What I would like to figure out

Sometimes, when you lose a battle, you figure out how to win a war

Donald Trump

In All quiet on the western front I would like to figure out what the fighting is like. From what I’ve heard, being in the trenches entails a whole lot of nothing, but in a book centered around war, I feel a understandable urge to get down to the dirt and grime of the fighting. What’s it like to be on the receiving end of a charge from the enemy? What’s it like to charge the enemy? Has anyone survived to tell? Through the fighting and current rest on the front, another thing I wonder about is the boys families. Earlier in the reading they did state that most families would call their own children cowards if they didn’t enlist but I can’t help but believe that at least some of their families must have been hesitant to have their sons enlist. WWI May have been the war to end all wars, introducing many weapons and strategies that hadn’t been heard of yet, but death and sorrow still existed. Was there protest between any of the boys and their parents? How did they tell them that they had all decided to enlist, and how would they react if they heard of their sons death, with anger or a melancholy acceptance? Will they think of “the old lie” Dulce et decorum pro patrium morí with the same zeal as their old teacher. To die for ones country is to die an honorable death. I hope I don’t find out.