In chapter 5 of "All Quiet On The Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Baumer, the narrator, says "We remember mighty little of all that rubbish. Anyway, it has never been the slightest use to us. At school nobody ever taught us how to light a cigarette in a storm of rain, nor how a fire could be made with wet wood--nor that it is best to stick a bayonet in the belly because there it doesnt get jammed in the ribs" (85). This is a very powerful quote in the book because it shows the soldiers changed ideology when entering the war. It shows that the soldiers admit that what they learned in school wasn't useful to them and they regarded it as "rubbish". He goes into even more depth of how useless to them by saying "it has never been the slightest use to us.". This shows that schooling or education doesn't prepare you for what they have to endure. Baumer continues to give examples of things that school hasn't taught him yet would have been useful skills or pieces of knowledge for him to have. like "lighting a cigarette in a storm of rain", or "how a fire could be made with wet wood", or "that it is best to stick a bayonet in the belly because there it doesn't get jammed in the ribs". Furthermore, the order that Paul Baumer states these three examples is important because they are in order of which would be most useful to a common citizen versus a soldier. Never has a common citizen needed to know where to stab someone with a bayonet, but "lighting a cigarette in a storm of rain" is perfectly normal to know how to do, especially in the 1940's.
I really like how you point out the order that Paul states his pieces of useful information in, from common citizen to soldier in the First world war. It also points out his possible train of thought, going from simple things to the things he knows simply for the war, and for nothing else. Interesting point!
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