Category: WWI Literature

From Keith Law:

All Quiet on the Western Front took home nine nominations for this year’s Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best international Feature (as Germany’s submission). It is, as you might know, adapted from Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel of World War I. It’s big, and epic, and certainly lets you know where everyone involves stands on the subject of war. (They think it’s bad.) It’s also a film that doesn’t have any good reason to exist.

You can read the entire review here.

Upon reading All Quiet on the Western Front. I found it fascinating how Erich Remarque was able to depict the horrors of war, and display them in a perspective which I had not heard before. The book describes how the war destroyed an entire generation with its horrific brutality. An example of this is when Paul Bäumer says;

“We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost.” p.123

Paul says “we are forlorn like children” because the war had destroyed the very foundation on which their childhood was based on. It’s as if they are restarting their lives over again learning to understand the new world and learning to perceive the different ideas and parameters of war. He then says they are “experienced like old men”. Paul says this because they had seen horrific things so much so that it has taken away all of their innocence. “we are crude and sorrowful and superficial”, they are rude and rough, sad and they are shallow. Paul then says “I believe we are lost” meaning him and his fellow soldiers are not the same boys they once were.

Another fascinating thing I find about the book is how Remarque was able to include a common outcome of the war, loss of identity, not being able to settle into the life they once had.

“I imagined leave would be different from this. Indeed, it was different a year ago. It is I of course that have changed in the interval. There lies a gulf between that time and today. At that time I still knew nothing about the war, we had only been in quiet sectors. But now I see that I have been crushed without knowing it. I find I do not belong here anymore, it is a foreign world.” P. 168

No matter how bad the war was, Paul had adapted to life on the front lines. As he returned home Paul had realized that life will never be the same. He is able to see how the war stripped him of his childhood and innocence. Life on the front lines had become his new ‘normal’. I am astounded at how one can become so disconnected from his childhood and that the only place that felt like home were the trenches.

Soldier’s Home and All Quiet On The Western Front are very different but they have some similarities like how they both show different emotions and how when they both go back to there homes they both didn’t find any sense or feel at home, they both talked about war how hard was it to and how traumatic it was but the differences are that .

In Soldier’s Home  Kerbs the main character is really isolated he wants to go back to war and in his own experience he enjoyed war. However Paul really disliked war and didn’t want to talk of it.

“All of the times that had been able to make him feel cool and clear inside himself when he thought of them; the times so long back when he had done the one thing, the only thing for a man to do, easily and naturally, when he might have done something else, now lost their cool, valuable quality and then were lost themselves.”

 

All Quiet on the Western Front was a very good book but also sad and traumatic, thinking about how soldiers would live like that and how they would manipulate them to get into the army and making them think how the army was the best thing that could happened. The things they went through like when the soldiers started dying the living soldiers didn’t know hoe to reacted to celebrate if they because they have more food or too fell sad because of half of the soldier died.

Thinking of how Paul felt when his best friends died he was the last one of his friends and the worst part is that he also died, but is really funny thinking how one day you can be in school and people are talking about a war that might happened and the next day you are signing up for the army because you and you’re friends think is going to be a cool experience and fun and when you come back feeling proud of you’re self for defending you’re country and the next day you lost all of you’re friend and  you haven’t seen you’re family in ages and you’re fears is that you’re are never going too see them.

The worst part is that is you didn’t go to the army people would make fun of you or you wouldn’t have friend or the respect of other, in conclusion I did like the book a lot I would even watch the movie but it did make me thinking about how can people do that kill people just because they have disagreement or they want more territory.

In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, a group of young Germans enrol in the war after being inspired by patriotic and honourable eloquence. Paul Baumer, the 20-year-old protagonist, tells the story. The young soldiers quickly become aware that the battlefields they see are nothing like the romanticised vision of combat and war that was described to them.

The book is well set in an angry, gloomy, but honest tone by Remarque. Remarque set the book to almost make me perceive that it is Paul’s story and it causes me to lay more attention on Paul. This makes me feel empathy for all the violence he is going through as a kind and shy soldier.

Harold Krebs who is the heroine of the novel, is a young soldier who finds it challenging to calibrate to his life at home after the World War. Harold at first felt unable to communicate about his time in the war, however, when he does decide to talk about the war, he realises that no one is interested in hearing what he has to say about the war.

Paul Baumer is an innocent and an inexperienced soldier when he was recruited, he was a kind and empathetic person, but the effects of war taught himself to detach his own feelings. After the war, Paul believed that all of the inquiries and compliments are devoid of any understanding of what life is truly like on the front lines of battle. He no longer perceives life as it once was. The past of his youth and his present selves are separated by an unseen wall.

Both of the soldiers were similar as they experienced a detachment from reality when they came back home after the war and could no longer go back to their previous lives. Yet both are different, Paul felt pitiful for the french and german soldiers that were getting harmed and killed while Harold gained a liking for the war.

“They Shall Not Grow Old” is a documentary film made to show the lives of the Soldiers fighting in WW1. The film is very interesting yet gruesome but teaches us the importance of the soldiers who fought for their country. The footage was colorized for our visuals and the interviews of men who served in the war played over the tapes. Much of what the men said in the documentary matches with what Baumer and Krebs explained through their stories. It seems like every man who spoke has a sense of sympathy for the war, and once the war was over even though they should be happy there was a sense of sadness. They knew that once they had to leave the battle they would go back home; out cased from society.

Although “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Soldiers Home” are both pieces of literature and “They Shall Not Grow Old” is a Film, they all taught me very similar information. Before reading and watching these sources the war in a way was glamorized in my mind. I didn’t know the atrocities that these men had suffered and the life that was lived at battle. I found it particularly interesting that in “They Shall Not Grow Old”, even at the worst moments in these men’s lives, they kept smiling and having fun.

In conclusion, I enjoyed learning from all of these sources. I found “They Shall Not Grow Old” more fascinating because I could look at the visuals and hear the noises of the bombing and explosions, which impacted me a bit more than “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Soldiers Home”.

