No Mans Land

In chapter 9, Paul returns from leave to the front and finds himself rusty to the life of a soldier. when he returns, he volunteers to scout ahead, but while crawling in the dark loses his sense of direction. he ends up panicking and crawling many different ways, only to turn around again. After a short while he jumps into a hole in no mans land to wait out an offensive. During the offensive however, a french man jumps into the same pit as him, who he then stabs in fear of himself being stabbed. the soldier bleeds out slowly, and Paul grows paranoid as he watches. He grows increasingly insane as time goes on to the point where he talks to the mans lifeless corpse. This shows what effects the fear of death and guilt can have on the human mind. while Paul is having a mental breakdown in what he thinks his grave will be, the battle above shifts back and forth. He is nearly hit by his own artillery, he has to wait until the fighting has died down before he can retreat to his friendly trenches. This displays how the field between trenches got the name no mans land.

Point of View in WWI

During WWI, many different people had opinions on the war. Some soldiers thought they were fighting for their country, while others did not believe the war was necessary at all. The French government thought that it was justified because of how Austria-Hungary attacked Russia, Austria-Hungary was outraged over the deaths of their rulers, so they demanded Serbia complete a list of commands the Austrian government sent. Russia stood up for Serbia and Austria-Hungary went to was with them as well.  and Germany thought it was Their duty to stand up for their allies. Italy saw the invasion or Belgium as an atrocity that must be avenged. and England went to was to aid their ally France. From their respective points of view, all the nations thought they were right and had a justified cause. This plays a major part in not only WWI, but also sets the stage for WWII to occur.

Fear on the Front

Towards the end of chapter 6, Paul finds Himmelstoss while they are being bombarded by artillery. During the attack, Himmelstoss is gripped by fear and panic and pretends to be wounded in a dug-out. the sight of this enrages Paul, and he commands him to get out. When he refuses to move, Paul beats him into submission and pushes him through the door. Fear is a powerful force during war, as it can demoralize troops on one side of the fight and motivate the other side to push for a crushing victory. Many soldiers in WWI would have mental breakdowns due to fear of weapons such as gas and bombs. Fear was a major factor in how new soldiers would respond to a threat. if they saw a veteran panic or run in fear, they would probably follow their lead.

Humans a naturally scared of what they cannot see, so gas was one of the most common causes to run.

The Coffins

Needless to say, during WWI millions of troops fought and died for their countries. In chapter 6, Paul and his comrades are marching to the front, when they see a row of new coffins lined up against a bombed schoolhouse. Muller makes a rather discouraging observation "That's a good preparation for the offensive". I think this is a good representation of how good of a chance soldiers in WWI had to return home from the war. Once they reached the front, they found that the English artillery, and that troops and supplies were being transferred to the front, while the German front has worn artillery, and few supplies on hand for the fight. This demoralizes Paul and his comrades. This displays how the front could be a victory or defeat based on supplies at hand.