Nobody Wins During World War One
Blake Warden
Mrs. Metzgar
H.S.E. 4 Period 3
5-1-14
Nobody Wins in a War In 1914, a Serbian nationalist assassinated the arch duke of Austria-Hungary and it immediately triggered one of the most deadly wars in the history of mankind. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and being One of Serbia’s allies, Russia declared war on Germany. It created a domino effect and the war quickly became the first World War. The central powers consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungry and the Ottoman Empire. On the other side, the triple entete was made up of Russia, France and the England. The war waged on for four years and in the end the triple entene won, but not without losing massive amount of casualties. Over 20 million soldiers died and many others …show more content…
were scared mentally for life. After the war many soldiers had shell shock and became unable to cope with the real world. Erich Remarque describes the mental problems that world war caused to a lot of the soldiers. The story walks through the war following a young German soldier named Paul and his fellow soldier friends. Throughout the book, the author depicts how the war effects the soldiers mentally and physically. Paul and his friends go through tragedies and also go through some good times. Erich Maria Remarque’s intense novel, All Quite on the Western Front, describes the horror of WW1 and how the war psychologically affected the soldier’s life. Shell shock is a condition the soldiers received during the war but it is now called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In the novel, many things the soldiers had to do could cause severe damage for the rest of their lives. For example, “The first recruit seems actually to have gone insane. He butts his head against the wall like a goat” (Remarque Pg. 111). The quote shown above is a perfect example of how Erich shows how the soldiers go insane and can no longer cope with the real world. In the novel this recruit can’t take it anymore and finally cracks. Back in WW1 they called this case shellshock since it was caused by the constant sound of explosions and gun shots. Also “’No, no, no,’ I raised one hand, I must show him that I want to help him, I stroke his forehead” (Remarque Pg. 219). Paul just killed a French soldier as he came over the bunker. Without thinking Paul stabs him with his bayonet and kills him. Immediately, he regrets it and feels bad. He then tries to help the man and show him that he is sorry for what he did. Even though he has killed multiple people before, actually doing it face to face changes Paul and he becomes depressed. It’s not right that he had to kill the man and it will affect him for the rest of his life. “We had strict orders not to take prisoners, no matter if wounded my job was when I finished cutting some of their wire away, to empty my magazine on 3 German that came out of one of their deep dugouts… they cried for mercy, but I had my orders. They had no feeling for us poor chaps”(A.H. Hubbard). Even though the soldiers surrendered and were unarmed, the people had to kill them because it was their orders. It is not fair to do that to someone and it can take a toll on someone’s mental stability as shown by all the shellshock victims in World War 1. A lot of the time the higher ranking people wouldn’t care for the psychological state of their soldiers and they just wanted the job to be done. The ones giving orders forget to think about how it may affect the ones who are doing it.
Source: Moftasa.net, History of PTSD, 2010-12-20, Web, Table 1 Throughout history, soldiers and people have been affected mentally by wars.
The chart above shows the statistics of shellshock victims over time. The biggest spike was in 1914, when World War 1 began. It also decreased right after the war ended, because such a large percent of the population was in World War 1 and that’s why so many people had shellshock. Some soldiers died because they went crazy and other were cured after returning. “Insane, feeble minded, psychopathic, and neuropathic individuals. These individuals included those with schizophrenia and mental retardation candidates that would clearly limit the ability to provide adequate service. The U.S. armed forces rejected approximately 2 % of inductees on this basis”(Stephanie Oak). After World War 1, the government started to test people before allowing them to join in the war. Since the war causes mentally instabilities, it is important not to send anyone with mental problems on top of shellshock and PTSD. That is the main reason that the U.S. began screening for issues. “Initially, military officials approved of screening programs because they promised that the armed forces would be made up of the most able men. Between 1942 and 1944, Suki Vans screening methods excluded 12% (almost 2 million) of 15 million men examined which was about 6 times the rejection rate of world war 2” (Stephanie Oak. 12% of people who enlisted in the military and were screen were not allowed to join because they were not mentally able …show more content…
to join. That is a very large amount of people that were screened and also rejected. When the soldiers came back from the war they probably had more issues on top of the original ones like shellshock and PTSD. A big factor of screening was World War 1 when people began to go crazy during the war.
Throughout histories there have been wars and there has been death.
World War 1 was the first war to really show how much it can’t affect those who are in it. Shellshock is now called post-traumatic stress disorder and it is still seen in cases today. Throughout the novel, it can be seen that war is tragedy and horror. The theme is loss of innocence. All of this death and misery started because someone assassinated the heir to a thrown.
Work cited
Bourke, Joanna. "Shell Shock during World War One." BBC News. BBC, 3 Oct. 2010. Web. 01 June 2014. Remarque, Erich Maria, and A. W. Wheen. All Quiet on the Western Front. Boston: Little, Brown, 1929. Print.
Oak, Stephanie,” War and Military health. The Us psychiatric response in the…” Emerican journal of public health vol. 97, No. 12. Dec. 2007; 2132-2142, sims Issues researcher web. 27 May. 2014
Bibliography
Bourke, Joanna. "Shell Shock during World War One." BBC News. BBC, 3 Oct. 2010. Web. 01 June 2014. Remarque, Erich Maria, and A. W. Wheen. All Quiet on the Western Front. Boston: Little, Brown, 1929. Print.
Oak, Stephanie,” War and Military health. The Us psychiatric response in the…” Emerican journal of public health vol. 97, No. 12. Dec. 2007; 2132-2142, sims Issues researcher web. 27 May. 2014
"Science Museum. Brought to Life: Exploring the History of Medicine." War 's Long-term Effects. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 June 2014.
