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.