Elements Of Air In The Wars By Timothy Findley

In the beginning of the poem, Oliver personifies oxygen by saying it “calls the earth its home, the soul,” giving it an almost human-like embodiment. She is saying how closely related oxygen is to a person and in this situation, she is relating it back to her loved one. For Oliver, she is stating that her loved one is metaphorically oxygen to her, meaning that since oxygen gives life, her loved one is her life. To show how beautiful life is with oxygen, she uses imagery appealing to the senses of sight and sound. She mentions how the fire in her fireplace “ rises and offers a dozen, singing, deep-red roses of flame.” Doing so makes readers hear the crackling of the fire and mentally see the whipping of the flames. Just as her sick partner and herself do, they both feed off of oxygen just like the fire does. This enforces the idea that all things thrive off of oxygen and in a way glow with life, just like a fire. The imagery of the fire demonstrates how inanimate objects enjoy and live off of

“We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial, I believe we are lost” (Remarque 123). World War I is a tragic event that occurred in 1914 to 1918. Paul Baumer and the rest of the soldiers in the novel of “All Quiet in the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque are lost; they are broken from the fist World War, they don’t know anything aside from War, and they have lost their innocence during the years of maturation. When the young men heard about the War, they were excited, and full of life, they thought they were going on an adventure.

All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque is a narrative describing World War I from a German soldier 's perspective. The story is narrated by Paul Baümer and predominantly revolves around the experiences of him and his comrades Kemmerich, Katczinsky, Kropp, Müller, and Leer. The novel begins with Paul Baümer and his friends in a cheerful mood as extra rations are being allocated to them due to the missing soldiers. During this event, Baümer introduces and describes the various personalities of his friends and his connection to them. Eventually, Baümer reflects back to the time how he and his friends had been coaxed into joining the war by their, patriotic school teacher, Kantorek only to later find out that they 've been lied to and the war isn 't even comparable to of what they 've been told. Instead, Paul Baümer and his school friends find themselves entrenched in the middle of bloody and what appears to be a pointless war.

All Quiet on the Western Front is a fictional war novel written by Erich Maria Remarque which follows the main character Paul Baumer, a German solider in World War I. Paul, the nineteen year old protagonist, narrates the novel as he and his classmates fight on the German and French front. The young men volunteer to join the German army after being persuaded by the nationalist words of their teacher, Kantorek. After only fighting for two weeks, eighty men remain in the company of the once one hundred and fifty men. Paul, Kropp, and Muller then go to visit Kemmerich, a friend of theirs from school, in the hospital. He was wounded in combat resulting in the amputating of his leg. Seeing that Kemmerich is going to die and no longer needs the new boots that he has, Muller asks to have them but Kemmerich refuses. When Paul later goes back to the hospital, Kemmerich dies and Paul takes his boots to Muller.

An ancient Chinese proverb states “One cannot know peace without knowing war” (Herzberg). In a time where all that plagues many nations was war, it was inevitable that a time of peace needed to follow or at least the sober idea of it. The proverb was created to validate wars and later turned into a way to approach life’s troubles. Being within an individual or on a global scale, war and peace are connected. They exist coherently but never together; they are the cause and effects of each other. One follows the other yet both are needed in order to understand the other one. This relationship between war and peace is developed in the Erich Maria Remarque's novel, All Quiet on the Western Front. While the first major world war is the background

Oxygen, O2, is a kind of gas. A lot of the air we breathe as human beings is oxygen. Which is good since we need oxygen to stay alive. Oxygen is also a primary element in fire. Fire is a chemical process. Three elements are needed for this process: oxygen, heat and fuel. Without one of those

In war, both violence and fear revokes a soldier’s humanity. These elements of war cause a person to shut down their emotional instincts, which causes the soldiers to mature rapidly by taking innocence along with joy and happiness in life. Through the experiences that the soldiers encounter, their humanity is compromised. Thus, as war strips soldiers of their innocence, they start to become disconnected from themselves and others. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque illustrates the negative effects war has on a soldier’s humanity, through his use of Paul’s books and the potato pancakes by revealing the soldiers loss of emotion that causes them to become detached from society. Through these symbols they deepen the theme by visually depicting war’s impact on Paul. Paul’s books helps the theme by depicting how the war locked his heart to old values by taking his innocence. Likewise the potato pancakes reveal Paul’s emotional state damaged by the war with his lack of happiness and gratitude.