Mrs. Metzgar
H.S.E. 4 Period 3
5-1-14
Nobody Wins in a War In 1914, a Serbian nationalist assassinated the arch duke of Austria-Hungary and it immediately triggered one of the most deadly wars in the history of mankind. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and being One of Serbia’s allies, Russia declared war on Germany. It created a domino effect and the war quickly became the first World War. The central powers consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungry and the Ottoman Empire. On the other side, the triple entete was made up of Russia, France and the England. The war waged on for four years and in the end the triple entene won, but not without losing massive amount of casualties. Over 20 million soldiers died and many others …show more content…
were scared mentally for life. After the war many soldiers had shell shock and became unable to cope with the real world. Erich Remarque describes the mental problems that world war caused to a lot of the soldiers. The story walks through the war following a young German soldier named Paul and his fellow soldier friends. Throughout the book, the author depicts how the war effects the soldiers mentally and physically. Paul and his friends go through tragedies and also go through some good times. Erich Maria Remarque’s intense novel, All Quite on the Western Front, describes the horror of WW1 and how the war psychologically affected the soldier’s life. Shell shock is a condition the soldiers received during the war but it is now called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In the novel, many things the soldiers had to do could cause severe damage for the rest of their lives. For example, “The first recruit seems actually to have gone insane. He butts his head against the wall like a goat” (Remarque Pg. 111). The quote shown above is a perfect example of how Erich shows how the soldiers go insane and can no longer cope with the real world. In the novel this recruit can’t take it anymore and finally cracks. Back in WW1 they called this case shellshock since it was caused by the constant sound of explosions and gun shots. Also “’No, no, no,’ I raised one hand, I must show him that I want to help him, I stroke his forehead” (Remarque Pg. 219). Paul just killed a French soldier as he came over the bunker. Without thinking Paul stabs him with his bayonet and kills him. Immediately, he regrets it and feels bad. He then tries to help the man and show him that he is sorry for what he did. Even though he has killed multiple people before, actually doing it face to face changes Paul and he becomes depressed. It’s not right that he had to kill the man and it will affect him for the rest of his life. “We had strict orders not to take prisoners, no matter if wounded my job was when I finished cutting some of their wire away, to empty my magazine on 3 German that came out of one of their deep dugouts… they cried for mercy, but I had my orders. They had no feeling for us poor chaps”(A.H. Hubbard). Even though the soldiers surrendered and were unarmed, the people had to kill them because it was their orders. It is not fair to do that to someone and it can take a toll on someone’s mental stability as shown by all the shellshock victims in World War 1. A lot of the time the higher ranking people wouldn’t care for the psychological state of their soldiers and they just wanted the job to be done. The ones giving orders forget to think about how it may affect the ones who are doing it.
Source: Moftasa.net, History of PTSD, 2010-12-20, Web, Table 1 Throughout history, soldiers and people have been affected mentally by wars.
The chart above shows the statistics of shellshock victims over time. The biggest spike was in 1914, when World War 1 began. It also decreased right after the war ended, because such a large percent of the population was in World War 1 and that’s why so many people had shellshock. Some soldiers died because they went crazy and other were cured after returning. “Insane, feeble minded, psychopathic, and neuropathic individuals. These individuals included those with schizophrenia and mental retardation candidates that would clearly limit the ability to provide adequate service. The U.S. armed forces rejected approximately 2 % of inductees on this basis”(Stephanie Oak). After World War 1, the government started to test people before allowing them to join in the war. Since the war causes mentally instabilities, it is important not to send anyone with mental problems on top of shellshock and PTSD. That is the main reason that the U.S. began screening for issues. “Initially, military officials approved of screening programs because they promised that the armed forces would be made up of the most able men. Between 1942 and 1944, Suki Vans screening methods excluded 12% (almost 2 million) of 15 million men examined which was about 6 times the rejection rate of world war 2” (Stephanie Oak. 12% of people who enlisted in the military and were screen were not allowed to join because they were not mentally able …show more content…
to join. That is a very large amount of people that were screened and also rejected. When the soldiers came back from the war they probably had more issues on top of the original ones like shellshock and PTSD. A big factor of screening was World War 1 when people began to go crazy during the war.
Throughout histories there have been wars and there has been death.
World War 1 was the first war to really show how much it can’t affect those who are in it. Shellshock is now called post-traumatic stress disorder and it is still seen in cases today. Throughout the novel, it can be seen that war is tragedy and horror. The theme is loss of innocence. All of this death and misery started because someone assassinated the heir to a thrown.
Work cited
Bourke, Joanna. "Shell Shock during World War One." BBC News. BBC, 3 Oct. 2010. Web. 01 June 2014. Remarque, Erich Maria, and A. W. Wheen. All Quiet on the Western Front. Boston: Little, Brown, 1929. Print.
Oak, Stephanie,” War and Military health. The Us psychiatric response in the…” Emerican journal of public health vol. 97, No. 12. Dec. 2007; 2132-2142, sims Issues researcher web. 27 May. 2014
Bibliography
Bourke, Joanna. "Shell Shock during World War One." BBC News. BBC, 3 Oct. 2010. Web. 01 June 2014. Remarque, Erich Maria, and A. W. Wheen. All Quiet on the Western Front. Boston: Little, Brown, 1929. Print.
Oak, Stephanie,” War and Military health. The Us psychiatric response in the…” Emerican journal of public health vol. 97, No. 12. Dec. 2007; 2132-2142, sims Issues researcher web. 27 May. 2014
"Science Museum. Brought to Life: Exploring the History of Medicine." War 's Long-term Effects. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 June 2014.