Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Can anyone help me construct a creative intervention in All Quite on the Western Front by Remarque focussing on the brutality of war?The main...

The important thing to remember in imitating Remarque is
that style and point of view are related as both reflect the incomprehensibility and
incredulity of war.  For instance, since first person point of view is employed, the
sentence structure and prose mirrors the internalization of Paul Baumer.  That is, when
he is in battle and anxious situations, the sentence structure is disjointed and Paul's
thoughts are often impressionistic.


So, in order to stay in
character with the "creative intervention," you may wish to find another battle
situation from a different chapter from Six along with looking at this chapter itself,
and examine the style of writing that is used in both chapters.  This examination, then,
can serve as a model for you.  Remarque himself described his book as "neither an
accusation nor a confession," so there is some distance of the narrator from his
narration. Chapter Ten, for example, illustrates the narrator's detached narrative as he
is on the battlefield which suggests that he is becoming more inured to
battle,



I am
afraid, but it is an intelligent fear, an extraordinarily heightened caution.  The night
is windy and shadows flit hither and thither in the flicker of gunfire.  It reveals too
little and too much. Often I pause, stock still, motionless, and always for nothing. 
Thus I advance a long way and then turn back in a wide curve  I have not established
touch with the others.  Every yard nearer our trench fills me with confidence--and with
haste, too.  It would be bad to get hit
now.



Now, since Chapter Six
is prior to Ten, Paul obviously is more fearful and less hardened to war.  Now consider
what comes prior to the passage at which you are to
intervene, 



We
are in low spirits....The shots are often so uncertain that they land within our own
lines.  To-night two of our men were wounded by
them.



So, perhaps you can
start with something like this for your intervention, imitating Remarque's broken and
staccato sentences that often are
impressionistic,


Random shots continue to hiss
past us. I am reminded of when I was a child and other boys threw stones blindly and
they landed promiscuously [in an indiscriminate manner] around with some striking us in
the face. --------[continue] Here in this dug-out we are caged
mice.


Be sure to review what has come before the
place where you are to intervene, and also review the words that will follow your
intervention.  In this way, what you write should be in harmony with the
text.

No comments:

Post a Comment

What accomplishments did Bill Clinton have as president?

Of course, Bill Clinton's presidency will be most clearly remembered for the fact that he was only the second president ever...