All Quiet... Ch3-4

1-27-14                All Quiet…                ch3-4

Summary: In chapter 3, we meet a new soldier, Kat; who, with many others, had come to replace those who died. Paul also meets his drill sergeant, Himmelstoss. Paul and his friends plan to confront their sergeant for all the bad decisions he has made them do. In chapter 4, Paul and his friends at Second Company are asked to put up barbed wire around the base. They are distracted when they hear gunshots nearby. They resume work but are then told to take cover and hide as they dodge bomb shells being thrown at them. The chapter ends with Paul going to find any wounded soldiers.

quote:  "If you train a dog to eat potatoes and then afterwards put a piece of meat in front of him, he'll snap at it, it's his nature.  And if you give a man a little bit of authority he behaves just the same way, he snaps at it too"

sig of quote: This is a metaphor for what the soldiers have to be put through. It can be interpreted many different ways  in this situation though. For example, one can train a soldier to kill his enemies and fend for his life, but once he has the chance to think about what he's really doing, he may stop or hesitate. He will forget his training for a brief second, and that will result in his death.

Reflection: In these chapters, along with meeting new characters which will obviously play major roles in the story, we also begin all the action. When Kat said how he thinks the enemies will “bombard” them earlier than expected, everyone changed. Emotions were colder, and the feeling you got while reading was very intense. Like you were just waiting for the bombs to fall, but just didn't know when it would start. When books do that to me I get very freaked out and anxious. Once the bombs did start falling, everyone set into battle mode. All doing the same thing: running, and ducking for cover. Terrified of the giant death traps that they couldn't fight off at all, the only thing they could do was run. When the attack ends, everything slowly goes back how it was. Very slowly did Paul describe his walk to find survivors. Very slowly did Paul end that entry. Well, thats how it felt to me. Everything was slow.

question: Will one of the injured people be one of the characters we have already met?