While both of the texts and the film are about WW1 they all show it in a very different light, each showing the perspective of a German, in All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, an American, in Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemingway, and multiple Brits in They Shall Not Grow Old directed by Peter Jackson. One of the major differences between the works is how each nationality reacts to the end of the war. For the Americans, the end of the war was a cause for celebration, with a “greeting of heroes” and “a great
deal of hysteria” about the fact that the drafted troops were back, one can assume that it was quite similar for the Germans, who were mostly drafted, troops. On the other hand, the English troops were not welcomed back with fanfare and feasts, but rather with a new suit and a silent agreement to not talk about the war, even in the trenches on the 11th of October there was no celebration, just an acceptance of the fact that the Great War was over. While there are large differences between the texts and the film, one thing they all agreed on was that the war was rather useless and just a waste of human life, with Paul Bäumer saying, “A word of command has made these silent figures our enemies; a word of command might transform them into our friends.” Paul does not call war a waste directly in this instance, but if just a few words can change enemies to friends what other way is there to describe it?

The book all “quiet on the western front” by Erich maria remarque made me realise some of the very bad things that no one talks about, about WW1. The book is written from a solider named paul baumer a young 19 year old who joins the army to help serve for his country with his school friends. But after a very short period of time in the front lines of the german trenches they realised this was not something to play around in.

This author used alot of descriptive words to keep people engaged in the book. I think one of reasons this book was so engaging was because he did not make the war seem any less cruel than it accualy was the author just wanted to share a very honest and uncencored point of view on how the war accualy was. Near the beggining of the book one of pauls friends “franz” was hurt while in battle and paul talked about his death in close detail and it really showed the brutality that these soliders went through at a very young age.

As we could imagine seeing your friend or peer dieing right infront of you may not take a toll on your mental health immediatly but for most later down the line of the surviving soliders could never be the same because of what they had saw during WW1.

This book shows how much the soliders have been through not only physically but mentally as well. As they are risking their lives to protect thier country and protect the women and children at home and they are doing this all alone and depend on theselves in the battlefield.

In conclusion I enjoyed this book mostly because of how uncencored it was and showed the true brutality of WW1 and I accually did learn alot from this book and I think it is very important to never forget this event in history because these soliders fought for everyones freedom and our safety and that is not something everyone is willing to do.

In the past, I have read two stories written by soldiers who have fought in WWI on opposing sides. One tells the perspective of a soldier who enlisted in High School and the other which focused on a soldier coming home from the war. For the first half of They Shall not Grow Old, it remained slightly optimistic with accounts of soldiers going out of their way to enlist in the army. According to the film, enlisting in the army was seen as an act of bravery and men who refused to do so were looked down upon and were seen as cowards. It also gave descriptions of a soldier’s everyday life in the army camps such as singing songs and drinking off their pain with alcohol. It also showed pictures of their latrines and their lack of embarrassment. The movie later switched to a more violent nature when it started giving graphic descriptions of the horrors of soldier’s experiences in the war. It started telling stories about soldiers crying for help and being gravely injured by nearby shells, and getting diseases from spending too much time in the trenches. The descriptions were more graphic than any of the WWI stories we have read in the past and really started touching on the violent side of war. Paul’s story focused on a German soldier’s life and how similar it was to any opposing side and Soldier’s Home focused on the drastic changes a soldier would experience while returning home. All three of these stories felt very different while focusing on the same topic since they were aimed towards different aspects in the war.

After watching the movie We Shall Not Grow Old it really made me realize the true horrors of war. For example when reading a book like All Quiet on the Western Front and Soldiers Home you wouldn’t get the same feeling that this movie gave you. This movie showed real footage of World War I and the real people that suffered through it. In my opinion having the real footage shows people proof that these events are really as bad as people say, unlike books were there isn’t any evidence of war besides made up characters in a war-like scenario. The movie We Shall Not Grow Old really made me realize the trauma of war and why these men would come home feeling isolated and out of place, seeing bodies of the people you once knew and talked to would have been horrifying and unimaginable.

We Shall Not Grow Old, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Soldiers Home all have the same thing in common, the fact that once the surviving soldiers came home after fighting the war they never fully settled and most became lost souls.

“They shall not grow old” shows us what happened in the war, from start to end, from the British point of view. The young boys and men wanting to join the army thinking its going to be fun and have a great time, hurts to watch, those men didnt know what they were getting themselves into, the pain, suffering, and grief they would have to deal with is insane for some of their ages, some even lied of their age to get in the army. “All quiet on the western front” and “soldiers home” describes to us mostly the emotional state of soldiers, “They shall not grow old” shows us the grusomeness of the events, the dead bodies, the bombardment, every single thing that happens in the war is showed to us. We dont really see much of how they feel except at the start they are really happy and excited, later you can tell they dont have smiles on their faces anymore. Some similarities I managed to point out or think about were some such as soldiers in dispair, they knew they could die any minute, and some did die with that feeling in their chest, soldiers knowing that when they came back home they wouldnt be the same person, everything changes when you go to war. All the surviving soldiers came home to grim families(most of them), no available jobs, and some came home without limbs, eyes, or features that “made them human”. “They shall not grow old” changes your perspective on war, on soldiers, on people, in the end, everyone just wants a hug.

Why should we care about the experiences of WWI soldiers? How could anyone today relate to troops who fought in a war that happened over a century ago? Is there even any relevance to the world today? Similar to Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front and Ernest Hemingway’s Soldier’s Home, Peter Jackson’s documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old” provides insight into the lives of servicemen during and after the Great War. All three effectively cultivate empathy for their characters or subjects in order to communicate a shared theme; no one wins a war.  However, Remarque, Hemingway and Jackson each tell their stories from different perspectives and using different formats.

While All Quiet on the Western Front and Soldier’s Home use writing to connect readers to the stories of WWI soldiers, “They Shall Not Grow Old” uses the visual medium of archival film and photographs. Moreover, Remarque’s novel (told from the first-person perspective of a German soldier) and Hemingway’s short story (third-person narration of a US Marine’s life) both follow the stories of one fictional protagonist, whereas Jackson’s documentary depicts multiple experiences of many real life young British servicemen.

