Meaning of Spark of Life by Erich Maria Remarque

How nationality becomes not a boon, but a punishment in a society of crazy people. Erich Maria Remarque during his life wrote a lot of wonderful works of an anti-war nature, which forever crash into human memory. Moreover, the author wanted it to be so. His main goal is to make his descendants think about the horrors of war and what is better not to bring it to a head.

Today we will analyze a brief plot and the meaning of the novel “Spark of Life”. So sit back, it will be interesting!

The meaning of the novel “Spark of Life”

Remarque Spark of life

The novel tells us the story of the life of prisoners in a concentration camp near the town of Mellern. Behind the barbed wire is a huge number of doomed, but still full of hope people.

The year is 1945, and from the bombings of the allied aviation it becomes clear that they will be released soon, but obviously not everyone will live to this day, since the Nazis simply went berserk.

One of the main characters of the novel is prisoner number five hundred nine. He and his comrades are already in the part of the camp reserved for the incapacitated, that is, those who can no longer work.

He helps and supports his friends, despite the fact that there is less and less strength left every day. One day, an application for several people for medical experiments comes to the camp. The choice falls on the 509th, but he refuses and miraculously remains alive.

Remarque spark of life

Other people see him as a symbol of hope, they think that he, who miraculously escaped, will help them avoid death.

Along with this, the resistance of the prisoners is growing stronger in the camp, they gradually have weapons, small supplies of food. In the last days of the camp, most of the guards were withdrawn, only zealous CC sheep remained, who finally decided to burn down the barracks with prisoners. Our 509th tried to stop them, even managed to inflict a severe wound on the most zealous Nazi Weber. However, he was killed during the battle.

Further, Remarque tells us about the post-war life of former prisoners after he was finally released by the Americans.

Plot Summary

The meaning of the novel is that a person can and should remain in any conditions, even in such terrible ones as a concentration camp. Along with this, you can’t hang your head and put up with your situation, because hope, as they say, dies last.

If you make enough effort, then others will see in you a symbol, for which they will be ready, leaving everything, to go.

Remarque Spark of life

Remarque also wanted to tell us that war is a terrible place where human bodies and souls are simply crushed. Those who still managed to go through her crucible become completely different people.

The author did his best to write in his novels so realistically and believably that no one would ever think of repeating the events in Europe during the Second World War. However, as we see, human nature is difficult to manage and change.

This concludes our analysis. If you have questions or suggestions, be sure to write them in the comments. And we have prepared for other analyzes. Here they are

Analysis of the meaning of the novel “The Burden of Human Passions” by Maugham or the biography of an ordinary person

The meaning of the visual novel “Watchmen” or how to show supers from a human point of view

The meaning of the book “War does not have a woman’s face” or how the fair sex survived in a human meat grinder

How did Sienkiewicz’s novel “Kamo Gryadeshi” end or how the Poles wrote about Antiquity

Peaceful sky above your head and see you soon on the pages of new articles!

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