First explain what you think the quote means, then apply it to the novel, finally, apply it to the macrocosm. Be sure to use specific examples, correct grammar, and correct spelling.
"If we attempt to act and do things for others or for the world without deepening our own self-understanding, our own freedom, integrity, and capacity to love, we will not have anything to give others. We will communicate nothing but our own obsessions, our own agressiveness, our own ego-centered ambitions." Thomas Merton
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I think the quote means that our ambition(s) in life should not be driven by self-interest and gain, but rather by the experience, as a whole. When reflecting upon something, you should consider how it affected you as a person, and what you gained as a person, not what you gained materially speaking. This quote implies that the reason you do something is just as important as what you are doing. Good deeds with bad intentions, and seemingly worse than bad deeds with good intentions. The end does not always justify the means. People are judged accoring to their actions, and they have consequences. This quote implies that we should give others our time and energy, which is more meaningful than any gift could be. Time is never changing, and will always be remembered. Do what you can to help others, and they will remember it. Do not do something because you feel that you have to, or you expect a reward in return, but do something to help someone else, because you can, and because you want to. This quote warns against selfishness and self-interest. Live your life to be helpful to others :]
lf1
It means that trying to help the world, without first understanding and helping ourselves, will leave us only giving the aggression and problems we failed to fix in our own lives. This applies to All Quiet on the Western Front. In the novel, when peace is reached, the treaty is one of vengeance. The countries that made it are now wastelands, and are missing a whole generation of men. So, the only thing they can project is hatred. Also in the book, the soldiers are rife with emotional trauma, and unable to deal with this, find themselves numb, and autonomously aggressive. Finally, when the soldiers go home, they are unable to relate to the populace they have left. Paul, while on leave, views people with annoyance, and anger. Paul feels betrayed by his teachers, and when he meets them in a bar, feels disdain toward them. He is unable to clear the strife in his life, and he can only express that feeling of confusion and anger, or nothing at all, when trying to communicate.
In the world, this applies equally. Germany, post World War I is in severely economically crippled, and the country harbors a feeling of being wronged by others. This turns to hate, and Germany, as it’s influence increases, only spreads this hate further.
DS9
This quote means a person must make an effort to understand what is inside his/her self before he/she can help another person. If a person helps his/her self and changes his/her life in some way, that person will have more to give to others. By helping one’s self, one does not focus on his/her own problems when he/she attempts to aid and make a difference in another person’s life. If a person cannot fix and change his/her own problems and mistakes than there is no point in trying to go out in society to help another in need.
In All Quite On the Western Front, this quote is given in the opposite view in many examples. The quote says that one must deal with his/her own problems before they can take the steps to help someone else. The examples in the book are opposite of the quote’s meaning. For example, on pages 287-291 Paul helps Kat after he is wounded in the shin. This is what war does to the soldiers; they cannot talk about the warfare and the death they have seen because it would make it more personal. The soldiers must hold up their courage to get through the war with all their sanity still in one piece. For the soldiers to cope, Paul and Kat talk about funny events to get their mind off the current situation. Soldiers have so much that goes on in daily combat, so not focusing on the pain and fear inside them makes it easier to deal with what they have to.
This quote is relevant to the outside world in more ways than one. Some countries, such as the U.S. want to help so many other countries yet do not focus on problems already present in its own boundaries. The U.S. government covers up the problems and struggles in its own country only bringing similar conflicts to other countries it tries to help. It is ineffective to help others when one cannot help one’s self. If one does not recognize their own struggles within themselves, than the cycle continues and conflicts spread to more people even if the goal is to improve their problems.
LD3
This quote, by Thomas Merton, is one that directly relates to the philosophy of many infantry troops in World War One. Merton is saying that before we can help anyone else, we must be secure and sure of ourselves. If we are uncertain about ourselves, then there is no way we can be certain about someone else. For example, pretend there is a young student instructin a group of boy scouts on how to tie knots. If he does not know how to tie the knots himself he can be of no help to the younger boys. Before he begins to teach them, he must have a full understanding of himself(the skill) and he must have the capacity to teach (to love). If he tries to teach them without knowing about it himself, he would only communicate his own ideas(obsessions). Merton is saying that in order to help others effectively, one must have a deep understanding of his or herself or else it only comes across as harmful.