Nonetheless, a major similarity among these three pieces is their ability to evoke empathy from the audience. Through the voice of Remarque’s protagonist Paul Bäumer, the reader experiences the horrors of daily life on the front lines. In our imaginations, we see what Paul sees and sense what he feels. By the same token, while Hemingway’s Krebs might be desensitized after the war, we empathize with his feelings of alienation. The reader is drawn into Kreb’s world of isolation and his inability to reintegrate into society. In the same way, viewers relate to the images and footage of young soldiers sharing their stories in Jackson’s film. Seeing the faces and hearing the voices of the real life soldiers, the audience develops caring for the young men. We understand from the soldiers’ authentic accounts, that in reality, many Paul Baümers and Harold Krebs’ actually existed. All three works share a similar message; glory in war is a myth; death, gore and grime in war is reality.

To sum up, while Remarque, Hemingway and Jackson use different storytelling methods to share different perspectives, they equally succeed at creating empathetic portrayals of WWI soldiers. The fictional characters Paul Bäumer and Harold Krebs, along with Peter Jackson’s genuine young subjects are all compelling individuals the audience develops empathy towards and start to care about. Through reading and viewing soldiers’ stories from a war fought a hundred years ago, audiences today can develop an understanding on how fighting universally effects us.

In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers.

Neville Chamberlain, 1938

“They shall not grow old” gave me bigger influence than “Soldier’s Home” and “All Quiet on the Western front” because it was more realistic. There were clips of dead people and we could hear real think of soldiers and the cruel sounds of the war. And the characters in “They shall not grow old” have various backgrounds. Each soldier recounted their experiences with trying not to think about it deeply. That made me feel the war nearly more. I found that these three had same end that all soldiers lost the meaning of life and there was nothing left after the war. And they couldn’t live like us, like normal lives. I thought this would lead this title ”They shall not grow old”. They couldn’t glow old because they lost reason to live so it means they didn’t glow old, only time had passed. I learned that though the soldiers were fighting in different side, they thought same thing and they were wondering why they were fighting each other. That’s the most interesting point.

 

 

             After reading the novel “All quiet on the Western Front”, the short story “Soldier’s home” and the movie “They shall not grow old”, I have observed several similarities as well as differences in these media discussing the topic of World War One. All three stories have different perspectives from different sides of the war. In “All Quiet on the Western Front”, the main character Paul Baumer tells the readers the experience of the war from a german perspective, while “soldier’s home” and “They shall not grow old” both show a different experience (British, American). 

While all three media discuss the same war, that happened at the same time period, the experiences and perspectives of the soldiers vary from which side they fight for. “All quiet on the western front” and “Soldier’s Home” both mainly show the experience of being in the war, rather than the combat itself. On the other hand, the video “They Shall Not Grow Old”, mainly discusses the consequences and results of the war; such as the deaths and suffering of the soldiers – showing how inhumane and cruel the war was. 

These stories have made me rethink what the war was actually like – the experience and life of the soldiers during combat. I believe these 3 pieces of media are very suitable for raising awareness regarding World War One. 

       This blog will be comparing and contrasting “They Shall Not Grow Old”, “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Soldier’s Home.” While all three fell into the category of WW1, “They Shall Not Grow Old”, and “Soldiers Home” fought for the allies while Paul Baumer from “All Quiet on the Western Front” fought for the axis. All three have nearly identical outcomes on the soldiers’ mental and emotional state after the war. It’s shown that arriving home traumatized and unable to reattach themselves to society is what makes their case alike. Overall, soldiers after the war ended up realizing how emotionally and mentally disconnected, they feel from their home.  

“Soldiers Home” only covers what a soldier experienced after the war while both “They Shall Not Grow Old” and “All Quiet on the Western Front” show the horrible and gruesome events that soldiers experienced while fighting, you can see that this led up to their trauma in the end. 

They Shall Not Grow Old, All Quiet on the Western Front and “Soldier’s Home.” All have many similarities and all have a very sad story to tell. The three of them all have their own different stories to tell about their experiences in the war and how it felt to be involved in such terrible times. Even though they were different stories they all had the same type of experiences for example. In the movie it showed all of the experiences in photos and in the other two stories this was how there lifestyle was and it wasn’t different for anyone, they all felt the same feeling in the war and all had the same disconnection to their old life knowing it would never be the same again. The only differences were that each of them had a different way of telling their story, facing their difficulties and experiences and talking about how their life was during and after the war, In conclusion, I think I have gained lots of knowledge from all three different stories/ perspectives of WW1 as well as understanding more on how terrible it was to fight in the war.

All quiet in the western front, soldiers home and they all not grow up have to many things in common but they still have their differences. The three of them describe their own story of how bad the situation was, they describe how bad was life in those days, and all the disturbing thing they witness. They had to much social pressure on them to join the army, too much that some of them lied about their age to make them look “good”. Time passes and all of them regret joining, because of different reasons but the most common is that they were tired they didn’t care if they won or lose they just wanted it ti stop. They also describe us the empty feeling when they came back from war, nobody acknowledge their suffering, their tramas, neither their losses. People acted as if nothing had happened. They had any special treatment they didn’t felt as heroes. These novels had too much in common and also differences if you see them in different perspectives.

The film “They Shall Not Grow Old” and the two written texts “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Soldiers Home”, all share similar ideas in common. The two main ideas shared throughout these three accounts are the issues the soldiers faced returning to their old lives and people not understanding the reality of war and not wanting to talk about it.

In all three of these accounts, the soldiers faced similar problems when they returned to their old lives. In “All Quiet on the Western Front”, Paul Baummer talks about feeling like he has changed so much from the war that his old life feels like a part of his past he can never return to. In “Soldier’s Home”, Harrold Krebs talks about a similar issue. Even though his view on the war was more positive, he still found it hard to return to his old life is a similar way Baummer did. In the film “They Shall Not Grow Old”, one soldier talks about how it was hard to go back to his old life. He found it hard to move on and have people forget about all the horrible things he had to go through. In all three of these accounts, the war has had so much influence in the development of their lives that they found their old life impossible to get back too.

Another similarity between the three accounts is that they said they couldn’t talk to people about what actually happened in the war. In “All Quiet on the Western Front”, Paul Baummer prefers to not talk about the war at all because he finds that people have their own ideas of war that are not accurate and romanticise the idea of war. In “Soldier’s Home”, Harrold Krebs lies about what happened in the war because he found all the people disinterested in the actual stories he had to tell. In the film “They Shall Not Grow Old”, one soldier talks about how they couldn’t truthfully talk about the war with people who were not in it because they didn’t fully understand it. He said that the only people you could freely talk about the war and have them understand was to talk to another soldier who was in the war. The people who did not experience the war didn’t understand the horrors the soldiers had to go through which made it hard for the soldiers to talk to people about it.

