detachment from existential value

Kolby 2022-03-25 09:01:10

I would say that this film is not just about anti-war, but about detachment from existential values. There are always some value guides in the environment where you were born, and they are the talking points of everyone around you, but they have not experienced these personally, just wait and see, so they repeatedly convey how beautiful it is. You mustered up your blood and stepped into the field, only to find that it was not the case at all, and you desperately wanted to get away from it all, go home, and tell them the truth. However, no one understands your feelings, and you cannot convince anyone. They will only think that you are too cowardly, that you are useless, that you are not seeing far enough, and it is not that there is a problem with those value guides.

At this time, you can only find a little warmth in the place you hate the most, fight forever, and be homeless.

This is how society is. A group of people who talk about value guides drive a group of people with lofty ideals to take risks. They have always been ordinary, ordinary, and comfortable, and they can keep talking about it;

——To all lonely people who have escaped from the guidance of their own values

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Extended Reading

All Quiet on the Western Front quotes

  • Hair-peak soldier: And manufacturers. They get rich.

    [murmurs of agreement]

    Albert Kropp: I think it's more a kind of fever. Nobody wants it in particular, and then all at once, there it is. We didn't want it. The English didn't want it. And here we are fighting.

  • Albert Kropp: Ah, the French certainly deserve to be punished for starting this war.

    Detering: Everybody says it's somebody else.

    Tjaden: Well. how do they start a war?

    Albert Kropp: Well, one country offends another.

    Tjaden: How could one country offend another?

    Tjaden: You mean there's a mountain over in Germany gets mad at a field over in France?

    [Everyone laughs]

    Albert Kropp: Well, stupid, one people offends another.

    Tjaden: Oh, well, if that's it, I shouldn't be here at all. I don't feel offended.

    Katczinsky: It don't apply to tramps like you.

    Tjaden: Good. Then I could be goin' home right away.

    Paul Bäumer: Ah, you just try it.

    Katczinsky: Yeah. You wanna get shot?

    Tjaden: The kaiser and me...

    [the others laugh]

    Tjaden: Me and the kaiser felt just alike about this war. We didn't either of us want any war, so I'm going home. He's there already.

    Hair-peak soldier: Somebody must have wanted it. Maybe it was the English. No, I don't want to shoot any Englishman. I never saw one 'til I came up here. And I suppose most of them never saw a German 'til *they* came up here. No, I'm sure *they* weren't asked about it.

    Paul Bäumer: No.

    Detering: Well, it must be doing somebody some good.

    Detering: Not me and the kaiser.

    Hair-peak soldier: I think maybe the kaiser wanted a war.

    Tjaden: You leave us out of this!

    Katczinsky: I don't see that. The kaiser's *got* everything he needs.

    Hair-peak soldier: Well, he never had a war before. Every full-grown emperor needs one war to make him famous. Why, that's history.

    Paul Bäumer: Yeah, generals, too. They need war.