Question

A man cannot realize that above such shattered bodies there are still human faces in which life goes its daily round. And this is only one hospital, one single station; there are hundreds of thousands in Germany, hundreds of thousands in France, hundreds of thousands in Russia. How senseless is everything that can ever be written, done, or thought when such things are possible. It must all be lies and of no account when the culture of a thousand years could not prevent this stream of blood being poured out, these torture-chambers in their hundreds of thousands. A hospital alone shows what war is.

Part A
How does this excerpt relate to what you already know about the number of casualties of World War I?

Answer 1

The excerpt relates to the horrific casualties of World War I, emphasizing the large scale of human suffering and death. It aligns with historical accounts detailing the physical and emotional toll of the war on soldiers and civilians, as well as its portrayal in post-war literature.

Step-by-step explanation:

The excerpt reflects the devastating impact of World War I on soldiers and civilians, highlighting the senselessness of the immense casualties and suffering. World War I resulted in an astronomical number of casualties, with the military deaths between nine to ten million, civilian deaths approximately at ten million, and over twenty-one million wounded.

This massive loss of life and the high rate of injuries convey the grim reality of the war that literature of the era, like works by Ernest Hemingway, Erich Maria Remarque, and others, tried to capture. The sheer scale of the misery and the inadequacy of pre-war culture to prevent such suffering rendered past cultural achievements seemingly futile in preventing such carnage and reinforced the idea of a 'lost generation.