How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from All Quiet on the Western Front.
Quote #4
TJADEN: Don't be so snooty. You may wish you had this back. About two more days of this and this rat-bitten end of a piece of bread's gonna taste just like a hunk of fruitcake.
PAUL: It wouldn't—It wouldn't last two more days, would it?
KAT: Didn't I tell you this was gonna be a bad one?
PAUL: I don't mind the days so much. It's keeping up all night that's—
KAT: Two more days makes a week, kid. Then you can say you've been under fire.
As the horrors of war begin to reveal themselves, you can see the young recruits become disillusioned. Far from having adventures in foreign lands, the young men are huddling in a dugout, eating rat-gnawed bread, and helplessly wondering if that blast they hear in the distance will be the shell to finally kill them. After five days of this, we imagine they might have a few arguments for Kantorek—if only they could learn the Latin for "Take this job and shove it!"
Quote #5
[A soldier screams.]
KEMMERICK: Stop!
[Bomb explodes. Bunker fills with dirt.]
KEMMERICK: Let me out!
[Kat punches him.]
PAUL: What did you do that for?
KAT: Shut up! Grab him.
KEMMERICK: No.
KAT: Now hold him.
Kemmerick begins to suffer from "combat neurosis," what they called "shell shock" during WWI. Today we know it is a personality disturbance that represents a response to the stress of war. But back then, they weren't sure what caused it.
Quote #6
[The Allied forces attack the German lines but are mowed down by machine-gun fire. When they reach the German's lines, they swarm into the trench en masse and a fierce hand-to-hand combat ensues. Soldiers kill each other with bayonets, knives, and spades.]
What can we even add? This battle scene puts the monstrosities of war on full. One thing we will point out is that individual characters are seldom singled out during the fight. They become part of an instinctive mass, each fighting and killing and running to stay alive in the chaos.