Same Shell Hole example essay topic

566 words
All Quiet on the Western Front One of the best war novels that is read by thousands of high school students each year is Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. This story depicts the life as a solider in the German Army fighting against the Central Powers. The solider, Paul B umer tell us of the fun he in dures along with the hardships of war demonstrating an antiwar theme. The scene in this book that displays the antiwar theme the best would have to the "shell hole's scene that starts on page 207 and ends on page 229 demonstrating an ironic tone that is created wonderfully using Remarque's organizational and diction al skills.

This scene starts out by showing us how the army has turned it's soldiers into people that feel nothing. It does this by describing a battle scene were a Trench Mortar was used to kill member of their army. These people were blown out of there clothes into tree, some were missing arms. But all that they had to say about it was that they should report it to the stretcher-bearers' because it was not their job to help these fellow soldiers that were fighting on the same side.

They were fight for the same reason, for the same team and nothing even crossed their minds that they might soon be those people in the trees or maybe just laying on the ground, and other soldiers will pass them and think nothing of it other than it is not their job to help them out. Right after this situation Paul experiences just this he is put in the middle of the gun fire with nowhere to go expect to say in a shell hole, not knowing if he was going to survive. Then another man is thrown into the same shell hole and he just assumes that this guy is dead, but then realizes that he is not. Then finally he helps the guy. Why?

Because Paul can not leave the trench, so he decides to help maybe to help pass time. After he help him all he can think about is to stop his gurgling, to kill him, because he feels as if this is going to kill him. By the time this guy finally dies Paul wishes that he was still alive to break the silence. At this point Paul B umer realizes that the guy would of been saved if he could of remembered the way back to the trenches, if some small thing would of been different.

This demonstrates one aspect of the war, well actually most of it. It demonstrates to us an antiwar theme by showing us that these young boys in the army could do nothing to save their lives. The put their lives in the hand of the other army hoping that they wouldn't shoot them before they got a chance to kill the people that were going to kill them. This shows us how brutal this war was and how brutal war actually is. Remarque uses an ironic tone to prove to us how brutal war is, and how it doesn't care about the lives it takes, proving this at the end of the novel when Paul himself dies..