Sunday, January 1, 2012
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.
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I agree with this. The soldiers probably enter the war knowing their chances of returning home. They know that not too many people will go home fully abled if they go home at all. They see all of their friends die all the time and they think that they could be next. All of the coffins just reminded them of their sure doom.
ReplyDeleteThis particular chapter made me incredibly sad because when they saw the coffins they were joking around that they were for them, atleast i think it was for them. They obviously knew they were going to die, and they made it into a humorous matter which is pretty devastating in my opinion. Was it for them or not? i am confused about that.
ReplyDeleteIn reality, the coffins were for them but at the same time they were not. those coffins were for the troops who would die, it could be them, or the squad in a trench 10 feet away from them. I think the reason the author includes this part in the book is to display how easily the lives of dozens of men were lost.
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