Lit Cirlce Summative Journal

          This week for my novel, my group has read until Ch. 12. Our discussion was on the different meanings of the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque. We came up with many different ones and worked well together in finding these meanings. We used many examples of symbolism, like when Matt said that when Behm was killed, it was ironic because he was the one of the group who didn't actually want to go to war, but was pressured into it.
          "Lost" is a very powerful word, which can have many meanings. You can be lost in three ways: mentally, emotionally, and physically . It really stands out in the novel, which is about the trials and hardships of a regular group of boys going out to war and how they are forced into maturing by the horrors of war. This generation of boys has been called as the "Lost Generation." Paul Baumer, the protagonist of the book, often wonders what is to become of the young men who, like him matured and  the fear, killing and dying of the front. He says, "We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial- I believe we are lost."(pg. 123) This quote is explaining how they feel hopeless like children sometimes feel, but have the experience of the oldest and wisest men, which helps them overcome this and become soulless. He and his fellow men have seen and done such horrible things, that they believe that they cannot be forgiven; never being able to return home, even though they would be heroes, they would not feel like it. This is the same story for any soldier who returns home from war. They are celebrated as heroes by the public, but they do not consider themselves heroes because of the men that they have left behind and the actions they were forced to take to defend themselves.
               After the men lose their strength, at some point, comes the moment when they completely lose themselves to war. Their previous life remains only a faint memory; they are no longer the men they were before. In Chapter 9, Paul Baumer suddenly becomes human again, no stronger or wiser than the average soldier. Here, he is given one last chance to regain the compassion and feelings the war had forced him to lose. When in the ditch, he is forced to watch a man that he stabbed die. This man is meant to be the symbol of the man Paul was before the war. Though Paul himself had killed this man, he still has a chance to gain from him what he can. Baumer cares for this "old life"; he fetches “him water…and uses field dressing to cover his stab wounds…he would give much if he would stay alive,” not because he really wishes to hold on to this life but because “it is hard to lie there and to have to see and hear him” (pg. 220) It is too painful to see this part of him die. After the man’s death, Baumer is convinced that he “must do everything…in order to save” himself (pg. 221). Yet, “by afternoon he is calmer” and, after talking to his comrades, realizes that his emotions were “mere driveling nonsense” (pg. 228). After thus completely cutting his ties to any outside world, Baumer once again assumes his previous soullessness.
          There is no real enemy since the true culprit of wartime horror is war itself. It takes the reader until the end of the novel to understand the true power of such an idea. In the last few lines, the inner battle one fights in a war is linked to the inner battle we fight with life itself. No matter how hard we try, “so long as it is there, life will seek its own way out, heedless of the will that is within” (pg. 295). It is the human plight to unconsciously fight for survival. All Quiet on the Western Front suggests that there are cases where surviving is another form of death.

Glogster Explanation

• the background is blood, which is normally associated with pain
• I chose pictures that related to pain and the pain caused by the war because that is the main theme of the book; that each of these young soldiers became "old" at the end of the war even though they were only 23-24 years old by wars' end. 
• the quotes are from the book, which all describe the pain and suffering felt by the soldiers in the trenches and the horrors they saw  
• the famous quote is at the bottom is saying that in war no soldier escapes the pain of war, be it physical or emotional
• I guess that the overall meaning of this collage is that pain is more than skin deep. It affects the very soul of a person, and can and does change a persons personality from a lighted hearted, happy person to a cold hearted cynic. This pain is also necessary for their growth as it sometimes helps them become more complete human beings who do not doubt themselves and can handle an otherwise devastating event that would destroy any other person. 

Glogster- Pain