Just Another Green Mask

Author's note: Nothing like another green mask to hide a child, and portray him as a warrior

Throughout chapter two--as well as chapter one, and what I presume will be a majority of the book--Remarque frequently ventures back to the sense that all the soldiers are young boys trapped in war. With constant repetition and a variety of diction, Remarque displays his talent while still sticking to this general point.

Scared and on their own, the boys begin to question their initial expectations of the war and how the propaganda portrayed the war to be, to the true reality and severity of their situation. Only boys, they were lost in this game of kill or be killed. Drowning in their own clothes, the instant they take them off their true nature is exposed:

I glance at my boots. They are big and clumsy, the breeches are tucked into them, and standing up one looks well-built and powerful in these great drainpipes. But when we go bathing and strip, suddenly we have slender legs again and slight shoulders. We are no longer soldiers but little more than boys; no one would believe that we could carry packs. It is a strange moment when we stand naked; then we become civilians, and almost feel ourselves to be so.

When their garments hit the floor so does the image of a fierce warrior. Under the bulky jackets lie the faces of children. Anyone could transform from an innocent civilian into a blood thirsty murderer by lacing up some boots and throwing on a jacket. However; it when deeper than just this. Human nature can be covered up, but can not be changed by some threads. But, trudging through a muddy trench, crawling over a dead friends, or seeing others die in your hands can. While Remarque clearly expresses the boys true nature, he also leaves us to believe that their nature is soon to change after the horrors associated with fighting in war.

AQWF 1

Throughout history, children have been see fighting in wars, and being forced to abandon their childhood to pursue a life in the "trenches. Thus far in AQWF, the only talk really has been about food, tobacco rations, and other men, and very little on the war itself. A possible defense mechanism deployed by the men to keep their minds off of their true purpose. One reoccurring motif that is present is small symbols and innuendos is the hidden fact of how young all the boys are. "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"(6). Even at the young age of eighteen, they are forced to instantly mature, and become part of a world that needs them to be adults. Stripped of their youth, they have no choice but to comply and toughen up.