All Quiet on the Western Front Ch. 3-4 Litblog

Mary Ann MacDonald
Period 5
1-30-13

Chapters 3 and 4

 

Summary: A group of new recruits arrive to reinforce the company and many of the reruits are only 17. Kat gives food to a recruit in exchange for tobacco. Tjaden reports that Himmelstoss is joining them on the frontlines. The boys took revenge on Himmelstoss and when he arrived at the camp they ambushed him and covered him with a sheet so he couldn't recognize the boys and they beat him senseless. In chapter 4, the Second Company must lay a barbed wire at the front, a very dangerous job.They are bombarded that night while waiting for the trucks and Paul helps a quivering recruit with his helmet as they scramble for cover. When the trucks arrive, bombs fly through the air around them and they take cover in a graveyard. The shelling stops and the recruit from earlier that day who Paul helped is now badly injured and will die.

Quotation: "That evening's work made us more or less content to leave the next morning. And an old buffer was pleased to describe us as 'young heroes'" (50).

Quotation Significance: The boys are angry at Himmelstoss for all the horrors he has put him through but they do recognize that what he has done to toughen them up has worked. The boys wanted revenge on Himmelstoss and they are a little ashamed and they being trained for the war has made them into monsters and the whole point was to become "young heroes" but now they see themselves as anything but heroes.

Reflection: After the boy's beat up Himmelstoss they are sent the next day with the recruits to put up the barbed wire in the ditches, which is very dangerous. They are shelled and bombarded and at the end of the day a recruit is dead. Kat considers putting the boy out of his misery before everything gets much worse for him and he would eventually die. Paul agrees but other soldiers arrive and it is too late for the boys to anything for the recruit. Paul feels badly for the boy and doesn't thing that it is fair that he will have to suffer for a few more days before he dies. In chapter 3, the boys are talking and they say that under all the manners and customs that men are beasts. Kat says that once men get a little power they can change and they let this power rule them. This is how Himmelstoss was and the boys are now starting to recognize it. I think next the boys will go back on the front and Paul will learn more lessons about life and death when one of his close friends dies.

Discussion Question: How do you feel about the idea of men being beasts underneath their manners and customs? Does war bring out this beast in them? Is this relatable to the "essential illness" of man in Lord of the Flies?