Over the years, although war-themed novels, film and television dramas have never stopped, no work can describe the cruelty of war as really, coldly, and shockingly as "No War on the Western Front" did.
(i)
How terrible the war is, I am afraid that only those who have survived on the battlefield know it.
Erich Maria Remak, author of No War on the Western Front, was a survivor of the First World War.
In November 1916, Remarck enlisted in the army, and in June 1917 he went to the Western Front, where he was admitted to the clan hospital at the end of July with multiple injuries to his limbs and bullets in the neck.
Misfortune on the battlefield made him the greatest fortune, and he finally survived.
This book is a true portrayal of what he saw and heard on the battlefield. He has been commented that no writer has described war so openly and mercilessly as a sea of cruelty and suffering, as in the case of Remarck.
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Thanks to his personal experience on the battlefield, Remack completed the novel in just 6 weeks. The novel profoundly and painstakingly unravels the mystery of the war and shows how that generation "died" in this goddamn lice-crawling war.
As soon as the book was published, it attracted much attention, and in the year of publication, millions of copies were sold in Germany alone.
In 1930, "No War on the Western Front" was put on the screen in Hollywood, but at the same time, his work was banned, and Remack was stripped of his German citizenship and forced into exile.
However, all this can not stop the greatness of the writer Remack, let alone erase the historical value of this book, in the past hundred years, this book has flowed to tens of millions of families, in its way, to warn the world, the evil of war, the preciousness of peace.
(ii)
Misery is the main theme of war.
After reading this book, my mood could not be calmed for a long time, and there had never been a book that could make people read so heavy, as if every punctuation in the book, every stroke of every word, was a living life, a process of ruthless destruction by war.
The process of reading this book is like listening to a gentle mournful song, tragically passing through the time tunnel of a hundred years and falling on the bloody land.
They were still seventeen or eighteen years old, ordinary people who should belong to books, to poetry, to fields, to music.
But they were forced to go to war, to point their bayonets at the chest of their enemies, and yet those enemies, like them, were ordinary people who were supposed to belong to books, to poetry, to the fields, to music.
This is the chain imposed on them by the times, the tragic undertone that politicians have painted for a generation.
The war is like a huge whirlpool, sucking them into the endless darkness of the world, unable to break free.
It was a place where you lived and died, where the life of the individual existed like an ant, and between the fierce killing, the endless fear, the unbearable hunger, survival became a very accidental thing.
They watched their comrades being blown away by shells, their arms and internal organs flying all over the sky;
They used the bodies buried in the graves as cover and watched as they were killed again;
Those moments of grabbing food with rats, those who watched their friends seriously injured, better off alive than dead, just wanted to give him a shot with their own hands, so that he could get rid of the painful moments, the poisonous gas, corrosive their bodies and minds.
What is the essence of war for? In the midst of endless wars, the beliefs that originally fought for the country, the nation, and freedom all disintegrated before blood, pain, and death, and what else could explain the bloodshed except the selfishness and desires of the invaders who started the war?
The corpses piled up on the battlefield and the cold wailing could not awaken the dreams of the belligerents, nor could they cool the endless desires of the rulers.
They fought with the ideal of war for the world, and this unanswered question destroyed the faith of these young people.
(iii)
In the midst of the endless darkness, a glimmer of light is the greatest kindness to them.
On the battlefield, there is not only the pain of tearing the heart and lungs, but also the tears that move the world. Paul's relationship with his comrades is the only glimmer of light left in the world, and it is all the motivation for them to live.
The scene where Paul and his comrades take revenge on their unscrupulous superiors together is a big punch that makes people clap their hands and praise.
To fill his stomach, Paul and Carter go together to steal the goose, Paul jumps into the shack, two snow-white geese, desperately flapping their wings in both of his hands, as if to take him into the air... Paul and Carter roasted geese in a dilapidated room, the wonderful fragrance pervaded, two soldiers in worn-out clothes looked at each other and smiled, this smooth and soft feather, this faint spark of life, this world was so beautiful, it made people cry.
In the midst of the war, the howls of the two wounded horses were eerie, and a peasant warrior trembled and said, "I tell you that letting animals go to war is the most despicable thing to do." ” In the midst of a crisis, someone gave the horse a shot, and the horse fell to the ground in response, and whoever thought that ending a life was the greatest mercy for it.
When his life is in danger, the farmer's compassion for the animals is awe-inspiring. Although they are in hell, the heart is still hot.
Paul and his friends, holding food together, swam across the river, they fell in love with the woman on the other side, and enjoyed with them a true joy of heart and body, the only feeling of love, full of relief and tragedy.
Paul came back from vacation and distributed the potato cakes that his mother made for him to his friends, and only said, "This is what my mother made," which made people cry. No matter when, no matter how cruel the world is, there is a person who loves us unreservedly, and that person must be a mother.
War makes a part of people lose their humanity, but some people's light, sparks.
The war is bloody and brutal, and here they have no time to reminisce, no time to mourn, no time to rest, because the shells will come at any time, and all that remains is numbness, only the despair of living one day and counting one day.
However, under the author's brushstrokes, they live vigorously, vigorously enjoying the small pleasures of life, which are the only wealth that life gives them.
(iv)
A 20-year-old life should not be a victim of war.
In 1914, countless young soldiers crowded onto the train, sang songs, and gleefully rushed to the Western Front, and after 4 years, most of them never returned.
Paul said: I am very young, only 20 years old, and my understanding of life is only despair, death, fear and the uncontrolled shallowness that connects this abyss of suffering.
The world should not be like this, and their fate should not be a victim at the feet of politicians, war is a tool in the hands of rulers, and it is always the people who are persecuted.
History has passed, but history should not be forgotten, because all the peace that people are enjoying is the result of one life after another.
Under the fierce artillery fire, the soldiers will sleep forever, but without the equality of nations, the flames of war will never be extinguished.
At present, our economic struggle with Western countries has never stopped.
And the emergence of new crown pneumonia is not a big war between humans and the virus.
Re-reading this work may remind the world that the fate of mankind is similar and one.
And remembering the tragedy of history will also make us understand the precious and powerful meaning of mutual respect and independence in this world.
As stated in the book "No War on the Western Front": The last words of the dead are not revenge, but no more.
I only hope that the tragedy will not be repeated.