Junger's Personal Account Of The War example essay topic

By the end of 1914 the war entered a stalemate. Both sides became mired in two main, stationary fronts-the western front, primarily in northeastern France, and the eastern front, mainly in western Russia. At the fronts, the troops fought each other from numerous parallel lines of interconnected trenches. Each side laid siege to the other's system of trenches and endeavored to break through their lines.

The frustration between the world powers is reflected in Junger's personal account of the war. The Storm of Steel provides a prolific account of a soldier's life. This account gives the feeling of detachment. Something needed to survive the war experience. "It has always been my ideal in war to eliminate all feelings... ".

Throughout the novel Junger describes the scenery. His emotions and psychological state can be determined through the method of description. Feelings and emotions are left out. One time in the novel he discusses a sensation that stayed with him throughout the war. "It was a weird sensation to look into those dead and questioning eyes. It gave me a shudder that all through the war I never quite lost".

The dead and questioning eyes seem to mirror the overall feeling of those young men participating in the war. All seemed to question what they were seeing. The horrors and atrocities appeared to be superhuman. The questions led to the feeling of being dead. Ernst never glorified war. He treated it with an inhuman fashion.

At times I felt detached from the book and the experience. Then I realized that the detachment I was feeling was the detachment the soldiers were feeling. Junger stated that he "made up his mind to omit all comments from this book... ". This shows that he made up his mind to omit all emotion from the war. One would have to do this in order to survive.

Feelings and emotions leave room for vulnerability. Vulnerability leaves room for death. Junger did not see war as a senseless conflict. One must treat his enemy as an enemy only in battle and to judge him according to his courage Junger is a Nationalist. War is a part of being a son of the nation.

It is a duty to protect the life and to ensure the survival of your country. "Germany lives and Germany shall never go under!" This final remark shows Junger sense of patriotism. To succeed in war and to survive one must become a machine. Honor and glory are not senseless acts.

War puts one in a distinct world. Junger was a loner in a dark and horrible atmosphere. No mans land was a waste land that sucked Junger in and did not let him out. He dealt with death in a simple detached way. It was evident on every page of the book. Death was everywhere.

Junger became a "rock in a raging sea". His experience shows the mechanical and unemotional side of military life. One can see the tide of war change through the course of the novel. Weapons become more destructive and the men become more like machines made of steel.

It is interesting that the title of the book was The Storm of Steel. War is a storm. One must be psychologically made of steel to survive a storm with such mass destruction. Reality soon became the "raging sea".

Junger became a lost generation writer. He has gained a prominent place in the landscape of 20th century. His account of war expressed themes of spiritual alienation, self-exile, and cultural criticism. His novel has given me a insight unlike All Quiet on the Western Front. I t gave me the true feeling of war. The true test of man is battle.

Junger passed that test. His work was a literary innovation that has challenged traditional assumptions about war, history, writing, and expression. The "dead and questioning eyes" perpetuates the myth that surrounds the lost generation those who participated in WWI.