Extended Essays 2021

who are prepared to send them out to fight, while they observe from a safe distance. When it becomes apparent that the battle is a massacre, the narrator describes the moment the priest loses his own faith, “Horrocks pulled the silver cross from his chest and hurled it from him. His old reflex still persisting, he fell to his knees, but he did not pray.” (Faulks, 1994, p. 230). There is historical evidence that WWI did have a transformative effect on the faith of many soldiers. As Dean David N. Hempton explains in an interview on the subject, “The war’s horrors persuaded some at all social levels that a loving God could not permit such terror… There is also an argument that suffering and war may increase the need for the consolations of religion and ritual.” (Hempton, 2018). Despite his powerful use of imagery to describe the scenes before and during the battle, Faulks does not explore how the soldiers’ experience of trench warfare leads to their transformation of faith in any depth. The narrator reports on events but rarely explores the emotions of the characters. Faulks provides little insight into how individual characters felt prior to, during or after the events; the scene is simply described as it unfolds and the reader is left to infer the emotional effects. Consequently, Remarque is more effective than Faulks in exploring and conveying the soldiers’ transformation of faith. Throughout All Quiet on the Western Front , Remarque effectively explores how the soldiers undergo a transformation of identity from innocent youths to ‘old men’ because of their experiences of trench warfare. Although Bäumer and most of his friends are only twenty years old, they have left their childhoods behind and have become wise, insightful and willing to take on the responsibilities of mature adults. Bäumer realises early in the war that it is impossible to protect anyone at the Front. He remembers his school friend Franz Kemmerich, whose mother begged him to keep an eye on her son. But, as Bäumer asks rhetorically, “how can you keep an eye on someone on a battlefield?” (Remarque, 1995, p. 11) . Even though Bäumer realises that he is powerless to prevent his young friend’s death, he wants to preserve Kemmerich’s memory, and he feels responsible for confronting the whole world with his suffering. As he explains, “Whenever we went swimming, Franz Kemmerich used to look as small and slim as a child. Now he is lying there – and for what reason? Everybody in the whole world ought to be made to walk past his bed and be told: ‘This is Franz Kemmerich, he’s nineteen and a half, and he doesn’t want to die! Don’t let him die!’” (Remarque, 1995, p. 21) . Bäumer often observes the childlike qualities of the young soldiers who are experiencing battle for the first time. He describes their fear, screaming and jumping at the sound of gunfire and explosives, and how they look to the experienced soldiers for safety. Bäumer assumes a parental role towards younger soldiers, reassuring and comforting them in the battlefield as he describes, “Close by us there is a recruit, a blond lad, and he is terrified. He has pressed his face into his hands. His helmet has rolled off. I reach for it and try to put it on to his head. He looks up, pushes the helmet away and huddles under my arm like a child, his head against my chest.” (Remarque, 1995, p. 42) . Remarque’s choice of language is symbolic of a mother cradling and protecting her young child. Bäumer and his friends are at most only two years older than this boy, yet they have transformed from innocent young sons to