Dialectical Journal, Theme Analysis Preparation, All Quiet on the Western Front
English 4
Requirements: 20 Entry Minimum.Typed, proofread, and demonstrates involvement in the text. Response is personal, perceptive, and unique.
Due Thursday, 2/10.
Worth 400 Points in Assignments Category.
Assignment: While reading All Quiet on the Western Front, create a dialectical journal in response to thought-provoking quotes. In one column, copy the
quote precisely and indicate its page number. In a second column, explain, analyze, and interpret the quote. Your explanation and analysis does not have to
be perfect. Your response should flow freely as a “first draft” analysis. Feel free to ask questions about the quote and offer different ideas about it in your
response. You may relate it to personal experience, but always come back to the quote and give your analysis of it. As you write, consider how the quote
relates to one of the four themes for our unit: RELATIONSHIPS, NATURE OF WAR, THE ENEMY, and HOME. After each response indicate which
theme(S) you feel it best relates to. While writing about the quote you should address its style as well as meaning.
EXAMPLE OF AN ENTRY
Quote and Page #
Theme and Analysis
“At first astonished, then embittered, and finally indifferent, we recognized
Paul reflects on the effects of the training he and his fellow enlisted men
that what matters is not the mind, but the boot brush, not intelligence but the receive before entering the war. He stresses that through Corporal
system, not freedom but drill.” pp. 21-22
Himmelstoss the German army systematically replaced the values taught to
them in school with the values of the military. Obedience, subservience,
procedure, order, routine are ideals in themselves rather than steps towards
some greater significance. Well, perhaps, what Baumer means is that the
men were stripped of ideals and made to be more like robots or servants.
Regimentation became the only thing that mattered. This might be like
organization and tidiness becoming the sole focus of your existence. Of
course, this is hard for me to relate to because I have never been in war, but
I can relate to the idea of only being fixated on being on time, in line, with
materials ready, and keeping things clean. As a parent, sometimes, I can feel
like all I’m doing is keeping things in order; rather than nurturing my
children and loving my wife and family. Sometimes the secretarial work of
teaching takes away from the goals and ideals of literature. Baumer’s
experience is unfathomably beyond any I have had. He is stressing the use
of repetition and punishment to drive creativity, imagination, and
independent thinking out of the soldiers. It is scary to consider the potential
regimented systems have on the vitality of the individual. Remarque uses
parallel structure in this quote to complement the idea of structure and
regimentation. Repeating “but” and “not” almost sounds like a military drill.
THEME: MAINLY “NATURE OF WAR”. ALSO RELATES TO
“HOME”.