scarred by the events they witnessed as death is always around them..
Ian K. Steele writes on how war shaped the new world. War between indigenous people and European invaders. And European colonists against one another. In this essay I intend to argue that both authors contribute equally important information that leaves readers with a view that is all encompassing of
War and its affinities have various emotional effects on different individuals, whether facing adversity within the war or when experiencing the psychological aftermath. Some people cave under the pressure when put in a situation where there is minimal hope or optimism. Two characters that experience
The United States has not officially had an official declaration of war, within itself or on another country since the second World War in 1941, but imagine what would happen if a civil war or genocide began right here in continental America. In Tracy Kidder’s The Strength in What Remains, the author describes the struggle of Deogratias “Deo” Niyizonkiza, as he finds a way to escape his home country, Burundi, while callous civil war rages on through the mountainous country. In contrast to Deo story, Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl, the author and main protagonist, a psychiatrist studying humans suffering, while imprisoned in the dreadful Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz. Frankl 's theory of the strength that love can have on a struggling person can be connected to Deo’s inner fight to find his way back to his love of helping other people with medicine.
Through the eyes of Paul Baumer, we witness the atrocities of war and the damaging psychological effect it has on him on his companions which paints the perfect picture as to why All Quiet on the Western Front is an anti-war novel. One of the
Throughout American History we have won and lost thousands of battles, earned and spent trillions of dollars, suffered through tragedies, and rejoiced at our successes. One common thread, running through all of these events is that no matter how powerful we are or how low we sink, we must ultimately come together to move on and to grow. To me, American History is all about unity in times of destruction and despair.
This war was greater for the American society than it was for their soldiers. While many of the soldiers lost their mind, American saw great economic growth and overcame the Great Depression. Finally, in the last chapter, Adams talks about the knowledge of postwar history. Although evil groups, such as Nazism, had been overcome, many problems remained in the home front that and some still exist
Throughout the ages, wars have wreaked havoc and caused great destruction that lead to the loss of millions of lives. However, wars also have an immensely destructive effect on the individual soldier. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, one is able to see exactly to what extent soldiers suffered during World War 1 as well as the effect that war had on them. In this essay I will explain the effect that war has on young soldiers by referring to the loss of innocence of young soldiers, the disillusionment of the soldiers and the debasement of soldiers to animalistic men. Many soldiers entered World War 1 as innocent young boys, but as they experienced the full effect of the war they consequently lost their innocence.
Writers and producers made a lot of pieces talking about WWI during the 20st century but they often approached in many different ways the theme of disillusionment. The Grand Illusion by Jean Renoir and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque each have their own way of talking about disillusionment. The novel is more realistic in describing the perspective of Paul, the protagonist, and what he felt when he discovered the truth about war whereas the movie gives a more allegorical point of view of the war with romantic scenes and no scenes in the “real” front. But an important fact to compare both the movie and the novel is that the authors both participated in WWI but not on the same side and they both got wounded a number of times. The two works talk about disillusionment in two different ways, from two different perspectives and yet they convey the same message about disillusionment; war is never as honorable as it is shown throughout the media.
