Their Cries

Author’s Note: This is another response to, All Quiet on the Western Front. I loved the scene of the horses and I wanted to capture the feeling of them in misery and pain, but I liked the monotonously quote on page 74 for my mimic line.

I can hear them- their cries. The cries are unbearable, indescribable. The moaning, the grieving, and the pain screeches in my ears. My eyes have not yet set upon the source of these cries, but hearing the cries is excruciating let alone watching it in pain. I push back the branches to see a field- black clouds hover over the field, smoke fills the lungs from the fire burning. My eyes set upon a picture I wished to never see- horses. Their neighs are louder than ever. They scream for help, they scream for relief. There is no help for them. The only help is death to put them out of their misery. Water fills my eyes for I know there is no hope for them. Endlessly the horses cry, endlessly misery fills the sky, endlessly the souls die.

Mimic line:

“Monotonously the lorries sway, monotonously come the calls, monotonously falls the rain.” (74)

Childhood Memory

Author's Note: In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, it demonstrates the main theme of childhood and that it is something that nobody can escape. It stick with you your whole life. Everybody wishes to be back at your childhood because of all the happy memories it had. In this response, I wanted to capture that childhood memory. There wasn't a specific quote that inspired me, it was the first three chapters of the novel that inspired me to write this response.

The smell of fresh air happily fills the lungs. The sound of chirping birds brings music to the ears. The warmth of the sun brings sleep upon the eyes. It feels so good. The grass, perfectly green, tickles the skin as the body lies peacefully on the earth. Rolling along the smooth ground brings happiness to the emotions. Standing up, there is a slight breeze; it’s perfect- not too hard and not too cold. The breeze scatters the innocent yet beautiful butterflies that float peacefully through the wind. Chasing them was the best part. If luck was present, one would be in my hands. There is nothing like a childhood memory.

Beauty (WR#1)

The author of All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque, really demonstrates the brutality of war with beautiful syntax. Page nine says, "Around us stretches the flowery meadow. The grasses sway their tall spears; the white butterflies flutter around and float on the soft warm wind of the late summer." The structure of syntax and the beauty of writing reminded me of Golding's writing style in Lord of the Flies. To take something so harmful, brutal, disgusting, etc. and make it sound pretty and comforting adds a huge effect on the reader. The feeling of comfort in such a terrible situation, makes it feel like this terrible situation is a good thing, even though it may not be.

Children at Heart (WR#2)

            Going through high school, then college, and eventually having a career, we all look back on our childhood and wish to relive those moments. As children, all attention was surrounded around us and the sky was the limit. Our true personalities sprouted. Growing and developing physically and mentally, the sense of freedom slowly slips through our fingers like butter. As adults our mentality becomes mature along with responsibility. Although, every once and a while there is that spark; that spark of childhood memories; memories that makes us feel warm, happy, and ourselves. That spark is our true personality. In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the author demonstrates through imagery that even though we grow and mature mentally and physically, even though we desire to become adults, even though we grow old, we are all still a child at heart.

            Remarque demonstrates through the characters that even at war, men still have the childish personality stored in their hearts. Paul, a young soldier, comforts Kemmerich, one of Paul’s comrades, because of a small wound causing him to have an amputated leg. They both know that Kemmerich is on the border line of death, but before his life disappears he gave his boots to Paul. The generous guy he is, he then gave them to Müller, another comrade of Paul, because he desired them. They both eventually put them on and saw themselves as adults. Remarque uses the boots as an imagery of adulthood. Paul felt, “But when we go bathing and strip, suddenly we have slender legs again and slight shoulders. We are no longer soldiers but little more than boys; no one would believe that we could carry packs” (29). Remarque handles the boots as imagery toward adulthood. Putting on the boots made Paul and Müller feel like men. All sense of childhood disappeared. When the boots and everything else that covered them came off, the characters true self appears. The slender legs and slight shoulders is who they truly are. They have the skinny body of a child, with the mentality of a man.