From Emma Welp

In All Quiet On The Western Front  we discover and learn about the German soldiers who fought,lived,and suffered in the trenches. In these heart wrenching moments of their lives of war and literally fighting for their lives we learn that most of these men are hardly men at all. They are hardly over nineteen years of age and don't know what they have gotten themselves into. But the men that have been there for awhile identify themselves as the older wiser men to help the young men that have been recruited and to teach them the skills that they will need to save their lives. The main character Paul Baumer is one of these wiser men on the trenches with his six other fellow group members. One thing that was followed throughout the book is that you stick together. As when Paul was lost out in the trenches Kat and Albert went looking for him and brought a stretcher. Also when Paul and Albert where hit during a shelling  and went to the dressing station together they decided to stick together and go to the Catholic hospital together. The author presented the plot in an orderly way starting from beginning to end. Giving detail to the reader and making it easy to imagine and draw a picture to the things the soldiers went through. I think one arguement that the author Erich Maria Remarque presents is what is the point of sending these young men whose eyes do not deserve to see things such as they do in war. Who they cry for their mothers and to go home to be in no harm. Also Paul didn't like going on leave because it would remind him of what he was missing and returning to the camps he would feel at home. For now home was the trenches where he knew what was around him and going on beside him. I also think it would be extremely hard to be in the trenches and see horrified things then go home on leave for a couple of weeks. I feel my mind would be like Paul's and be thinking of how my fellow group members are doing and what is going on out their. I also think it was be very hard to not know exactly what is going to happen. Are the French going to attack? Will I be alive tomorrow? Will I eat today?There is hundreds of questions that run through their mind everyday. These simple things of food and water today we forget of all the things that the soldiers of trench warfare went through for their loved ones.

The Martian Chronicles

In The Martian Chronicles, by Bradbury, the colonization that occurs on Mars relates to the colonization of America and many other countries. At the beginning, a first expedition is sent out to Mars just to discover what is on it. This is like America, where the first expeditions went out to discover new land and new possibilities. The originating countries needed to see if life was possible on these foreign lands. Once the mystery and unknown of it all was gone, the expeditions continued. People were sent out to claim the land and set up their own "communities", apart from the natives. In both situations, on Mars and America, the natives proved to be a problem. They were unwilling to surrender their land and lose everything. But on both lands, foreign disease wiped out the natives and opened the land to the invaders. On Mars, the people began to colonize, but eventually went back to Earth due to war, unlike America, where people moved to escape war and stayed where they were. Many people moved to both places to escape government and rules. Mars proved to be impossible to colonize. America was a success.

All Quiet on the Western Front

In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque jumps from one scene to another to make the war more realistic. This jumping from one idea to another illustrates how speratic war really is and that no one knows what's going to happen next. Remarque does this often when he has Paul and the other soldiers relaxing one minute and the next they are being attacked and are forced to put their life on the line. For instance, in Chapter 10 the men experience a few weeks of luxury but when they are assigned to another place Paul and Albert are both wounded while trying to evacuate the village. This book does a good job of showing how war affects the soldiers and how much it wears them down. In Chapter 11 for example, Detering finds a cherry tree and loses it because it reminds him of home. The war makes those fighting it lose themselves and fighting comes natural to them.

Nicklel and Dimed

In the book, "Nickel and Dimed", Barbara Ehrenreich explores an idea of leaving her middle class writing and trys to live the life of a, "low wage worker." Ms. Ehrenreich toils in each of the jobs that she works and feels the stress, anxiety, and fear that low wage employes experience from a day to day basis. Barbara makes an effort in this experiment to survive working jobs by herself. But as she became familiar with her co-workers she understood that multiple low wage workers living together struggled sometimes more so than herself. During her time working at the places she did, she found that the authoritative figure i.e. managers or owners were attempting to beat down the moral of the employes. To make obedient drones that didn't think and just worked. After going through all of this she better understood the matter of poverty. Ehrenreich believes that the government doesn't look at the issue of poor workers to well.
Question for discussion: number 15- I do believe that Americans have put somewhat excessive demands on the family unit. But, they put such demands on the family because the government programs designed to help are of little to no help. The government should step in and help but rarely it helps the situation in anyway to get better.

Nickel and Dimed

In Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, Barbara goes out from her normal life of being a writer, and attempts a project of starting over and living as a low-wage worker. She finds herself in times of trouble here and there, and trying to get used to a different lifestyle. Her main priority of doing this whole deal was to know, "How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled?" and " How, in particular, were the roughly four million women about to be booted into the labor market by welfare reform going to make it on $6 or $7 an hour?" Those were a few of her main goals/wonderings that she took in to consideration when she began. In her attempt into this, Barbara goes to 3 different cities and applies for different jobs as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and a Wal-Mart associate. In all of this, she also had to find a place to stay, and how it will fit in with her job; and the price she could spend for living, depending on the amount of pay she recieves for her job in possession. As she goes on in her jobs, she meets some incredible people, and gets their intake on the economy and the job market. In the end she thinks that she did pretty well, but their is always room for improvement. She discovered that " no job, no matter how lowly, is truly "unskilled." And that "every one of the jobs that she entered into in the course of this project required concentration, and most demanded that she master new terms, new tools, and new skills." In this whole experience, Barbara learned alot about the world, and also about herself as a person.

Questions for discussion #16
Yes I believe that Ehrenreich's experience would be different in today's economy because alot of things have changed since the time period of 1998-2000. Such as gas prices, gas has shot up out of this world, and is insane. In fact alot of things have gone up in price since then. Just the cost of living now-a-days in the 21st century is very high. The people, and number of jobs available have also changed.

All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front, written by Erich remarque jumps from scenario to scenario to show how war is very speratic and that what is to come is almost always uncertain. Remarque does this by having Paul Baumer in an intense front line fight or bombardment, and the next Baumer and his fellow fighters are feasting and relaxing in a supply depot. Remarque also does this within chapters. In chapter nine Baumer is out on a patrol. It is his first since returning to the front line. He is struck with fear but his fighting instincts kick in and he regains composure and is safely on his way back to his trentch. Then, suddenly he is struck with fear and becomes lost in no mans land. This novel does a great job in showing how war affects the people fighting it. They lose what makes them human. The fear goes away and fighting becomes second nature. The gruesome and shocking scenes they witnessed while fighting doesn't faze them, but before the war they could have never imagined seeing what they saw.

All Quiet on the Western Front

In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque tells his story by jumping from one point to another to make war more realistic to the reader. The men could be safe from danger and enjoying each others company by playing cards and smoking cigarettes one day, and then the next they are sent back to the front not knowing who would make it back. In chapter 10, for example, Paul and his friends are in an abandoned village when he and Kat find two baby pigs and have a great feast out of them. After a few days they must leave for another village and while travelling they are attacked and Paul and Albert are wounded, Paul in the leg and Albert just above his knee. Albert has his leg aputated, and does not return to the front with Paul. Remarque also uses imagery in nature to compare the liveliness of it to the dying of the soldiers. For example, when Paul is talking about the summer of 1918 on page 285, he talks of the red poppies, beetles, grass, and flowing waters that are all living peacefully all around them, while the soldiers are in despair and dying. Remarque also makes an interesting point through Paul that all the men, whether friends or enemies, are all human and comrades, just pitted against each other.