ipl-logo

The Psychological Trauma In All Quiet On The Western Front

902 Words4 Pages

War Prompt War always has an impact no matter who is involved. This can be a good thing to the nations and groups who win the war, or a bad thing for those on the other side, but the men involved on either end are forced to endure specific things that affect them for life. The psychological trauma on soldiers not only affects them when in war, but also afterwards when they are in society. Experiencing an event or taking part in an act leaves scars on these people who sometimes have to live with it for the rest of their lives. What a soldier experiences and sees during war leaves them with traumatic memories even though they may have not taken part in it. Many of them find a disconnect of moral ambiguity in which All Quiet on the Western Front …show more content…

Killing an innocent person is something that sticks with soldiers for the rest of their life, and it is sadly praised in many cases like in Jonathan Lucas story where he “laughed because (he) was insulting him and felt powerful that (he) killed someone… But it was also false bravado” (Lucas, paragraph 4). This state of enjoyment in the taking of an innocent life sounds like something only a mentally insane individual would find excitement in, but because of the circumstances, these normal american men laugh at what they had just done. It’s an act that will mentally be stained inside their heads and for many, causes PTSD. Even just killing the enemy in a situation leaves traumatic memories as is the case for Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front where he is faced with a french man and he “strikes madly at home, and feel only how the body suddenly goes limp… I want to stab him again… but have suddenly become so feeble that I cannot anymore lift my hand against him” (Remarque 216). The excerpt shows a man doing everything natural to protect himself, but ends up feeling terrible about it. If Paul ended up surviving the war, he would not forget this day and feel guilty for the rest of the life he lives; as would any man. Psychological warfare could even cause a man to stop doing and stop fighting after a traumatic experience as John Sheppard is a victim to with his “behavior became erratic, and soon he refused to go on patrol” (Paragraph 3). People in war have moments that just break them, and this was his moment. There is really no good solution to stop someone from having a quitting point because it is all psychological. Taking part in an undesirable act can mentally destroy a man just as much and if not more than just seeing it

Show More
Related

Paul's Insanity In All Quiet On The Western Front

670 Words | 3 Pages

Because of this Paul starts believing he will have to start doing things that may cost him his life in the war and may cost his mentality. “We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world, and we had to shoot it to pieces.”(pg 87). During the war, Paul loses so much, even control of himself that all he felt in the war was mostly insanity. Paul also experiences insanity by seeing so many of his comrades dying. “Besides us lies a fair-headed recruit in utter terror.

Read More

Summary Of All Quiet On The Western Front

798 Words | 4 Pages

Then the ministers and generals of the two countries can have it out among themselves (Remarque, pg.41)”. This shows that Paul and the soldiers were not ready to be involved in a battle and at the moment scared to fight a war that doesn't involve them. Their understanding and look of the war changed for Paul and his friends. They could no longer be happy after seeing the horrors of war. “We see men living with their skulls blown open; we see soldiers run with their two feet cut off, they stagger on their splintered stumps into the next shell hole; a lance corporal crawls a mile and a half on his hands dragging his smashed knee after him; another goes to the dressing station and over his clasped hands bulge his intestines; we see men without mouths, without jaws, without faces we find one man who has held the artery of his arm in his teeth for two hours in order not to bleed to death (Remarque, pg.134)”.

Read More

Ambush By Tim O Brien Summary

1333 Words | 6 Pages

Does war make us feel safe? Does war make other people feel in danger in their own homes? When troops come home do they feel safe, and secure? Twenty-two troops commit suicide daily. Through the history of the world there has been violence, but how do people feel about war, how do they feel when they come back from war, do they feel safe and secure?

Read More

All Quiet On The Western Front: An Analysis

1181 Words | 5 Pages

After the traumatic experiences he suffered through, Paul made mental growth in the human aspect. He figured out that “there are still human faces” even in his enemies. Further in this realization he sympathizes with the rest of the wounded soldiers stuck in similar hospitals all over the enemy lines. This identification attaches Paul to the enemy, positively affecting his mental condition. He recognizes that he is not as drastically different as he thought which ultimately changes his outlook on the war.

Read More

Paul Baumer In Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

563 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque tells us about the impact of World War I through a solider named Paul Baumer. Before the war, Paul was an empathetic, understanding young man who was full of patriotism and wanted to fight for his country. However, throughout the war, the fear and constant apprehension disconnected him from his emotions and completely changed the person he used to be. One event that had a major impact on Paul was when he stabbed an enemy soldier who jumped into his shell hole in the middle of a bombardment. When Paul realized the enemy soldier wasn’t dead right away, he used his own supplies to bandage the wound, even though he knew death was inevitable for this man.

Read More

Emmerich's All Quiet In The Western Front

1138 Words | 5 Pages

All quite in the western front was a very good war book. For people like me who have never experienced the horrors of being in battle during war, this book painted a good picture of what it was like being in battle. The emotional trauma that these men had to endure, words cannot express what they must have been through. The book All quite in the western front had many traits that it expressed in it such as loss, despair, and alienation. Many would agree that this book expressed the trait of loss in this book many times; however, this book portrayed loss not only in death, but also innocents, and how the characters have changed.

