Arc de Triomphe remark analysis. "Arc de Triomphe" (German)

Erich Maria Remarque... He is truly great for his humanity - a classic who was destined to write with a tormented soul in the terrible era of world wars...

At first his name was pronounced as Erich Paul Remarque.

At nineteen, during World War I, he was nearly crippled due to five painful battle wounds. Doctors predicted a short and joyless existence for him as a disabled person, but he turned out to be stronger. However, the most terrible blow for Eric was the untimely death of his mother from the troubles and grief she suffered - a year later, after being wounded. Later, biographers used quotes from Remarque to describe the mental suffering he endured: “A mother is the most touching thing on earth. Mother means: to forgive and sacrifice yourself.”

Writer's special talent

As he said in his memoirs, in order to acquire a kind of talisman during a period of heavy losses, one day a decision came: to replace “Paul” in his full name with the name of his mother, Maria. Erich believed that this would continue to protect him in life, a high school dropout scorched by the war.

Originality and imaginative thinking were organically characteristic of this talented person. Perhaps that is why Remarque’s stories about love and war, about a person and his feelings touch the soul of readers.

Remarque begins literary activity

He did not go through the hothouse school of life in his youth. The strong body nevertheless recovered. After being wounded, he tried to make it as a musician, racing driver, and then as a journalist. At this time, he wrote his first works, reminiscent of the tabloid press in style. However, after five years it is clear that he is assigned a prestigious job in Europe - to be a correspondent for the Hanoverian publication Echo Continental. It was a good school. Returning to Germany, he became editor of the weekly magazine Sport im Bild.

Creation by the author of the world's best novel about World War I

Four years later, Remarque began writing a novel that brought him fame and prosperity - “All Quiet on the Western Front.” A realistic story by an outstanding master of prose about those people who, torn away from peaceful life, were pushed into the scorching crucible of war, forced to die in the thousands. Subsequently, the novel clearly opposed Hitler's power, appealing to the humanism of readers, awakening their compassion and rejection of violence.

The author seemed to have a premonition of the catastrophe of Germany in the 40s, telling about compatriots who turned into Critics admit that in world literature this novel is the best book about World War I.

Its continuation - the book "Return" - told about the writer's contemporaries who, physically and spiritually crippled, returned from the front to peaceful life, but found themselves unclaimed and restless.

Forced emigration

There are no prophets in their own country. The cliques soon call the writer’s works “subversive.” The author’s humanistic perception of the tragedy of military conflicts clearly did not coincide with the Goebbels ideology of the National Socialists who came to power in Germany in the 30s. As the fascists claimed, his works “weakened the German spirit,” and Erich Maria Remarque himself became “the enemy of the Fuhrer.”

The Nazis, other than barbarism, had nothing to oppose the truth of Remarque’s honest narrative about the fate of his generation, crippled by the war: his “treasonous” books were publicly burned. The writer, fearing reprisals, emigrates to Switzerland.

40 years of emigration...

Was it a coincidence that the writer’s emigration coincided with the time of Moses’ search for the “promised land” for his people? Remarque proved himself outside his homeland not only as a patriotic writer, but also as a philosophical writer. He himself wrote: “Time does not heal...”.

The classic shows in his novels to the whole world the true German spirit - the spirit of thinkers, humanists, workers, deeply rethinking the tragedy of his homeland and his compatriots. The same spirit that later made people talk about the “German miracle” - the rapid revival of the country.

From Switzerland he moves to France, then to Mexico, then to the USA. His “emigrant” novels - “Arc de Triomphe”, “Night in Lisbon”, “Love Thy Neighbor” - become iconic in world literature. Contemporaries understand: Remarque writes classics.

His works are “Three Comrades”, “Arc de Triomphe”, “Life on Borrow”, “Night in Lisbon”. “Black Obelisk”, “A Time to Live and a Time to Die” are widely known and filmed. The thoughts expressed by Remarque in them are quotable and relevant.

