Fly Away Peter Analysis

David Malouf’s novel Fly Away Peter and feature film All Quiet on the Western Front by Delbert Mann, explores the savage and harrowing warfare of World War One. Conveying the horrifying experience of the front line from both sides – the Allies and the Central Powers – these texts show the futility of a traumatic war, that left all combatants if not dead, eternally destroyed by its inhumanity.

The overriding theme of both texts is the terrible brutality of war, with its catastrophic levels of carnage and violence, its battles which lasted for months and the weapons of mass destruction that made the barbaric killings effortless and impersonal. Fly Away Peter describes the terrible conditions of the trenches and events of front line from the
The remains are filled with hundreds of soldiers that look as small as ants against the rubble. The feature film shows young German soldiers fighting the French as each side take turns to attack one another, then falling dead on the enemies’ fence line. The pointless attack and counter-attack creates an unnecessary world of terror for all combatants and the ultimatum of death for both the French and German troops. As we follow post-graduate, eighteen-year-old Paul, we see the bonds he forms, and the terror he faces as thousands of comrades are “shredded to pieces”, within the bloodthirsty battle. ‘Cat’, a private, and also Paul’s most respected comrade suffers a blow to the leg. Out of courage and fear Paul carries the man, twice his size, to what remains of the hospital ward, where he finds out ‘Cat’ is “stone dead” due to a shot to the head. By this time Paul had lost almost all of the men he had started the journey with. The trauma of loss, especially of those with close bonds and experiences, leaves soldiers with a psychological hurt that lasts a lifetime. The text explains life on the front as “down to chance”, “I can be smashed to bits in a bomb proof dug out, or I can survive ten hours untouched out in the open,” every soldier believes in chance and trusts his luck. We see days without rest, starvation, hopelessness, and a change of attitude in the soldiers as the threat of war causes
As the object of war became more surreal and Jim had thought about enlisting he uncovered a nervous feeling, “It was as if the ground before him, that has only minutes ago stretched away to a clear future, had suddenly titled in the direction of Europe, in the direction of events, and they were all now on a dangerous slope.” Australia depicted the image of war as a symbol for pride. On the streets there were signs urging men to sign up, “Pictures of the king and queen with crossed flags on either side, one Australian, the other the union jack. And the streets did feel different.” In both texts the pressures of patriotism and pride influence the men’s decision to enlist as a ‘honorable choice’, rather than a forceful act. It shows soldiers have enlisted to ‘serve’ a good cause by defending their country, yet not informing them of the change of mind they may have when they experience the horror of war first hand, and wish to come