These three pieces provide the reader with a perspective on WW1 and all the struggles the soldiers had to deal with both in the war, and returning from it.

In this unit we have been studying the back story about soldiers participating in WW1. And the pieces we either read or watched, all had a lot in common, but also different in their own ways. In all the stories, they talked about the disaster of the war, and how hard it was to actually have to witness the things the soldiers did. They all felt forced to have to serve in the war, and go into combat, just because either their school told them to fight for their country, or they thought it would be “fun” to do with friends, which obviously was the wrong idea. In the 2 texts we read, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Soldiers Home, they had a lot in common with the going home experiences. Them being home, they felt trapped and it feeling different than leaving post war. Overall, these pieces have a lot in common, just depends on what they focus on.

Calla Eastgaard-Zaharko

Throughout this unit, we’ve looked at a lot of media about The Great War/WWI, and many of them have a lot in common and a lot of differences. One of the main similarities between the portrayals is how depressing the war is for the soldiers, on all fronts. In most of the soldiers’ cases, fighting in the war was never something they planned to do. It was usually something they felt morally obligated to do, or did it because everyone else was. This is shown on both sides, in both All Quiet on the Western Front, and They Shall Not Grow Old. Most of these men usually felt broken when they arrived home, and felt that the war was all that they had, being young men when it began. Moreover, all of thee representations have a lot of similarities, both of the portrayal of conditions of the war, and of the soldiers.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque and Soldiers Home by Ernest Hemingway are both war novels with many similarities but also differences. In All Quiet on the Western Front the main character is Paul Baumer, and in Soldiers Home it is Harold Krebs. Although these two men both served for different alliances, (Harold Krebs served for the USA and Paul Baumer served for the Germans) they both experienced the same tragedies and traumatic experiences.

A similarity that both Krebs and Baumer had in common is that they were both schoolboys, meaning that they were very young when they joined the war. A big difficulty that these boys faced was the high combat in which they were fighting in, and how they delt with the trauma that was brought into their lives. Once they got back home, they both had troubles fitting in, feeling isolated from the rest of the people they were surrounded by. Paul says ” but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a veil between us.”(pg. 160) He is talking about the changes he has been through while at war and serving at the front, he feels welcomed at home but not comfortable and not like himself. Many normal life things became sorrows towards these men. They fought many difficulties with, loosing close friends and experiencing the unimaginable where they would be mentally damaged and changed. Another similarity both the boys have are their family. When Paul goes home for his leave, he seems distraught and overwhelmed once he sees his parents.

” My mother is pleased to see me wearing civilian clothes; it makes me less strange to her. But my father would rather I keep my uniform on so that he could take me to visit his acquaintances.” (pg. 164)

Paul’s mother is ill and care very little about the war, and more about his health and how he is dealing with everything, whereas his dad likes talking about the war and what it is like serving on the front. Krebs family was alike Paul’s family except his mother was the one who was intrigued and asked Krebs about the war, whereas his dad was noncommittal.

“She often came in when he was in bed and asked him to tell her about the war, but her attention always wandered. His father was non-committal.” (Page. 2)

Overall, both of these novels were very interesting to read about. These men experienced many tragedies and losses during the war which resulted in the change at home and struggles to fit into society.

The book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque opened my eyes to many horrifying experiences young men suffered during World War 1. The book is written from the perspective of a Soldier named Paul Baumer, a young 19-year-old boy, who joins the army with him and his school friends. It is to be said that these men joined the army from the ideals of patriotism and nationalism, but a very short time after serving at the front of the German trenches find that it is all lies.

This booked used lots of descriptive literature and imagery which kept readers, like me, very intrigued. The brutality of life on the front was major, and what I liked most about this book is that it did not glorify and make the war seem less cruel than what it was. At the beginning of the book one of Paul’s closest friends; Franz, has been injured in battle. Paul talks about his death in details that really capture the tragedies these men went through at such a young age. By the end of the chapter Franz is barely holding onto his life, and Paul says;

“He is entirely alone now with his little life of nineteen years, and cries because it leaves him.” (Pg. 31)

Saying goodbye to one of your closest friends must take a toll on your mental health tremendously, but for these men it was just a part of the job. Another part of the book that stood out for me was when Paul was talking about life at the front and how much the earth meant to soldiers like himself.

“When he presses himself down upon her long and powerfully, when he buries his face and his limbs deep in her from the fear of death by shell fire, then she is his only friend, his brother, his mother; he stifles his terror and his cries in her silence and her security” (Pg. 55)

This quote, and part of the book shows so much emotion. Soldiers have been through so much mentally and physically; they have left their families to serve for their country and to risk their lives for the earth they live on. They are all alone. They depend on themselves at battle and their only comfort is the earth they lie against while at battle.

In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I have never really read or learned much literature of the war, but as I read, I could tell myself getting more intrigued. It is important information for us to learn about the past and the lives that were taken for our safety and economy today.

 

 

 

They shall not grow old is a documentary about World War I and soldiers’ experiences of it.  All quiet on the western front and Soliders home are texts about two individuals and their memories and stories. There are some similarities between these three. For example, TSNGO* and AQOTW*F showed also a good side of war when soldiers had fun and a great time with their friends.  But also when they feared for their own life and were scared of the shells. Few of the veterans from TSNGO said that they felt joy when they succeeded in their attack on the Jerries which refers more to the Soldier’s home – Krebs enjoyed the war and its adrenalin. But what all of the documents and texts had in common was the weird feeling on the first front, without sleep and always looking behind your back if there aren’t any shells flying on you. And when the soldiers got home, it wasn’t their home anymore.

