Difference Between the Young and the Old

Authors Note:

In class we have been reading the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, and we have just finished reading the 4^th chapter. A motif that has occurred is the casualty of death. Most of them are newbies to the war, but they had to make it a custom that, the death of friends or even people around them was a casual thing and it just happens. Although, something we have noticed while discussing the novel, is that when a horse of the war, or one of the newest boys or children that has just joined dies, it is different. It is not something people just roll off their shoulders. People care so much more, and this is what I’m going to talk about.

It has happened in this book but it happens in reality all the time. Are we always saddened when a person you know dies? Yes. No matter what, a person will always have feelings in their heart. Knowing that someone is gone from this Earth forever is always going to hurt the heart, but the thing is that we look at things, sometimes we do not choose to look at them this way but we do—we look at the age they died. When elderly people die, we know they lived a long good life, but when infants or small children die, even teens. We have so much more sadness for them. They haven’t even gotten the opportunity to live outside of high school. No chance to grow up, go to college on their own, have a family and a good career! Nothing, we feel so much pain for the young ones that die. The same goes for animals. For some reason people cry for days when their pet has passed away. Why? For this reason, is because they are like a best friend to the family, someone who is always there for them. Sometimes even more than a friend than other people they call “friends”.

When we go to the war, we see this happen as well, we see everyone saddened by the thought of horses dying or the very new recruited ones on the front. But, when it comes to the older ones, or the men who have been there for a while already, it seems to be a casual thing, that people just roll off their shoulders. One the battle front, they simply let the men lay there until the bombardment is done and possibly take them back, after they have bled out their entire body. Man can no longer see what is this now bloody red landscape it comes; many seen, they are everywhere, splitting heaven and earths’ womb, land rolls on immeasurably.

People all over the place, some already dead, and some lying in the land, dying a long and horrible death. Simply just letting it go that friend have died, people walk away knowing that it will happen, but if it is a horse or a young one, sadness comes from within.

Mimic Line: One can no longer distinguish whence in this now quiet silvery landscape it comes; ghostly invisible, it is everywhere, between heaven and earth it rolls on immeasurably.

Immaturity and Power

Through out the chapters 1-3 in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, we see the effect of what power can do to people. It can--in all reality--make a person go mad. A re-accuring motif that has shown up was childhood to man hood and how they don't have the in-between stage, they were forced to go from innocence to experience already, talking in language terms.

We have already talked about how the men were told to be mature but when it comes to power, they are like little children who climb trees in the park they don't care what they do, they are careless. Like how people are when they are acting "immature", they don't care what they do because they don't act their age and don't know how to take the high road rather than the low road.

So when you put Power in someones arms, they turn immature and this topic really made me upset while I was reading through chapter 3. The whole situation with Himmelstoss, and hitting him with a bed cover and almost raping/abusing him until the fact that they could have killed him by putting a pillow over his air way, made me hate Tjaden, Paul, Haie, just everyone that was involved with this whole ordeal.

This was to the fact that the power from what they had from just being a little older than the poor kid, almost drove them to the state of insanity. Causing them do such harm to a poor kid of the army. This topic drove me insane reading it and I hope that when I am in power of something I do not go back to the immature state that I have grown out of.

Maturity in the Men- AWQF #2

Through-out the novel All Quiet on the Western Front , Remarque had brought up the theme of maturity many times. While the narrator is talking, he mentions that they are considered the "Iron Youth", because they are taught that they have to be the young, but strong ones, they have to grow out of their boyish childhood and become a man now, in the war.

Maturity is brought up in many scenarios, but when the death of friends around them becomes a natural thing, Remarque shows in the book that these young boys are no longer living at home in a nice house with their family, possibly working for the war, they are in the war and have to learn to become strong men and be able to take the sadness and disappointment of someone dying maturely. This is hard for them in the beginning, but as this action becomes more casual they learn to think of it as nothing happened. There are probably going to be a lot more actions and ideas in the novel that will cause them to become more mature than they would handle this at home, but as for now, death of friends is one of the largest things that they have to learn to be mature about right now.

Childhood Becoming Manhood- AQWF #1

The main motif of childhood comes up a lot through-out the first two chapters of All Quiet on the Western Front. While reading these two chapters I noticed that the "young kids" that have just volunteered to be in this war have learned quickly what is expected of them, what they have to learn to do and what they have to leave behind.

Everyone what happens when they fight, the people they talk to and the many young kids that have recently come into this war. Besides the fact that many of the youngsters are probably scared fro their lives, they are always talked about because of their age. They are told they need to mature, and leave their "young lives" behind. The boys themselves learn this when they realize that this is reality and they could be gone at any second. They have to fight solely for their country but they also need to to learn to be safe. The boys understand that other of the older men had careers, lives to live for, and wives and children--they don't. But, they want to when they get out of this war.

They still have the child in them that says what their hopes are after this ends but the other part of them knows that this is reality. If you don't do what your told, a person could be in as much danger of dying if something goes wrong. They have to understand that their best friends may die on them, but that this is something they just have to go through to get out of this horrible disaster. They have to mature out of the child they once were and that is why childhood came up so much in these two chapters. Showing how the "young Irons" would have to mature and become better men who were already there, and become stronger and wiser just to make it through.