Chapter Five: What Gets Them Through

    Chapter five starts off with all of the men sitting around a fire and talking. First they talk about what they would do at home, if this brutal war wasn't happening. But then it moves on to Tjaden talking back to Himmelstoss, and therefor showing him up, and making a fool out of Himmelstoss. After this they start to make fun of Himmelstoss and also their old teacher, and there is a quote in the book that really seemed to stand out to me, "That is our sole ambition: to knock the conceit out of a postman."
   I was some what confused at what this meant, so I went to dictionary.com and I looked up each word, to phrase it differently. This is what I came up with: "This is our only earnest desire: to force the excessive pride in ones self out of Himmelstoss." So basically, what seems to get them through the war and really keep them going is the way they sit and make  fun of Himmelstoss, making him feel less superior and rather foolish. Before this is said in the book, the men also show a lot about their character. They are all mostly pessimistic about their situation. At one point, Kropp says, "You'll be dead one day, so what does it matter? I don't think we'll ever go back."  And it's not only Kropp who seems to think like this, they all have that sort of point of view on the war. I get that it's hard and discouraging but I would think that they would at least have a little hope still. But, maybe that's just me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVDUXPB_sTs  This is a video that I found on Youtube with great real footage from World War 1. It shows how people everywhere reacted to the start of the war, how proud many people were and eager to go fight, footage of many different troops marching, some much better equipped than others, along with real trenches, and the weapons used to help make this all seem so much more real.

Chapter Four: How War Really Is

     The beginning of chapter four is all about to ride to The Front. They ride on a lorry, over bumpy roads, and after a long ride in the middle of the night, they arrive at the front, where bombs and shots were already beginning to go off. In this bombing, the narrator finds a new, young soldier, extremely scared and obviously new to the warfare. They help, comfort and protect him. The bombing only lasts a few hours, but there's a long wait before the lorries come back to retrieve the soldiers. While waiting, many of the horses have been hit and wounded, crying out with loud, ear-piercing sounds. Finally, some soldiers decide to just shoot the horses, although this means losing some of their transportation. The soldiers decide that since it's just about 3 in the morning, they should probably start heading back to the lorry. But as they're on their way, the worst of this days (or nights?) war happened. They were in the middle of an empty field when bombs started to come in. Their first instinct was to run, but to where? The woods were surely too far away, and the field wouldn't provide any protection. Their last resort was the nearby grave yard. They all got behind mounds of dirt, and lay as flat and as covered as possible. The bombs came in, sending pieces of coffins and dead bodies flying everywhere. As giant holes were made in the dirt, other soldiers, along with the narrator, crawled inside, hoping the bombs wouldn't hit the same spot twice, and that the dirt, coffins, and even the dead people would provide some protection.
           At one point, Remarque says, "But the shelling is stronger than everything. It wipes out the sensibilities, I merely crawl still farther under the coffin, it shall protect me, thought Death himself lies in it." This is a big statement to me. He is truly telling how brutal and manipulating war is. This war has caused them to literally use their fallen soldiers as shields. And the irony of the fact that he says that the coffin shall protect him, helping him stay alive, even though Death is literally inside of it, but that he doesn't care, shows how crazy the war makes people. I can't even imagine hiding from bombs, trying to stay alive, while the war is so scary that you are hiding under someone who is dead. This chapter really helps to put you in the soldiers shoes and really see how powerful war is.
This is a picture I found of French soldiers, behind barbed wire, like the beginning of chapter 4 describes. The soldiers are low to the ground, rather dirty and equipped with huge guns. This helps to create a visual of what the war would have been, looked and felt like.

Chapter Three; Page 41: A Childish Reason for War

Firstly, I would like to point out how difficult I found blogging to be. I initially thought it would be a quick thing to write using little thought, basically summarizing the book. I was wrong. I also thought this book was going to be an easy read, one where you could read through it once and understand the majority of it. Again, I was wrong. There were many times in just the first few chapters where I went back and read and re-read parts. One particular part that caught my eye was in chapter three, page 41. The author, Remarque, has added  a quote from his old teacher, Kantorek, "Give 'em all the same grub and all the same pay, And the war would be over and done in a day."

When I first read this through, I thought little of it. But the second and third time, I started to think a little deeper about it. What he is really saying isn't that you could give them food and money and the war will end, but that if we were all treated equally, there would be no reason for war. This also implies that the reason for war is inequality. And inequality, as we have discussed in class, leads to imperialism. When one country has something better, such as weapons, railroads, and steam engines, everyone else wants to out do them, and look better. This is actually quite childish, if you think about it long enough. It's all about countries being jealous of the others possessions, power, and strength. And that jealousy is enough to lead to a world war, and kill millions. 

I found this picture, of a hospital from world war 1. As you can see, there are probably 50 or more hospital beds, all occupied with soldiers. This truly shows the impact of the war, and relates to the quote, showing what inequality truly can do.