Reflective Question 4

Now that you have completed the book, I would like you to tell me in specific detail what you have actually learned (or not learned) about World War One as a result. Could any of this information be scrutinized for its accuracy or validity? Explain your responses.

When finishing the book, to be quite honest, one is shocked and horrified by all those deaths yet at the same time one has learned a lot. At first it is the usual facts which come through, ones which we have often heard beforehand. How the men fought in trenches filled with rats, how the no man’s land was littered with dead bodies. We also learned that the men carried bayonets but also already had hand-grenades. The rise of importance of the artillery and the machine gun became evident as well and how they actually used flame throwers and the first planes (Remarque 104).

What I found very interesting was the fact that each of the bombing shells or grenades or any other military equipment had different sounds and that the hard trained soldiers with experience could tell the difference. (Remarque 105) I am not quite sure if that is factual but in a way it makes sense.

When I think about it most of the thing I learned from All Quiet on the Western Front is a lot about the actual way the men fought. Especially going back to the sound of the bombardments, the storming of the different trenches little by little, how important the gas masks were.Another fact I found very interesting was the scene with the Russian War Prisoners. I did know about them vaguely, but it becomes so much clearer in the book how much they suffered and hungered (Remarque 192).

I also learned how the western front stretched all the way from Vosges to Flanders and that the Germans loved their discipline -big surprise there (Remarque 281). One also understands why the Germans took it so hard when they lost since the whole community of Germans was so behind the war and believed in it. This can be especially seen when Paul is on leave for a couple of days and everybody wants to know how the front is going and isn’t the mood great?

Sadly what I didn’t learn is exactly that what the history books teach us. Dates of when and where the men are fighting and the actual reasons for the fighting, the historical background. However since the Kaiser is only mentioned once fleetingly, questioning why he agreed to the war, one almost gets the feeling as if the book does not wish to focus on the reasons but instead on how the soldiers thought and felt.

All Quiet on the Western Front does not deliver many of the usual facts but more of the actual survival and physical aspects of World War I. I still believe they can be evaluated and seen as very useful. As I’ve said in my other responses, the book gives us an actual insight right smack into the middle of the war, with all its soldiers, its harsh conditions and its ways. In a way the book is a fresh breeze, since it still has many areas correct about World War I. It is nice to know theirs someone out there telling how the majority felt and not just the minority. Thus I fully support this book in its historical importance. For not only does it tell us about the War itself but also the post antiwar and antimilitary opinions of Remarque and his comrades.

Bibliography:

Brainy Quote. 2011. 22 July 2011<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/ history.html>.

Eksteins, Modris. Rites of Spring. New Tork: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1989.

Remarque, Erich M. All Quiet on the Western Front. Trans. A.W. Wheen. New York: Ballantine Books, 1928.