Each of Remarque’s novels is worthy of a separate article, but we have the opportunity to write in more detail about only one.

"Triumphal Arch"

The novel “Arc de Triomphe” was written by Remarque at the end of World War II in the United States, where he emigrated. It is based on the true story of a German emigrant, Dr. Fresenburg, who used the false name Ravik abroad. At the same time, Remarque introduced a lot of personal things into the image of the main character of the novel...

This is a paradoxical book, because, despite the fact that its plot covered the years of a bloody war, its leitmotif was love. Love that is “not stained by friendship.” In this work you can feel not just the author’s style, you can feel the amazing power of his creativity. The story of the talented German surgeon Ravik, who is illegally staying in Paris and brilliantly operating, while being forced to remain incognito, cannot leave readers indifferent, because he “spends his life in many hotels,” remembering his pre-war homeland, which he calls “paradise lost.”

The commonality between the image of Ravik and the personality of its author

Remarque created the Arc de Triomphe, not only generously endowing the main character with autobiographical features. Like Dr. Ravik, he could not live in his native Germany (the Nazis revoked his citizenship). Like him, he fought in World War I. As the main character of the novel, he was in love. However, the literary Joan Madu had a very real prototype - Marlene Dietrich, with whom Remarque had a vivid romance in 1937, which ended only with the death of the writer in 1970. After all, Marlene was not created for family life... The writer’s talented presentation of their love story makes readers remember Remarque’s quotes, enjoying their poetry and sublimity.

What else brought the great German novelist of the 20th century closer to Dr. Rawick? Hatred of fascists. According to the plot of the book, a surgeon kills the Gestapo executioner Haake in Paris, who through torture and torment drove his beloved to suicide.

If the creator of this hero, a front-line writer, had come across a man guillotining his beloved older sister Elfriede in Germany, perhaps this unimagined enemy would have been destroyed in real life in approximately the same way! The “selfish” initial feeling of revenge in Ravik’s mind, as a result of reflection, was replaced by the desire to “renew the fight.” This can be understood by re-reading Remarque’s quotes about war and human dignity.

“Arc de Triomphe” is a deep, philosophical novel

What else brings a literary image and its creator together? An inner core that allows you not only to survive the times of the brown plague of fascism, but also to become ideological opponents of misanthropic ideology. Remarque does not express his attitude towards fascism directly. For him, these are “prison dungeons”, “frozen faces of tortured friends”, “petrified grief of the living”. But it is clearly visible through the phrases of his characters: sometimes accusatory, sometimes cynical. Like an artist - with separate strokes - he conveys to the reader the rethought essence of the “brown plague”.

Remarque on the role of books in life

No one either before or after him wrote about books so insightfully. After all, for an outcast man, an emigrant, they, these “cubic pieces of a smoking conscience,” were often the only closest friends. Both Remarque and Doctor Ravik, created by him, being far from their homeland, find an outlet for the soul in reading books. How accurate are Remarque’s quotes about them, true friends and advisers for suffering human souls, the intangible creation of human genius!

He was fond of the works of Zweig, Dostoevsky, Goethe, and Thomas Mann. It is clear that books on philosophy and good classical literature do not bring additional material means for existence. However, as the German classic of the 20th century soulfully writes, they create in the human soul an insurmountable barrier to evil, preventing this dark element from entering his life.

The image of the author in the Arc de Triomphe

Remarque's quotes speak about the author's life position. “The Arc de Triomphe... protecting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with its bulk” acts as a pan-European symbol of peace and stability. It is perceived as a kind of majestic artifact that survived the rise and fall of Napoleon and which is destined to survive the fiasco of Hitler. The novel itself is a hymn to the European worldview, based on love, reasonable individualism, tolerance, critical understanding of reality, and readiness for dialogue.

