Taking Cover

This image can be interpreted as a portrayal of both comradeship and what it signifies, but also of how soldiers on the battlefield become reduced to their survival instincts. In this image, there are two men in an open battlefield, with a shell exploding in the background. The setting itself is a battlefield, it is vast and huge, much like the conflict of war. Open, destroyed, and no clear end in site. There are two men depicted here in this photograph. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul mentions his love for Kat, but also that once a man is on the battlefield, his only loyalty is towards himself. According to the soldiers, friendship is only good thing to come out of war. However, when it comes to the worst of war, being at the front, it's more so a fight for individual survival rather than protecting the pack. These two men in the picture above could have been best of friends. But there is a bomb going off. One man has already taken cover, worrying about just himself. While the other man is jumping out of the way. It would be assumed that friends would try to protect one another, like pull his fellow soldiers down to safety along side him, but this picture illustrates otherwise. Friendship is the closest thing that these soldiers have, the one good thing to come of war, but when faced with the horrors of the front, the one last important thing is dropped, and is no longer as important as it was before.