What Comes of the War

"The war can take a lot from a man, both physically and mentally. Many argue that nothing good comes from war, only bloodshed of the innocent. In fact the irony of the war shows that either side fights for the same ideal, but in Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front, there is one positive characteristic: comradeship. With a man constantly being in the life or death brigade, they are presented with a new environment in which the value of comradeship is more appreciated when men depend on each other to survive.

This is a prominent theme throughout the novel- as it is shown that the men of the Second Company are closer than family or even lovers when having endured unimaginable suffering together, experiences they will never be able to share with those who did not fight.

There is not much a soldier can gain from the war, other than learning to harness instincts for survival and how to adapt to the “lavish” living conditions of the trenches, however something that cannot be obtained anywhere else is the almost lover like bond between a couple soldiers joined together when their lives depend on each other:
“Had we gone into the trenches without this period of training most of us would certainly have gone mad. Only thus were we prepared for what awaited us. We did not break down, but adapted ourselves; our twenty years, which made many another thing so grievous, helped us in this. But by far the most important result was that it awakened in us a strong, practical sense of esprit de corps, which in the field developed into the finest thing that arose out of the war — comradeship.” (Remarque 26-27).
The Second Company trains f

Another good example would be: “At once a new warmth flows through me. These voices, these quiet words, these footsteps in the trench behind me recall me at a bound from the terrible loneliness and fear of death by which I had been almost destroyed. They are more to me than life, these voices, they are more than motherliness and more than fear; they are the strongest, most comforting thing there is anywhere: they are the voices of my comrades,” (Remarque 212). For example, the relationship between Paul and Kat is only found during war, in which nothing can break them apart: “We sit opposite one another, Kat and I, two soldiers in shabby coats, cooking a goose in the middle of the night. We don’t talk much, but I believe we have a more complete communion with one another than even lovers have.” (Remarque 94).

There comes a point in the war when you have gone through so much, been trained to do the unspeakable, have done the unspeakable that there is no point in returning -this is who you are now, and the only people who understand are your brothers and sisters who have shed blood, toil, sweat and tears for you because that is all there is now. Kat embraces this reality as he refers of the trenches as his home: “‘I wish I were back home.’ Home--he means the huts,” (Remarque 65). The Second Company replaces that of a soldier’s blood family simply because civilian life is no longer a part of you making reunions harder each time, (INSERT PAUL FAM QUOTE). There is much a war can take from a soldier, both physically and mentally. Bonds between one another prevail throughout the years in the face of death. Nevertheless, fate takes its course and leaves a soldier without the one thing keeping him sane, his brothers- and so what else is there left to do but embrace the forthcoming: “I am very quiet. Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear. The life that has borne me through these years is still in my hands and my eyes. Whether I have subdued it, I know not. But so long as it is there it will seek its own way out, heedless of the will that is within me,” (Remarque 295)."

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