Stranger's Eyes

The main event that happened in the chapter that I read was the attack of soldiers after the bombardment. The soldiers slept and waited in trenches for the bombardment to be over. It went on for days, forcing the soldiers to stay put anxiously with corpse rats. Corpse rats are fat rats that live off corpses that war left behind. These rats are greedy and fierce. They even bit cats and dogs to death, just to satisfy their disgusting appetite. When the soldiers received their ration of bread, no matter how hard they tried to keep them safe rats would nibble and gnaw at it. Kropp, the thinker amongst them, wrapped it in waterproof bag and slept on it. These aggressive rate crawled over his face to get their greedy face into it. The soldiers soon got extremely tired of them, so they came up with a plan. The solders chopped off all the bits and pieces the rats nibbled at, and threw them into a pile, waiting for these rats to come. Once they did, they lit the whole pile on fire, burning the bread and rats into ashes. There were so many rats, they had to do it a number of times before the other rats realize what was happening, and temporarily stopped bothering them. These corpse rats sicken me the most.
The situation the soldiers had to live with during those few days were not the most comforting. As mentioned before, the men had to live with large corpse rats. As well, listening to bombs and shelling without end for days is complete mental torture. Many men began to go insane, they felt trapped in the trench, and were mentally tortured. They would try to get out of the trench, even though they would be killed the instant they were out. Paul and Kat had to stop one of the men from going out because a man before had run out and ran all over the place until he was shot dead. They had to tie him to a chair to prevent the man from running out, yet they had to be ready to release him right when the attack of soldiers came. They tried playing games to pass time, but everybody was too anxious. They couldn't sleep, and couldn't even look at each other, scared to be off guard any second. It's no wonder so many people had shell shock during this history of World War One.
An emotional aspect to this, and the theme that I chose, occurred after the bombardment when French soldiers began to attach the Germans. Paul described how each soldier survived by chance, and the novel painted a lively picture of the fighting. Hand grenades were thrown, rifles and machine guns were used, and men even died because they tripped over the wire that was used as defense, slicing their arms off. When Paul aimed his hand grenade at a soldier, until he actually saw his face and looked into the enemies' eyes. For a moment, everything else seemed unreal , and his hand would not release the grenade. This revealed how each soldier was there fighting, not because of hate of one another, but because of orders and self defence. Without these uniforms of ethnicity, blind artillery, two soldiers might even be able to sit down and become friends. None of the soldiers there were fighting one another, they were just trying to keep themselves alive. One of the things that really hit me, was when Paul said that even if his own father was there across with the enemy, he would fight. No soldier had the enemies' face in mind, they just had the fear of death and unpleasant excitement of war.
This might be the reason why this novel was banned, not due to any inappropriate content, but because of the maturity level needed to read this novel. I think if I came across this in middle school, I would've become very interested and would want to know more about World War One. This novel was banned due the harsh reality of humanity and was banned as just of a warning: THIS IS NOT YOUR HAPPY FANTASY BOOK. However, if given the choice, I wouldn't ban this novel, because it would inspire interest and respect among youth.

Brothers

This post would be a shorter one, because I have read one of the major themes in a short chapter. To summarize what I have read, Tjaden mouths back at Himmelstoss, and disobey his orders the next day to avoid Himmelstoss. In the end, a bigger authority figure came in. He understood both stories, and had a talk with Himmelstoss about his unreasonable acts. Tjaden and Kropp were open arrested for a day, not because of what they've done, but just to feed the satisfaction of leaders. Open arrest was described as soothing compared to closed arrest. Closed arrest meant the cellar, and are probably used for deserving punishments. Here we could see a bond already between Kropp and Tjaden. Kropp was arrested because of helping Tjaden.
The next brotherly connection we see is more of a major one, and is between Paul and Kat. The two go hunting secretly, and when they were cooking a stolen goose, Paul described that nothing was said among them. This is one of those "comforting silence" I suppose, where nothing said among two individuals were not awkward. It was because they knew each other so well, and felt that they were in unison, that no words were needed to be said. Paul even said that he loved him, " his shoulders, his angular stooping figure", which might be one of the reasons why this novel was banned. It could be said that it contained "homosexual content". However, Paul was really describing the spiritual intimacy they had with each other, how close they were as brothers. When he talked about his figure, he was describing what he was seeing as Kat took his turn of cooking the goose while Paul was falling asleep.
In a way, war might also be a protagonist because it made what Paul and his comrades into the people they were. It brought incredible connection between all of them, a special bond that nothing, other than war, would've brought them. The antagonist would then be life itself, the leaders and generals, and the bad outcomes of war. Bad outcomes of war meaning the enemies attack, shell shock, life threatening situations...which ironically would also have a "good outcome", because it was through those times the soldiers become closer with one another.

