Quiet on the Western Front Essay

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There is no time for unnecessary or frivolous actions, no play time, or joke time, there is only survival time.

But it is not only physically that a soldier must be prepared and act solely for survival, but also mentally as well. A soldier cannot daydream, long for home, reflect on the past, or even lose his concentration for even a split second. When a soldier loses his focus on survival, he dies. One who exists in the trenches cannot dream of a life after the war, or even their life before the war, while fighting in the trenches, the soldier must exist solely in the trenches, accept his life in the trenches, and deal with it as it is. The soldier has no past, no future, only the present exists, and it is a present where he is in a struggle to survive. Friends, family, home, wives and girlfriends must not exist for a soldier in the trenches. The front line is a place where danger is all around and if one loses sight of it, they can end up dead. This is how war is like a polar expedition, it is a constant struggle to survive, and one cannot let up for even a moment.

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This metaphor is important to the story because is foreshadows Paul's own loss of concentration and lack of discipline which will ultimately lead to his death. For the entire time he was in the trenches, Paul managed to be a good soldier, keeping his discipline and focus on survival. But is was when Paul began to think about the impact the war would have on him when he returned home, how his life would be changed by his experiences that he stood up and was shot. When he stopped being in the war, and began to look at the war from the outside, he was killed. If he had remained as though he were on a polar expedition to the end, then he may not have been killed.

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