Quote 1
"Then what exactly is the war for?" asks Tjaden.
Kat shrugs his shoulders. "There must be some people to whom the war is useful."
"Well, I'm not one of them," grins Tjaden.
"Not you, nor anybody else here." (9.51-54)
Who is World War I benefiting? It is interesting that the soldiers never hear (or at least our narrator never tells us that they hear) any inspiring or motivating speeches from superior officers about why they should fight. When we think about battles and about dying for one's country, we think about Braveheart or Henry's speeches to his men in Shakespeare's Henry V – you know, when the king tells his men "once more into the breech, dear friends, once more" (3.1). But we just don't hear anything inspiring in the world of this novel. Did the Kaiser (the German emperor), Wilhelm II, deliver any speeches or write anything that would answer Tjaden's question?