In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Thomas Merton's idea is aptly displayed. The whole war and the entire mentality of the war can be described using this quote. The quote says that when one does not know his or her own purpose, he or she can accomplish no good. In World War One this is what every troop experienced. The entire war was driven by each soldier's obsessions, agressiveness, and ego-centered ambitions. Merton implies that the only way to accomplish good is through self-understanding. This is evident when Paul is inside the shell hole with the man he kills. This is an incident when Paul acquires the capacity to love and he begins to understand himself better. After he kills the man he realizes the affect his action has had on this man's life and his loved ones. With this understanding in mind, Paul becomes closer to his emotions and is set free from the cold-hearted, brutal, and relentless violence of war. Once he finds his true inner self, he helps the soldier by providing him with water from the puddle and bandaging his wound. Paul's inner awareness is an excellent representation of Thomas Merton's quote.
This quote not only can be referenced to World War One in this novel, but it also applies to every war. This is a mindset that is required for war, seeing that helping people is not the intended outcome. The point of war is to be agressive and to accomplish each person's ego-centered ambitions. Therefore, the men fighting are not supposed to understand themselves for if they did, there would be no agressiveness left. If there is no agressiveness left then the soldiers will want to help the enemy, which is not the object of war. All in all, Thomas Merton's quote can be related to the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, and wars that still proceed today.
EF8
sorry it should be EM8 not EF8
When something goes wrong on an airplane and the yellow oxygen masks fall from the ceiling, one is always supposed to put the mask on themselves first and then help the passengers around them. On a plane and in life, one must help themselves before aiding others. Thomas Merton said, “If we attempt to act and do things for others or for the world without deepening our own self-understanding…… we will not have anything to give others.” He means to say that if some one does not fully understand, love and respect themselves, then that person cannot share the understanding, love and respect with other people because these ideas are not fully defined to the individual. The concept is quite simple; one must know oneself to know others. One must value oneself in order to value others. One must love oneself in order to love others.
I think the quote means that if we just commmit acts because a higher authority told us to so, or because it is what everyone else thinks is "right", we are not doing the action for the right reasons, nor are we caring if we are doing soemthing for the right reasons.
In the novel, we see this behavior with Paul and his fellow comrades. These soldiers kill indiscrimiantely and brutally at French soldiers, only because they are French and were instructed to do so. To Germany, Paul and his friends are hereoes, the "Iron Youth", they are doing the right thing, the admriable thing. However, are Paul and his friends truly doing the right thing? If all of Geramany and it's soldiers were able to think of whether what they are doing, killing the opponent's soldiers, was the right action for the Right reasons, perhaps they would not fight.
In our society we do the right things without really opening our hearts or understanding. For example, when you join the Youth Group Board, or plan on joining it, you many think that you are doing this great act. However, what if you start thinking of why you want to do it and realize you only want to be on the Youth Group Board, so that it will look good on a resume. That is doing a good action for the wrong reasons. Like the quote states, you are joining the YOuth Group Board, yes, but you do not have your passion in it, your heart, soul, you cannot give to others half as much as if you truly wanted to be on the Youth Group Board. In the end, people will realize that you are here to communicate your greed and your selfishness for having a good resume, they will see you have a hidden agenda.
-CM10
This quote explains that when a person follows blindly a leader in order to benefit others, yet does not try to deepen their understanding of their actions or thoughts, that person has not benefitted others at all. In Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front, fight for their country without understanding the reason for their fighting. Eventually all national allegiances fade into brotherhood, where the only thing that matters is protecting the people on your right and left. Without having the luxary of time to deal with the emotional and mental issues that confront the soldiers, they make no contribution to the common good. In their blind effort to contribute, men on both sides are killed.
