A soldier is barraged with emotions during a war, that he must avoid in order to survive. War has forced a soldier to become detached, as he must always stay neutral in order to get through the battle. As the soldier observes innocent creatures being destroyed and watches death occur, he must not let this affect him as he has to block it out. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque uses horses and butterflies to represent how war forces soldiers to conceal their emotions, which protects him from the brutal experiences of war.
The Horses represent the soldiers and their emotions that they carefully hide. During the exchange of fire, some horses were hit and the soldiers felt as if their cries were like “ the moaning of the world, the martyred creation, wild with anguish, filled with terror and groaning” (30). We know that they are the innocent ones, but are suffering the inflicted pain for the guilty and from the guilty. By expressing what they are feeling, it demonstrates what the soldier have kept inside of them and exposes the harsh reality of the …show more content…
During Paul’s leave, he memorialized his childhood, “ Above me on the wall hangs the glass case with the coloured butterflies that I once collected” (74). His inability to show emotions is due to the fact that Paul already knows what it is like to grieve and does not want the pains associated with grievance. He looks at them but feels nothing toward them because he recognizes they are no longer with him. One morning while the Second Company was on the front, two butterflies play in front of their trench and on the teeth of a skull (60). A beautiful creature lands on the dead but thinks nothing of it, just how Paul has to think when he sees all of it. Thus showing how on the front, his feelings were present, but he was capable of hiding them for he knows what the consequences
The Horses represent the soldiers and their emotions that they carefully hide. During the exchange of fire, some horses were hit and the soldiers felt as if their cries were like “ the moaning of the world, the martyred creation, wild with anguish, filled with terror and groaning” (30). We know that they are the innocent ones, but are suffering the inflicted pain for the guilty and from the guilty. By expressing what they are feeling, it demonstrates what the soldier have kept inside of them and exposes the harsh reality of the …show more content…
During Paul’s leave, he memorialized his childhood, “ Above me on the wall hangs the glass case with the coloured butterflies that I once collected” (74). His inability to show emotions is due to the fact that Paul already knows what it is like to grieve and does not want the pains associated with grievance. He looks at them but feels nothing toward them because he recognizes they are no longer with him. One morning while the Second Company was on the front, two butterflies play in front of their trench and on the teeth of a skull (60). A beautiful creature lands on the dead but thinks nothing of it, just how Paul has to think when he sees all of it. Thus showing how on the front, his feelings were present, but he was capable of hiding them for he knows what the consequences