All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
參賽者：陳〇心（應外三）
名次：第一名
書名：All Quiet on the Western Front
得獎作品：
A book with disturbing tone, All Quiet on the Western Front arouses me to question what a war is really about. The story opens during the World War I, when Germany was in a crazy of war with France. Young and naive, Paul and his friends were inspired by their patriotic teacher Kantorek to join the army voluntarily on the French front. The war experience, however, was anything but what they had thought. People barely survive from the front in each battle; friends die in pain and horror; soldiers were maltreated in the camp by the government, and people feel not the glory of fighting the war but the fear of dying every day. The war made deep scars in the protagonist. Paul, a sensitive young man who is interested in poetry at school, describes himself as a “human animal”, lacking the ability to think and feel like a natural human being. The story ends sadly; Paul was shot to death as he tries to catch a butterfly, which was once his favorite insect before the war.
The themes in the story pointed out how war could affect one’s psycho. To begin with, the soldiers lose their humanity senses such as empathy, compassion, and emotion; the replacement is numb and indifference. This can be seen as one of the wars most drastic impact on soldiers—struggling from physical danger and the lost of friends, the soldiers had no time to console their fear and sorrow; hence, they were forced to detach themselves from emotions. Secondly, some ironies could be found when the author arranged the plot. At one scene of the story, Paul and his friend were discussing the reason that caused the war. It turned out it was not because of one country’s man is offended by another country’s man or due to a nation offending another nation. They finally realize that someone, maybe the emperor or the king, wanted the war to happen; whoever wanted the war must have benefit from it. Sarcastically, those who fought in the war do not feel that they are benefited in any aspect. The war eventually leaves most people in mourn and pain instead of benefiting them. Another point that the book wants to demonstrate is how the society is imbued with patriotism. Paul’s teacher was an extreme patriot and encourages his students to die for honor in the war for their country; however, too much patriotism blinds people with the cruel part of the war including suffering, wounding, dying, and fear. I think the author wrote this part out in order to criticize the society at that time.
The most grieving part which hovers me after reading is when Paul killed a French soldier in the trench due to fear. In the well-written words, the author depicts how absurd and cruel the war has made people become. After stabbing the French soldier, Paul realized that the French soldier was practically like him, who has a loving family waiting from him in his country. Paul felt even guiltier to find the photo of the soldier wife and thought of how despairing and painful for his wife to receive the dead news. This part ended sadly as the French soldier died eventually, and Paul curse to the sky of the bloody war. From my perspective, the story admonished how dreadful a war has cause a man, a family, a country to break down while criticizing the lust and vanity that the war possess in nature.
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