Literary Analysis-- Chapters 7-8

Account

In this chapter Himmelstoss approaches Paul and his friends and tries to make peace with them. All but Tjaden accepts the apology and agrees to be friends. While going to the front, Paul realizes that it is instinct that keeps them alive and that war has honed that till it is the only thing they have; animal instinct, animal behavior. Later after coming back Paul and some of his friends meet with French girls across the river. As Paul is given leave and visits home, he finds that his mother is sick with cancer. As his leave time passes Paul becomes more uneasy, for he starts to realize that he does not fit into society anymore, that he cannot find his way back into the life that he used to live. After Paul leaves for the front again he is sent to a training/prisoner camp. There he finds the prisoners from the eastern front, the Russians, he is bewildered when he realizes that the prisoners and the soldiers of his country are the same, only that they live in a different place.

Journal Entry

Saturday,
Today while in the training camp my father and sister visited, they gave me some of my mother’ potato cakes specially made from her, as well as the news of her being in the hospital for treatment. I went to give those prisoners some of the potato cakes when I realized that my mother had probably baked those specially for me and so ended up giving them only two, mean as that sounds.
Paul

Vocab Words

--depot- train station
-“they have taken us father back than usual to a field depot so we can be re-organized” (Remarque 137)
--smutty- obscenity in speech or writing
-“they look at the poster and immediately the conversation becomes smutty” (Remarque 143)

Political Cartoon


To survive the horror of war you must distract yourself. As shown in this cartoon there are four soldiers holding a sheet that says Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, with another man bouncing atop it, it also says “it’s all fun and games… until…”. This cartoon represents the fact that soldiers always have fun until it becomes serious, the man holding the explosive represents the danger period where the soldiers stop their fun. This ties into All Quiet On The Western Front by the fact that Paul and his friends are always joking and playing around in between battles to survive, they have a simple life of playing while off duty and becoming serious when the time demands it.

Reflection

In these chapters I learned that family and friends are very important, especially to survive. Also I learned that war is cruel in the way that it not only separates families but it can also destroy them.