Despite the fact that Dr. Ravik, living in Paris with forged documents, endures hardships - he does not have permanent housing, did not start a family and children - he is not embittered, his thoughts and actions are honest and open. He, following his conscience, helps people in situations where his more prosperous colleagues show selfishness and selfishness.

Remarque himself was always noted for his high integrity in private life. He, like Mother Teresa, tried to help everyone. For example, Erich simply sheltered Hans Sochachever’s colleague in his house... His works were in demand and brought in fees, he actually spent them all on financial assistance to his compatriots - dissidents.

A serious personal loss for the writer was the loss of his friend, the German journalist Felix Mendelssohn, who was killed in public, in broad daylight, by Nazi agents.

He is deeply rooted for his compatriots, especially those in France. After all, the occupation of this country by Germany for many of them ended in concentration camps and death... Perhaps that is why Remarque ends his most tragic novel on a minor note. The controversial and feminine Joan dies from a shot from a jealous actor. German troops cross the border and approach the capital of France. Ravik acts like a fatalist - he surrenders to the police, instead of hiding...

The special atmosphere of Paris of the 30s conveyed by the author

It would be unfair, when talking about the Arc de Triomphe, not to note its artistic and historical value. Reading it, it’s as if you are plunging into the pre-war atmosphere... Remarque’s quotes tell about the special image of Paris, living an unnatural luxurious life, as if by inertia. "Arc de Triomphe" talks about the carelessness of life in French society. The fragility of this state of affairs is obvious.

Symbolic in the description of the French capital is the focus of readers' attention on two buildings - the Arc de Triomphe and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Conclusion

The reading community is diverse... We are truly different: poor and rich, successful and struggling, seeing the world in bright colors and painting it in gray tones. So what do we have in common?

I would like that, having asked this question, readers themselves would find the answer in classical literature, remembering some quotes... Erich Remarque, being at his core an individualist, in fact in all his novels appealed specifically to the human community. And its main values, according to the writer, should be love, friendship, loyalty, and decency. A person who possesses these qualities invariably brings light to the small world where he lives.

However, this is not enough. After all, a “passport” (i.e. citizenship), according to Remarque, gives a person only one right - to die of hunger, “without being on the run.” Therefore, it is also important to be a professional in your chosen business.

All these qualities are inherent in Remarque.

Actually, for two thirds of the way through the book, I thought I was going to write my first angry review of Arc de Triomphe. So it will go first negative part reviews...
Everyone praises, well, just everyone, but I say “Baba Yaga is against it!” Yes, there were some moments that I could call strong and successful, but overall the book gave the impression of theatricality and pretense. She was similar to the films in which Marlene Dietrich starred, the prototype of Joan Madu - just as contrasting and pathetic. I read and persuaded myself: “Well, why are you reacting this way? The book is autobiographical, and if a person describes his feelings, he cannot go too far, he really felt like that! It means that you simply cannot understand other people’s feelings, that’s all!” I also remembered that Remarque even signed his letters to Dietrich as Ravik. In short, I tried to convince myself that I had no right to criticize someone else’s life.
What didn't I like? I was almost shaking because the author “spouts out truisms like a school teacher.” I don't think people can talk like that. Well, judge for yourself - remember the episode when Ravik stood in the rain near Joan’s house. Remember what he said?

“And you are up there,” he said, laughing, turning to the lighted window and not noticing that he was laughing. - You, little flame, Fata Morgana, the face that has acquired such strange power over me; you, who I met on a planet where there are hundreds of thousands of others, better, more beautiful, smart, kind, faithful, reasonable... Here I am standing here, I am pathetic, and the claws of jealousy are tearing everything inside me; and I want and despise you, I admire you and adore you, for you threw the lightning that ignited me, the lightning hidden in every bosom, you planted a spark of life in me, a dark fire.

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Fiction as a historical source. Source analysis using the example of Erich Maria Remarque’s novel “Arc de Triomphe”.

Historical aspect in the work of E.M. Remark.

