Significant Quotes- 1. “At the sound of the first droning of the shells we rush back, in one part of our being, a thousand years. By the animal instinct that is awakened in us we are led and protected. It is not conscious; it is far quicker, much more sure, less fallible, than consciousness. . . . It is this other, this second sight in us, that has thrown us to the ground and saved us, without our knowing how. . . . We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers—we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals.” This quote kind of reflects how soldiers feel about the war. When resting they are men, but when they have to go to the front line, they turn into animals and beasts. As Paul sense they have a second sense, to avoid the shells and dive away, instead of trying to spot them and ran away in plenty of time. They are just trying to survive, Paul, and all the other soldiers. They thought of each other as animals trained to kill, not humans. When Paul was at the camp and saw the prisoners, he realized how wrong the war was, and when he killed the man in the trench. He realized he had just killed another human being. 2. “Just as we turn into animals when we go up to the line . . . so we turn into wags and loafers when we are resting. . . . We want to live at any price; so we cannot burden ourselves with feelings which, though they may be ornamental enough in peacetime, would be out of place here. Kemmerich is dead, Haie Westhus is dying . . . Martens has no legs anymore, Meyer is dead, Max is dead, Beyer is dead, Hammerling is dead . . . it is a damnable business, but what has it to do with us now—we live.” Paul thinks of himself as an animal when fighting, but when he is not fighting, he occasionally has a chance to relax. When he has a chance to relax, he forgets all about the horrors of the war, and doesn’t think about that. Paul says that terror can be survived only if one avoids thinking about it; otherwise, feelings of grief, fear, and despair would drive a man mad. He just disconnects himself from his feelings and just pushes his feelings aside. 3. “Comrade, I did not want to kill you. . . . But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. . . . I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony—Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?” Paul says these words to Gerard Duval, the soldier he had just killed in chapter nine. He realizes he has just killed another human being, who probably has a wife and kids. He feels awful about it and regrets it, but he had to kill him. Paul has learned that the war has forced them to fight their enemies who are actually his friends. As he observed with the prisoners, propaganda has led them to believe their friends are their enemies, but they are actually not enemies. They are other human beings, and he does not want to harm them, just as when he killed Duval.
1. “At the sound of the first droning of the shells we rush back, in one part of our being, a thousand years. By the animal instinct that is awakened in us we are led and protected. It is not conscious; it is far quicker, much more sure, less fallible, than consciousness. . . . It is this other, this second sight in us, that has thrown us to the ground and saved us, without our knowing how. . . . We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers—we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals.”
This quote kind of reflects how soldiers feel about the war. When resting they are men, but when they have to go to the front line, they turn into animals and beasts. As Paul sense they have a second sense, to avoid the shells and dive away, instead of trying to spot them and ran away in plenty of time. They are just trying to survive, Paul, and all the other soldiers. They thought of each other as animals trained to kill, not humans. When Paul was at the camp and saw the prisoners, he realized how wrong the war was, and when he killed the man in the trench. He realized he had just killed another human being.
2. “Just as we turn into animals when we go up to the line . . . so we turn into wags and loafers when we are resting. . . . We want to live at any price; so we cannot burden ourselves with feelings which, though they may be ornamental enough in peacetime, would be out of place here. Kemmerich is dead, Haie Westhus is dying . . . Martens has no legs anymore, Meyer is dead, Max is dead, Beyer is dead, Hammerling is dead . . . it is a damnable business, but what has it to do with us now—we live.”
Paul thinks of himself as an animal when fighting, but when he is not fighting, he occasionally has a chance to relax. When he has a chance to relax, he forgets all about the horrors of the war, and doesn’t think about that. Paul says that terror can be survived only if one avoids thinking about it; otherwise, feelings of grief, fear, and despair would drive a man mad. He just disconnects himself from his feelings and just pushes his feelings aside.
3. “Comrade, I did not want to kill you. . . . But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. . . . I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony—Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?”
Paul says these words to Gerard Duval, the soldier he had just killed in chapter nine. He realizes he has just killed another human being, who probably has a wife and kids. He feels awful about it and regrets it, but he had to kill him. Paul has learned that the war has forced them to fight their enemies who are actually his friends. As he observed with the prisoners, propaganda has led them to believe their friends are their enemies, but they are actually not enemies. They are other human beings, and he does not want to harm them, just as when he killed Duval.