War; a state of armed conflict between different nations or states. World War I, commonly known as “The Great War”, took the meaning of the word ‘war’ to a whole new level. The War destroyed a generation of men, physically and mentally, through it’s barbarity and failure to acknowledge the similarities between “enemies”. New technologies, nationalism, and militarism introduced an uprising of not only violence but a response in literature. Authors such as Keith Douglas and Erich Maria Remarque took part in this response by writing “Vergissmeinnicht” and All Quiet on the Western Front. As depicted by "Vergissmeinnicht" and All Quiet on the Western Front, the brutality of war disguises similarities between soldiers on opposing sides of the battlefield.
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There was no shortage of brutality in All Quiet on the Western Front which shows how important it was keeping equality disguised throughout the war. Eric Remarque does a beautiful job rendering how the brutality of war effects individuals when he wrote, “People 's are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another” (236). He truly captures the fact that the war is more of a mind game then anything else; it forces people such as Paul and Douglas’ narrator into a situation where there is no true winner besides death. Like the narrator of “Vergissmeinnicht”, Paul begins his story close minded to the idea that the enemies were in anyway similar to him. Unlike the narrator, Paul realizes early on in his time on the battlefield that the enemies are scared, young men just like him and his comrades. Paul experiences this notion first hand when he stabs an opponent that jumped into the same shell hole as him. Although the injury was intentional, it was fatal and after Paul realizes what he has done, he wishes he hasn 't done it. His conscience is filled with an unmeasurable amount of guilt, so he says to the man clinging to life, “How could you be my enemy? If we threw away these rifles and this uniform you could be my brother” (223). Baumer now comprehends that the “enemy” is just an exaggeration; the foes are all human despite the color uniform they wear, the country they represent, or the language they speak. After the man, Gérard Duval, has passed, Paul begins to look for his pocketbook, similar the one in “Vergissmeinnicht”. Then, Paul pulls out, “portraits of a woman and a little girl” from Gérard’s book (224). Just as in Keith Douglas’ poem, the narrators discover the humanity of his foes through a photo of foreign loved
There was no shortage of brutality in All Quiet on the Western Front which shows how important it was keeping equality disguised throughout the war. Eric Remarque does a beautiful job rendering how the brutality of war effects individuals when he wrote, “People 's are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another” (236). He truly captures the fact that the war is more of a mind game then anything else; it forces people such as Paul and Douglas’ narrator into a situation where there is no true winner besides death. Like the narrator of “Vergissmeinnicht”, Paul begins his story close minded to the idea that the enemies were in anyway similar to him. Unlike the narrator, Paul realizes early on in his time on the battlefield that the enemies are scared, young men just like him and his comrades. Paul experiences this notion first hand when he stabs an opponent that jumped into the same shell hole as him. Although the injury was intentional, it was fatal and after Paul realizes what he has done, he wishes he hasn 't done it. His conscience is filled with an unmeasurable amount of guilt, so he says to the man clinging to life, “How could you be my enemy? If we threw away these rifles and this uniform you could be my brother” (223). Baumer now comprehends that the “enemy” is just an exaggeration; the foes are all human despite the color uniform they wear, the country they represent, or the language they speak. After the man, Gérard Duval, has passed, Paul begins to look for his pocketbook, similar the one in “Vergissmeinnicht”. Then, Paul pulls out, “portraits of a woman and a little girl” from Gérard’s book (224). Just as in Keith Douglas’ poem, the narrators discover the humanity of his foes through a photo of foreign loved