Storm of Steel Essay Example

different from their illusion of what war was. Junger utilizes his own personal point of view to show the change in the individual throughout the war.

Coupled with the strong analogies to nature, the memoir up to this point clearly conveys the mental and emotional reactions of the main character responding to battle. The author does not take the reader in a certain direction, in terms of being against or in support of war. He just presents war as it is, without making a strong case for or against it. The focus is on the individual and how he is affected by the environment around him. This individual change takes on a different view as he heads into his first battle, taking on a more mature stance and feeling responsibility for his role, “What a beautiful country it was, and eminently worth our blood and our lives (Junger, 2003, p.33). The author also takes a look at the change in society as war passes over it, taking control and precedence over other parts of life: All the peacetime institutions collapsed, only what was needed for war was maintained. Hedges and fences were broken through or simply torn down for easier access, and everywhere there were large signs giving directions to military traffic (Junger, 2003, p. 37). He distinctly illustrates how war not only takes over the life purpose of the individual involved in it, but also its domination and alteration of everyday life. War is the primary occupation, the primary end result.

This is part of what makes the novel successful in its aim to draw the reader into the experience. The environment becomes bleaker in his

next description: the aspect of the landscape was dark and fantastic, the war had erased anything attractive or appealing from the scene, and etched its own brazen features, to appal the lonely onlooker (Junger, 2003, p. 39). Now not only is war affecting the appearance of life, it is taking on a life of its own. The description here of war’s nature is compelling, bringing the horror of the first world war into the reader’s experience.

The experience then gives way to the elemental question of, “Why does mankind have wars (Junger, 2003, p. 157)?This question resonates off the page in the midst of a description of activities done during regular duty as a soldier. They drill, they exercise and they entertain themselves, but this question always lays right under the surface, coming up perpetually in conversation. And that is where Junger truly takes the reader – to this basic question that mankind still struggles to answer. He explores the change that war and violence brings in people and life in general, and how those individuals are able to retain what normalcy they once had: Those few days were used by all of us to enjoy the life that we’d had to fight so hard to cling on to.

We still couldn’t quite grasp that for the time being we’d given death the slip, and we wanted to feel the possession of this new lease of life, by enjoying it in every way possible (Junger, 2003, p.203). Junger’s effective use of analogy, word choice, and tracing of the effects of war on both the individual and the environment make this a novel that effectively communicates the new

experience of such a large scale war. Through the story, the reader can start to grapple with the question of what truly is war and why do we engage in it.