*TSNGO – they shall not grow old.                                                                                     *AQOTWF – all quiet on the western front

They Shall Not Grow Old, All Quiet on the Western Front and Soldier’s Home are three compelling narratives that all describe what it was like to be a serviceman during World War I. Each account was slightly different from the others, but they each carried one important message; war was either fun or dreadful. All three scripts conveyed this same message in different ways; the movie displayed it with examples of activities and clips, All Quiet on the Western Front explained how the friends Paul developed made the extra time enjoyable and Krebs from the short story suggested that his time at war was exciting. Each of these accounts were unique in their own way, aside from their mediums. They Shall Not Grow Old was more of a descriptive film than one that tells a story, All Quiet on the Western Front was more of a personal account of trench life and Soldier’s Home showed us emotions post-war. Overall, the knowledge gained from separate perspectives helped me obtain a well-developed understanding and empathy for these soldiers and their eventful lives.

Nyah Sharratt – 10/18

In this comparison, we will focus on 2 texts and 1 film, these are “All Quiet On The Western Front”, “Soldier ‘s Home” and “They Shall Not Grow Old”. It is clear that the film, apart from being something much more visual and aggressive, is made for an adult audience. In this film they show us how the war was seen and how life was like from a trench, they also explained all the brutalities and nightmares that are lived in the war. This is all very similar to the book “All Quiet On The Western Front”. One of the biggest similarities between these two works is the way they depict and explain the war. All the disgusting and terrifying tasks and actions they had to do, whether it was wallowing in excrement or killing a badly wounded person, etc… These are things that the two stories also have in common.All this, in comparison with the last text “Soldier ‘s Home” has nothing to do, since in this last text the war is not described as much as in the previous cases, and much less gives that amount of details. Instead of all that here it explains the life of the soldiers after the war (Krebs as the main character).

“All Quiet on the Western Front”, “Soldier’s Home” and “They Shall Not Grow Old” all depict the suffering caused by the war. Both “They Shall Not Grow” and “All Quiet on the Western Front” describe death during the war, while “Soldier’s Home” focuses on life after the war. Still, “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Soldier’s Home” have a noticeable difference from “They Shall Not Grow”. While “They Shall Not Grow” is based on interviews with many people who went through the war, the other two are from one person’s point of view. “They Shall Not Grow” is more like a record of the war, unlike the rest two which had stories about each main character, letting the audience concentrate on the war itself.

All Quiet, Soldier’s Home, and They Shall Not Grow Old all tell stories of soldiers emotions. They recall the events they face and what they feel. They Shall Not Grow Old differ from All Quiet and Soldier’s Home because it is not a written work but a film. It tells a story using photographs, videos, and interviews with many soldiers, not just the imagery we visualize through reading. Despite being from different sides of the war, all of these story share a few common grounds.

One similarity between the film and All Quiet was when the soldiers were in hand to hand combat and killed someone. In They Shall Not Grow Old, the soldier told the story of when he killed a German Soldier and he felt sorry for him. In the moment they were not enemies but men watching another die. The soldiers gave him water, he thanked the soldier and passed away. Similarly, In All Quiet, Paul was in a hand to hand combat and stabbed an enemy. He didn’t know what to do because he has never killed someone this close before. Because the soldier did not die quickly, Paul cannot do anything but take care of him until he dies. Paul discovers the soldier has a family and wrote a letter to them that he killed him. In both scenarios, they both feel bad for killing the opponent and was broken by it.

Another similarity between the film and Soldier’s Home was the fact that when the soldiers came home, they didn’t know what to do with themselves. In They Shall Not Grow Old, the soldiers interviewed explained that once the war was over, they couldn’t find jobs because they serve no commercial value. Many boys grew up in the war, therefore they do not have experience in the world. Like the film, Krebs couldn’t find himself working, to the point where his mother started pointing out that he should become successful like his friends. “The boys are settling down; they’re all determined to get somewhere; you can see that boys like Charlie Simmons are on their way to being really a credit to the community.” (page 6) To the veterans, they cannot be of value to society because all they could not grow out of the war.

The story, movie and book are different because they both have different characters and different points of view . The movie talks about the process of the war and what was happening before and during it, they were also many people’s stories not just one. While the book talks more about it, more in detail and just follows one person’s story and talked about how hard was the war for him and his friends. In the short story they talk about after the war and his life after it , that he missed the war and the adrenaline he felt empty without the war  .  After all they are about the same how horrific the First World War was.

Overall I enjoyed both the book all quite on the western front and the video they shall not grow old. Although I believe they do have a lot in common they both deglamorize the war and give more of a real perspective. Although I think the book was more real and Honest about the true pain and suffering in the war . I personally felt like the video was more impactful even though they were actors being able to view it  made more of a picture in my mid. Imagining it made better understand happened and tell what they were truly going through.

“All Quiet On The Western Front”, “Soldier’s Home” and “They Shall Not Grow Old”, are different stories but at the end the three are talking about the same thing, war. Paul and Krebs share some similar emotions, they show how after going back home they don’t feel the same. While on “They Shall Not Grow Old” shows more how was living on the war like. What the soldiers did on their free time, what they learn, how they got prepared for combat, how they were feeling and how when they were on combat nothing matter but themselves. It shows all the good things that the soldiers went through as well as the bad things. The three stories expressed how the soldiers felt when they have to go to war and how difficult it was. All the soldiers didn’t know if they were going to be alive when in combat. They all showed a different perspective of the war and details about it. At the end the three stories told how just in a moment your whole life can change. Soldiers didn’t care if they lost the war, they just wanted it to end.

Harold Krebs from Soldier’s some, Paul Baumer from All quiet on the western front, and the British soldiers from the film They shall not grow old had their differences, yet their experiences when they returned home were surprisingly similar.

All three pieces of literature may be different mediums and have other perspectives of the war, but all three pieces described what it was like for soldiers to go back home after serving at war. Both Krebs and the British soldiers in the movie found that no one wanted to talk about the war when they returned.

There was a part in the movie when a soldier described his experience of returning home and talking to the mother of one of his dead comrades to tell her about her son’s death. This scene is quite similar to a part of the novel All quiet on the western front where Baumer returns home on leave and visits Kemmerich’s mother. Although the two scenes are alike, they are both different because Kemmerich’s mother was more in shock and had a hard time believing that her son was dead, whereas the soldier in the movie found that his friend’s mother was angry.

