A sense of beauty can be portrayed even through the
horrors of gruesome war. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the
author evokes this sort of beauty through detailed diction that takes the
mindset off of war to forget about the tragedy it brings. The main character
begins to describe the land as "the grasses sway their tall spears; The white
butterflies flutter around and float on the soft warm wind of the late summer"
(9). One would never expect the terrain of a battlefield to appear this way.
Although this is probably not what the land had looked like, the soldiers could
imagine it to be true; if you begin to tell yourself something is true and
believe deeply in it, it can become real. Here the boys were so traumatized by
the war that they needed a surreal getaway where everything could be let go and
forgotten. What better way to do so than by experiencing the beauty of nature.
Nature is sacred and organic; it cleanses the body and soul. There is a sense of
innocence with nature; a sense of youth and fantasy. This is all anyone begs for
during a time of hardship, especially something as daunting as war.