The work of E. M. Remarque, closely linked to the events of the First and Second World Wars, fully reveals to readers and researchers the atmosphere of life in Europe in the 1930s. The central line of the works is the problem of German refugees. The creation of novels is based, among other things, on the personal experiences of the author, who witnessed the historical events described and took part in hostilities, and in his work reflected the evolution of the attitude of a person of the twentieth century to the problem of fascism and Nazism.

As the Soviet critic and literary critic V. Ya. Kirpotin notes in his articles, the work of E. M. Remarque evolves throughout the writer’s life, which is certainly linked to the events the author experienced for thirty years - the reign of A. Hitler, and the Second World War war, and many other events that deeply shocked both Remarque himself and his contemporaries, forcing them to change their worldview and thinking.

The work of E. M. Remarque has undergone significant ideological and thematic evolution. The chronological sequence of the novels traces how the nightmares of the First World War gradually, starting with the novel “Love Thy Neighbor,” recede back in front of the anti-fascist theme, and pre-war Munich Europe appears in the author’s field of vision, the image of a new “lost generation”, generation already the Second World War, how anxiously and angrily in his later works the author finally turns to the problems of our time and denounces neo-fascist tendencies in the political development of Germany.

Analysis of the work “Arc de Triomphe”.

The action of the novel “Arc de Triomphe” by Erich Maria Remarque takes place in 1938 in France, in Paris. The story is about a talented German surgeon, Ludwig Fresenburg, who was forced to flee Nazi Germany under the pseudonym Ravik. The beginning of the novel tells about the meeting of the protagonist with a desperate woman, disappointed in life, with whom Ravik later becomes close and whom he eventually loses due to the death of the heroine. The images of Ravika and Joan Madu personify a person of the late 1930s - disappointed, lonely, living in fear and fatigue from endless persecution.

Analysis of the symbolism of the work.

The novel is filled with symbolism, among which stands out the image of life itself, expressed by the author in the image of rain, downpour - water symbolizes the power of life, love, reviving people. It rains during Ravik's nights with Joan Madu, during the costume ball. Night in the novel is linked to two borderline phenomena - war and love. In the dark, communication and rapprochement of the main characters take place, and at night Ravik manages to kill the hated Haake.

The novel is also characterized by historical symbolism. The plot of the work takes place on the Pont Alma in Paris on November 11, 1938. This is the 20th anniversary of the Truce of Compiegne, which ended the First World War. The Arc de Triomphe itself, against the background of which the events of the novel take place, symbolizes the freedom and independence of France, each individual individual and all humanity as a whole.

Analysis of the historical conditions of the origin of the work and the biography of the author.

E.M. Remarque begins work on the novel “Arc de Triomphe” in 1938, during the period of the beginning of the systematic mass extermination of Jews in Germany and Austria, and then throughout Europe. The year 1938 also marked the beginning of the external expansion of Nazi Germany, while the country began to intensively prepare for war. After the reign of fascism in Germany, Remarque himself was forced to leave his homeland; Having lost his German citizenship, his works were banned and publicly burned.

The theme of war and Nazism could not but affect the work of Remarque, who not only survived the war years, but also lost his loved ones during the reign of A. Hitler.

The Nazis are mentioned 29 times in the work, a number that increases in subsequent works. This factor is determined both by Remarque’s more thorough understanding of his life experience towards the end of his life, as well as by the territorial factor. If later works are created by Remarque in America, then the writing of “Arc de Triomphe” takes place in Europe. At the same time, secret agents of the Gestapo and emigrants hiding from them come to the fore in the writer’s work. Not only a historical, but also an autobiographical line of influence on the work can be traced.

Analysis of publications of the work.

Arc de Triomphe was first published in 1945 in the United States, becoming the first German-language novel published after World War II and predating the publication of the original by one year. The German edition was published in 1946 at a time when Remarque was still in exile. The novel has been translated into at least 15 languages.