For instance, it is during the time in the infirmary at Shorncliffe that Robert is acquainted with Harris, who is very ill. Robert befriended him on a ship when both men were sick. Harris is a storyteller, and recounts tales of sea creatures and men out lost in ships in winter storms. Most importantly, Harris tells Robert that humans are born and come from the sea. Harris says, “Everyone who’s born has come from the sea. Your mother’s womb is just a sea in small. And birds come of seas in eggs…. We are the ocean—walking on the land” (117). When Harris speaks of the sea he is expressing the connection between humans and animals. The sea binds these two elements together. Robert does not agree with the idea that humans evolve from a sea of water. Instead, Robert says, “We were always men” (116). Ross’ point of view seems to be a paradox because he makes this statement, despite his strong connection with animals. The perception that all living creatures originate from the sea explains that water creates and sustains life. Another example that emphasizes the need for water to survive occurs when Robert demands that his soldiers urinate on their handkerchiefs. Both, Robert and his fellow troops go through with their plan and survive the gas attack, by placing the handkerchiefs on their noses. The quote states: “Robert dribbled all that was left in his bladder into the handkerchief and he too lay down— like a pilgrim in the clay” (140). Water is a component of urine that is released from the body. The liquid proves to be the difference between life and death. Robert’s heroics as a leader, and Bugler Willie Poole’s experience prove to be vital for the group of soldiers. Without, the liquid Robert Ross and the remaining soldiers would have suffocated to death. For these reasons, water imagery is used to signify life and the hope for

There is no doubt that when war occurs, every single human being is affected by it even if it is just a little. In the novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front” written by Erich Maria Remarque, a group of teenage men, who also appear to by classmates, are in the German army of World War I because they have chosen to leave their adolescence at home and school for grown up work at the army. Throughout this fictional novel, they face many challenges that result in them not seeing each other ever again because of death. War affects individuals by leaving behind necessities such as education or jobs, not being able to watch over others such as their health, and injuries that soldiers receive while they are at war.

It is this need for control of life that in turn leads to Victor’s illness and to his downfall which emphasises how humanity’s connection with the natural world is an extricable relationship that should be never be severed. Through the personification of nature,

Between the years of 1914 to 1918, the whole of Europe was locked in arms, not only for pride but mostly for survival. The years of war brought devastation upon all societies. Men were massacred in droves, food stuff dwindled, and at times an end seemed non-existent. The foundation of the first Great War, one can muse, began as a nationalistic race between rival nations. By the onset of 1914, once the Archduke Frendinad had been assassinated in Saravejo, the march for war became not just a nationalistic opinion, but now a frenzy to fight. In battle, unlike previous wars, new weaponry caused drastic alterations in strategy. No longer will armies stand to face their rivals on the plains. Now the war will be fought in trenches, hidden

Ever since the beginning of time, there has been conflict and conflict will always play a role in the development of history. The world has experienced hundreds of wars with countless casualties, these wars date back to the 10th Century and forward to the present. The United States of America is no stranger to war having participated in over 100 wars either it being a small war or a world war. Michael C. C. Adams “The Best War Ever” gives a rational explanation on the events that led the U.S to become the powerhouse country after sacrificing so much for the war, or did they? In this paper we will support the argument made in Adams “The Best War Ever” Chapter four, appropriately titled “The American War Machine”, other primary sources used will be such as Harry S. Truman first speech to congress in April 1945 and General George S. Patton’s praise speech to the Third Army. The argument being that the U.S did in fact play an impacting role in the outcome of World War 2 but how it also used appearances as an advantage to further develop itself as an international force, just like the tale from the Trojan War, the Trojan horse was all about appearances but with a precise objective.

The Best War Ever, written by Michael C. C. Adams, is a book focusing on the balanced history of the experience from America’s view during World War II. It neither glorifies nor vilifies the U.S. participation but discusses the real horrors of the war by using glorifying aspects that could have been deceptive or even misleading. World War II defined and transformed the rest of our lives. Americans viewed World War II as the “Good War” or “The Best War Ever”. After the end of the war, Americans had a positive outlook after overcoming the past years. German fascism and the Japanese were defeated but were also encouraged to resume roles of our world responsibility in our image of democracy. It is generally agreed that World War II was a necessary war.

Many of the symbols in the novel remind Robert of his troubled past. Some of the symbols in the book appeal to both the reader and Robert, exacerbating his struggles. After finishing his training, Robert boards a ship headed for the war zone. When tasked horse injured onboard the ship, he is clearly troubled; as he is unsuccessful in killing the horse the first time, “[a] chair [falls] over in his mind” (Findley 60). The horse is a symbol of Rowena, an innocent person who dies because of her disability. During training, he feels socially obliged to go to a brothel with his peers, and experiences shame associated with the death of Rowena. Instead of watching over her, Robert was “[m]aking love to his pillows” (Findley 16). As a result, he is very insecure about his sexuality and his private life in general. The scene where he is sitting in the bathtub after Rowena’s death is symbolic of Robert giving up his childhood, concomitant with his innocence. The tub represents the womb; his mother tells him a story of his childhood one last time before he joins the army, becoming an adult in some sense. Through symbolism, one can make the connection between Robert’s troubled past, the cruel world he lives in, and his experiences in the war.

Death; destruction; crawling, bloody men without jaws; and a child in the middle of it is just a glimpse of the grotesque short narrative “Chickamauga” by Ambrose Bierce. Chickamauga Creek is an area near Chattanooga, Tennessee and northwestern Georgia, plagued by war, suffering, and bloodshed from the Civil War (Bohannon). Bierce served in the Union Army during the American Civil War (Campbell). Many Americans then, and today, romanticize war with glory, heroism, and patriotism. Bierce defied literary status quo, creating graphic accounts of war, in an age of sentimentalism and melodrama (Morris). Lesser publicized were the perspectives, thoughts, and realities of the soldiers after serving and surviving in the civil