The Coffin Scene

The scene I want to focus on is the scene where they pass the coffins. The coffins fit very nicely with the theme of the horror a soldier goes through in war. When the soldiers first see the coffins, all of them know exactly who they were meant for even though they joke about there meaning. The coffins are such a deathly symbol already, and compounded with the fact that the are going to the front of a war, they are the perfect symbol of the fear of death. The coffins stare at the soldiers as if to say “You go out there you're going to come back in one of us.” The soldiers are forced to joke about there own deaths, saying things like “You'll be lucky if even get a coffin,” just to avoid the inevitable of them coming back in a coffin at some point. That shows how much war has changed them, they are forced to joke about death just to avoid the true reality. Paul even says “What else can a man do?” That's true, if they don't do something to avoid the coffins deathly meaning they may as well crawl in the now. Looking at the scene you may just see men joking about on the way to the front, but I believe it sums up the book quite well. Death is always lurking behind the men, these coffins are simply a physical representation of that.