Home Bitter Home

The theme I get from today's reading is the hopeless future from the soldiers. Muller brings up the topic of returning home, "peace-time", asking what his comrades would do. Many of them list at once the comforts they had back then, including getting drunk. However, for the younger men, they had no hope. When they were eighteen and were only starting to enjoy life, they were taken to war. The schooling they had were long forgotten, and they had no skills other than the war they were in, to help them survive a job in society. Kat had a family and he had somewhere to go. Paul, Kropp, Muller, and Tjaden had war turn them into men. Schooling back then did not teach them how to escape from death's very own hands in the war. They began to worry, and even began to appreciate their life in the army. In the army, everything was set for them. They had orders to follow, given meals to crave for, and their goal in life was to survive and make best of a horrible situation. Everything else seemed unreal and unimaginable. They even said that they believed in war. As well, the experience they had with bombardment, death... in the war completely wiped out any memory of home. They could not just step out of a memory like this easily. Home was not sweet after all, and that is only if they make it back.
One of the most exciting moments in this novel happened here. The soldiers experience a bombardment. Bombs, and gas were released upon the men. The men were attacked in a graveyard, and they forced themselves into shell holes and literally beside recent and old corpses. It was sad because people who died and who were buried were flung out of their coffins, yet to experience another painful death. Men who died during the bombardment were merely covered with soil. A man had a coffin fall onto his arm, breaking it. Another had a huge injury to his hip joint, leaving unable to walk again. What makes it most interesting, is that after the bombardment, they had to walk back to the lorries. Paul and Kat considered killing him then, so that the poor soldier wouldn't have to die an inevitable painful death when they return home. While they were riding home, it was as if nothing happened. Each man falling half asleep, and routinely ducking their head to avoid slicing off their head with hanging wire.
The protagonist would still be the young and old men fighting in the war. Antagonist would be war leaders/government that created a war, and life itself that the men would have to face once they get out of the war. Novel once again banned due to harsh reality of warfare and inappropriate speech the soldiers use to communicate with each other.

Adult's conflicts.Child's play.

Give'em all the same grub and all the same pay
And the war would be over and done in a day.

I decided to start this blog with this quote said by Katczinsky from All Quiet on the Western Front, because I could interpret it in so many different ways. It was also the thing that jumped out at me while I was reading. One of the ways it could be interpreted is: if all the leaders in the countries go through what the soldiers are going through now, they would realize how harsh it is, and perhaps end the war. Also, the protagonist and his friends discuss about how the war could be simplified. Kropp, who was a thinker, suggested that war could just be a festival with tickets being sold. Generals and ministers could just fight it out in an arena, and whoever wins will represent victory of a country. That would've been much simpler than sending all these innocent young men to die. That sarcastic but true statement made me laugh. It also added the generals and ministers to the antagonist category. War and the leaders of countries were sending these men to the grave faster than anything. To be specific, it is the leaders who started the war, therefore they would be the main antagonist.

Through what I have read, I learnt more about Paul's friends. Kropp, was a thinker, who likes to think up ideas and analyze things that surround him, as we could see in the festival proposal he brought up. Tjaden seem the most immature of them all; he likes to eat, and could easily be carried away. We could see that through their revenge on a hated leader of the soldiers, Himmelstoss. The guys play a prank on the strict man, using a bed cover to cover his head, they pulled off his trousers and beat him. They ran away before he could see who they were, all that was left was the bed cover. Tjaden had been strictly educated by this man, so he got a bit carried away in beating the man. Kat(katczinky) was the one with the best survival instincts. If they were stranded in a hole with no food, he would go "explore" and come back with what the soldiers in the war situation call a "feast".

