“A word of Command has made these silent figures our enemies; a word of command might transform them into our friends. At some table some document is signed by some persons whom none of us knows, and then for years together that very crime on which formerly the world’s condemnation and severest penalty fall, becomes our highest aim. But who can draw such a distinction when he looks at those quiet men with their childlike faces and apostle’ like beards. A non-commissioned officer is more an enemy to a recruit, any schoolmaster to a pupil, than they are to us. And yet we would shoot at them again and they at us if they were free” (Remarque, 193-4)
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Bellaeu Wood
Though this song is written from an opposing side’s view, I feel it still captures the feelings of all the men fighting in WW1, including Paul Baumer. When I heard this song, I could imagine Paul Baumer being the German solder that stands and waves, as corny as that is, because he and his comrades all realize by the middle of the story that though they are all fighting on different sides, all the men out there: the French, German, American, Russian and all the others, are all fighting in a war that they should not be, a war between countries, not between men.
“A country, I don’t follow. A mountain in Germany cannot offend a mountain in
France. Or a river or a wood, or a field of wheat….State, State. Gendarmes,
police, taxes, that’s your state, no, no thank you” (Remarque, 204)
This image of blinded solders leading eachother past their fallem comrades embodies a alternative view of the the phrase "The Blind leading the Blind" by portraying the men as bonded through their suffering. Also in the piece, it is difficult to distinguish between the men of different nations, as is also presented by Paul Baumers view of all the men fighting the war are the same one you look past their nationaloty.
Art Piece
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“True, but just you consider, almost all of us are simple folk. And in France, too, the majority of men are laborers, workmen, or poor clerks. Now just why would a French blacksmith or a French Shoemaker want to attack us? No, it is merely the rulers. I have never seen a Frenchman before I came here, and it would be the same with the majority of Frenchmen in regards to us. They weren’t asked about it any more than we were” (Remarque, 205).