The tragedy of the war in the works of H. Böll
The work of the German writer Heinrich Böll is almost entirely devoted to the theme of war and the postwar life of Germany. His works immediately gained fame, began to be printed in many countries of the world, and in 1972 the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize “for creativity, which combines a broad scope of reality with the high art of creating characters and which has become a significant contribution to the revival of German literature.”
The first collection of the author, consisting of stories and stories, “The Wanderer, when you come to the Spa…” is dedicated to the tragic fate of young German guys who had to go straight to the front from the school’s bench. This theme continues to develop in the later cycles of prose “When the War” and “When the War was Over”. Moving on to larger epic forms, Heinrich Belle creates his first novels about the war: “The train arrived on time” and “Where have you
From 1939 to 1945, Heinrich Belle was a soldier of the Nazi army. His testimonies as a front-line writer have a high degree of certainty. When the question arose of publishing his novel “Where have you been, Adam?” in Russia, the writer approved the publication of his work under one cover with the story of Victor Nekrasov “In the trenches of Stalingrad,” in which the war is shown through the eyes of a young Russian lieutenant.
The action of the novel “Where have you been, Adam?” occurs in 1945, when it was already clear to the Germans that the war was lost. The German troops are retreating, the wounded are being evacuated. Belle shows broken, exhausted people, whom the “accursed war” made indifferent until apathy. The war brought them only sorrow, anguish and hatred for those who sent them to fight. The heroes of the work already understand the meaninglessness of the war, they have inwardly received their sight and do not want to die for Hitler. These deceived and unfortunate victims are contrasted in the novel to the “masters of death,”
The narrative flows slowly, even sluggishly – this creates a feeling of despair. The final episode of the novel shocks the reader with its tragedy. The hero of the novel Feinhalls, finally finding himself in his native city, smiling with happiness, goes to the parents’ house, on which a huge white flag is hung. The soldier learns in it a festive tablecloth, which was once laid on the table by my mother. At this time, gunfire begins. Going to the house, Feinhalls repeats: “Madness, what madness!” Before his eyes, “the sixth projectile struck the front of the house – the bricks fell down, the plaster fell on the sidewalk, and he heard the mother cry out in the cellar.” He quickly crawled to the porch, heard the approaching whistle of the seventh projectile and screamed in deadly anguish. seconds, feeling suddenly that it was not so easy to die at all, loudly shouted,
Henry Bell, one of the first German writers, raised the problem of guilt and rulers, and the people of Germany for the unleashed world war. The writer argued that war can not be an excuse for anyone.
In the subsequent work Belle spoke about the attitude towards fascism, described the postwar devastation in Germany and those times when the new fascists began to raise their head, trying to revive the cult of Hitler. One of the issues of concern to the writer is the question of the future of the country.
Although the action of Bell’s novels “And did not say a single word,” “House without a master,” “Billiards at half past nine,” “Group portrait with a lady” occurs in post-war Germany, the war is invisibly present in them, the curse is gravitating over the heroes. The war can not be forgotten by the Germans, whose fathers, brothers, husbands died somewhere in faraway Russia. Can not forget her and the former boys, whose youth was spent in bullets in the trenches – such as a wonderful writer, courageous and honest German Henry Belle.
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