I found that the soldiers were almost a different species of people due to the situations they were stuck in. They called themselves"thick-skinned", because they didn't care of things that would probably get a normal person to shame. All they wanted, was to live. When a person inhales deeply when coming up from a pool, a soldier would jump to their beloved earth when they hear a bomb, or something like it. Paul described it as an instinct, they wouldn't have to think twice. He called themselves human animals.

It was also during times like this, when the human "beast" as they call it reveal themselves with authority. A leader would be praised of being strict while doing unnecessary acts of discipline just because they can.

The reason why this book is banned so far, is because it holds the harsh reality that shouldn't crash a child's imagination. Being alert of dying, bombing, and watching people die as if it was seeing your own backyard isn't the fairytale that parents want their children to know about. However, I think this is a fantastic book for teenagers, because they would learn the harsh conditions during war. They would learn the significance of Remembrance Day, and learn to respect the soldiers who sacrificed themselves for it.

Soldier's Heart

This two chapters were intriguing, and already made me interested in what the book would be about. The protagonist is Paul Baumer, a twenty year old German soldier fighting with his comrades in World War One. His friends; Muller, Tjaden, Kemmerich, Katczinsky, all fighting side by side. However, Kemmerich facee death already in the beginning. Here, I would say the only antagonist would be war. Tjaden was talked about acting mad in the hospital but he was still alive later in the book. The theme, from what I read so far, is about humanity in war. The emotions, and a true taste of life with love, hate, death, joy and suffering one gains from going through a war.
Many insights and thoughts were already gained from these two chapters. A twenty year old, through war has seen the lies authority and society placed in front of the eyes of a young generation, blinding them. They were told that they were the iron youth, and was encouraged by school masters and authority to join the war. Those who didn't were thought of as cowards. When his school master sends them a letter, wishing them the best, they merely laugh at it, hoping that the school master was here himself. Best wishes in war can only go so far. When they put on their soldier uniform, they were men on the battlefield. When they take the uniforms however, they were just boys. Just like back then, young soldiers were told what an honour it was to fight for your country, a place that you love. Sadly, they often find what a misfortune it is once they start living in trenches and watching your comrade die in No man's land, helplessly.
Kemmerich's death was both emotional and cruel. Kemmerich and Paul grew up together, and Kemmerich's mother had wept when they went off to war. Kemmerich had lost a leg during the war, and wasn't going to make it. Paul and his friends had to lie to him, because for some reason at the time Kemmerich didn't know about his amputated leg. When he did however, Muller had asked to take his boots. At first it seemed inhumane, and a cold thing to do. However, because boots were scarce at the time, and Kemmerich's belongings would be taken away once he dies, it seemed reasonable that it would be better for Muller to have them. What seemed cold to me however, was how the orderlies were checking to see if he was dead yet, because there were so many casualties, Kemmerich's bed was needed right away once he's dead. At his last moments, Paul whispered old memories in Kemmerich's ear, and he died with tears on his face. Paul was left with the burden of sending his mother the grave news.
Last thing that made an impact when I was reading, was when Paul talked about using the latrines. Soldiers were forced to sit side by side, exposed while using the general latrine because they were to be supervised at all times. At first, they were all embarrassed. Time went on, and soon the time using the latrine became one of the most treasured times. It was during those awkward times when they could look at the blue sky, grass, and time of leisure to talk with their comrades. It was influenced their way of communicating, words related to latrines soon became a universal language. Nothing was well described unless a word related to latrines were used.
This introduction sets up the novel to tell its story. It laid out what a normal soldier life was like, and the real emotions they felt through the time. Trenches, appreciation for sleep and food, and looking at death in the face, constantly. The difference between young and old soldiers, were that the young soldiers had no ties with the world outside of war. Families, authorities, or hobbies they use to do just didn't make sense anymore. In way, they were free men on the battlefield, with nothing to loose but their very own life.
The only banned ideas that I see, are brothels, latrines, and how they somewhat mention the lies of the authority and government