All Quiet On The Western Front
ll Quiet on the Western Front tells what happens to a group of German teenagers during World War I. The narrator is Paul Baumer. He and his classmates had patriotically marched off for recruitment, by the slogans of their teacher, Kantorek. But they find no glory in war. As the movie opens, 80 men have just returned from two weeks at the front. Seventy of their comrades may be dead or wounded, but their empty bellies concern them more. They nearly riot when the cook won't dish out the food prepared for twice their number. But the commander steps in, and for once they eat till their full. Afterward, Paul and his friends visit their classmate Kemmerich, dying from a leg amputation. All ...
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such frail-looking boys, Paul nevertheless takes Kemmerich's boots to Muller, they are of no use to Kemmerich now. Soon, underfed replacements arrive. Katczinsky, a scavenger who could find a dinner roast in the Sahara, surprises everyone with beef and beans. He listens as Paul and his friends recall the night they trapped Himmelstoss with a bedsheet and soundly thrashed him, and joins in as they argue heatedly that the leaders simply ought to slug out their war with each other, while the soldiers watch them. Horror descends on the night as they string barbed wire at the front. In the dark, the men avoid incoming shells, but the screaming of horses innocently caught in the bombardment chills them to the bone. When the shelling eases they trudge to a cemetery to wait for transport. Many nearly suffocate in a surprise gas attack, and after a new bombardment their stomachs turn at the sight of dead companions mixed with corpses from blown-up graves. At dawn they mindlessly return to ...
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time the siege ends, only 32 men are left in the company. Back at a field depot for reorganization, the men loaf and joke as if they hadn't a care in the world. Thinking about their lost comrades would only drive them mad. Even Himmelstoss has changed. Not only did he rescue Westhus, who had been wounded, but, as substitute cook, he is slipping Paul's group badly needed extra rations. Twice, Paul, Kropp, and another classmate, Leer, swim a closely guarded canal, not for the brief pleasures of a soldiers' brothel but for the luxury of hours with three French girls. When Westhus dies after all, Paul is due for leave and temporary reassignment and wonders in agony who will be there when he ...
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All Quiet On The Western Front. (2005, September 27). Retrieved November 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/All-Quiet-On-The-Western-Front/33978
"All Quiet On The Western Front." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 27 Sep. 2005. Web. 23 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/All-Quiet-On-The-Western-Front/33978>
"All Quiet On The Western Front." Essayworld.com. September 27, 2005. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/All-Quiet-On-The-Western-Front/33978.
"All Quiet On The Western Front." Essayworld.com. September 27, 2005. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/All-Quiet-On-The-Western-Front/33978.
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