Dealing with War (All Quiet on the Western Front Chapters 4-6)

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Last weeks chapters focused mainly on the soldiers lives at camp and we talked about how young the soldiers were.  This week's chapters, chapters 4-6, spend more time talking about the soldiers' lives during battle.  So, this week we will be talking about how these and other soldiers deal with the affects of war, both during the war and after the war is over.

During the War

1. Momentarily Forgetting Trauma

"Once I fell asleep.  Then waking suddenly with a start I do not know where I am.  I see the rockets and for a moment have the impression that I have fallen asleep at a garden fête.  I don't know whether it is morning or evening...it lasts only a second, then I recognize the silhouette of Katczinsky."  page 60
 Here we see a common response to trauma.  It is common for one in the midst of traumatic events to forget what is going on.  This sort of story is heard often:  One is dealing with great trauma.  They finally cry themselves to sleep.  They wake up and - for a moment - all is well with the world.  Then, reality sets back in.

2. Chance of Return?

"It is just as much a matter of chance that I am still alive as that I might have been hit.  In a bomb-proof dugout I may be smashed to atoms and in the open may survive ten hours' bombardment unscathed.  No soldier outlives a thousand chances.  But every soldier believes in chances and trusts his luck" page 101
 Here, it is recognized that so much of life and death in these soldiers' situation depends on little but chance.  With this realization comes a lack of hope from the soldiers.  Starting on page 78, the soldiers talk about their plans for after the war.  We see this lack of hope displayed in this conversation as well.  While some offer pictures of themselves with their wives and children, meeting many young women, or even just with a bed to sleep in and plenty of food to eat, others have a hard time even acknowledging that peace time might return.

3. IF Peacetime Comes

"I don't think we'll ever go back....When I hear about it...when I hear the word 'peace-time,' it goes to my head: and if it really came, I think I would do some unimaginable thing - something, you know, that it's worth having lain here in the much for.  But I can't even imagine anything." page 87
 Will peacetime ever come?  These soldiers are so in the thick of war that the thought of peacetime ever returning seems almost impossible.  Will life ever be without the constant sounds of gun fire and grenades again?  After having experienced so much of this trauma, it is hard to even imagine.

After the War

The traumas of war do not end with the signing of the treaty.  In fact, there is a medically recognized, psychological condition that we know today as post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.  According the the US Department of Veteran's Affairs,
"The disorder can lead to distressing and persistent symptoms, including re-experiencing the trauma through flashbacks or nightmares, emotional numbness, insomnia, relationship problems, sudden anger, and drug and alcohol abuse. Recently, reckless and self-destructive behavior has been added as a PTSD symptom."
PTSD is a real phenomenon that haunts soldiers long after the war is over.  According to the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, while some people's PTSD symptoms will gradually fade over time, others' symptoms will last a lifetime.  The war may be over, but the effects are far from gone.


Sources

Comments

  1. Bridging the Gap between Danger and SafetyMarch 5, 2018 at 3:21 PM

    Wow, what a great blog post. The organized sections, the quotes, the analysis, the sources used, it's all great. The first section on the trauma the soldiers experience is broken down well. It's a sad experience the soldiers have to endure. Not knowing whether it's morning or evening, crying yourself to sleep, waking up thinking everything is alright and then the truth hitting you is a cruel reality to these soldiers. In the second section I like how you mention that the soldiers have absolutely nothing to hold on to but luck to survive. It's a harsh reality in the war that young soldiers were not ready to encounter unfortunately. I also like how you mention the soldiers' conversation on their plans for life after the war and the differing futures they see themselves having. The one that sticks out to me are the soldiers that doubt if they'll even have the chance to experience peace again, which brings me to the next point you have in your blog. It's sad that the soldiers can't even contemplate peace with the all the trauma they're going through. Experiencing so much trauma to the point that you'll never think you'll never see peace again is a sign of true madness. Lastly I like the the connection you make to the effect war can have on the soldiers after the war. PTSD is something that a lot of people, like myself, can't imagine having. I like how you quoted the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs in supporting the idea of PTSD. At the end I really like the quote from the late President Eisenhower on how terrible war is and even how stupid it is. This is coming from a former Army general as well. I really enjoyed this blog post keep up the good work.

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  2. BethMarch 6, 2018 at 6:36 PM

    Great post Anna Kathleen!
    I really like the direction you took this prompt. It talks about: the effect on soldiers after the war, the momentary forgetting of trauma by the soldiers, their lack of hope for the war to end, and the soldiers having no idea what they would do without the war. It never occurred to me while I was writing my response to the prompt to connect the science behind their behavior to the traumas they were experiencing. You proved that the things they were experiencing were so terrible that they caused mental changes. This scientific explanation with PTSD really connects what was happening in these chapters to real life. PTSD was probably a major problem for many of the World War One soldiers after they left the front. Also in this blog post I like how you talk about the characters momentarily forgetting where they were, and them thinking they were in happier places. This proves your point that war traumas were effecting them. These soldiers were probably so scared, depressed, or tired that they were subconsciously putting aside what was actually happening to them for moments at a time. The third thing that really stood out to me in your post was the section called: If Peace Time Comes. This section does a good job connecting these chapters to the chapters prior, by talking about the soldiers' life plans. These soldiers were so young that they were not able to make life plans before they went of to the war and had nothing to connect them economical to their country. They had no idea what they were supposed to do with their adult lives other than fight, because that was all they had ever done. In conclusion, this post effectively shows how war life affected the characters, through interesting points.
    Good Job

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