3-3-14

“Well I knew I would not be killed. Not in this War. It did not have anything to do with me. It seemed no more dangerous to me myself than war in the movies.”

This quote really stands out to me. The book centers around WWI and the generation that lived through it; a generation that later became known as “the lost generation”. The world had never seen a war like WWI. WWI was unique for a number of reasons. One reason was the new technology that had been developed; technology that dramatically increased the magnitude of killing. Also WWI was interesting because it was not fought for a particular reason. One of the main reasons for WWI was the secret military alliances that countries had made with one another. The secret alliances made it so that when one country declared war several other countries would begin t declare war. And despite the fact that WWI featured the highest death tolls of any war until that point, very little ground was gained. The war was fought in trenches and very little ground was ever actually gained. I also love this quote because of how it reveals the attitude of many of the soldiers. The soldiers were not fighting the war because they wanted to; it was more of a requirement. It goes along with the phrase “young men fight old men’s wars”. It is very upsetting to see how many people died for a war that they were not altogether concerned with, and it is easier to undrstand why the lost generation was so bitter.