All Gloomy on The Western Front (Summative Blog)

  

Since there are so many different types of culture and society in the world, not everyone’s happiness is going to be the same. By experiencing different cultures and societies around the world and in different events in our lives, this helps us understand what happiness is all about. The book “ All Quiet on the Western Front”, made that idiosyncratic difference on the context of how a certain society or culture could have such an effect to a happiness of an individual.   Throughout the years in war, there has been changes in Paul’s life. From the day Paul left for war until he came back to his hometown, he could identify how different life has become.

(“I find I do not belong here anymore, it is a foreign world”) pg 168’

 It was not the same for Paul anymore as it seemed like it was a foreign place coming back to his old town.  The place he left was not the same place he came back just like the life he had was not there anymore. War has changed him. He is no longer the same man.

During the war, Paul’s concept of happiness dramatically changed. Food and rest has become the top source of happiness as a soldier. “ Thus momentarily we have the two things …... matter of habit-event the front line”(138). Such things one never thought could give so much happiness back in the time before he became a soldier.

As a soldier, Paul adapted to a new way of life together with other soldiers. He had to adapt to different way of living. It was waking up everyday knowing that any day could be the day you will most likely die. It was living in constant fear. It was a way of life of bare necessities. Life in war was unstable in a way that anything could happen at any moment. You could lose your best friend in a matter of seconds as well as your life, too. A soldier’s life is filled with uncertainties and full of surprises. Yet despite all the horrors of war, Paul managed to find goodness in war. He developed bonding among his comrades. They found bits and pieces of happiness in their togetherness. One incident in the war was when Paul and his friend, Kat enjoyed moments of happiness when they caught a goose and roasted it. “We sit opposite on another, …… with one another than even lovers have”(94)

 Such simple things bring joy to an individual in the middle of a terrible event. In the company of other soldiers, Paul became part of a new society and he belonged to war.

Learning from the book, I have realized that war isn’t that glorifying as I thought it was. I used to think that being a soldier is about fighting for your motherland. Naturally, this is not a bad thing at all since you are defending your own country. Little did I know that it is not just about fighting for your own country but it is also fighting for your own life, to survive.

 It can go down to how important it is to own a good pair of boots just to survive.

Day in and day out, Paul has been exposed to so much casualties in war that it has become a sort of normality. He is used to seeing dead bodies, ruins and mess. He has gotten used to it. In fact, going to the trenches has become a routine, just like a way of life. Just like how we are bombarded everyday with images of war through media, we have slowly become used to seeing people die, people fleeing, people losing their homes, places in ruins and constant violence. By and by, we have become desensitized. We have slowly gotten used to it. It could be 6 people dead in a shootout to thousands of people dead in an air raid, the figures vary but it all sends the same message - all casualties of war. It’s sad and it’s horrific but somehow we have been so exposed to such news that we have slowly acquired a sense of normality in this. Just like Paul did.

War is senseless, we all know that. Why would one be asked to kill someone he doesn’t know for the sake of defending a country. What has this other person done to you to give you the right to kill him. Soldiers become machines, they act upon instruction. Yet soldiers are human beings, too. They belong to a family as any person would. Yet they have to act collectively as their country asks them to do.  

War is pointless. It doesn’t benefit anyone and anything. It is just casualty.

Culture and society definitely shapes an individual’s concept of happiness. In fact, it opens a deeper understanding that whatever situation a person may be,  he will adapt to the new life he is in. He might find goodness even in the most terrible times. Paul found happiness in a loaf of bread, in a pair of boots, in a few hours of rest like it means the world to him. This is because human beings are adaptable to wherever and whatever societies they are exposed to.  However adaptable they are, there is no absolute guarantee that they will find happiness.