All quiet on the Western Front1 essays

All quiet on the Western Front1 essays Whenever one reads or hears about World War I or World War II, you hear of the struggles and triumphs of the British, Americans or any of the other Allies. And they always speak of the evil and menacing German army. However, All Quiet on the Western Front gives the reader some insight and a look at a group of young German friends who are fighting in World War I. This story is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war..... The soldiers of this war felt they were neither heroes nor did they know what they were fighting for. These soldiers were pulled from the innocence of their childhood, and thrown into a world of rage. Yet somehow they still managed to have heart and faith in man kind and could not look the opponent in the eye and kill him. For he was man too, he too had a wife and children at home, he too was pulled out of his home to fight for a cause he didn't understand. The comrades were taught to fight. They were taught to kill the British and their allies. The comrades had no personal reason to fight with the other, except that it was an order and must be done. They were not fighting because they held a strong passion for their country, or felt deeply for the cause of the war. Albert simply states, ...almost all of us are simple folk. And in France, too, the majority of men are laborers, workmen, or poor clerks. Now just why would a French blacksmith or a French shoemaker want to attack us? No, its merely the rulers. I had never seen a Frenchman before I came here, and it will be just the same with the majority of Frenchmen as regards us. They weren't asked about it any more then we were. These soldiers lacked passion for the war. They ...

The Significance of the Middle Class Essay Example

The Significance of the Middle Class Essay Example The Significance of the Middle Class Essay The Significance of the Middle Class Essay The fact that a loosely defined middle class has grown quite rapidly in the last fifteen to twenty years is reason enough to focus more attention on it. But more importantly it is the implication of this trend which makes it a significant topic for research. In the absence of such research it is, of course, difficult to say what those implications might be. But one area in which the new middle class has made a significant impact is in the market for consumer goods. Not surprisingly the advertising industry has discovered the middle class before the academics. In this regard a report of the findings of market researchers commissioned by The New Straits Times is illuminating. The firm in question. Survey Research Malaysia, employed an apparently novel approach to research based on identifying what they call psycho-graphic segmentation in the consumer market, to divide the population according to what might be called different consumer cultures or subcultures. 1 Surprisingly, the major subdivisions identified by this research were not ethnically-determined, but bear a greater resemblance to classes. And among these/ a very significant class is composed of the NQTs or Not Quite Theres. To quote selectively from the article: NQTs appear to be halfway up the ladder of success but, as the name suggests, they are not quite there. This group is particularly introverted, spending-oriented, neurotic, unadventurous, traditional and lacking in confidence. They are also ambitious, family-oriented, religious and nationalistic. And, after discussing the consumer preferences of the NQTs, the article goes on to say: The NQTs have a lower average income than the Upper Echelons. While the proportion of White Collar Workers is high, they tend to be in the middle and lower levels of the group. The impact of the emergence of the NQTs on Malaysias consumer culture is there for all to see in the proliferation of shopping malls, western-owned or western-style fast food outlets and, increasingly, middle range restaurants; and in the expanding demand for a wide range of consumer goods ranging from clothing, electrical and electronic goods, and cars, to tourist locales, and theme parks all of which cater to the demand for fashions of distinction which will serve to distinguish the middle classes from the other urban (and rural) classes.