In August 1914, a German troop train slowly drove to the western front, and the windows were filled with cheerful soldiers, waving their hands and singing, confirming that they would become winners in a few weeks, but the planned "blitzkrieg" turned into a four-year war, and by November 1918, most of them failed to come back alive.
In this war called the 1st World War ,
had a total of 16543185 deaths,
of which were 9721937 soldiers,
had 6821248 civilians,
had a total of 21228813 soldiers, and soldiers were injured (or disabled),
. l2
A total of 50 million to 100 million people were hurt by war
Author Erich Maria Remak, as a witness and survivor of World War I, intuitively described the fate of this generation who represented the protagonist Paul Boimer in "No War on the West Front" in "No War". Under the instigation of the teacher, he was ignorant from school to battlefield, and eventually died in the brutal war machine.
He was killed in October 1918. That day, the entire front line was silent. There is only one record in the military command report: There is no war on the Western Front.
He fell forward, as if he was lying on the ground and asleep. If you turn him over, you will see that he hasn't suffered too long--he looks calm on his face, as if he was satisfied with the ending like this. ——"No War on the Western Front"
Remake is an outstanding and charming writer and artist. His shocking brushstrokes are fierce and cruel, unmodified, and the things are in infinite and profound uneasiness, creating delicate and gentle rhythms, pulses, light and shadows and colors. Unlike Paul, the protagonist in the book, Remake is a survivor of World War I. War and exile have created Remak's life and works. He is a member of the "lost generation" and always "stands on the front of criticism, accusations and praise."
No writer has ever described war as so openly and mercilessly as Remake, as a sea of savage hostility to life and a cruel and painful sea of barbarism. When he sang nearly sacred images with extreme courage in hardships, the music of "worship of the earth" and "sacrifice" stirred between his lines - it was his cruel and magnificent "Spring Festival".
At the beginning of the war, a group of 19-year-old young teenagers (high school students), under the advocacy of their teacher Cantorek, delivered lengthy speeches in gymnastics classes again and again. Until the whole class, with his passion, joined the army, joined the ranks of "defending the country", and experienced the terror of the war on the Western Front, and eventually died on the battlefield...
The first modern war in human history, composed of heavy artillery, aircraft, submarines, tanks, as well as poison gas and flamethrowers, released Lethality and the cruelty of war are simply unimaginable for those who have not experienced real wars... Even many soldiers finally had the idea of desertion in the protracted killings
Remac's narration of the entire war process was not inclined from beginning to end. He was just a person in the war situation, narrating and truthfully depicting various tragic scenes in the war process, fully showing a group of 18 or 9-year-old soldiers who were children in the face of the cruel scenes of the war, facing the life and death of their opponents and companions, and facing friendship and love. The details are portrayed in detail, as if you have witnessed it with your own eyes, and it is hard to bear to read it.
"People cannot understand that these broken limbs still live day after day. And this is just a field hospital, a ward - there are thousands in Germany, thousands in France, and thousands in Russia. If all this can happen, then writing, behavior, and thinking are completely futile! If thousands of years of civilization cannot stop bleeding and rivers, then everything is a lie and nothing is important. Only field hospitals indicate what war is.
We no longer count the days week after week. When I came, it was winter. When the shells exploded, frozen soil and shrapnel were almost as dangerous as the grass and trees, and now the grass and trees are green. Our lives alternate between the front lines and the battalions, and we are almost used to it.War is nothing more than a cause of death, just like cancer and tuberculosis, flu and dysentery, but just die more frequently, more diverse, and more cruelly. "-----"No War on the Western Front"
There are several details that allow readers to deeply understand the war:
1. The protagonist Paul stabbed the enemy to death with three swords on the battlefield. However, facing an opponent who had lost his ability to resist, Paul fed him water and tried his best to save his life. In the absence of being able to save him, he chose to accompany the dead silently through the last moment of his life.
In that moment, Paul's eyes were no longer an enemy, but just an ordinary person, with a family and children. They could have lived their own lives without grievances and grudges, but the war made them each pick up guns and bayonets, and they either die or die. The opponents I live in, on the battlefield, have no right to choose life and death.
What can the victory and failure of the war bring to each other? In the end, who is beneficial to the war? Who is the fault of death?
2. Kerrysey, who was seriously injured and lying in the hospital, waiting for the arrival of death, has a pair of good boots. When his companions Miller and Paul visited him in the hospital, Miller proposed to ask for his boots. Kerrysey was powerless, but he firmly refused Miller. Later, Kerrysey told Paul who visited him, and the boots were left to Miller because, he knew he was going to die. "If Kerrysey still had those boots, Miller would rather run through the wire barefoot than get it with a fickle thought. But now in the case of Kmurishi, the boots are useless to him, and Miller just needs it, Kmurishi is dying, and everyone gets it the same. "Through paper, you can inadvertently feel that the desire for survival deep in Kmurray's heart would involuntarily remember his mother, who was crying at the train station when he said goodbye to him, and his face was swollen and swollen.
3. In the terrifying battlefield covering the whole world, in less than a year, Paul and his comrades who were as deep as brothers, finally learned to make themselves happy in the gaps of war, steal geese and eat, smuggle into the enemy's defense zone, and meet with the girl with food. Although they do not speak to each other, it does not prevent them from feeling happy. Those beautiful moments flow quietly in Remake's pen.
In the face of war, the beautiful feelings of personal are always fleeting. When the eyes are turned on and closed, the scene is Paul's Carter carrying the broken legs, and he shuttles in the rain of bullets and races against time. Although he tried hard to encourage Carter and wanted him to live, when he arrived at the medical center, the doctor told Paul that Carter was already a dead person. Although Paul did not believe it or wanted to believe it, he felt that Carter was just a temporary coma, but the truth is: Carter had already been shot dead while he was running, and he was desperately carrying the body of Carter who had already died.
4. The battlefield that has experienced two years of war baptism, and there is a serious shortage of clothes and food. There is a picture that in the last second, Paul and his comrades broke off the bread that had been gnawed by a disgusting mouse. The next second, everyone was very regretful. How could they throw it away? At least they can not let themselves go, and they were hungry that was more painful than death.
Although this book has been around for a long time, there are no difficult sentences throughout the article. Remake's text is clearly expressed, which is somewhat similar to the style of Hemingway . Remake likes to use it more powerfully. The short sentences of Proust, which were commonly used by the time, will undoubtedly reduce the color of the whole book. Therefore, the fluent and free writing language of Remake does add a lot of points to the work.
"No War on the West Front" is a rare anti-war novel. There are no words and sentences of justice and injustice in the book, only a low and helpless narration of the trauma brought by war. After reading the book, it seems that the whining gunshots are still endless and echoing for a long time.
salute, Remake! May "No War on the West Front"! May the world be peaceful forever!
