All Quiet on the Western Front and The red badge
All Quiet On The Western Front, by Erich Marie Remarque, is a powerful book which tells of the war experiences of Paul Baumer, a nineteen-year-old soldier fighting in the German army in World War I. Paul's regiment, which includes many friends from his home town, undergoes grueling training, and then is moved up to the front line. Paul watches as the German army is defeated again and again, and his friends begin to die in battle, one by one. When Paul is granted a two-week leave from the army, he finds that he can no longer live comfortably at home. The war has ruined his life; the only place he truly belongs is with his regiment. After returning to the front he watches the last of his comrades die, leaving Paul Baumer the sole survivor. Paul's loneliness causes him to feel at peace when he himself is killed. The war report summed up that day in six simple words- All quiet on the western front. In Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage Henry Flemming, who has always dreamed of going to war, enlists in the Union Army during the Civil War. Henry joins a regiment and hears rumors of the great battle to come. When he and his regiment reach the battlefield, he is frightened by the noise and the horror of battle, and he runs in te
The experiences of battle change both Paul Baumer and Henry Flemming forever. Paul loses faith in the people who encouraged him to go and fight. "The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom. But the first death we saw shattered this belief...The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces." And because Paul has been so drastically changed, he is unable to return to the life he once knew. And it was too late to change. "Had we returned in 1916, out of the suffering and the strength of our experiences we might have unleashed a storm. Now if we go back we will be weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope. We will not be able to find our way any more." All Quiet On The Western Front and The Red Badge Of Courage are books which show impressions of war through the eyes of young soldiers, the process by which a young man becomes a soldier who kills, and the ways that war can ruin a person's life and change him forever. Henry's introduction to the war was very different from Paul's. Henry comes into the war of his own free choice, without influence. He joins the Union army because he feels that it is a worthy cause. However, when his regiment approaches the maelstrom of battle, Henry flees "Like a proverbial chicken." Henry had not contemplated the true seriousness of war, and he was frightened by it. After rejoining his regiment, Henry runs up to the front of the battle with the Union flag in his hands. This was Henry's way of proving his courage. In The Red Badge Of Courage the
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1115
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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