Survival

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering 

- Friedrich Nietzsche

        Survival is key in war. In the book, All Quiet On The Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque and Arthur Wesley Wheen, in chapter four they are trying to survive the bombs and the loud cries of the horses. The comrades have to work together to help each and survive the gas, bomb shards and loud cries of the horses. They help each other out giving medical aid and giving each other gas masks. During the war scenes, they have to help each other. A bomb shard hits somebody in the head but since the shard came from such a long way away, the shard didn’t go through the helmet. Then the Italian bombs started to come. They come in and when they get close to then ground the deploy a parachute and then they explode on impact. There was also gas bombs. Everyone had to put on there gas masks. They went into the bomb shelter to wait it out and when they heard it stop, they went out. One person took of his mask and he seemed to be okay. Then everyone started to take it off also. “The moment that the first shells whistle over and the air is rent with the explosions there is suddenly in our veins, in our hands, in our eyes a tense waiting, a watching, a heightening alertness, a strange sharpening of the senses. The body with one bound is in full readiness.” All Quiet on The Western Front Chapter 4. Everyone that was in the field had to work so hard to survive. They were not attacking, just focusing on helping themselves and others. They had to pull shards out of there skin and even do it to others. Some would lend each other their belt to not let them bleed out anymore. They all have to survive together as comrades and fight threw the pain of losing friends and losing limbs.