Compare the Presentation of Attitudes towards the War in 'Regeneration' and 'All Quiet on the Western Front'
Compare the Presentation of Attitudes towards the War in 'Regeneration' and 'All Quiet on the Western Front'
Regeneration is an anti-war novel, reflecting the issues and the concerns in wartime Britain. All Quiet on the Western Front is also an influential anti-war novel and an important chronicle of World War 1. Both are historical fiction set near the end of the war, 1917-1918.
The two texts explore similar themes in condemning the war. Remarque's novel (All Quiet on the Western Front) is a profound statement against war, focusing especially on the ravaging effects of war on the humanity of soldiers. Similarly, Barker (author of Regeneration) offers realistic detail of many abominable war scenes, dwelling upon the destruction that war wreaks upon men's minds. These details comprise a large portion of the novel.
In All Quiet on the Western Front, through the narrative of Paul Bäumer, a young German soldier, there are constant attacks on the romantic ideals of warfare. The novel dramatizes the disjunction between high minded rhetoric about patriotism and honour, and the actual horror of trench warfare. Remarque continually stresses that the soldiers are not fighting with the abstract ideals of patriotic spirit in mind; they are fighting for their survival. Nothing in this novel makes the actual experience of war look attractive.
The overriding theme of All Quiet on the Western Front is the terrible brutality of war, which informs every scene in the novel. It sets out to portray war as it was actually experienced, replacing romanticized versions in preceding novels, with a decidedly unromantic vision of fear, meaninglessness, and butchery. World War 1 completely altered mankind's conception of military conflict with its catastrophic levels of carnage and violence, its battles that lasted for months, and its gruesome new technological advancements (e.g., machine guns, poison gas) that made killing easier and more impersonal than ever before. Remarque's novel dramatizes these aspects of World War 1 and portrays the mind-numbing terror and savagery of war with a relentless focus on the physical and psychological damage that it occasions. At the end of the novel, almost every major character is dead, epitomizing the war's devastating effect on the generation of young men who were forced to fight it.
In its depiction of the horror of the war, All Quiet on the Western Front presents a scathing critique of the idea of nationalism, showing it to be a hollow, hypocritical ideology, a tool used by those in power to control a nation's populace. Paul and his friends are seduced into joining the army by nationalistic ideas, but the experience of fighting quickly schools them in nationalism's irrelevance in the face of the war's horrors. The relative worthlessness on the battlefield of the patriots, Kantorek (former schoolmaster in Paul's high school) and Himmelstoss (a non-commissioned training officer) accentuates the inappropriateness of outmoded ideals in modern warfare. Remarque illustrates that soldiers on the front fight not for the glory of their nation but rather for their own survival; they kill to keep from being killed. Additionally, Paul and his friends do not consider the opposing armies to be their real enemies; in their view, their real enemies are the men in power in their own nation, who they believe have sacrificed them to war simply to increase their own power and glory.
'Comrade, I did not want to kill you...we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony-Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?'
'every full-grown emperor requires at least one war, otherwise he would not become famous...generals too...there are other people back behind there who profit by the war, that's certain'
(All Quiet on the Western Front, Chapter 9)
Just as in All Quiet on the Western Front, the ethic of nationalism is presented as a powerful fervour in Regeneration. This idea that one owed first loyalty to ...
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'Comrade, I did not want to kill you...we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony-Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?'
'every full-grown emperor requires at least one war, otherwise he would not become famous...generals too...there are other people back behind there who profit by the war, that's certain'
(All Quiet on the Western Front, Chapter 9)
Just as in All Quiet on the Western Front, the ethic of nationalism is presented as a powerful fervour in Regeneration. This idea that one owed first loyalty to one's nation, and that one's national identity was the primary component of one's overall identity, had reached new heights of intensity in the nineteenth century and carried over into the start of World War 1. By focusing on the experience of Rivers, a practising psychiatrist at Craiglockhart War Hospital, Barker heightens the conflict between duty and sympathy.
With a traditional Victorian education and a strong belief in honour, Rivers feels bound to his duty to heal men so they may return to war. His deep sympathy for the suffering of his patients causes him to rethink previously solid beliefs. He feels a deep conflict about whether he is doing the right thing by treating men just so they can return to war and be killed. The novel charts River's slow journey of realization and growing doubt about the justification for the death of an entire generation.
