西線無戰事
BY ERIC MARIA REMARQUE
Contains a thoughtful and sensible proposal about the declaration of war
5 stars out of five stars
This book is labeled as a novel but is actually the reflections of the author’s experience during the years as a young volunteer in the German Army during the First World War. The author is represented by the central fictional character, Paul Baumer. The book begins with Paul comforting a young boyhood friend and classmate, Franz Kemmerisch, who was a fellow young volunteer suffering from a combat wound and dying in a field hospital. Toward the end of the book, another combat death occurred, this time an older soldier and the author’s mentor, Stanislaus "Kat" Katczinsky. In between, there was the scene of hand-to-hand combat, during which Paul killed a French soldier in a trench. For several hours, he watched the man die, slowly and painfully. He felt remorse and asked forgiveness from the man's corpse. He was emotionally devastated. When he rejoined his comrades, they tried to comfort him and reassured him that it was only part of the war.
At the end of the book, “Paul fell, in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front.”
There were descriptions of horrific combat wounds:
“We see men living with their skulls blown open; we see soldiers run with their two feet cut off; we see men without mouths, without jaws, without faces…..”
Then there was the narrative when Paul and several of his comrades were wounded and taken to an army hospital. The surgeon-general of the hospital was keen on amputations, regardless of whether the procedure was necessary. On frequent occasions, patients in serious conditions were taken to the “dying room”. Returning from the dying room was extremely rare. Fortunately, it did occur to one of Paul’s comrades.
Out of such experiences, the author offered many memorable utterances and reflections:
● “We reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals.”
● “We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world, and we had to shoot it to pieces.”
● “Terror can be endured so long as a man simply ducts – but it kills, if a man thinks about it.”
● “Every full-grown emperor requires at least one war, otherwise he would not become famous……And generals too, they become even more famous than emperors.”
A most thoughtful and sensible proposal was made by Paul’s friend Albert Knopp. “He proposes that a declaration of war should be a kind of popular festival with entrance-tickets and bands, like a bull fight. Then in the arena the ministers and generals of the two countries, dressed in bathing-drawers and armed with clubs, can have it out among themselves. Whoever survives, his country wins. That would be much simpler and more just than the present arrangement, where the wrong people do the fighting.”
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is considered by many the greatest war novel of all time. Be that as it may, it is doubtful that the author’s wisdom, gained through painful personal experience and enunciated poignantly in the book, has made any significant impact in reducing the number of wars among nations, which are led by humans who, according to Mark Twain, “…was made at the end of the week’s work, when God was tired”.
Audio Version on YouTube:
Link to Amazon Review: https://www.amazon.com/review/R31O7L4DZEXF91/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv
Review placed 6th among 11164 ratings 4/7/2023
Western Front, First World War (Source: Wikipedia)
Source: Wikipedia
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