Distorting Memory in "Remember Belgium"

 

     While reading Pearl James’ “Introduction,” I was surprised at the level of agency WWI posters are given in mobilizing the home front. James suggests that “Through the viewing of posters, factory work, agricultural work, and domestic work, the consumption and conservation of goods, and various kinds of leisure all became emblematic of one’s national identity and one’s place within a collective effort to win the war” (James 2). James wishes to place posters within the larger cultural shift towards nationalism, or more appropriately as a driving factor. One of the more interesting pieces of evidence that I have found for the scholar’s argument is the poster “Remember Belgium,” in which Roland Marchand’s notion of “Zerrspeigel, a distorting mirror,” is used to produce and therefore affect memory in questionable ways (31).

     The poster’s imagery bears most of the responsibility for this distorting effect, although it is the text that brings memory into play. Black silhouettes of a German soldier characterized by a spiked helmet dragging a significantly shorter, so perhaps younger, female prisoner in the foreground of a burning countryside. The sky above the flames is an interesting green and blue haze flecked with sparks from the flames. The same midnight black of the silhouettes is used for the text across the top of the poster, in a somewhat pre-modern type font, “Remember Belgium.” Finally, aligned slightly left and just below the title font, are the words “Buy Bonds Fourth Liberty Loan” in a striking white that nearly jumps out at the viewer when contrasted to the dark, drab color scheme of the poster as a whole. What is interesting about the poster is its paradoxical command that the viewer must remember, which of course is not the intent at all. The intent is to produce a memory, the memory of German soldiers burning and pillaging, suggestively capturing young women to imprison, torture, rape, kill, and whatever else the viewer can imagine. The command to remember itself gives credence to these suggestions, placing them in the definite past, and calling on the audience to access them as such. I would also argue that the image of a man dragging a woman can be so suggestive because of a sort of Freudian condensation, in which a single symbol may come to represent a combination of repressed themes. The selection of an image that so successfully demonizes the Germans in the hopes of inspiring the poster’s audience to feel obligated to buy war bonds is questionable, but in keeping with Marchand’s notion of the distorting mirror. What makes his metaphor so appropriate is the fact that a mirror is used to view the self, and what becomes distorted in viewing this obscene representation is, quite literally, our own subjectivities. 

 

Mother knows best

Mom says buy a war bond!

The Flickr account featured quite a variety of posters, and I feel like we all could have chosen any one of them to analyze and plug into the Pearl James introduction. I think James’ point about how poster interpretation poses a challenge is very important. She argues “they cannot be studied in the surroundings in which they appeared, nor can their viewers be called to bear witness to them in any systematic way” (16). More than likely, the posters did not accurately represent conditions or activity surrounding where they were displayed, but I keep looking at this motherly figure in the above image wondering where this type of ad would have been placed to appeal to other maternal wives and mothers. According to James, posters were placed in unchartered territory. Distribution reached a wide audience near “shop windows, banks, schools, churches, libraries, town halls, factories, and recruiting stations, offices and homes; in cities, small towns and rural settings” (10). The white hair and plump body confirmation of this woman suggests she is middle aged with kind facial features, a pleasant smile and loving arms that are open for encouragement. I see this type of ad going up in a church, library, town hall or home as James suggests where mothers frequently travel. This woman does not fit the stereotype of a young, thin woman slaving away in a factory or manufacturing facility for the war. This poster is meant to pull at your heart strings by reminding women in particular that we all have a kind and innocent mother who will take care of “America’s sons” if other women do their part by purchasing a government bond to support the war.

The James introduction addresses Maurice Rickard’s “discernable phrases” or patterns that were documented in national poster campaigns: 1) men and money; 2) help for the fighting man; 3) help for the wounded, orphans and refugees; and 4) calls for women workers, economy in consumption and “austerity” all the way around. This older woman, with her pulled up hair and white blouse, is an example of how the poster is attempting to reach fellow women with a simple, austere appeal. Her image is meant to persuade viewers to trust her. If “posters are designed to appeal quickly to a passing viewer and depend upon a certain instantaneous recognition” (20) then this particular ad is immediately asking us to identify with a mom or grandmother who can care for and heal the male soldiers.

