Tuesday, November 10, 2009

All Quiet #1

Explain the transformation the narrator undergoes over the course of the chapter.
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8 comments:

  1. DecembrielNovember 11, 2009 at 9:42 AM

    "comrade I did not want to kill you. If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too. But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response." (523)


    At first the narrator is afraid of what the french army might do to him when they find out he killed one of their soldiers. His first actions were made not out of compassion but for personal gain. Then he begins to think about all the what ifs? and slowly his fear of the dying soldier turns into guilt. Its one thing to just kill and move on and another to watch a man dying.

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  2. AnonymousNovember 11, 2009 at 9:39 PM

    The narrator transforms form a self preserving soldier who is fighting the idea of his enemy into a man who realizes that he is killing men, that are no different than him.

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  3. Tsegu KahsayNovember 12, 2009 at 2:23 PM

    The transformation of the narrator is that he first is a soldier like any soldier full of hatred, ready to kill, which things change after he killed a soldier he considered an enemy.

    After the French stroke an attack to the shell-hall of the Germans, the narrator finds himself beneath a French soldier, then he suddenly noticed his bloody hand. He realized that he has stabbed the soldier, therefore he was gurgling throughout the night where he died the next day. During his moaning and gurgling due to his pain because of the wound, so many ideas goes to the narrator's mind, he recognized that the soldier he just stabbed is like him who had left his family behind, who had an anxious mother waiting his return, who had friends and relatives, who had a wife with children who desperately need him by her side and others who cared about him. Then, out of regret, he wants to save him, to make him live another twenty or thirty years but unfortunately he could not find the best moment to give him his support and hopes start to doom. Still ideas run through the narrator's mind and thinks to try to localize his wife and help her anonymously, then the soldier dies. The narrator starts to write a letter to his wife.

    The transformation the narrator undergoes is from a soldier who is ready to compute his duty to a person who really regrets what he did and wants to help the soldiers family.

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  4. Qi LiNovember 12, 2009 at 11:59 PM

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  5. Qi LiNovember 13, 2009 at 12:00 AM

    It is the first time of the narrator to kill a man in the war. Therefore, the experience of killing a human being is very strong for him.
    As a recruit, the narrator dosen't really know and understand what meas to the war. However, he kills a man. He thinks a lot when he watches the man dieing. From tring to kill the enemy, the narrator wants to help him. The narrator notices that their enemies are the same with them. The man he just killed has not done anything wrong. He also has a family who is waiting for him to come back.
    I can feel that the narrator become a man who hates the war. If he have another chance, he would never be a solier.

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  6. GwenNovember 13, 2009 at 12:57 PM

    The narrator starts off the story with thinking that the war was revolved around the idea of "kill or be killed" until he stabs a French soldier to death. This was the first time he saw the actual aftermath of a man being killed. He saw every detail of this dead man. This made him realize that he wasn't the only person in this war. He realized that the French soldier probably had a family back home, which led the narrator to find the photos of his possible wife and children. He stays with the dying soldier until his final breath, and the narrator wants to live for this soldier. The narrator learns that other soldiers in the war all have a life they want to live. He will no longer feel like the other country is the one that deserves to lose the war.

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  7. AnonymousNovember 13, 2009 at 5:48 PM

    First, being a new solider, the narrator feels hatred for the enemy and ready to fight for the war, but actually he donesn't know what it really means to war. He just does follow the command. However, by degrees he changes his attitude to his enemies because of the death of the man he killed. That is the first time he kills a person, end up a person's life. During the peroid, he starts to consider their enemies are the same as them. He thinks a lot about the man he killed. He realized that the man he killed is like him left his family behind, having friends and relatives, and even may not want to join the army to fight in the war. He has guilty and regret, and wants to try his best to give the man he killed supports and helps, therefore, the narrator begins to write a letter to his wife.

    The transformation of the narrator is from the beginning he hates the enemies to the end he starts understanding the situation of enemies, or may be even the distress of the war.

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  8. Joey phanNovember 13, 2009 at 11:27 PM

    at the beginning, the narrator felt afraid of what the French army would do if they find him. he hated and against the French because he thought they are evil people who just want to kill him. in his mind, he either killed them or be killed by them. however, as he watched the French soldier dying before he eyes, he began to feel regret about what he did. he realized that both of them are human being who have family that loved and cared about them. the narrator started to relate and understand more about himself and the true reality of the war.

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