Analytical Essay Sample on All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque

Analytical Essay Sample on All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque tells what happens to a group of German teenagers during World War I. Paul Baumer is the protagonist in the novel who changes from an innocent, inexperienced young man to a hardened disillusioned soldier. It is through his narration that the reader lives through what they experienced. Chapter one introduces each character, theme, and tone for the entire novel and sets up the intent: to illustrate how a generation of men, who though they survived the war physically, were destroyed by it mentally. At the outset, chapter one opens with the narrator, Paul Baumer, returning from the front lines of World War I. The seriousness of war is evident immediately when Baumer relates that out 150 men only eighty return. But on the last day an astonishing number of English heavies opened up on us with high-explosives, drumming ceaselessly on our position, so that we suffered severely and came back only eighty strong (page 2). From this point in the chapter, Paul Baumer introduces the other characters, giving brief descriptions that connect the reader with each individual. This is important because it allows the reader to empathize with what these men went through, to feel their suffering and the horrific experiences of war. Through the narration Kantorek, the schoolmaster and fiercely patriotic man, is recalled. He is the person that inspires Paul Baumer and his band of fellow classmates to enlist. Kantorek, once an idolized man, is now despised because of the erroneous picture he painted for them of going off to war to fight for their country. This realization is presented when Baumer relates, The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces (page 13). The other characters, Leer, Muller, Kropp, Tjaden, Haie Westhus, Detering and Katczinsky are also introduced in this chapter through the story telling of Paul Baumer. The last sentence of chapter one illustrates that each individual, though young numerically, has lost their youth forever. We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young? Youth? That is long ago. We are old folk (page 18). The loss of youth, while still young summarizes the meaning of the lost generation of World War I. The introduction and development of the characters is so intriguing to the reader, that you desire to know what happens to them and are inspired to read on in order to find out. Each person is different, with characteristics that everyone can relate to. The young men entered as patriotic citizens fighting for their homeland, full of dreams and youth, only to have their innocence lost. The opening chapter is key in explaining, through the voice of Baumer, a major theme in All Quiet on the Western Front: the horror of war and its effect on the ordinary soldier. Paul and his fellow classmates were caught between rhetoric from ignorant orators about their responsibility to their country and the reality of a bloody battlefield. Even ones parents were ready with the word Ð ¡coward; no one had the vaguest idea what we were in for (page 11). Trusted individuals were encouraging these young men to volunteer for service. Parents, teachers and leaders of the communities were all instrumental in this band of friends enlisting only to be shattered permanently by the reality of war. Kantorek, their respected and trusted teacher was one in particular who was instrumental in the entire class enlisting. During drill-time Kantorek gave us long lectu res until the whole of our class went, under his shepherding, to the District Commandant and volunteered (page 11). The first chapter emphasizes the unheroic, unglamorous, horrifying life of a soldier. The reality versus the glamorization by authority figures is relayed completely during that time period. The reality of blood and death, represented by the death of Joseph Behm and the impending death of Kemmerich destroys any ideals that war is glamorous. The death of these two comrades being in the first chapter is significant because it illustrates the brutality and raw truth of war. The lengthy description of using the general latrines further describes how dehumanizing their lives were. It is also an example of the true reality that they lived with each day and demonstrated how unaware Kantorek was. Everything conveys that it is a new sort of war novel; one that reflects exactly what being at war was like. The tone of this novel is one of struggling with the fear of death, struggling to survive, and dealing with the death of their comrades and others around them. The routine way that Paul describes events that happen set a tone of someone that is detached and retelling a nightmare. This detachment from reality must take over in order to get through it. The fact that half of his company was killed is related in a way that is very casual. Almost, a look on the bright side, we get more food. Then for once well have enough (page 4). When Paul and his fellow soldiers go to see Kemmerich they discuss what is going to happen to his boots because they know that he is not going to live. Muller even matches them to his shoe size. He matches their soles against his own clumsy boots (page 16). Kemmerich has had one leg amputated, is dying, and will have no need for them any longer. It is a serious novel and it is expressed at the outset. The author states in the forward, This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. A great deal of the setting of the novel takes place on the battlefield or in the trenches. Paul and his fellow soldiers live day-to-day dodging bullets and trying to stay alive. All Quiet on the Western Front is a serious novel, not for entertainment, but through the characters that Remarque introduces, the tragedies and realities of war are learned. All Quiet on the Western Front shows the change in attitudes of men before and after the war. The novel portrays the effects that war has on the individual. Each aspect of the novel is addressed in the opening chapter of the book. The introduction of the characters is presented in such a way as to connect the reader to the personalities of this group of young men who volunteered as innocent people and turn into soldiers who struggle each day to survive. The horrifying truths of war are related in this novel and presented right away to the reader, along with the seriousness of battle in the opening chapter. The author attacks those individuals who rally around country and patriotism with their words, but do not have to engage in the war that these young men experienced first hand. The significance of the opening chapter is apparent through the narration of Paul Baumer as he sets the tone, and lays out the theme intended by the author Erich Remarque.

