Homework 4

1. Please finish reading the novel All Quiet on the Western Front. 
          The read was very interesting, informing and disturbing.  While the read on a whole was quite visually descriptive gruesome violence.

2. Learn about the years before the First World War using online resources.

3. Google the terms Neue Sachlichkeit and German Realism:


Sachlichkeit:  'New Objectivity'
      A term used to describe the attitude and culture of public life in Weimar Germany.  The movement essentially ends in 1933 with the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazis.


German Realism: 'The theory or Realism' 
     I found things about the 19th century literature movements of naturalism and realism.  The revolutionary literary movement known as Young Germany, which strove to arouse German political opinion turned from romanticism to realism.  

Read more: German literature: The Nineteenth Century: Realism and Naturalism — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0858395.html#ixzz1YcTlooA0

      Wikipedia defines realism as:
Realism, Realist or Realistic are terms that describe any manifestation of philosophical realism, the belief that reality exists independently of observers, whether in philosophy itself or in the applied arts and sciences. In this broad sense it is frequently contrasted with Idealism.

4. Read four sample thematic statements and then write a post in which you tell the class your own interpretation of the purpose and meaning of the book. (200-300 words)


The novel is filled with vivid imagery bringing every chapter to life, whether it is the glare of flares or the darkness within trenches, vicious rats or itchy lice, along with the bombardment of shells and the shrieks from the wounded.      However the imagery also includes images of beauty and peace, friendship and the heart of humanity.  All together "All Quiet On The Western Front" shows the true nature of war and great insight to the psyche of a soldier in one of histories most brutal wars.  In the end the novel bears forth the cost of the potential of youth and brings to question the concepts of nationality, honor and the right to live.