This poster is also indicative of James’ theory that, as an American poster, it is future oriented – portraying the scenario that when the war ends and soldiers return home, they will come home to their mothers’ arms (if they don’t already have a wife, and a lot of them didn’t because they were so young they were not yet married). By using a woman as the primary element of the image, “the American poster portrays comingling across class and gender lines but reinforces a racially hegemonic vision of American citizenship as a white prerogative” (26). This older woman/mother figure supports James’ perspective that “the war brought new meaning even to supposedly timeless female roles” (30). The use of a mother image to suggest motherhood “was reckoned by some as a vital source of national renewal in the face of the war’s human costs” (30). I interpret this as “come to mother, she will give you life again after the war” or “be a mother like this woman and take care of soldiers through the purchase of war bonds. A war scene of soldiers, explosions and sinking ships ravages on in a story sea behind the mother. It is a subtle image meant by the artist to be dominated by the bold stars and stripes of American patriotism along with the mother’s outstretched, inviting arms.

Although Vera, Roland, Edward, Victor and George were all from Britain and not America in Testament of Youth, I think I can see a tie between this poster and their characters, especially the young men who were not married. In the heat of battle after sustaining injuries and realizing death was approaching, there are stories of grown men, strong soldiers calling out for mother, seeking comfort and peace as they take their last breaths. Here she is – this is mother in the poster, ready to give warmth and life. Sadly, Edward and Vera’s mother was emotionally weak and did not project this motherly image the way maybe Roland’s mother, a confident author, would have greeted Roland if he had returned from war.

Erich Maria Remarque and the Loss of Innocence

I've been pondering a theme discussed last week, that is, the loss of innocence of a generation, and couldn’t help but find the presence of a similar sentiment on nigh every page of All Quiet on the Western Front.  Within the first few pages of the novel the protagonist, Paul, discusses the way that his entire class was persuaded to enlist by their high-school teacher, Kantorek, and he concludes with an accusation:  “And that is why they let us down so badly.  For us lads of eighteen they ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress—to the future.  We often made fun of them and played jokes on them, but in our hearts we trusted them” (12).

This theme persists throughout the novel, and I found it quite striking that Remarque does not seem at all interested in maintaining any of the “glory” or “glamour” for the soldier’s experience that Vera Brittain at times holds.  I found it rather heartbreaking that, after Paul and two of his friends have undertaken a night of sexual activity with three French women whom they do not know and are unable to converse much with, instead of reveling in the experience as his fellows do, Paul simply confesses: “I cannot trust myself to speak, I am not in the least happy” (151).  He later agonizes, questions whether having seen and done such things has not ruined him completely for any of the normal, sweeter experiences of life.  This event is reflected upon once more when, during his leave, Paul’s mother warns him against consorting with French women.  In response to the discrepancy between this careful warning and the reality of Paul’s experience, he laments his lost innocence, internally crying: “Ah!  Mother, Mother!  You still think I am a child—why can I not put my head in your lap and weep? […] I would like to weep and be comforted too, indeed I am little more than a child…why is it over?” (183).

Paul’s inability to recover to his innocence even upon returning home on leave is particularly distressing, for as he is sitting in his old room, looking over the books he once painstakingly collected, he reflects to himself: “I want to think myself back into that time” (170).  As Paul waits, hoping that the great love he once felt for his books might inspire in him some absent former-feeling, he implores that they “fill me again, melt the heavy, dead lump of lead that lies somewhere in me and waken again the impatience of the future, the quick joy in the world of thought, it shall bring back the lost eagerness of my youth” (171).  However, although Paul tries desperately to regain this sense of connection and “home-coming” to his room and his surroundings, he is unable to do so.  “I wait, I wait”, Paul writes, while “Images float through my mind, but they do not grip me, they are mere shadows and memories” (172).  And in the end “A terrible feeling of foreignness suddenly rises up in me.  I cannot find my way back, I am shut out though I entreat earnestly and put forth all my strength” (172).

Finally, although All Quiet on the Western Front is a work of fiction, the precise detail of the text reminded me greatly of Brittain’s, to the point that I felt sure Remarque must also have had first-hand experience of that which he writes.  I did a bit of searching and was not surprised discover that Remarque participated in WWI himself beginning at the age of 18, and was wounded a total of five times throughout.  I of course thought of the main character of All Quiet upon reading this, because Paul is injured, allowed leave to recover, and then immediately ordered to return once more to the front lines.  Indeed, Remarque’s middle name was “Paul” before he changed it to “Maria” in remembrance of his mother, and so it seems that All Quiet on the Western Front is likely in some ways a testament of his own youth.  I find the implications for this information quite fascinating, especially considering Paul’s death on what was likely one of the final days of the war. Our Paul, old beyond his days and yet still young in age, has experienced such horror that, we are told, to look at his peaceful body one might think he was “almost glad the end had come” (296).  Of course, this ending simultaneously gives rest to Paul while making clear that there is no redemption story in war—all is tragedy and senselessness.  In fact, while considering the theme of loss of innocence throughout the work, I couldn’t help but wonder about the potential significance of this ending for the writer, Erich Maria (Paul) Remarque, whose own youth, perhaps, was also left dead on the battlefield at the close of the war.

