What are some quotes and what they mean from Chapter 8-9 on All Quiet on the Western Front?

Answer 1

• It is strange to see these enemies of ours so close up. They have faces that make one think- honest peasant faces, broad foreheads, broad noses, broad mouths, broad hands, and thick hair. They ought to be put to threshing, reaping, and apple piking. They look just as kindly as our own peasants in Friesland. It is distressing to watch their movements, to see them begging for something to eat. They are all rather feeble, for they only get enough nourishment to keep them from starving.

• Comrade, I did not want to kill you. . . . But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. . . . I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony-Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?

Answer 2

In Chapter 8-9 of "All Quiet on the Western Front," one significant quote is, "The days are comatose with heat," which symbolizes the oppressive and unyielding nature of war. Another quote, "We are no longer young men. We’ve lost any desire to conquer the world," demonstrates the loss of innocence and idealism that the soldiers experience due to the harsh realities of war. Also, "The war has ruined us for everything," reflects the profound impact that war has on the soldiers, stripping away their humanity and sense of normalcy.