Spectroscopic Analysis Of A Sunscreen Product
In general, All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque was an interesting novel. As compared to The Red Badge of Courage, another battlefield novel, All Quiet is a much more personal account of life on the battlefield, this time during World War I. The true emotions of protagonist Paul Baümer were evident in the book, especially during the climax. At this point, Paul has a touching experience with French soldier Gérard Duval where he essentially realizes that everyone is human regardless of where they're from or what cause they are fighting fore. The visions of death and destruction were also moving. It was interesting to see the contrast between the point of view in Johnny Got His Gun as compared to All Quiet on the Western Front. Johnny Got His Gun describes the hardships that can be experienced after engaging in combat, whereas All Quiet on the Western Front mainly describes what occurs on the battlefield.
There were a few parts of the story that I found especially interesting. The first was the incident involving Kemmerich's boots. Kemmerich is a friend of Paul's who loses his leg to gangrene. Another one of their friends, Müller, wants the boots if Kemmerich should die. This may seem greedy and wrong, but really Kemmerich isn't being insensitive because realistically he won't need his boots anymore. Later, Müller dies which is ironic because he took the boots from a dead man. Another enjoyable situations is when the guys cross the river to see the French girls. It was interesting to see the soldiers in a human light opposed to just seeing them as trained killing machines. My absolute favorite part of the book, though, was when Paul returned home to visit his family. His reaction to his father's questions, and his mother's illness along with the comments of the people in his town are a refreshing change from the descriptions of the warfront. At home he realizes that you can take the soldier out of the war but you can't take the war...
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