Read More

Analysis Of All Quiet On The Western Front: The Horrific Penalties Of War

1434 Words | 6 Pages

If we let him go he would run about everywhere regardless of cover”(109-110). The young soldier with no prior knowledge or training in battle is now being introduced to the mental drawbacks of warfare. The young combatant is reduced to relying on only his instincts, no matter how strong or weak they may be, instead of coping with war by not thinking much of it. The mental catalysis of war cause many to break down emotionally and mentally, and after they are left with an unstable mental state with no say at what they might do next. Ultimately, Paul himself begins hallucinating and imagining many commodities he has seen from the time he started the war till the present, “In whirling confusion my thoughts hum in my brain- I hear the warning voice of my mother, I see the Russians with the flowing beards leaning against the wire fence, I have a bright picture of a canteen with stools, of a cinema in Valenciennes; tormented, terrified, in my imagination I see the grey, implacable muzzle of a rifle which moves noiselessly before me whichever way I try to turn my head”(210).

Read More

The Effects Of War In All Quiet On The Western Front

889 Words | 4 Pages

War carries important morals that heighten the perspective of men and women on their nation, but it also entails many acts and experiences that leave lasting effects on their emotional and physical state. Throughout the following texts, Paul Baumer, the dead soldiers, and Kiowa’s comrades all sustain losses that compel them to persevere and fight harder. All Quiet on the Western Front, Poetry of the Lost Generation, and an excerpt from In the Field all connect to the recurring theme, horrors of war, that soldiers face everyday on the front line through the continuous battle. War involves gruesome battles, many of which lead to death, but these events forever affect the soldier’s mind and body. In All Quiet on the Western Front, men experience horrific sights, or horrors of war, through the depiction of the terrain, death, and the

Read More

All Quiet On The Western Front Trauma Of War

1201 Words | 5 Pages

All Quiet on the Western Front, a novel written by Enrich Maria Remarque in 1928 represents the horrors of wars that brought trauma upon the soldiers during the war, and eventually changed their ideals of their patriotism. Remarque shows the horror of the war through the traumatic experiences of the narrator Paul Baumer, his best friend Stanislaus Katczincky, and Paul's other closest friend and classmate, Albert Kropp. Paul Baumer, the narrator of the novel All Quiet on the Western Front experiences first hand the horrors of the war that lead to trauma from the encounters during the war. Throughout the story Paul starts to develop anxiety, as well as many of the other soldiers in the war, he learns to separate himself from his thoughts and

Read More

The Effects Of War In All Quiet On The Western Front

1366 Words | 6 Pages

War often has drastic and lasting effects on individuals; the violence and horror ages soldiers mentally and physically. World War I was a violent and distressing war; men came home with mental illnesses and never were fully able to sink back into society. Through these lasting effects common civilians with no affiliation were unaware to the consequences. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Remarque investigates the damaging effects of war on an individual’s identity using Paul Bäumer as a representation for all soldiers; he draws specific attention to the continuing loss of purpose and ability to relate to the rest of society.

Read More

All Quiet On The Western Front Effects Of War Essay

1064 Words | 5 Pages

However, when they were sent out into the midst of the war many of them realised the misconceptions they had and were led to believe. They became disillusioned as they realized that the war was much more brutal and horrific than they had previously believed. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Remarque effectively comments on the horrors of war from Paul’s perspective, especially when Paul comments on injuries the soldiers endure and witness by stating “We see men go on living with the top of their skulls missing; we see soldiers go on running when both their feet have been shot away…Another man…with his guts spilling out over his hands as he holds them in.” (Remarque,

Read More

Examples Of War In The Sniper

422 Words | 2 Pages

War is not just shooting guns and throwing grenades. War is a fight between people or upon themselves. War is a constant curse because in the end there will always be an injury. First, within the short story “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty the author depicts a young man who is scared but is fighting for the freedom of his country as a sniper. “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face.”

Read More

All Quiet On The Western Front Impact Of War Essay

776 Words | 4 Pages

The Impact of War on Individuals Wars are produced by the powerful. They take young faced men to fight, however the impact of war on those cannot be erased. Erich Maria Remarque the author of All quiet on the Western Front has taken the viewer through the eyes of young 18-year-old Paul Buemer and his horrific experience of being sent to fight on the Western Front during World War One. The novel takes the reader through the physical, social and the psychological effects of an individual impacted by war. Paul’s physical experiences of pain and loss has contributed to his character’s survival instincts and loss of innocence that he feels when joining the army.

Read More

What Is The Effects Of Romanticism In Slaughterhouse Five And All Quiet On The Western Front

1289 Words | 6 Pages

For centuries, in countless countries, war has been romanticized. This means, "If you romanticize war you 're making it sound like a glorious, beautiful thing. To romanticize is to interpret things that are not glamorous in a glamorous way" ("Romanticize" par. 2). The effects of romanticized wars are seen throughout Slaughterhouse Five and All Quiet on the Western Front. The false visions of war that soldiers blindly go into mentally destroy them little by little.

Read More

The Effects Of War On Soldiers In All Quiet On The Western Front

931 Words | 4 Pages

Out there I was indifferent and hopeless- I will never be able to be so again. I was a soldier, and now I am nothing but an agony for myself, for my mother, for everything that is so comfortless and without end. I ought never to come on leave. (Remarque 185) Paul clearly changes from wanting to come home to wishing he didn’t even step foot on his doorstep because he can’t find his place in life due to seeing all of the deaths that constantly surround him on the battlefield.

Read More

More about The Psychological Trauma In All Quiet On The Western Front

Related Topics

Open Document