Matthew Ternullo
Ms. Gillis, Mr. Smith
English 2H, World History Honors
SHLP: Section I
Introduction
The Whistle of a bomb, the eerie light of the rockets, corpses and limbs littering the ground, red rivers flowing across the fields, these are all things encountered by soldiers in WW1. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque writes about the experiences of a German infantry soldier, Paul, on the Western Front in World War 1. The story tells of Paul’s struggle to survive on and off the brutal battlefield constantly fighting against enemy soldiers, and the ever tightening grasp of insanity. Erich Maria Remarque’s realistic portrayal of life in the trenches, new technologies’ effects on war, the psychological effects of war on its victims, and Germany’s ability to keep troops supplied, through the use of symbolism, figurative language, time sequencing and time manipulation, is an accurate representation of World War 1 for the reader. Through Remarque’s interpretation of this historical time by having an emphasis on the experience of a German world war 1 infantry soldier, the fictionalization of specific characters and events, and not including anything about naval war, air war, or tactics, he was able to convey the theme “the horrors of war fill a life of their own” clearly to the reader.
SHLP: Section II
World War One was a war of innovation. Modern technology, deadlier weapons, and larger armies required new tactics, weapons, and types of warfare to be invented. One new type of warfare developed was trench warfare. Trench warfare was a new style of fighting that involved digging a series of trenches in which soldiers fought from. Nations began using trench warfare because soldiers needed protection from the new deadly weapons being used. Trenches weren’t just a simple ditch that soldiers dug for cover; they were elaborate systems of long deep trenches with multiple lines of defense. In his article on trenches, Michael Duffy states the...