'One of the paradoxes of war...was that this most brutal of conflicts should set up a relationship between officers and men that was...domestic...And the Great Adventure-the real life equivalent of all the adventure stories they'd devoured as boys-consisted of crouching in a dugout, waiting to be killed.'
(Regeneration, Chapter 9)
These lines are some of River's reflections later in the novel. They highlight the immense ironies of World War 1: the ultimate act of manliness results in domesticity; mobilization results in men being wedged in a hole; and the heroic adventure is not nearly as heroic as the soldiers could have hoped. Part of the madness, and of the incredible frustration with the war, is due to the expectations being frighteningly different from the reality. In previous wars, there could be individual heroism; there were rules to war, a gentlemanly way to fight. The Great War is a total war; trench warfare and machine guns mean all the rules have changed. There seems nothing heroic in crouching in a hole for months, waiting to die. This passage emphasizes the realism and de-romanticization of nationalism and the war.
Because All Quiet on the Western Front is set among soldiers fighting on the front, one of its main focuses is the ruinous effect that war has on the soldiers who fight it. These men are subject to constant physical danger, as they could literally be blown to pieces at any moment. This intense physical threat also serves as an unceasing attack on the nerves, forcing soldiers to cope with primal, instinctive fear during every waking moment. Additionally, the soldiers are forced to live in appalling conditions; in filthy, waterlogged ditches full of rats and decaying corpses and infested with lice. They frequently go without food and sleep, adequate clothing, or sufficient medical care. They are forced, moreover, to deal with the frequent, sudden deaths of their close friends and comrades, often in close proximity and in extremely violent fashion. Remarque portrays the overall effect of these conditions as a crippling overload of panic and despair. The only way for soldiers to survive is to disconnect themselves from their feelings, suppressing their emotions and accepting the conditions of their lives.
In Remarque's view, this emotional disconnection has a hugely destructive impact on a soldier's humanity. Paul, for instance, becomes unable to imagine a future without the war and unable to remember how he felt in the past. He also loses his ability to speak to his family. Soldiers no longer pause to mourn fallen friends and comrades.
'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...Meyer is dead...it is a damnable business, but what has it to do with us now-we live.'
(All Quiet on the Western Front, Chapter 7)
When Kemmerich (a fellow comrade) is on his deathbed, at the beginning of the novel, the most pressing question among his friends is who will inherit his boots. Among the living soldiers, however, Remarque portrays intense bonds of loyalty and friendship that spring up as a result of the shared experience of war. These feelings are the only romanticized element of the novel and are virtually the only emotions that preserve the soldiers' fundamental humanity.
In Regeneration, the emotional repression of soldiers is also explored. Emasculation signals the powerlessness that soldiers feel when confronted with the shocking reality of war. Although they try to do the manly thing by enlisting in the war and fighting for their country, they must face society's judgment that it is decidedly unmanly to suffer a breakdown. Many of the men at the hospital refuse to accept any psychological weakness exacerbating their mental condition.
In the novel, Mutism functions as a symbolic manifestation of the disempowerment and helplessness the men feel. Rivers reasons that mutism might be caused by an inability to voice dissent or express opinion over any part of one's own life. Both Prior and Callan, combatants, are affected by mutism after extremely horrifying incidents. Prior wants to prove to himself that he is a good soldier, a man who will not break down under pressure. Opposing this desire, however, is the very real fear that he will be killed in the war. Prior is hesitant to admit this fear, and he cries when he is told he will not be returning to the war. He envies and resents those around him who are able to escape the war experience. Prior is a victim of society's high expectations of soldiers that arise during the war.
An important symbol in Remarque's novel is Kemmerich's boots, which are used to represent the cheapness of human life in the war. Kemmerich's high, supple boots are passed from soldier to soldier as each owner dies in sequence. Kemmerich himself took them from the corpse of a dead airman, and as Kemmerich lies on his own deathbed, Müller (who serves with Paul in the Second Company) immediately begins manoeuvring to receive the boots. Paul brings them to Müller after Kemmerich dies and inherits them himself when Müller is shot to death later in the novel. In this way, the boots exhibit the relative worthlessness of humanity in wartime. A good pair of boots is more valuable, and more durable, than a human life. The question of who will inherit them continually overshadows their owners' deaths.
