Rocco D’Ambrosca: 11/14/2007
War is definitely the most evil, horrible, and tragic occurrence known to man. Nothing good ever comes from war. Only, turmoil and death ever come from war. War doesn’t only affect the soldiers who fight in them, but also those who stay at home. The soldiers who fought in the war gave the ultimate sacrifice, their lives, which they lost in the worst conditions, facing almost impossible challenges. Those lucky enough to survive ended up deeply scarred returning home both mentally and physically. While those at home made huge sacrifices to keep the war machine turning.
The soldiers out on the war front without a doubt had the worst conditions, challenges, and sacrifices. Starting with sacrifices, as stated above, the greatest sacrifice they had to be ready to give was their lives as a soldier’s duty. But the lives they lived on the war front were riddled with horrible conditions and challenges with their own mortality haunting them every day. The soldiers out on the front were forced to sit in trenches defending their position while countless shells were fired onto them by the enemy. Some shells that they fired as stated in All Quiet on the Western Front, “land within our own lines” (Remarque 100). He also said that, “two of our men were wounded by them” (Remarque 100). So, not only were the soldiers under fire from the enemy but also from their own side as friendly fire. The saddest thing is that he said, “If a shot comes, we can duck, that is all” (Remarque 101). They had no way of defending themselves, if a shot came their way they were done for. He remarked that, “We sit as if in our graves waiting only to be closed in” (Remarque 110). A soldier’s life sadly was only determined by luck. In All Quiet on the Western Front he described a scenario where he casually decided to move from one dug-out position to another, returning to the original only a moment later to find, “it had been blown to pieces by a direct hit” (Remarque 101). Discovering first hand just how easily and randomly he could have died without warning.
Besides the random possibility of death at any moment, the soldiers faced much worse conditions inside the trench and even worse deaths than instantaneous combustion. The trenches that the soldiers spent the vast majority of their time in were plagued by fat disgusting rats that they called, “corpse-rats” (Remarque 102); due to their eating of dead bodies. The rats would constantly try to eat their food. A soldier named Kropp, “wrapped his (food) in his waterproof sheet and put it under his head, but he cannot sleep because they run over his face to get at it” (Remarque 102). The worst description of these rats was their ability to attack, “two large cats and a dog, bit them to death and devoured them” (Remarque 103). One of the horrible deaths described was a soldier, “who got hit in the eye during an attack, and we left him lying for dead” (Remarque 12), he wasn’t dead but, “had only been knocked unconscious. Because he could not see, and was mad with pain, he failed to keep under cover, and so was shot down before anyone could go and fetch him in” (Remarque 12). Even worse, “some men were found whose noses were cut off and their eyes poked out with their own sawbayonets. Their mouths and noses were stuffed with sawdust so that they suffocated” (Remarque 103); just for having that kind of bayonet on them.
On the home front people weren’t facing the kind of madness on the war front but still were left with several challenges and many sacrifices to maintain the war effort. Food on the home front was forced to be rationed to allow the bulk of the food supply to be sent to the soldiers (Plum 10/31/07). There was also a lack of clothing and consumer goods forcing people at home to make their own clothing and toys, etc due to the deprivations after 1918 (Plum 10/31/07). There was also a lack of doctors since the majority was taken to aid the soldiers wounded in battle, leaving many sick people without adequate care (Plum 10/31/07). Also, the work force changed due to the lack of men at home, causing many women to move into factory jobs or in auxiliary positions in the army such as nurses possibly to the neglect of their younger children (Plum 10/31/07).
While people were rationing food on the home front the soldiers were eating a little better. The first paragraph of All Quiet on the Western Front describes how well the soldiers were able to eat on certain occasions. He said, “our bellies are full of beef and haricot beans. We are satisfied and at peace”, also saying that, “there is a double ration of sausage and bread”, but that “we have not had such luck as this for a long time” (Remarque 1). Although he states that they have not eaten this well for a long time they aren’t as limited on food as the home front. When he returned home he was able to bring back, “a whole Edamer cheese, that Kat provided me with, two loaves of army bread, three-quarters of a pound of butter, two tins of livered sausage, a pound of dripping and a little bag of rice” (Remarque 160). This grocery list of food items was typically what the soldiers were able to eat in the trench showing that they were well supplied. At home he asks his family, “It is pretty bad for food here?” (Remarque 160). Their response being, “Yes, there’s not much” (Remarque 160). This example gives a first account from a family on the home front of the lack of food they had.
The soldiers who fought the war were extremely traumatized. Not only were they traumatized by the reality of how easily they could loose their lives from an incoming shell, but also by the countless close calls they lived through. In All Quiet on the Western Front he describes one man he saw crying in the corner of the trench deeply mentally traumatized after, “twice he has been flung over the parapet by the blast of the explosions without getting any more than shell-shock” (Remarque 106). He himself witnessed the horror of a lance-corporal who had, “his head torn off. He runs a few steps more while the blood spouts from his neck like a fountain” (Remarque 115). He also talks about a time when in the chaos of darkness, “faces are distorted, arms strike out, and the beasts scream; we just stop in time to avoid attacking one another” (Remarque 108). He made reference to one recruit who seemed to have actually gone insane witnessing the horrors of war all around them saying, “he butts his head against the wall like a goat” (Remarque 111). He himself describes a psychotic episode he has during a battle saying, “one mad moment the whole slaughter whirls like a circus around me” (Remarque 113). He says that he like his fellow soldiers, “have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation” (Remarque 113). He says the war, “turns us into thugs, into murderers, into God only knows what devils” (Remarque 114).
When he returned home he described the shock of being back home, hearing his sister’s voice as so different that he said, “I cannot take another step, the staircase fades before my eyes, I support myself with the butt of my rifle against my feet and clench my teeth fiercely, but I cannot speak a word, my sister’s call had made me powerless” (Remarque 157). He says, “I stand on the steps, miserable, helpless, paralyzed, and against my will the tears run down my cheeks” (Remarque 158). Later when he goes out into the city he is scared by the, “screaming of the tramcars, which resembles the shriek of a shell coming straight for one” (Remarque 165); clearly extremely traumatized on the subconscious level that he is still in fear for his life even at home. He out rightly states that, “I find I do not belong here any more, it is a foreign world” (Remarque 168). Even in his own bedroom he feels foreign, reflecting on his memories of reading books in his room saying, “I want to think myself back into that time” (Remarque 170); but he cannot because of his experience on the war front, he has changed too much since then. Finally, the most profound example of his new outlook on life comes from his statement that, “when a man has seen so many dead he cannot understand any longer why there should be so much anguish over a single individual” (Remarque 181); clearly an estranged view on the value of life.
The soldiers who fought in the war gave the ultimate sacrifice, their lives, which they lost in the worst conditions, facing almost impossible challenges. Those lucky enough to survive ended up deeply scarred returning home both mentally and physically. While those at home made huge sacrifices to keep the war machine turning. War has always been and will always be a horrible occurrence entrenched in misery and death. When war occurs everyone suffers, those who fight and those who stay at home. The world will always continue to be a hell on earth for many until man learns to accept all humans as his brother and that we are truly all in this thing we call life together.
Works Cited:
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. New York: Random House, 1982.
Plum, Catherine. Western New England College. Lecture “World War I.” 31 October 2007.
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