I feel that the texts that we have read so far have been rather eye-opening for me. I realized that I didn’t really see how transparent the details of war were in these pieces in these texts compared to other pieces of literature, such as how warfare as a whole was portrayed. War in movies was always portrayed as being cool, but in reality it’s horrific, traumatizing, and damages entire generations. It was really an eye-opener to hear about the devastating realities. I found All Quiet a good book as it helped to emphasize to the readers what everyone was involved in. Between the sixteen year olds who had their entire lives ahead of them, to the experienced elders who had been to war before, it was quite informative to hear about about the stories of the soldiers and the harsh realities that each of them had to endure. The language that was used was very powerful in conveying what war was actually like, contrary to the movies and television shows.
Certain aspects that were mentioned in All Quiet that soldiers were conditioned to seemed insane to me, such as the soldiers being glad about their fellow comrades being killed because they got extra rations for their next meal. Something like this seems impossible to be happy about to us, but those enduring war were forced to put some sort of silver lining on the devastating situation they were in so that they could keep pushing forward. For the prose readings, I found those interesting in a different aspect, particularly the remarks made near the end of pt. II by a soldier. They talk about how they really didn’t realize how much they had until they went to war, such as not worrying about where tomorrow’s meal is coming from, constant shellfire, and being physically attacked. In conclusion, I feel that each of these texts are solid, and emphasize the harsh realities of how war actually is.