Life on loan, quotes, popular expressions from the book of Erich Maria Remarque

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

German writer Erich Maria Remarque started writing after he fought back in the First World War. "All Quiet on the Western Front" - the novel with which Remarque debuted, gave the impression of an exploding bomb. The story of the "lost generation" was translated into 25 languages of the world, filmed and received all possible prizes from the Academy of Cinematography.

"Life on loan" came out in 1959, later the title was changed to "Heaven knows no favorites". In the novel, the writer explores the eternal theme of life and death. Under the gun is the paradoxical observation that for all the transience of life, it is eternal, and death, for all its inevitability, is instantaneous. In Russia, the novel under the first title was published in the journal Foreign Literature. Based on the 1977 movie "Bobby Deerfield", the driver was played by Al Pacino (directed by Sidney Pollack).

Waiting for the inevitable

So, a novel about life and death. Main characters:Lillian and Clerfe. They are united by opposite desires: Lilian is ill with tuberculosis, so she madly wants to live, and Clerfe recklessly risks her life, testing her strength and, apparently, wants to die.

The philosophy of the "lost generation" touched the minds of the main characters of the novel. The meaninglessness of the life they've been wasting worries them both.

Here are some quotes from E. M. Remarque's book "Life on loan":

They all seek either adventure, or business, or to fill the void in themselves with the noise of jazz.

Entertainment and adventure hunting haunt an entire generation of people, because, as the past wars have shown, there are no guarantees that tomorrow will come. The only way to feel alive is to throw yourself into the abyss of life with all your might.

They say there are two ways to deal with money these days. One is to save money and then lose it during inflation, the other is to spend it.

At the same time, meeting with Lilian makes Clerfe take a different look at life: from the point of view of a girl for whom every day is a gift of fate.

Another quote from the book "Life on loan":

She is chasing life, only life, she is madly hunting for her, as if life is a white deer or a fabulous unicorn. She is so devoted to the pursuit that her excitement infects others. She knows neither hold nor look back. With her, you feel either old and shabby, or a perfect child.

And then from the depths of forgotten yearssuddenly someone's faces come up, old dreams and shadows of old dreams are resurrected, and then suddenly, like a flash of lightning at dusk, a long-forgotten feeling of the uniqueness of life appears.

Rally through life

What can in the midst of boredom and routine revive an almost dead soul? Only life itself. As soon as a person faces the threat of losing it, he clings with all his might to this ephemeral substance, although he is well aware that this is a temporary state. But why do you want to continue? Really - omnipotent love makes a person live …

Borrowed Life quotes on this topic:

She knows that she must die, and got used to this thought, as people get used to morphine, this thought transforms the whole world for her, she knows no fear, neither vulgarity nor blasphemy frightens her.

Why the hell do I feel something like dread instead of jumping into the whirlpool without thinking?

The protagonist of the novel does not immediately trust the flashed feeling, because he risks his life too often, it has no value for him. Too intrusive, short and unpredictable, according to Clerfe.

You come and watch a play where at first you don't understand a word, and then when you start to understand something, it's time for you to leave.

He is annoyed by any manifestations of insincerity, any falsehood, hypocrisy. For him, the attending staff of the sanatorium for tuberculosis patients, where Lilian is being treated, becomes a symbol of such indifferent manifestation of care.

E. M. Remarque, "Life on loan", quotes:

And why do these he alth guards treat people who are in the hospital with such patient superiority, like those babies or cretins?

But unexpectedly for himself, he concludes that it is the inevitability of death that makes it possible for a person to experience life:

I realized that everything in which we consider ourselves superior to animals - our happiness, more personal and more multifaceted, our deeper knowledge and more cruel soul, our capacity for compassion and even our idea of God - everything it was bought at one price: we knew what, according to the understanding of people, is inaccessible to animals - we knew the inevitability of death.

On the scales

In the novel "Life on loan" there is no place for politics: the war is over, people have returned to peaceful life and are trying to fix it in different ways. In addition to the main characters of the novel, who go against the flow of life. Why? Which makes Lillian rush into the whirlpool of life at the first opportunity, leave the shelter, where there may be a chance for recovery.

