Thursday, November 15, 2007

Trench Journal- Literary Analysis (Ch 7)

Paul's company is taken to a field depot in order to regain strength.

Himmelstoss walks up to Paul and his friends and gets on good terms with them.

The terror of the front lines sinks in as they are able to rest and reflect on their experiences.

Kropp and Paul find a poster with a girl on it and this makes them urge to become clean for the first time in a while.

Paul and his friends see three French girls and plan to meet them later but since there are only three girls the other soldiers get Tjaden drunk and go meet them themselves.

They meet the girls at their home and eat and afterwards they sleep together.

Paul is saddened by the fact that he is unable to forget about the war.

On the way back to their camp they see Tjaden, naked, running towards the girls' house and laugh.

Pauls gets put on leave for seventeen days and worries about who will be alive when he returns.

Paul returns to the girl's house and tells here he is going on leave but she takes no special notice.

Kropp and Kat walk Paul to the train and Paul goes home.

Paul doesn't recognize anyone when he returns home and when he sees his sister and mother he collapses.

He feels out of place amongst his childhood possessions.

Paul gives his family food and attempts to ease their fears about the war.

Paul discovers his mother has cancer.

A major sees him in the street and won't let him leave until he salutes him properly. After this he won't wear his uniform anymore.

Paul feels a barrier between him and his father and becomes mad at him for asking him questions about the war and being so proud that he's a soldier.

Paul hears that his teacher, Kantorek, is now a soldier and an old friend of Paul's, Mittelstaedt, is in charge of him. He makes Kantorek go through torturous exercises.

Paul's mother starts to become upset that Paul must leave again.

Paul goes to see Kemmerick's mother and lies about his death to her saying it was quick and painless.

On his last night on leave Paul's mother comes into his room and warns him about French women and tries to get him to obtain a safer position in the army.

Paul says he will and she goes to bed. Paul wishes he had never gone on leave.


Paul feels disconnected from his home. He is angry at those who are fascinated with the war and talk about it as if it were a game. He is concerned about his mother and his friends back at the front.


"for we can be damned quixotic when we like"(Remarque 139).

Quixotic- impulsive and often rashly unpredictable.


"After my leave I have to report for a course of training to a camp on the moors"(Remarque 151).

Moors-A broad area of open land, often high but poorly drained, with patches of heath and peat bogs.
War causes the citizens of a country to make sacrifices; they must either fight or work, for their country to succeed. This cartoon shows Uncle Sam holding a hoe and hammer in his right hand and a gun in his left hand. They have labels saying "work or fight." America needed more troops to support itself in the war and it needed a stronger workforce to supply the troops with necessities such as food and ammunition. American citizens needed to make sacrifices either with their life or with their time to ensure that America is victorious in WW1.
I learned that families will always look out for you and want you to be safe.

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