In the grand scheme of things, this quote covers all sorts of thoughtless actions with good intentions guiding them but poor thought process. As much as the thought counts, this quote explains that even with the intention of benefitting others, harm can be done if the person is not growing in spirit and mind. If people don't think about what they do, they can do unthinkable things.
ih5
I think what this quote is saying is that one needs to understand oneself before one can do well for others. A person’s heart can show their attitude towards an act of integrity and has to think about others before themselves. Being self-centered cannot even be in the same room with good deeds because bad intensions lead to worse outcomes. Yet, one may do good deeds but for the wrong reasons which is even worse because that is deceit. Deceit is not freedom, it is not integrity, and it is not love, it is the opposite of all those and more.
In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front the soldiers are fighting a war to protect their country. Yet, many are not sure why they are there. They do not understand themselves. They all went to war to prove something, but when they get there it is not at all what they had initially expected. Showing that they were going into war wanting to understand themselves yet really not coming to that full conclusion of what they really were there for.Paul and his friends shown they had courage and may be doing a good deed for their country, but it is not right to ask yourself what are we fighting for, or what made this war come about? They just keep on fighting keep on fighting knowing what they are doing is not clear.
Society today television shows how many people are doing all these great and wonderful things.Yet, there is a dark side to the act they put on for the viewers.What really goes on behind the scences? The people on tv are paid to act like that, though there are a few good ones not many exist.The world is sometimes shown to do good for others, but for the wrong reasons. They do these good acts out of greed. Concluding, if one person can do a good thing without anything in return we as people can stop and see that one person can make a diffence in peoples hearts.
HJ4
Good job so far! I like what I'm reading. Lots of good thoughts adn ideas. Take a few minutes to look at a few others' responses and maybe respond to their words, too. Be sure to use correct grammar, spelling, and avoid "you." I'm still seeing lots of pronoun antecedent problems.
I interpreted this quote to mean that if we do not try to truely understand one another in this world, they will not be able to understand us. One can say he/she knows all about someone or a group of people, that they are all alike or that they have them "mapped out" so to say; however, you can never really know about someone unless you embrace them in with understanding and true good-naturedness. If we do not do this, we will always come across as just being interested in whats good for us, or what we want- not what the whole world needs.
This can definitely be applied to World War I; without understanding or reason, conflict erupted without rhyme or reason. If we have nothing to show but aggressiveness and hate, we can not expect anything but the same thing in return.
I think a good way to summarize this quote would be to "Practice what you preach"; if you do not show intelligent and reasonable attitudes to other countries, you can not expect them to show you ethical or civilized treatment either.
-Tayg#4
(tg4)
period 3
This quote means that one cannot do things for others unless one realizes who he/she is and who he/she wants to be. One cannot give to the world what she does not have. If all one has within herself is self-centered conceit and anger, that is the only thing she can give to the world. It reminds me of an allusion: “You will know them by their fruits.” If someone is hateful and self-centered, she cannot give love to others. An example: If a child is brought up by abusive parents who do not take care of him, the child only learns to be self-sufficient, untrusting, and hateful. He cannot give others love and respect because all he can communicate is his own aggression and desire to look out for “number one.” This quote can also apply to All Quiet on the Western Front. Most of the men fighting are just teenagers; they do not all know who they are and have not realized their full capacity. They cannot fight the war for some big cause that they do not know. However, they do know friendship, so they can fight for their comrades. Paul and his friends say that this is not their war because they know nothing about it; they are fighting for themselves and their friends. They cannot communicate this to others when they go home. MM9.
