50 pages • 1 hour read
Ernst JungerStorm of Steel
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1920A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaChapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary: “Les Eparges”
In his first battle, as artillery falls around them, Jünger sees his first casualties, or their remains: “A little later, we passed the spot that had been hit. The casualties had already been removed. Bloody scraps of cloth and flesh had been left on bushes around the crater” (23).
He also sees dead soldiers all around, and the artillery shells rip in everywhere. Near dark, Jünger stumbles upon dozens of unburied French corpses, months old. As the day brightens, the artillery begins again, and in the midst of battle, Jünger shows his inexperience: “Still unfamiliar with the sounds of war, I was not able to distinguish the hisses and whistles and bangs of our own gunnery from the ripping crash of enemy shells” (27). As the battle continues, Jünger wishes for the experience his fellow soldiers have already won:“While all this was going on, I suffered from a rather curious anxiety. I was envious of the old ‘Lions of Perthes’ for their experience in the ‘witches cauldron,’ which I had missed out on through being away in Recouvrence” (29).
When he is wounded later in the battle, Jünger experiences terror and runs:“Like a bolting horse, I rushed through dense undergrowth, across paths and clearings, till I collapsed in a copse by the Grande Tranchée” (31). A small piece of shrapnel slices deep into Jünger’s leg, and he is sent away from the battle, where he thinks about what just happened: “What a beautiful country it was, and eminently worth our blood and our lives. Never before had I felt its charm so clearly. I had good and serious thoughts, and for the first time I sensed that this war was more than just a great adventure” (33).
Chapter 3 Analysis
Jünger’s journey through his first battle is also a journey through his emotions and reactions. At first, Jünger is curious as to what everyone is so scared of. He doesn’t understand what the artillery is firing at, and he believes “baptism of fire” (24), or experience in a battle, is made out to be much more than it really is. Jünger here is experiencing shock, or tunnel vision, as his mind refuses to acknowledge the danger.
Next, Jünger sees his first dead bodies, and he experiences the first loss of one of his fellow soldiers. He describes the bodies in great detail: “A giant form with red, blood-spattered beard stared fixedly at the sky, his fingers clutching the spongy ground” (24). He also says the sight of dead eyes will stay with him through the war, a sight he can never get rid of.
When the battle begins, Jünger is confused and scared. He can’t distinguish friendly fire from enemy fire, telling the reader that it doesn’t matter. If he is hit by artillery, or a stray bullet, he is dead, so it doesn’t matter which side it comes from. He can’t tell direction in the battle, believing the bullets and bombs are coming from every direction. This indicates he is either panicked or that bombs and bullets are coming from all directions because that’s what a battle constitutes.
Finally, Jünger’s fight or flight instinct tells him to flee. He bolts like an animal when wounded, unable to control himself. After he is taken away from the front and back to Germany, however, he is so happy to be alive that he thinks the landscape is beautiful. However, he doesn’t realize that the landscape is beautiful because it is away from the battle and the bodies.