In the same way, trenches are symbolic in Regeneration, which are likened, both literally and figuratively, to graves. Many of the patients have terrible experiences and memories involving trenches. Prior, most notably, remembers waking up in a trench one morning, only to turn around and find two of his men killed by an exploded shell. The trench became the men's grave, as Prior was forced to mix their remains with lime and use them to reinforce the walls of the trench.
Another of the main themes of All Quiet on the Western Front is that war brings out a savagery and hunger for power that lies latent in many people, even if they are normally respectable, non-violent citizens. Himmelstoss is just such a figure: an unthreatening postman before the war, he evolves into the "terror of Klosterberg", the most feared disciplinarian in the training camps. Himmelstoss is extremely cruel to his recruits, forcing them to obey ridiculous and dangerous orders simply because he enjoys bullying them.
Himmelstoss represents the meanest, pettiest, most loathsome aspects of humanity that war draws out. But when he is sent to fight at the front, Himmelstoss experiences the same terror and trauma as the other soldiers, and he quickly tries to make amends for his past behaviour. In this way, Remarque exhibits the frightening and awesome power of the trenches, which transform even a mad disciplinarian into a terrorized soldier desperate for human companionship.
Regeneration begins with Siegfried Sassoon's (distinguished soldier and Great War poet) open letter, dated July 1917, protesting the conduct and insincerities of the First World War. The letter has been published and has received much attention in England, as many people are upset over the length and toll of the war thus far. This factual remonstrance in effect, articulates the novel's opposition to the war. The letter clearly threatens to undermine the strength of the war effort at home, and consequently Sassoon is ordered to the mental hospital by the army. This stresses the manipulation and control the government exerts over its people.
Though he strongly opposes the war, Sassoon has not had a breakdown, and he feels uncomfortable around the other patients. He is a man who stands by his convictions and refuses to give into other's ideals. Sassoon eventually returns to the war, but of his own accord and not under any compulsion. When asked in the Review Board meeting about his views toward the war, he rejects all justification for such a high amount of human suffering. Barker presents Sassoon as a likeable, sympathetic character who is perfectly clear and reasonable; it seems natural for us to accept his judgments as sound.
'So, you agree with his views but not his actions? Isn't that rather an artificial distinction?' 'No, I don't think it is. The way I see it, when you put the uniform on, in effect you sign a contract. And you don't back out of a contract merely because you've changed your mind.'
(Regeneration, Chapter 3)
This dialogue between Rivers and Graves (Sassoon's close friend) is found in Part One of Regeneration. Rivers asks Graves to explain his views about war and about Sassoon's protest. Graves responds that he does not see it as artificial to agree with someone's views but disagree with his actions. Graves's response is important because it reveals a complex attitude toward war and protest, one shaped by a traditional English public school education and traditional values. Although Graves agrees with Sassoon that the war is wrong, he cannot condone Sassoon's method of protest. He believes that when one agrees to fight for one's country, one is bound by an unalterable contract. Graves's words are based upon traditions of duty and honour, concepts that have been taught to the English people, and especially to the English upper classes, for centuries. Graves cannot imagine anything worth risking one's honour for. Rivers, however, sceptically draws Graves's distinction into question, asking whether one does not have a duty to his beliefs as well as to his contract. This central conflict, this question, remains unresolved in the novel. Ultimately, Regeneration asks us to question for ourselves the large concepts of duty, sanity, and war.
Barker, with her insightful and direct writing style, succeeds in presenting a microcosm of madness that prevails during war. Regeneration recounts many vivid war scenes, and without drawing conclusions, effectively instils a feeling of vexation against the war into the reader.
In presenting his grimly realistic version of a soldier's experience, Remarque strips away the typical romanticism of war narrative in All Quiet on the Western Front, providing an unrelenting portrayal of carnage and gore. It is a novel of social protest; totally rejecting the war and nationalistic policies; and in doing so, successfully depicts the many horrors of World War 1.
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