This quote is showing how if one does not first look at what one wants and what one needs in one’s own life one cannot go into the world and help other issues because one has not experienced themselves yet. When one tries and fights for something that one does not believe in or does not understand things are not going to turn out the way one would like. When one tries to give something without even knowing what one wants to give the situation never works out for the better. It is like trying to tell someone they are wrong without even knowing what their opinion is. In All Quiet on the Western Front the young soldiers do not understand the war, let alone care about it. This is part of why the war is so pointless for them, because they do not know what they are fighting for. This is why they do not have passion for their fighting, but just do it for the sake of violence and staying alive. These men slowly die and it is because they have no reason for living. In the world many people are taught to do things without questioning authority. In school, in the army, in parenting situations, all of these things apply to this quote in the way that one is sometimes doing things but one is not sure why besides the fact that they are told to.
LM8
This quote is saying if one does not grow as a person, then one is stuck with only working with oneself. To be able to help others, people need to have personal experiences that mold them as people or else it is like preaching to a choir. Personal experience molds a person into who one will become. Generally, to give advice, one must experience the event themselves to even have an opinion on the matter. It just would not be anyone's place to say what is right and wrong without the experience. For example, if Paul's mother had been speaking ill of the war, it would have been hypocracy because she had not experienced it. To have sense of ones self gives one the ability to help others. Without knowing oneself-love, knowlege, relations, situations, personality- no relationships will click with anyone because one would not understand what one wanted in a person.
CW14[awesome]
JH6
I Think that the quote is trying to explain that one should not look on to another’s problems when they have they own. It is saying that one should not direct their attention on before engaging on someone else’s life before their on . Meaning that it should always be about them and not anyone else. When a problem is seen it would most likely be the right thing to do to see what you can do to improve yourself, than trying to improve as a whole. Meaning that no problem can be solved if there are inner problems that need to be addressed. The world should be like that to. I believe George Bush should have focused on our internal conflicts within ourselves before going to war with Iraq. We have issues here in United States that needs to be solved but we can not because we are focused on the war with Iraq. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front one of the guys makes a comment saying that he thinks the leaders of both sides of the war should deal with their problems themselves rather than dragging everyone into it. Which is what the quote is saying deal with yourselves first.
JH6
I think that Thomas Merton was trying to say that until we understand ourselves we have no hope of understanding the world around us. We cannot help others if our true intentions are self-centered. To help others, first help yourself. For example, when Paul goes home on break, he cannot understand his old world any longer, because he no longer knows who he truly is as a human being, rather all he knows is how to avoid thinking about all that he has become. If he had understood who and what he had become, he might have been able to accept the world around him for what it was, instead he couldn’t, and he was left out even by words. Like Paul, everyone must understand who they are, and what their true ambitions are, before they will be able to do anything to help others with their ambitions. Only once they understand themselves can they ever hope to understand others.
VD1
Regrets and “mal” emotions appear when one aids another before understanding one’s self. During the course of one’s life, they must understand the motive of themselves and the motive of the other being before they take action. The result of ignorance in this case is undesirable actions such as anger, regret, and aggression. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front Remarque uses the characters of Paul and his comrades in war to exemplify this message. During the course of the novel, they characters constantly state that they do not understand the motive of the war and why they were called to fight. This is a misunderstanding that the characters could have sought out by understanding themselves and decide if this war was right to fight for, before they got onto the battlefield. As Paul got home during the novel, he found himself to be sad, angry and aggressive because nobody understood him and he didn’t understand anyone else. Due to Paul’s lack of understanding, he was overtaken by his “mal” emotions.
-KW 12
The main idea of this quote is that whatever is in a person's mind is how they are going to convey their feelings to others. If they are not able to help themselves with their problems, they will not be prepared to help others with their's. If they are prepared to help others, they have the potential of making a noticable difference in the world. This can be related to All Quiet on the Western Front because the men acted upon their thoughts and knowlege. An example of this is when Paul is trying to comfort Kemmerich about his amputation but knows that all is lost. Both of them knew this, but still tried to raise false optimism. This situation can also apply to the modern world. If people modify thier thoughts to the way they want to act, then much more will be accomplished. They will be ble to be honest to themselves and gain comfidence. This will help to have a less confused and dihonest society.
DL7
You write very well.
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