In 1948, and subsequently in 1985, Arc de Triomphe was filmed. The translation of the novel “Arc de Triomphe” into Russian was first published in the journal “Foreign Literature” in 1959 - thirteen years after the appearance of the German original.

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Only worthy copies are kept in the nooks and crannies of memory, only real manuscripts, works and sleepless nights of talented hands who wrote what was imprinted on the marble slabs of the soul.

Such books, like a narcotic psychotropic drug, eat into the brain and make you return to them again and again. And over the years, on the shelves of memory, like on the shelf of an old woman’s bathroom, there are drug books that you won’t part with even on your deathbed.

Among other such second-hand book addictions, on my shelf is

And I will tell you in my short monologue why it has become my biggest addiction to date.

Arc de Triomphe is not just a novel. This is a multifaceted story, riddled with thoughts and feelings. This is the very work that you parse into quotes from your life, a puzzle of emotions and life positions that have become eternal.

This is the story of a military surgeon, whose caution and foresight replaced his happiness and carelessness and a woman enjoying fleeting victories; the story of girls from brothels, in which there is more humanity, “than among those who have never slept with a man”, the cynicism of colleagues and the transience and extraordinary value of human life.

A philosophy book about the decline of European civilization during the Second World War (when the main character compares Europe to a herd of walruses, which lay in their hundreds on the shore and did nothing, watching as the hunters, one after another, killed their relatives) - “The tired and formless twilight of the gods. Faded banners of human rights... Peoples, as if slowly being driven to the slaughter, like sheep. A sheep will be sacrificed and the fleas will be saved. As always…"

Each chapter of this book with extraordinary precision, as if with a hammer, knocks out the truth in your head about life, relationships between loved ones, colleagues, strangers, about what is truly valuable, not fleeting and not superficial. The author’s ability to convey the contrast between beauty and wretchedness, as if between the lines, evokes genuine admiration ( “...Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne. All three canvases actually hung without frames. They glowed on the dirty wallpaper, like windows into some other world...")

A fine line of intellectuality, education and sensuality permeates every page of this work. The whole simplicity and simultaneous complexity of the plot is that, in fact, there are no main characters, since each hero of the Arc de Triomphe teaches the reader through the prism of his life on the other side of the binding.

Surgeon Ravik teaches honor, mercy, perseverance and the ability to withstand difficulties, teaches that revenge is a completely inedible dish.

Joan - the desire to live, live life to the fullest, not be afraid to show your emotions, stick to your position and not strive to change it under the pressure of circumstances.

Roland and Morozov - true friendship and loyalty, despite danger and depressing circumstances.

Midwife Madame Boucher - that the world is full of injustice, but even from such situations you can benefit.

Boy Jeannot - how people’s true values ​​can sometimes differ.

Kat - the thirst for life, the subtle sense of appearing at the right time, at the right moment and being on time.

This book leaves behind the taste of an immense feeling that can break all barriers and unite millions of completely different people - this book gives birth to love!

I don't want to tell you the plot! Banality is not for Remarque’s works!

I invite you to plunge into the unusually subtle intellectual and philosophical world of his works!

Start with the “Arc de Triomphe” and, take my word for it, you will fall in love with the crystal web of his phrases and thoughts, which will sound like a magical melody in your heart!

