Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Chapter 1

     Ok, so I'm just gonna say first that I do not enjoy this book. When I first started off reading the book I admit that I was a bit confused. It was almost as if I had opened up to a random page in the book and started to read it from there, like I was missing some important details I needed to understand the book. Sort of when you start watching a movie halfway through, and you just have to figure it out as it goes on.
     What I did like though was the charactorization the author presents. With all of the charactors it is hard to keep track of them and the descriptions Remarque uses helps me. For example, it says on page 3 "... Katczinsky, the leader of our group..." and " forty years of age, with a face of soil, blue eyes, bent  shoulders...". Those quotes help me form a picture of Katczinsky in my mind so I can identify him when his name is brought up. The same thing goes for the other charactors such as Muller, Tjaden, Himmelstoss,and the narrrator, Paul Baumer. But other charactors lack in explantion such as Leer, Haie and Kemmerich. When their names are mentioned I find myself having to look back in the book to see who they are.
     With the whole Muller-and-boots situation everyone seems to have a different opinion. I agree with the quote ," even if he were to get better, he would be able to use only one- they are no use to him". Muller isn't wrong to call dibs on the boots because as they all know, Kemmerich does not need the boots, but it was not fair to Kemmerich for Muller to talk about him taking the boots in front of Kemmerich. All that did was put Kemmerich down. If  Muller were not so direct and he talked about the boots in private, away from Kemmerich that would've been better. I do see though that Muller was just desperate for those boots and no harm was meant.
     Does anyone else wonder why words like today and tomorrow have a dash in them?

Image Detail
 This picture is an example of the sort of boots worn by the soldiers of world war 1.

4 comments:

  1. Nice job Charisa! I totally agree with you about how random the book is, it takes alot of time and thought to understand the book. I've also noticed the words with daashes in between, I figured it was their way of spelling/prouncing those words. Nice picture of the boots, that part seemed very important throughoutht the book!

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  2. I also got confused at first. Just like you said it was like opening a book to a random page and not knowing whats going on but that was only for the first chapter then it got better. I agree with you about the boots Muller did not mean to be rude he was just thinking about what was going to happen after Franz died and he was the only one that said it out loud but the others were thinking it.

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  3. yea i agree with the opening up to a random page.i wondered how he felt about enlisting and why he was where he was and how his training was but. they just were like heyy here we are at war.i find your backround a little to cheery for the topic but its pretty

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  4. I actually undertood the parts but i do see what you're saying because as you read it will be like they went all over the place.I agree on the boots situation too, Muller would have better use for them.

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