Analysis of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Essays

Analysis of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Essays Analysis of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Paper Analysis of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Paper Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote the poem ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese XLIII’ shortly after she eloped with Robert Browning and married him. ’ Sonnets from the Portuguese’ was a sequence of poems that readers thought must have been translations from Portuguese but were actually all Brownings’ own work and were given this name, as her husband’s pet name for her was my little Portuguese. With this in mind, it is clear that the poems were written from her to her husband. The poem is a petrarchan sonnet which uses iambic pentameter. The poem has a very feminine tone to it which can be identified quickly through the type of diction used ‘Being and ideal Grace’, ‘every day’s Most quiet need,’. The poem begins with the persona asking a rhetorical question of ‘How do I love thee? ’ and then goes on to answer the question herself by listing the different ways in which she loves her husband. The first way describes love to the ‘depth’, ‘breadth’ and ‘height’ that the persona’s soul can reach. The use of tripling is using the soul as a spatial metaphor comparing the soul to a three dimensional physical object as all things in the universe are, meaning the love is real and spans the measurement of the whole depth and length of the universe. The use of tripling could also suggest some sort of reference to the holy trinity taking the love to not only a physical but also a spiritual level, as she refers to the soul which is the body and spirit infused. ‘when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace,’ shows that the persona loves to the essence of her being to the end of existence. This refers to the natural order and explaining how her love reaches all the way to the top of the chain, to God. The ‘ideal Grace’ being God’s gift of salvation and the eternal love and bliss felt in his presence. This is likening the love for her husband to the love she has for God. The use of enjambment in lines three and four adds additional emphasis to the measure of how far the persona’s love extends. The use of rhyme with ‘feeling’ and ‘Being’ in these lines helps to tie the poem together more tightly. The second way describes how she loves ‘to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. ’ The use of imagery through ‘sun and candle-light’ is quite abstract as they are different references to light, something that takes place out of the physical world. This suggests a love that goes through time and is on the same level as her most basic human needs through day or night such as air. The third way ‘I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;’ is describing how she loves of her own free will, not through force, threat or obligation and how this love is necessary to her happiness just as it is that men strive freely for right. The forth way ‘I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. ’ describes how her love is not lust, it is purely love and not to receive any praise. The fifth way ‘with a passion put to use In my old griefs,’ suggests that she loves with the same depth of feeling as the grief she has felt in her past. The use of the word passion could also be a biblical reference meaning that she loves with such intensity that it resembles the suffering of Christ’s crucifixion. The anaphora of ‘I love thee’ repeated in lines seven, eight and nine emphasizes by the structure of them that the poem is a list of loving. The sixth way ‘with my childhood’s faith. ’ Describes how she loves with trust and innocence and with the sort of blind and unquestionable faith that existed inside of her when she was a child. There is a subtle chiasmus of sounds f and s on line ten which forces the reader to enunciate and stress this line so it is likely to be very important for Browning. The seventh way ‘with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints. ’ Is describing how she thought she had lost this feeling of pure strong love with her lost loved ones who are now in heaven but now she loves him in that same way. It makes the love more realistic. She has felt sadness, anger, loss and loneliness in the past and this has an effect on how she loves in the present. ‘lost saints’ seems to be counterbalanced with the alliteration of l, ‘love’, ‘lose’ lost’ and the sibilance of ‘seemed’, lose’ ‘saints’. The eighth way ‘with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life’ describes how she loves him with all of the happiness and sadness that she’s ever felt and ever likely to and that she loves him with her very life and will until her last breath. The final way ‘and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. ’ Is saying that if she is permitted to heaven after death and God allows her, her love will continue eternally and even greater than at present as she will feel God’s love and have that to feel for him as well as her own love. This could be seen as hyperbole by some readers. The word’ love’ is used ten times throughout the poem. The fact that the word ‘love’ is used and that there are no synonyms for love used, shows that the love is consistent and unchanging and that the only thing the persona is concerned with is pure love. There is also repetition of ‘I love thee’ which places emphasis on these words. There is lots of assonance used of the long ‘e’ vowel sound in words such as ‘reach’, ‘feeling’, ‘Being’ and ‘ideal which seems to make the poem a bit livelier and brighter and reminds us of ‘thee’ beloved one. This along with the repetition of the ‘th’ ‘breadth’, ‘depth’, ‘thee’ as well as words such as ‘freely’ and ‘purely’ help the poem to flow very easily and can be drawn out to make it last just like the persona’s love. The sibilance throughout the poem makes it seem very soft and soothing and accentuates the feminine qualities of the poem. The Octave in the poem is very positive and draws analogies between the love of the persona and religious and political ideals where as the sestet starts to mention negative experiences and appears to draw analogies between the intensity of Browning’s own feelings when writing the poem and the intensity of love that she felt earlier in her life with the loss of her mother and brothers and likely the recent loss of her father and brothers due to her new love with her husband Robert. On further reading of the poem the reader gets the impression that not only is this a list of the different ways in which she loves but also a vow to her husband. The last line ‘I shall but love thee better after death’ gives the feeling that she is making a promise to her husband to love him forever. This is likely to have been because Browning had been ill for most of her life and had thought about death so wanted her husband to know that if she were to be gone, her love for him would carry on.

A Professional Development Plan Scholarship Essay

A Professional Development Plan - Scholarship Essay Example As the research stresses  mentoring relationships vary from loosely defined and informal collegial relationships wherein a mentee learns through observation and example to structured and formal agreements between novice co-mentors and experts wherein both parties develop professional by a two-way transfer of perspective and experience. Whether or not the relationship is considered formal or informal, the objective of mentoring is to offer or grant advancement, both professional and personal. In higher education, professors are charged with the duty of passing knowledge to students and prepare them for life after college or university. This makes this group very significant in ensuring continuity of society.From the discussion it is clear that  the work of a higher education professor is to educate academic and vocational subjects to both post and undergraduate scholars in institutions of higher learning. Some of their teaching method comprise of lectures tutorials, seminars, prac tical demonstrations, e-learning and field work among others. Multimedia technologies are also more and more being used today. A professor is also liable of pursing his or her own research in order to aid in the broader research activity of their institution or academic department. The goal is to have his or her scholarly article or book peer reviewed and published, which, on the other hand, will raise his or her profile and also that of their institution.