Rainer Maria Rilke

As human beings, we all have to make decisions that impact our lives. Some of these decisions could be beneficial; however, others can lead to violence and misfortune. The Pearl by John Steinbeck illustrates the story of Kino, a poor native living with his wife and child in Spanish-controlled Baja California. On a day like any other, he discovers a great pearl in the ocean, as large as a seagull’s egg. Believing that he was now incredibly wealthy, he immediately began dreaming about all the…

Pearls One symbol in the story are the pearls O-lan keeps between her breasts, portraying she and Wang Lung's relationship. When Wang Lung first discovers the jewels O-Lan had pilaged from the rich man's home, Wang Lung demands that she give them to him, but she requests to keep two small pearls, and that was when, "Wang Lung, without comprehending it, looked for an instant into the heart of this dull and faithful creature, who had labored all her life at some task at which she won no…

World War 1 and wars in general were always made to show honor and glory. In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet On the Western Front, he gives readers a new look on war that was rarely shown before. He uses Paul Baumer, the main character, to tell his story of what he experienced on the German side during World War 1. Remarque uses symbolism throughout his novel to help emphasize his feelings of war and how it affects the characters in the story. He incorporates Hemmerich’s boots,…

All Quiet on the Western Front The book stars Paul Bäumer, a young German gentleman who enlists, with his friends, to fight in World War I. After ten weeks of military training at the hands of Corporal Himmelstoss Paul’s outlook on the war completely changes. He believed, at the time of enlisting, that he was enlisting for noble reasons ones of patriotism and nationalism, then the Corporal shows him the ugly side of the war, the brutality. Their lives become constant fear. After a short break…

The novel “All Quiet on the Western Front”, by Erich Maria Remarque shows a generation of war veterans that escaped the shells and gunfire, but yet were still torn by the effects of war on the mind. Remarque shows this through the main character in his novel, Paul Baumer, and the men in his regiment. Throughout the Baumer’s testament, he tells of the joys and the fears the men faced everyday. Through writing his novel, Remarque fulfills his purpose he set for himself by showing the horrors in…

Traitors, thieves, mercenaries, and cruel authorities all have one similar trait; they believed in the principle that wealth, in every given form, directly corresponds with contentment. However, in The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, characters such as the pearl dealers, the hired trackers, and the doctor display dismaying extents of avarice and covetousness for Kino’s pearl, leading to four murders, five deaths, and a monumental shift in culture, due to the belligerent actions of Kino, who strived to…

War is not a battle between one and one’s opponent but a battle between mankind and war itself. This is depicted in Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) and Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See (2014). All Quiet on the Western Front portrays a young German soldier fighting in World War I and All the Light We Cannot See follows young blind girl in Saint-Malo and a German orphan part of the Hitler Youth in World War II. Although the two texts explore war though the…

established, differences among nationalities were often more accentuated than the similarities; however, when war erupts, differences become more obscure. Both Erich Maria Remarque and John McCrae highlight the ways war draws attention more to commonalities among the soldiers and men from different nationalities than differences. Erich Maria Remarque in All Quiet on the Western Front and John McCrae in the poem “In Flanders Fields”, emphasize that combat brings out similar core human…

Nationalism, the belief that one must be proud of their country no matter what it does. The novel, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, is a story told through the eyes of a young man, Paul Bäumer, explaining his various experiences throughout his time during World War One. Whether he is under bombardment or defending the home front there are many occurrences of patriotism throughout. To begin, the soldiers follow orders regardless of what they are when they are at war.…

Michaëlle Jean was born in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. She spent her early years being homeschooled by her parents, Roger and Luce, so she did not have to swear allegiance to the active dictator at the time. Her father was arrested and tortured in 1965, which led to her family fleeing to Canada in 1968. Jean attended the Université de Montréal where she studied Italian and Spanish. She educated the university’s Department of Literature and Modern Languages in Italian and earned…