The Role of Memory in The Train Was on Time by Heinrich Boll - Essay Example

The role of memory in "Der Zug war pünktlich" by Heinrich Böll The story “The train was on time” delimits a peculiar stage at the creative activity of Heinrich Boll. This work made Boll famous not only in his country but abroad. It should be mentioned that the genre of story was new for the writer after a great number of miniatures, though Boll was successful in this genre. “The train was on time” was the first attempt to realise what had happened to people. The story was the first attempt to describe not only a single event, but the face of the epoch; not only the separate fate but the fate of all generation and even more – the fate of the whole nation. This story is not a vivid reminiscence from the times of war, but a bitter and honest confession of a person, who was not only a witness, but a forced participant of the events. The plot of the story is very simple: the soldier Andreas goes to the Eastern battle-front. He feels that the time of is death is approaching. The thoughts about his death are teasing his mind. Andreas does not want to die, he wants to live because he loves his life. But merciless Hitler’s machine keeps him inside. Fear does not leave Andreas even for a second. His misgivings come true and Andreas dies. Though Andreas’ character is at the centre of the story, but it does not occupy the whole reader’s attention. It is possible to see everything that surrounds the main character. All these details are the concentration of fascist dictatorship, which governs German people. The character of Andreas includes many features of Heinrich Boll, though this character is not the writer’s self-portrait. Andreas is a collective character. Many Germans shared Andreas’ fate. Everybody had their individual events in life but all people had one thing in common: civilian duty, army service, numerous wounds, and death. Germans from different parts – from West and East, from North and South – had the same destiny. The people of that time were the witnesses or the participants of the Great War. Heinrich Boll tried to show the fate of a young German who was the accessory of the crime contrary to his will. Andreas resisted but he could not win. In this sense the story is autobiographic, it is a sincere confession of the author. The author shows that it is very difficult to live with the terrible memories inside. Here the author makes some conclusions which determine his present and future life. From the first sight the story has the impress of fatalism and mystics. The thought “Ich werde bald sterben” (Heinrich Böll, Der Zug war pünktlich, s.13) appears on the first page suddenly and without any motivations for this. This phrase determines the tone of the story pierced with the feeling of fear. The most terrible and impressive is that this feeling is grounded and it is not a fruit of his fantasy but he really dies at the end. The tension of the story is in the dramatic situation of ‘a small person’, who is helpless facing with the fascist state machine, who would like to defend themselves, their personality, but they are pressed by power again and again. This person has only one choice – death. Fear paralyzes them and forces to obey. They follow the fascist cruel machine. The composition of the story corresponds to the dramatic conflict. The characters of Andreas, Willy, lance-corporal Sebentall, and Oline form one pole of the story. Another pole is the power which governs them. Firstly this power restrains their individuality, freedom, and then it uses it for its aims. The fate and death of the main characters of the story grows into the accusation against the social regime, which is the root of evil. Fascism is the power that ruins human lives. Hitler, fascism, militarism, and war are the same concepts for Heinrich Boll. The story “The train was on time” tells that it was hardly possible to find a person who was not touched by this cruel war. The company of soldiers is the gallery of interesting and complicated characters. The greatest number of soldiers is poisoned by the false ideals. They are talking about knights cross, about the advantages of antitank guns, about their heroic conduct, about their career, about food, tobacco, and women. These soldiers are sure that they have practically won the war. They kill their thought by the silly songs which have no sense at all. There are some soldiers who are sceptic towards everything but they are ordered to fight and that is why they can not do anything. It is a very difficult situation for every person and that is why it is possible to say that they are the accessories. All their moral human principles are ruined and their instincts are the norms of life. It is worth mentioning that all the details are reflected in the character of Andreas. It is possible to see a terrible picture of collapse and rotting. Nevertheless Heinrich Boll believes in the strength of man’s spirit. He is sure that man can save their dignity and moral principles even if they are surrounded by evil people. The author embodied this idea in the character of Andreas. This character is opposite to the character of cruel fascist Germany. Every human feature of Andreas underlines the negative attitude to fascism. Andreas hates violence which governs his life. He always tries to resist. Andreas’ memories are very important in the text, they show that Andreas is not a machine for killing yet but he is a person, who doesn’t want to be a murder. Andreas remembers how he was wounded in France, he did not want “wie ein Held auf dem Feld zu sterben” (Heinrich Böll, Der Zug war pünktlich, s.43 - 44), it remembered a poem to him, but he was not a hero and he did not want to advertise this “grausamer Krieg” (Heinrich Böll, Der Zug war pünktlich, s.40). Andreas’ memories are independent and they form antithesis to everything that is