Human Animals

"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."

All Quiet on the Western Front is considered the greatest war novel of all time. It is situated during WWI, and it talks about a twenty year old guy named Paul Bäumer, who finds himself stuck in a war that he got into as a result of nationalism and false faith. He is there along a group of friends from his class who were convinced to go by their teacher, Kantorek. Kantorek would tell them romantic stories involving the war and convinced them that war was beautiful when in reality they have just found out that there are two generations, those who go to war and those who convince them.

During a bombardment Paul Bäumer describes how earth is mother to everyone, but more than anyone else to the soldiers. “To no man does the earth mean so much as to the soldier. When he presses himself down upon her long and powerfully, when he buries his face and his limbs deep in her from the fear of death from shell-fire, then she is his only friend, his brother, his mother; he stifles his terror and his cries in her silence and her security; she shelters him and releases him for ten seconds to live, to run, ten seconds of life; receives him again and often forever.” He also refers to themselves as “human animals” when they find themselves in this situation. I believe this is because they are reduced to nothing but their most primal instincts in order to survive.