Chapter 6 I find is an extremely important chapter. I'm learning that the men had to go up to the front 2 days earlier then planned, so I predict that something very intense will occur with the war. As they marched along, they passed " a shelled schoolhouse. Stacked up against its longer side is a high double wall of yellow, unpolished, brand-new coffins. They still smell of resin, and pine, and the forest. There are at least a hundred". This caused them to be even more fearful for the future of their lives, though they made jokes to distract from themselves and calm their weary souls. The quote "The front is a cage in which we must await fearfully whatever may happen" made me think that the cage could represent their freedom and individuality. The fact of if they will survive or not will be based on the enemies shots and their quickness to move away from the bullets. They had troubles with rats making attempts to steal their food as they occupy the spaces in their trenches. Rats, with their "shocking, evil, naked faces, and it is nauseating to see their long, nude tails". This quote in my opinion truely made the rats' intrusion on the sanitary conditions of the soldiers emphasized. New recruits "turn green" and vomitt places, for everything is extremely graphic for them to handle. Constantly, bombs are being sent in their direction, causing them to need to be on constant watch, always alert. Some being to go insane with claustraphobia, others starve from the lack of food. "No soldier outlives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck." Bombs land in their trenches, destroying them in a matter of seconds..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcps2fJKuAI&ob=av2n
I found this song and absolutely fell in love with it<3 The video shows real soldiers, scripted soldiers, and even has real scenes from many many years ago with past wars. In the first line, "A warning to the people. The good and the evil. This is war. To the soldier, the civillian.The martyr, the victim. This is war", it really hit me. Theres always two sides to a war. The words in the song made me think of everything that goes on, and why there's war in the first place..
I think that war is very unpredictable, so I would agree with that, but when you talk about survival, honestly I don't think each and every one of them care too much.
ReplyDeleteThe rat situation was also in my blog, so I agree with that.
For me the quotes you put were very helpful for my reading, because i read them and understood a bit better. So THANKS!
I think that's it's good that you realized why they laid the coffins along the school and had them arrive to the front 2 days earlier than scheduled -- I think it means that they know for sure that it's was going to be a really difficult task to go against their enemy. But what I don't understand is why they would still send out soldiers even if they knew alot of their men were going to die .___________.?
ReplyDeleteGreat quotes! You really summed up the chapter well and the quotes you picked tied it together nicely. All the soldiers knew that those coffins practically had their names on it but they didn't want to face the facts, they wanted to stay positive and remain strong and continue to fight on in the war.
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