Book Review on "Forgotten Soldier"
Book Review 3 pages (1072 words) Sources: 1
[EXCERPT] . . . .
Forgotten SoldierWarped by War:
A Review of Guy Sajer's the Forgotten Soldier
Though it has recently been plagued by accusations of historical inaccuracy, the Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer remains for many readers a fascinating and rare account of World War II from the viewpoint of a German soldier. Beyond its value as a war narrative, the memoir also serves as a psychological study of the effects of war on the worldview of a young teenager. Only sixteen years old when he joined the German army, Sajer had a typical youthful vision of war as a heroic adventure full of danger and glory. As the book proceeds, however, this romantic fantasy is replaced by disgust, disillusionment, and cynicism. Whether or not Sajer was able to represent the facts of war accurately, there is no doubt that he was able to give a painfully precise account of its effect on the human spirit.
In his own preface to the memoir, Sajer laid out in broad strokes who he was before the war and how it changed him in the end. In one especially poignant moment, he said that he "married [the war] because there was nothing else when I reached the age of falling in love" (Sajer, preface). The romanticism ended, however, on a day "when [he] should have died, and after that nothing seemed very important" (Sajer, preface). This transition from romantic to cynic can be traced through a few pivotal points in Sajer's narrative.
The first experience that begins to wear away Sajer's sense of the glories of war occurs when he is on the train to Minsk shortly after joining the German forces. On an adjacent train he sees a sight that makes him "freeze…
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This horror at the reality of death becomes even more profound when Sajer witnesses the death of his friend Ernst. As Ernst bleeds to death from a grotesque face wound, Sajer frantically appeals to God: "Save Ernst, God…Show yourself" (Sajer, p. 94). But the appeal is worthless. Ernst dies slowly, painfully, and without the slightest bit of hope or comfort. Sajer is appalled, and his sense of the moral justice of the world begins to crumble: "The man struggled with death, and the adolescent struggled with despair, which is close to death. And God, who watches everything, did nothing" (Sajer, p. 94). At this moment, he crosses a threshold of hopelessness from which he would never be able to return.
Even romantic love, one of the most powerful forces in the adolescent soul, is unable to save Sajer from his spiral into darkness.… READ MORE
Quoted Instructions for "Forgotten Soldier" Assignment:
I am writing a book review on The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer. The book is about the horror of World War II on the Eastern Front, as seen through the eyes of a teenaged German soldier The paper is intended for an academic audience and must be presented as such. I must avoid using slang, and common knowledge statements. Paragraphs must be at least six sentences long. The paper is to be written in a Turabian style without footnotes and no citations. The paper must stay on topic which means no outside sources are to be referenced. I am to use appropriate quotes (1 to 2 ) lines in each paragraph to support argument from the book. And I am to use parenthetical references in the paper as well. Here is an example of a parenthetical reference I made up: *****"If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.*****"(Lincoln, p. 270). So, the parentheticals will contain the author*****'s name, followed by a comma, followed by p. and the page #.
Since the paper requires quotes and parenthetical references, it will be difficult to write it in a Turabian format only. And the quotes and parenthetical references are important. Therefore, I will be happy as long as the paper has a Turabian feel to it.
Paperback: 476 pages
Publisher: Potomac Books Inc. (October 15, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1574882864
ISBN-13: 978-1574882865
How to Reference "Forgotten Soldier" Book Review in a Bibliography
“Forgotten Soldier.” A1-TermPaper.com, 2010, https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/forgotten-soldier-warped-war/1032454. Accessed 4 Oct 2024.
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