"Human Animals"

Thursday, February 8, 2007

All Quiet On the Western Front 1-4
"At the sound of the first droning of the shells we rush back, in one part of our being, a thousand years. By the animal instinct that is awakened in us we are led and protected. It is not conscious; it is far quicker, much more sure, less fallible, than consciousness. . . . It is this other, this second sight in us, that has thrown us to the ground and saved us, without our knowing how. . . . We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers—we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals."
Why would Paul characterize himself and his comrades as "human animals"?
Your task: Discuss the meaning of this quotation and the experiences the boys are enduring internally. In addition to your posting, comment on one other student's post.


This is a very strong quote that has obvious meaning to me. When Paul says, "At the sound of the first droning of the shells we rush back, in one part of our being, a thousand years. By the animal instinct that is awakened in us we are led and protected. “At the sound of the first droning of the shells we rush back, in one part of our being, a thousand years. By the animal instinct that is awakened in us we are led and protected. This segment from Paul’s quote is already giving the meaning away. It’s stating that when Paul and his comrades entered into the war and saw all of the blood being shed, they thought kill or be killed. Basically they lost the mentality of humans gained the mentality of animals. And that’s were the saying of “human animals” comes into play, by them being humans with the mindset of animals. When looking at this situation you would think how could they kill other human beings with no hesitation or no remorse? As soon as they entered the war they were trained like animals and they killed like animals. There once innocents is now lost in the replace of the brutal, violent, and disturbing animals that they have now become. They been dehumanized so bad that now there acting the same way towards there friends. Their dear friend Franz Kemmerich is a victim of their horrific behavior. While he is laying on his deathbed Paul and his friends can only think about taking his yellow leather boots, so they stick around and wait for him to die and they take his boots. They were once friends but now Franz was just a young man with a nice pair of boots that the “human animals” used him for.