In the movie it also talked about how when you’re at the front, you find yourself thinking about why you’re fighting and killing people, essentially why there’s a war. That was similar to a part in All Quiet when Paul was talking to his friends about that same topic. In both scenarios, they got to the same conclusion; you can’t justify why there’s a war. War is an opportunity for world “leaders” to fight for land and to gain power or simply to kill others to “solve” their problems as a way of fighting rather than talking.

With that said, we can find similarities and differences in all three pieces of literature, but they are all similar in terms of them being about WW1 and soldier’s experiences.

They shall not grow old was a movie created in 2018. This movie, along with All Quiet on the Western Front and Solder’s Home, all depict the struggle soldiers had coming home after the war ended. Krebs had trouble telling people how he truly felt, Baumer struggled to reconnect with his past life, and the British soldiers found it hard to find jobs after the war.

All Quiet on the Western Front focuses in depth on what life was truly like in the front lines, while the short story Soldier’s Home focuses on focuses on life after the war. The movie They Shall Not Grow Old on the other hand uses very gory imagery to drive home how scary it really was on the front lines. Everything from charging into the German frontlines, to even sitting in your trench, praying you don’t get sniped in the head. You were never, ever safe no matter where you were.

Overall, these three pieces of literature focused on 3 different topics, which broadened my range of WW1 knowledge exponentially.

In the documentary film “They shall not grow old”, the audience could watch how the life in the trencjes was actually like and also It showed the true horrors of the war and it was very similar to “All quiet on the western fornt”. It has similarities in the facts that they both try tot show how the war was actually like and how the raids and charges across no mans land were actually like and the fear that they felt was inhumane. aditionally the war was very stressful and there were always sounds of bombardments and artillery firing. In comparison “Soldiers home” doesnt describe a lot the war, but instead it narrated the life of the soldiers after the war in particulalrly the life of Krebs who was an american soldier who had enlisted in the marines to go fight in the western front but wasnt inmediatly accepted back into society and this also happened with the british soldier who fought in WW1. They were like a different race apart form civilians.

 In this Reflection I will compare a film and two writing pieces. They Shall Not Grow Old, All Quiet on the Western Front and Soldier’s Home. These pieces of literature are all about World War one. Each impact me differently.  

For example, In the book All Quiet on the Western Front, it focuses mostly on time spent on the front lines whereas Soldiers Home is about after the war.  Both stories make me aware and sad about the brutal conditions each soldier had to suffer through the war then coming home and struggling to feel like they belong. Reading both writings helped me understand the mentality of a soldier through descriptions. 

However, the film, They Shall Not Grow Old uses imagery to allow the viewer to experience the atrocities of the war such as the soldier’s conditions and circumstances. There are many videos of trench life in the film. You can see the rats, dirtiness, and sickness cursing through everyone who had to live there. Survivors of the war spoke during the film talking about their involvement. Several explained the constant danger of being shot in the trenches by snipers. Each soldier is forced to accept this circumstance and continue with their jobs. After the war it is mentioned how weird it felt to stand up straight in the trenches. 

Being able to see the images of war and hearing veterans speak rather than imagining them from descriptions gives me a new level of empathy for the soldiers who fought. All of them educate me about WW1. 

Krebs, Baumer, and the real British soldiers may be different, but their challenging experiences when they returned home on leave or at the end of the war were shockingly similar. Hemingway’s Soldier’s Home, Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, and They Shall Not Grow Old (directed by Peter Jackson) may be different genres and may have different perspectives of the war, but all three pieces of literature described what it was like for soldiers to struggle to reconnect with their ‘past life’; with their lives before the war that most of them had given up on or forgotten. Both Krebs and the British soldiers in Jackson’s movie found that nobody wanted to talk about the war when they returned home. Krebs’ mom couldn’t care less about the war, and many of the British soldiers in Jackson’s documentary mentioned how unpopular the war was as a conversation topic. Also, there was a part in They Shall Not Grow Old when a soldier described his experience of returning home and talking to the mother of one of his dead comrades to tell her about her son’s death. This scene is comparable to a part of chapter 7 of All Quiet, where Baumer returns to his home town on leave and visits Kemmerich’s mother. Although the two scenes are similar, they are both unique because Kemmerich’s mother was more in shock and refused to believe that her son was dead (she accused Baumer of lying to her), where-as the soldier in They Shall Not Grow Old found that his comrade’s mother was angry and hated that the soldier talking to her was alive, not her son. Thus, They Shall Not Grow Old is both similar and different to All Quiet on the Western Front and Soldier’s Home in regards to the WWI soldiers’ experiences with civilians when they returned home.

They shall not grow old is a documentary on the First World War. It was directed and produced by one Peter Jackson in 2018. It has footage that has been colourised and interviews of servicemen play over the footage. Some of the servicemen have the same feelings about the war as Baumer and some the same as Krepps. In the documentary it shows both the good and the awful parts in the war. Like in All Quiet on the Western Front, there were times where the soldiers would be fooling around with eachother and having a good time until they had to go over the trench and rush the enemies, that is when the soldiers were filled with fear and anger and they used that to fuel their attacks. In chapter 9 of All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul kills a man with a knife, he sits there beside the dying man for hours, feeling bad and trying to save the man. One of the servicemen in They Shall Not Grow Old describe having the same experience.

The life of Krebs and Baumer is unalike, but not too different. A Soldier’s Home was written with the intention of describing someone’s life coming home from the war, and All Quiet on the Western Front was written to show the world how indifferent German soldiers are from the rest. When we start to compare both stories, we realize that these two stories were written in the perspective of two very different soldiers who fought on opposing sides, one being in the US and the other being in Germany. In Baumer’s story, we read that Baumer tends to be more empathetic than everyone else and even starts pitying the French and British soldiers who he had killed or let die. However in Krebs’ story, we find out that he actually found a liking for the war and doesn’t see life ever with the same excitement he had in the war. Something I have noticed in each story is the fact that both of the soldiers had little or no emotion left for their families due to the rough experiences they went through in the war. In Baumer’s story, he tries to relive his memories of his childhood when he shuffles through his belonging while staying at his house rather than Krebs’ story where he was a bit more accepting of change when he started noticing how mature everyone he knew had become. A major challenge both Krebs and Baumer faced while returning from the campsite is sharing their experiences from the war. Baumer’s Father was eager to know his experiences in the war while Krebs wanted to be the center of attention and even started making up lies about the war, even though he felt that it wasn’t right. Krebs and Baumer have grown up and lived in very two different countries at the time where one hated another yet, they lived through very similar experiences during and after the war. This is what I believe All Quiet on the Western Front was trying to communicate throughout this time, that two soldiers no matter how different they are share many of the same experiences throughout the war.