Women (Romance) in "All Quiet on the Western Front"

While drawing up my presentation/activity/group discussion thing for class today, I kept coming back to what Aubrey posted about - there's a very real distinction between the Homefront and the Western Front. Only, I drew the seperation more distinctly. There's a homefront, the reserves, and the trenches themselves. And I figured out that while the book dealt with gender, nature, and authority in different ways depending on where Paul found himself, I kept coming back to gender. Specifically, the ways in which women are thought of and portrayed.

 

The men (boys?) first discuss women in the beginning chapters while they are still in the reserves and have not taken us to the trenches just yet. They immerse themselves in Nature and really try to enjoy what quiet happiness they can get. There is a scene in which they talk about women, and only two of them (Tjaden and another man, if I remember correctly) get crude. When they do, the others feel uncomfortable. Like Tjaden crosses a line that they won't follow him across. Which is absolutely bonkers, because they have already been to the trenches together. 

 

Then, while in the trenches, they are bombarded by artillery in the run up to a raid. They grab the brass rings that come with the artillery and talk about making clothes for women back home. Kropp talks about using them to make clothes for his wife, and the men start talking about how his wife must be voluptuous and sexy and a real catch. He enjoys it. The narrator explicitly mentions how pleased he is that his trenchmates think his wife must be a looker. 

 

The French girls is this awkward outlier. They are in the reserves, so they aren't technically free of the war. However, they sneak past the guards and are on the French side of the river, free of their commanding officers, and they presumably have sex with the French girls in exchange for food. However, it's more than a few French women prostituting themselves for some army bread. Paul is caught up in the romance of the situation and he really thinks that he and "the slim brunette" have a romantic connection. As far as he is concerned, what he experiences is love. Then, of course, he tells her that he's going back to Germany and realizes that she didn't care about him as much as she cared about him being on the front. I would say that he's devastated, but he's only as devastated as the war lets him be. He moves on pretty quickly.

 

The last example I can think of is when Kat and Paul find a poster of an actress while in the reserves. They are dumbstruck that someone so beautiful can be anywhere near the front, even if it is only in picture form. (Compare that to when the Kaiser shows up for inspection, and how let down Paul is that the Kaiser is shorter than he appears in pictures.) Paul talks about how they don't really have words to express themselves, and it's almost sad how struck they are by this picture. 

 

With all of the above said, I feel like I can begin to figure this out but I don't quite have it nailed down just yet. It makes sense in the nature-drenched reserves, where they are putting outhouses together so that they can play cards in the field together, that someone would get sexual with their idea of women. However, they still hold on to the idea of respect and virtuosity toward women from home, so the rest of the men feel almost embarassed. Then, while in the trenches, they go full carnal with their ideas. And the French women are a moment of impusle, of Paul thinking that he has found true love but really falling for a hero-worshipping Frenchwoman. And the poster is less about women on the front and more about it being a sad, yet humorous, scene in which Kat and Paul try to reconcile beauty while being surrounded by death and disease and decay. But I feel as if there is something missing from my understanding of this larger idea, and I'm hoping that I've structured my presentation in a way that will end up getting the class (and therefore, myself) a better answer.

Homefront vs. Western Front

Reading Testament of Youth and All Quiet on the Western Front back-to-back provides an interesting look into the lives of both the people at the Homefront (although particularly nurses) and the soldiers that are fighting. Doing this allowed me to understand Roland better because of Paul’s description of what it is like to be at the front, fighting, and how difficult it is to come back. Reading these side-by-side made me think about the ways in which war brings soldier together. In Testament of Youth, Brittain discusses that she is close to some of the nurses, but on the whole her descriptions show a life of her working, going home to eat and sleep, and coming back again. The strain of nursing does not seem to bring the nurses together. However, in All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul often discusses how close he feels to his fellow soldiers. One passage in particular struck me because he says that they are closer than lovers: “I am no longer a shuddering speck of existence, alone in the darkness;--I belong to them and they to me; we all share the same fear and the same life, we are nearer than lovers, in a simpler, a harder way; I could bury my face in them, in these voices, these words that have saved me and will stand by me” (212). The intimacy of the soldiers struck me because, for whatever reason, it is not what I expected. I expected comradery and friendship and most especially reliance since the person next to you in battle could be the reason you survive. However, while it was unexpected, it makes sense because of the reliance I expected. They are not only reliant upon each other to stay alive, they are also reliant upon each other to remind them that they are not alone, physically and mentally. This is what Paul means when he says “we all share the same fear and the same life.” No one at the Homefront can understand this because they haven’t gone through it, but these people next to him know exactly what he means. This could also be why the nurses in Testament of Youth do not have the same kind of friendships. While they are together and experience difficult things together, they do not have to rely on one another in the same way.