taking place around Andreas. The inner talk of the main character Andreas is the reflection of the young soldiers’ chats. Such a structure of the scene is very appropriate for the method of denunciation, used by Boll in order to show the real face of fascist military machine. The memories, antitheses, and sudden associations of Andreas create the picture of Boll’s views about the antihuman German mechanism, where everything is marked by the word ‘war’. Especially it is obvious while the railway stations descriptions, where young people “werden zum Krieg eingeladen” (Heinrich Böll, Der Zug war pünktlich, s.71). The thoughts and memories of the main character Andreas are always opposite to the official orders and commands. It should be mentioned that there is a very remarkable episode in which is taking place in the train: the soldiers are talking about the war, about Hitler and their victory while Andreas is keeping silent. The author underlines that “das Schweigen von denjenigen, die nichts sagen, ist schrecklich. Es ist das Schweigen von denjenigen, die nie vergessen …”(Heinrich Böll, Der Zug war pünktlich, s.84). The author’s remark supports Andreas’ thoughts. While reading the story we can feel that it could be said much if these people talked. Andreas is a collective character as it was already mentioned; he combines the features, which are common for many people. Andreas memories and thought are the only things that belong only to him. His life and his body belong to German Army and Hitler, and his wish is to have at least his mind. Boll says that people, who give their minds to fascism, are really poor and they belong to Hitler completely. Andreas prays for Jewry, but in fact, according to fascist ideology, he should hate these people. This is Andreas’ protest against Hitler and fascism. The problem is that Andreas’ memories can not save his life from the unavoidable death. Though his inner protest is very strong he does everything that he is ordered. The main character can not express his protest directly. Due to this the character of an old soldier, who tries to protest, is very important. The old soldier can not win and he dies, though it is better than to give life for fascism. The character of Andreas is very complicated because he lives inside his memories. But in fact it is possible to say that he has a lack of courage. The social machine has the power of fate and rock and kills every freedom. Due to this fact war can be identified as an impersonal character. For a ‘small person’ war means wounds, fear, need, death and that is why the idea of war is completely negative in both cases: whether it is aggressive or protective. This mistakable point of view determines the second part of the story “The train was on time”. Here Andreas meets Oline and they are enemies but contrary to their will. Their relationship is the result of their Motherlands’ death-feud. They are different in the attitude to their countries. Andreas hates his state because it forces him to take part in the war, Oline loves her Motherland Poland. She protects it of her own accord, though she knows that she can be killed. Oline and Andreas meet and fall in love with each other: „Es ist merkwürdig, noch keine Frau, die ich je gesehen habe, habe ich so wenig begehrt wie diese, die schön ist und die ich so-fort haben könnte. Ach, manchmal ist es durch mich gezuckt, ohne dass ich es wusste und wollte, dass es wirklich schön ist, eine Frau zu besitzen. Aber noch keine habe ich so wenig begehrt wie diese“ (Heinrich Böll, Der Zug war pünktlich, s.90). The character of Oline has tragic features also. As soon as she promises to protect her Motherland, she is governed by the great power of war. The main idea of the story by Heinrich Boll is the war denunciation. The main character of the story Andreas says that “Krieg ist ein Mord, jeder Tod am Krieg ist ein Mord, und jemand ist dafür verantwortlich”(Heinrich Böll, Der Zug war pünktlich, s.98). Here it should be mentioned the contradictive point of Boll’s story. On the one hand Boll is a great enemy of the war and he says that every war is antihuman and cruel; on the other hand he states that people should fight against fascist regime. I think that at this stage of the creative activity Boll did not realize the main point of fascism and its class roots, the character of the contradictions of the epoch described. Boll looks at everything by the eyes of ‘a small person’. Boll’s ideas are embodied in the Oline’s words: “Es ist schrecklich, dass alles so gefühllos ist …”(Heinrich Böll, Der Zug war pünktlich, s.112.) The story ends with an attempt of Andreas and Oline to become free from the power of war. Olina believes that it is really possible and they can be human and kind people. Andreas is more sceptical. The death of both characters symbolizes the tragedy of the unavoidable fate. Here readers can understand the meaning of the title ”The train was on time”. It means that a great train of the war is never late. Though the end of the story is quite pessimistic Boll gives some hopes for the best - probably fascism can be won. The character of Andreas does not excuse anybody who took part in the Great War. The author’s aim is to create a person who does not resign themselves to fascism. The story “The train was on time” is one of the best works by Heinrich Boll. Heinrich Boll is famous for his works about ‘the lost generation’. This concept includes a huge number of people who lost their lives and moral health while taking part in the War. The works by Heinrich Boll are valuable not only for his ideas, which are of important issue even today, but for description of the events viewed by German. References Heinrich Boll, Leila Vennewitz (Translator) The Train Was on Time, Northwestern University Press; Reprint edition, 1994 Heinrich Böll, Der Zug war pünktlich. Erzählung, Frankfurt: Ullstein, 1963. Read More