While both Krebs and Baumer fought in World War 1, they did not fight in the same side, but opposing ones, Krebs for the Americans and Baumer for the Germans. Baumer died back in 1918 while Krebs lived and went back home in 1919. Both characters went through similar expiriences, but both saw things differently, Krebs felt distant when he got back from the war, Baumer felt a similar when he left to war, and other examples I wont get into. Braumer and Krebs both had very hard youths, with very similar situations and feelings, but still somehow manage to have different outcomes and journeys throughout their experiences.

One similarity of Soldiers Home and All Quiet On The Western Front is their fundamental challenge of the Romantic image build on the war. When Krebs returns to his town. He is forced to address their liking to hear ” heroic war exploits” He is left to deal with the truth all alone. War essentially changed him into a person where the future is overshadowed by the conditions of a war-time past. Likewise, Pauls attitude towards the ” heroic exploits of war” is much the same. Paul holds resentment and bitterness towards the teachers and adults that praised the war to younger people, disfavouring their minds and sending them off to an early death. For Paul he sees his generation, motivated by the romantic construction of war as one that is “weary, broken burnt out, rootless and without hope”. The desire to “fit” what others wanted has caused both soldiers to feel “utterly alone” in the world.

Krebs and Paul went to the war during their youth. They both were changed the way of seeing the things because of the war. Krebs don’t want to live with any consequences. It means he couldn’t see the value in any things. Paul also lost the meaning of life. He said “and even if these scenes of our youth were given back to us we would hardly know what to do. They were too young to give their time to the war. They were taken the most important time of the life. The similarities between Krebs and Paul show that war is something that changes not only time, but everything about their lives afterwards. The two were enemies, but the outcome for those who went to war was the same.

On the other hand, the have differences. Though Paul died during the war, Krebs survived from the war. So, Krebs has an after story of his  life. I feel he had harder life than Paul because he lived. After he went back his home, he couldn’t behave as same as before. He needed to lie in order to be a hero. His mother tried to make him work and spend normal life. However, these things put too much pressure on him. When his mother talked about his aim for life to him, he said nothing and looked at the bacon fat hardening on his plate instead seeing his mother.(p6)

I think this is the experience and new pain that Paul didn’t have because of his dead. Sometimes it seems the death is the end and the most sadness thing but sometimes it’s better option than live. Krebs got life and lost happiness, Paul got death and lost suffering. That’s the biggest difference that they got and lost after life.

I can’t choose which life is better but one thing I can say about their life is the war destroy everything and leave only unhappy life after it.

When reading and analyzing the book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque and the short story Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemingway I noticed many similarities and differences between the two kinds of literature. Paul Baummer from All Quiet on the Western Front and Harold Kerbs From Soldier’s Home both fought during WW1 on different sides. The most obvious this that is common in both stories is that both men faced trauma and trouble living life normally after their experience in the conflict of war. We can see that the book about Paul Baummer explains how his full war experience was including his time at home but the other book about Harold Krebs only talks about his time at home. 

 

 

What was different between Krebs and Baummer was that Krebs found that the energy that he felt in the state of life or death was making him want to go back to fight but Baummer wanted to stay home or not even come home because his mother was sick.a similarity that they had was when  Krebs also explains that he has nothing to do at home and he is no use to anyone, for example, on page 2 it says “ reading on the front porch until he became board” this shows that Krebs didn’t have anything to do and he was just wandering around bored. 

 

comparably in All Quiet on the Western Front Paul is also very bored and has nothing to do when he gets home because after the war there is nothing for him to do, he can’t work nor go back to school, and nothing can be the same ever again and Paul knows that for example:” on chapter 7 Paul talks about opening his books at home that he use to be able to read but he just can’t read them or connect to them as he use to before”. 

 

Another thing that was similar between them is that their fathers always wanted to know about the war but neither Krebs nor Paul can answer it because of the traumatic war experience that they had, it is evident that what they both faced was very scary for them and affected the mentally and emotionally affecting their lives. this caused them to have distant relationships with their loved ones nor make new connections with others because of their difficulty communicating, in conclusion, we see that both characters struggled with returning to their old lives.

Once we have read both stories (Soldiers home and All quiet on the western front), and we have all the aspects in which they are similar, and the aspects in which they are differences between the two protagonists; Paul and Krab.
The first thing that can be appreciated as similarity is that both stories talk and deal with the war and the experiences of soldiers in it.

Between these two main characters there are similarities and differences, but let’s start with the similarities. The two main characters in each story are part of their respective armies. Something they both have in common, and almost all soldiers who have gone to war is the fact that they don’t want to remember it for anything in the world, they both have traumas and nightmares about it, neither of them want to remember the subject and try to avoid it. Just thinking about her scares them and they don’t want to go back there.

Now I will talk about the differences between the protagonists of these stories. Although both were in the army they are not in the same combat sector, since Paul enlisted for the common army and Krab is in the marines. Apart from this difference, they also did not belong to the same side and therefore not to the same army either. Krab was on the American side as a marine, while Paul was in the German common army. But definitely the biggest difference is the ending that each character has, as Paul dies in the war while Krab manages to stay alive and survive.

 

Harold Krebbs and Paul Baumer have many similarities and differences. Both are young men, who have enlisted in the military. Krebs is an American marine, and Baumer a German soldier.  

Soldiers’ Home is written from the perspective of a man who disliked speaking about his experience in the war when he arrived home, like Baumer. However, Baumer didn’t like to speak on the war because he felt like he was made a spectacle by the people of his town. Krebbs chose not to speak on the war because simply no one listened, and he lied in his stories in order to gain a reaction.

