Maria Sibylla Merian

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, paints war in a realistic, brutal manner as opposed to romancing war. As narrated by the young German soldier, Paul Bäumer, the novel portrays how the atrocities of World War I transform an idealistic, nationalistic, young nineteen-year-old into a lost soul who is unable to envision a life outside of the war. Born in Germany in 1898, Remarque himself served in the war and spent time on the Western Front until severely injured in 1917. He…

The Common Theme Of Tragedy All soldiers endure traumatic experiences that have a similar effect on them for the rest of their lives. The themes of horrors of war and how the young soldiers lives are changed for the worse are both prevalent in both Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front and Sassoon’s “Suicide in the Trenches.” The soldiers lost their youth while away in the trenches. While both Remarque and Sassoon exemplify the horrors of war and the theme of the lost generation, Sassoon…

The Pearl was written by John Steinbeck in 1947. This type of book is known as a novella. This means that it is a short novel or a long short story. The genre is parable or allegory. These are stories that usually have a hidden moral or political meaning within them. The book sets place in a small village in La Paz. La Paz is on the Coast of The Baja Peninsula. John Steinbeck was inspired to write The Pearl after visiting La Paz. Here, pearls from the sea are valued more highly than…

Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is a chilling story about the drastic hardships and brutality of war. The novel follows the narration of a young solider, Paul Bäumer, through his experiences as a German soldier throughout the First World War. Paul is introduced along with his fellow soldiers. The reader is soon introduced to Paul’s first personal loss of Kemmerich. Following the first bombardment, the young soldiers realize the true nature of war and the atrocity that it is…

In the poem “Alone,” Maya Angelou explains that people will feel alone constantly. No matter what they do, they will always have this feeling. In the other poem “I Am Much Too Alone in This World, Yet Not Alone,” Rainer Maria Rilke explains that people will never feel alone. Anywhere people are, they will always have someone in their heart. Some similarities can be negative when people feel alone, and have no human to be there for each other. Some differences are based upon religion, and…

It is a truth universally acknowledged that human pride causes human pain. Whether this is the pain of soldiers in vain battle, the pain of individuals isolated by social statuses and social demands, or the pain of young boys in shallow, barren graves, pride causes it by blinding us to the humanity of others and convincing us to accept their pain and our own pain in the pursuit of avarice. The breadth of pride 's effect on humanity is apparent in its thematic presence throughout literature. In…

Enrich Maria Remarque’s book ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ features Paul Bäumer, a 20-year old German soldier who represents a whole generation of men that history refers to as the ‘Lost Generation.’ Through his character, the author tells a story of men who were destroyed by what is referred to as ‘The Great War.’ For instance, in chapter 2, Paul attempts to describe the difference between his generation and that of the older soldiers and notes that the older soldiers had a life before the…

the daily soldier goes through, however, all these forgotten and unmentioned actions are described through the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque where he depicts…

William Vargas Who knew a pearl could cause so much trouble? The Pearl was written by John Steinbeck. The main characters are Kino, Juana, and Coyotito. The Pearl takes place in La Paz, Mexico about the family life of Kino, his wife Juana, and their son Coyotito. A scorpion crawls onto Coyotito’s shoulder and Stings him. Kino searches desperately to find a Pearl on his canoe. Later on in the story Kino’s family get in a lot trouble with the village people because they want that Pearl. The…

It has been said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And in John Steinbeck’s novella The Pearl, beauty becomes evil and destructive. The pearl of beauty and value is found by a poor man named Kino and his life is changed forever when it corrupts him. The pearl is a tragedy disguised as a fortune, although Kino is unaware of that. Throughout the novel, Kino’s perspective on life changes as he copes with his resolutions of his internal conflicts. At the beginning of the story, the two…