Youth in All Quiet on the Western Front

I had the opportunity to read All Quiet on the Western Front in high school, but the text means far more to me now - not simply because of my age and maturity but also because of my exposure to Brittain's Testament of Youth. Paul and his fellow soldiers are around nineteen, yet, when I first read this text, that seemed like a mature age. As a 24-year-old, I realize that nineteen is an incredibly young age to be confronted with the concepts and realities surrounding war firsthand.  I also recognize that Paul is forced to mature more as a nineteen-year-old than I ever was. He notes this as well at the end of chapter 1: "Youth! We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young? Youth? That is long ago. We are old folk" (18).

Paul and the other young soldiers are faced with an instant need to mature without having many consistencies in their lives to encourage them. For example, Paul notes that the older soldiers "are linked up with their previous life," meaning they have women, children, and jobs on the homefront to motivate their performance in the war o(19-20). The younger men, however, are in a unique stage of life in which they are too independent for both their parents and female companions. While some are interested in their educations, the trench does not prove to be an ideal environment in which to study. So with what are these young men left? They are left with each other and the art of war. And as the young men are killed, it seems as though war becomes the only consistent factor in their lives. By the end of the text, Paul says he knows “nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. [He sees] how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another” (263). It is mental distress from this consistent presence of death and destruction that remains an undertone of the entire text.

In conversation with Brittain's text, All Quiet on the Western Front proved to be especially interesting as it provided a perspective that could have been very similar to the character of Edward or Roland. Unlike Brittain, Remarque ends the book with an inability to compartmentalize the war and a lack of hope for the future. Brittain turns her anger and depression into a constructive pursuit of history, while Paul stops at the realization that his generation will always be misunderstood.

Animals in battle and questionable doctors

Although Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth and Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front both show how World War I essentially broke the bodies and hearts of a generation, Remarque’s book was more direct, taking readers straight into battle. Although Paul and his friends could not have avoided going to war, it’s sad to realize men such as their schoolmaster, Kantorek, pressured them to volunteer: “There were thousands of Kantoreks, all of whom were convinced that they were acting for the best — in a way that cost them nothing” (12). Paul addresses this sense of abandonment early in the book, discussing how he and his friends trusted their elders, assuming their authority would provide “a greater insight and a more humane wisdom.” Paul’s generation was left “terribly alone” because its elders could not relate: “While they continued to write and talk, we saw the wounded and dying” (13). This reminds me of Vera’s parents in Testament of Youth when they chose to talk about the price of groceries while Vera struggled to come to terms with her brother’s death.

A few details from the book that I found interesting were the use of horses on the front lines as well as messenger dogs. I notice the photo of horses here on the blog of horses with gas masks. I googled "messenger dogs WWI" and found some pretty incredible photos of brave dogs at work – some even wearing what appears to be special canine gas masks. I remember reading about some of the hero horses of World War I in old copies of Horse Illustrated magazine. I read tales of how these steeds survived incredible battles and were honored for their work, but I never thought much of it till now. Sure, we can picture horses in more primitive battles such as the Civil War when men rode into packs of soldiers on horseback, but horses were used in a different way once more modern warfare techniques were introduced. Both dogs and horses are close to my heart, so it's disheartening to see photos and imagine how they suffered right along with their soldiers. After war, I'm sure most were in such terrible shape they were slaughtered for food as war rations were depleted.

Remarque’s depiction of World War I is a glimpse into the conditions and logistics of the German army. However, I did not realize Paul and his friends were fighting for the Central Powers until later in the book. It’s a startling reminder that all soldiers suffered the same on both sides of the wire. Confused and hopeless, every soldier who fought in World War I was ruined by “the first bomb, the first explosion” (88) and lost the spirit to strive for life and progress. It's startling to think about some of the things Paul, and all soldiers for that matter, endured daily in camp such as lice and rats. He also addresses how even if soldiers survived injuries long enough to make it to the hospital, they were often treated like science experiments and operated on by questionable doctors. How common was this? Were these suspicious procedures reported among physicians for both the Central Powers and the Allied Forces? Are there surgeries performed today that were introduced in World War I?