The thoughts of the heroine in quotes:

What do I know about life? Destruction, flight from Belgium, tears, fear, death of parents, hunger, and then illness due to hunger and flight. Before that, I was a child.

I hardly remember what cities look like at night. What do I know about the sea of lights, about the avenues and streets sparkling at night? All I know is darkened windows and a hail of bombs falling from the darkness. I know only the occupation, the search for shelter and the cold. Happiness? How narrowed this boundless word that once shone in my dreams. Happiness began to seem like an unheated room, a piece of bread, a shelter, any place that was not shelled.

The death of a friend pushes Lillian to a reckless act: to leave the sanatorium. This rebellion is actually an escape from death, an escape for a dream. She didn't particularly think about it, because the value of life can only be known by living it.

"Life on loan", quotes from the book:

Really, in order to understand something, a person needs to survive a catastrophe, pain, poverty, the proximity of death?!

Clairfe resists, he is used to taking risks, and meeting with Lillian at first seems to him an adventure with a provincial. Unlike Lillian, he had something to lose, he had a desire to take risks and did not have much desire to live. He resisted until he realized that love cannot be overcome. Love is like death - also inevitable and unavoidable. And he rushes after his beloved.

There is no turning back in love. You can never start over: what happens remains in the blood… Love, like time, is irreversible. And neither sacrifice, nor readiness for anything, nor good will - nothing can help, such is the dark and ruthless law of love.

And no future plans

Seek consolation in everything, find even where there is none - obsessed with this thought, Lilian flees from death.

I have no future. Not having a future is almost the same as not obeying earthly laws.

She looks around for symbols to prove her point. Even the Gotthard railway tunnel, through which the heroes pass on their way to Paris, seems to Lillian to be the biblical river Styx, which cannot be entered twice. The gloom and darkness of the tunnel is a bleak past, at the end of the tunnel is the bright light of life…

In inconsolable situations, people always seek solace wherever they can. And they find it.

You don't have to face life, just feel it.

Now, like light and shadow, they were inseparable from each other.

Lillian suddenly realized how they are similar to each other. They were both people without a future. Clerfe's future extended to the next race, and hers to the next bleeding.

For Clerfe, finding love meant a new attitude to life.

He confesses to himself:

I realized that there is no place that would be so good that it is worth throwing your life for it. And there are almost no such people for whom it would be worth doing.

He decides to marry Lilian, proposes to her. He sees charm in what was previously inaccessible and contrary to the worldview of the protagonist.

"Life on loan", quotes:

How beautiful are these women who prevent us from becoming demigods, turning us into fathers of families, into respectable burghers, into breadwinners; women who catch us in their nets, promising to turn us into gods. Aren't they beautiful?

In fact, it was the verdict on their relationship. Lillian could not make plans for the future, she knew too well about her illness. She decides to leave her lover because there is no future for them…

Reversed truths

Overwhelmed by love, the main characters of the novel forgot that everything in this world is finite and death is already waiting around the corner. But she does not die, waiting for death, but he dies during the races - he decided to live for love.

I want to own everything, which means owning nothing.

It makes no sense to bargain with time. And time is life.

Everything in the world contains its opposite, nothing can exist without it, like light without a shadow, like truth without lies, like an illusion without reality - all these concepts are not only connected with each other, but also inseparable apart.

Lilian did not survive her hero for long, she died a month and a half later, returning to the sanatorium. Before dying, she suggests that a person lives only a few days in his life when he is really happy.

Well, Lillian was really happy with Clerfe. Despite the tragic ending of the novel and the death of both characters, the story is permeated with optimism and faith in the power of love and the inevitable victory of life over death.

The opposite of love is death. The bitter spell of love helps us forget about it for a short time. Therefore, anyone who is at least a little familiar with death is also familiar with love.

After all, the value of life is determined not by its length, but by the attitudeperson to her - Her Majesty - Life.