“Arc de Triomphe”, an arch from the word “triumph”, winners must pass through it. Napoleon, for whom this arch was built in Paris, passed through it, only forward with his feet - the irony of fate, the grin of death...
- you have a photo of the Arc de Triomphe -
- ok, but I'm going to Berlin first -
In general, you can wait for a while from this friend of mine, the search engine helped me much more quickly, you know what “researcher’s itching” is?, only here and now - there’s no other way.
The main question for me was: “why did Remarque call his work “Arc de Triomphe?” novels, whoever read the litter...
Remarque is living human emotions, simple and therefore real, without any superheroes or other entourage, in my opinion he was honest with his reader, he wrote about what he probably experienced (I am aware of his biography) or almost experienced, although for You don’t have to worry about the genius that he undoubtedly was - you can feel “from a distance” and color the “picture” with your emotions and experiences.
So the year of creation, the reasons for creation, the purpose... the purpose of such structures is obvious - to show the greatness and triumph of the winner, that is, massive, grandiose and monumental, I would say indestructible, nothing should raise doubts about the invincibility of the triumphant - there is only one, he is the emperor , only he is the leader, only he is right... Such structures should suppress the common man in the street, the arch should hang and “crush” with its monolith, suppress the ability to resist, exclude compromise...
Dimensions: height 49.51 m, width 44.82 m, depth (to be honest, I couldn’t find it, but somewhere half the width), i.e. let's take 20-22 meters, located on a hill on Star Square (12 streets converge on the square) Massive? Monumental? Suppresses? 49.51x44.82x20-26.8x20x20 = about 34 thousand cubic meters, with an average stone density (let’s take sandstone) of 0.8 t/cubic meters. we get a mass of about 22 thousand tons... at an altitude of 45 meters... Yes, such a mass will overwhelm - a “chest of drawers” ​​of this size cannot but overwhelm... What other task does this building have...? Of course, to admire those who cannot be suppressed - sculptures, bas-reliefs, a multi-level attic, portraits of Napoleon's officers inside... For me, they look lonely against the backdrop of a military chopped and strictly "chest of drawers"... Ah, the French))) always try to decorate and make everything sophisticated... My opinion is that the architectural delights here are not at all admirable... Well, that’s subjective...
So to Remarque... The hero of the novel is a Surgeon, with a capital letter of this word, a professional without emotions... Or almost without emotions, a man who lives with one goal - revenge, he lost everything: homeland, family, love, he went through hell... He has nothing to lose, the only thing that can scare him (if such people can be scared at all) is that he may not have time to take revenge... Against the backdrop of Paris - a city where it is not necessary to be happy (yes, I saw a picture here), I don’t know who and how, and the hero found his happiness, as hopeless as his fate - the singer is sick... Paris is waiting for war, no one believes in the inevitable, although many are already fleeing... Due to martial law, the illumination is turned off at night and the arch appears to our hero in the dark... Hiding all its beauty in the shadows... Seeming him as a monolith that is overwhelming, ruthless, devouring hope... In my opinion, Remarque chose this name for a reason... This arch is its meaninglessness with from the point of view of a professional (the main character), dealing with the real, living, who knows the value of life, and not with surrounding wrappers, he sees the stupidity and meaninglessness of its creation - an insane amount of resources, labor of sweat and blood for the sake of passing under this pile of stone an ambitious person, a person (in In the case of Remarque, this is Hitler) who breaks other people's destinies, reeling lives into the millstones of his ambitions, redrawing borders, depriving ordinary people of ordinary happiness, not giving a damn about the lives of children, women and the elderly... Not giving a damn about the lives of his compatriots who are trying to eradicate nations, without any special for that reason... For the sake of satisfying some passions only understandable to them... The uselessness of this structure is obvious - it is just a symbol of someone’s greatness... And this majesty was carried under the arch feet first... symbolically) but now, about the name - the triumphal arch is a symbol of the collapse of a common man, a man who lost everything and found even more... Yes, hopelessly, and incredibly, but he found, he achieved this crazy, strange happiness, this all-consuming love... With the smell of Calvados.. The Arc de Triomphe is an altar on which human lives are thrown - a symbol of victory... I would knock down all the decorations and paint this arch black... Victory in war is never beautiful, victory in war is always scary... This grief, hardship, suffering, death...
But, no matter how I voice my desires... There are many triumphal arches... They were and will be... There will always be a few who will rule and sacrifice millions who will pass under these arches... So let them be carried there feet first...