Coming Home in "All Quiet"

While reading Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, I was impressed by the author’s description of what it was like for the protagonist, Paul Bӓumer, to go on leave from the western front. After the intensely visceral images of trench warfare, in which soldiers die with regularity and without purpose, Paul has some difficulty returning to his village. There is one passage in particular that seems to illustrate how difficult it can be for a soldier to re-integrate into the civilian population. The scene follows Paul’s return to his parent’s home. When he recognizes his sister in the window and she cries out to him, Paul becomes paralyzed. The passage reads:

 “She pulls a door open and calls: ‘Mother, mother, Paul is here.’

I can go no further – mother, mother, Paul is here.

I lean against the wall and grip my helmet and rifle. I hold them as tight as I can, but I cannot take another step, the staircase fades before my eyes, I support myself with the butt of my rifle against my feet and clench my teeth fiercely, but I cannot speak a word, my sister’s call has made me powerless, I can do nothing, I struggle to make myself laugh, to speak, but no word comes, and so I stand on the steps, miserable, helpless, paralysed (sic), and against my will the tears run down my cheeks.” (158)

I am very interested in the way Remarque initiates this shift into a stream of consciousness. The repetition of the sister’s cry creates what could be called a loop that the protagonist becomes stuck in. It suggests the movement of the real into the imaginary, the protagonist’s movement from the presence of his family home into the necessarily alienating space of his own thoughts and memories. On multiple occasions, Paul discusses what a soldier must do to survive the realities of the War. For instance, he describes the transformation of soldiers headed to the front as one in which they “reach the front zone and become on the instant human animals” (56). Conversely, it is as if, in the instant Paul crosses the threshold of his childhood home, he becomes a real human person again, and must confront all the emotional trauma that he has mentally partitioned over the course of his tour. Remarque is offering an interesting look into how PTSD can manifest, specifically when soldiers return to the home front.

On the Varying Attitudes on Death

While reading the "Tawny Island" section of Testament of Youth, I was particularly struck by the changing attitudes Brittain and Edward had towards the death and suffering at the hands of the war, specifically in Victor's case. At one point, Brittain remarks that the "psychological combats and defeats of the last two years...no longer mattered...for death had made them all unsubstantial, as if they had never been" (258), highlighting death's ability to overpower what came before and dominate the human mind with grief for the lost. However, Edward, in his letter to Brittian regarding Victor's death, says he "cannot say that [he] wished from the bottom of his heart that [Victor] should live" (360), due to the wounds inflicted upon him in war. Edward here regards death as a mercy, an escape from the pain of the war, rather than something to be mourned over and bemoaned. I find it fascinating that Brittian decided to showcase these different viewpoints within two pages of each other, as they both highlight different tragic aspects of the same war. On one hand, an entire generation of men is being massacred in the trenches of the Western Front; on the other hand, those men lucky enough to survive their wounds were forced to live in pain for the rest of their lives, however long they may be. However, Brittian's comment seems to imply that these suffering survivors are forgotten in the face of overwhelming casualties and rendered insubstantial under a mound of corpses (358).

Youthfulness after the War

In our selections for this week, I was most intruiged by Brittain's explanations of what she believes that "life" is after the war. She recognizes "that no life is really private, or isolated, or self-sufficient," and she attributes this to inventions that were used in the war to make time and space between individuals seem much smaller (472). Brittain uses this mindset as a basis for her switching her area of study to History - a discipline that will help her "understand where humanity failed and civilization went wrong" (472).

People that have experienced the world as Brittain has, with the sheer exposure to death and sadness, would understandably become cynical. And in some ways, Brittain did lose her youthfulness in regard to creating relationships with others. "Only gradually did I realize that the War had condemned me to live to the end of my days in a world without confidence or security, a world in which every dear personal relationship would be fearfully cherished under the shadow of apprehension" (469-70). However, this section (Survivors Not Wanted) proved Brittain's uniqueness as an individual. She justifies her survival by claiming that her study of History might lead to a better future for the world. If she can pinpoint how and why the world went wrong, perhaps she can prevent it from happening again. Brittain sees herself as a world-influencer, which I would generally recognize as a rather youthful trait. She has not lost all of her youthfulness to this War, as she has maintained some sense of purpose despite the world around her.

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