“A distaste for everything that had happened to him in the war set in because of the lies he had told. All of the times that had been able to make him feel cool and clear inside himself when he thought of them; the times so long back when he had done the one thing, the only thing for a man to do, easily and naturally, when he might have done something else, now lost their cool, valuable quality and then were lost themselves.”  p.1

To Krebbs, the war was an escape from his former life, even when he had come back to it. But this quote shows it disgusted him to reflect on his actions, after pondering his other possible choices. 

When both men were home, the largest effect the war had on them was numbness. The things that would usually bring them joy and excitement became a burden to them such as reading, girls, conversation, etc. In response to this, Krebbs would crave the war. This is much different in comparison to Baumer who didn’t want to return to the war, but wanted to return to his normal life, before the war.  

“I feel excited; but I do not want to be, for that is not right. I want that quiet rapture again. I want to feel the same powerful, nameless urge that I used to feel when I turned to my books. Thebreath of desire that then arose from the coloured backs of the books, shall fill me again, melt theheavy, dead lump of lead that lies somewhere in me and waken again the impatience of thefuture, the quick joy in the world of thought, it shall bring back again the lost eagerness of myyouth. I sit and wait.” p. 171

Baumer longed for nothing more than his life before the war, and this quote shows how he feels about the things he once loved, and his youth that he had lost. 

Baumer enjoyed the presence of his mother much more than Krebbs did. To Baumer, being held by his mother brought him away from the war. She never asked him about combat. To her, he was no longer a soldier, just her son. Krebbs didn’t feel as much as a son or brother when he arrived home.  

“So his mother prayed for him and then they stood up and Krebs kissed his mother and went out of the house. He had tried so to keep his life from being complicated. Still, none of it had touched him.”  p. 7

 His mother did much for him. This quote represents how Krebbs had never properly accepted or reciprocated the love that she had tried to give him, even if he tried. 

The war had traumatized both Baumer and Krebbs, but moreover, Krebbs longed for the battlefield, as it may have given him the purpose, he felt he needed. Paul longed for a sense of normalcy and hoped to once more enjoy the things he once loved.  

Reading the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque and then also reading Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemingway I noticed similarities between the main characters, Paul and Krebs, both who fought in the war yet on different sides. though I noticed similarities I also noticed how some things were different, the attitude of the characters I suppose.

“All of the times that had been able to make him feel cool and clear inside himself when he thought of them; the times so long back when he had done the one thing, the only thing for a man to do, easily and naturally, when he might have done something else, now lost their cool, valuable quality and then were lost themselves.” (page 1, Soldier’s Home)

This excerpt form Soldier’s home explained how Krebs, unlike Paul, actually seemed to enjoy the war, it made him feel at ease and clear. Krebs found that war was not awful, he found it was better then being at home. Paul on the other hand as written in several parts of the book, hated to war, and though Paul also didn’t feel at like he belonged when he went back home, he did not find the war good at all. Thus, it shows how there are similarities yet also differences.

“Suddenly my mother takes my hand and asks falteringly: “Was it bad out there Paul?” Mother, what should I answer to that! You would not understand, you could never realize it. Was it bad, you ask. – You, Mother, – I shake my head and say: “No, Mother, not so very.-” (page 161, All Quiet on the Western Front)

The above excerpt shows how like Krebs, Paul lied about how the war was, he didn’t want to frighten his mother. The difference between what they lied about was Paul tried to not make them worry, while Krebs, he enjoyed the war, lied about how he actually viewed the war, not wanting to seem weird for liking it.

Krebs and Paul are different because while Paul has an extremely negative view on war, Krebs has the exact opposite. Though they are also similar as they both feel alone and unconnected to their home.

Overall, though Krebs and Paul had different experiences when they came home, they still shared similarities such as feeling lonely and almost out of place.

 

Eva Salvador-Brown, Soldier’s Home.

While both “Soldier’s Home” and “All Quiet On The Western Front” are concerned with the tragedy that was WW1 and how it destroyed a generation of young men, their main characters were changed in the most opposite of ways. Paul in “All Quiet On The Western Front”  hated every second of his experiences in the, he hated what lengths the german armies had to go to in order to end more cannon fodder to the front lines “our fresh troops are anemic boys in need of rest, who cannot carry a pack, but merely know how to die. By the thousands.”. Krebs on the other hand enjoyed the war, he enjoyed how he could take advantage of the French and German girls who were desperate “That was the thing about French girls and German girls. There was not all this talking. You couldn’t talk much and you did not need to talk”.

The main difference between Paul and Krebs is that Paul believed he couldn’t live a normal life back home because of the war, while Krebs believed he couldn’t live a normal life back home without a war.

The stories of Paul Baumer (All quiet on the Western Front) and Krebs (Soldier’s Home) have various similarities and differences that compare and contrast with each other. The two stories both share the same genre and setting – a historical fiction based on World War One. Both of the characters have been put in the same situation, regardless of their position and the side of the war. They both experience the same conflicts and problems resulting from this major conflict.  In “all quiet on the Western Front”, the main character (Paul Baumer) while fighting for Germany, goes through the experience of fighting in the war, suffering both physically and mentally. He has put all of his past life behind him and was forced to join the war. He has lost his past identity – a normal teenager well on his way to adulthood.

“We are forlorn like children and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost.”

This shows that he did not feel comfortable about it and further shows the transition of his identity – from being a young man to a soldier that fights for the country. He has gone through this for years – ending it with a peaceful death. 

On the other hand, in the short story “Soldier’s home”, the main character (Krebs) is introduced as an American soldier that has participated in World War One. He has suffered through the same conflicts as any other soldier did; however, he ended up being more comfortable on the battlefield compared to his lonely past life. of the lies, he had told.

“All of the times that had been able to make him feel cool and clear inside himself when he thought of them; the times so long back when he had done the one thing, the only thing for a man to do, easily and naturally, when he might have done something else, now lost their cool, valuable quality and then were lost themselves.”

This shows that Kreb’s past life was rather miserable – up to the point where the experience of war was comparably better. He felt the actual “use” of himself – something that he did not feel before the war. This contrasts with the perspective of Paul Baumer, who did not like being in the war at all. 

Both Paul and Krebs went through the same war at the same time. They both had similarities as well as differences in perspective and point of view. Nonetheless, they have suffered through the war – something that we would not be able to completely understand and experience throughout our lives.  

Jm. Y- 2022/10/11