The German writer Erich Maria Remarck began to write after he conquered the First World War. “On the Western Front Without Changes” - the novel with which Remarque debuted made an 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 Motion Picture Arts.
"Life on loan" was released in 1959, later the name was changed to "Sky knows no favorites." In the novel, the writer explores the eternal theme of life and death. At gunpoint is a paradoxical observation that, with all the transience of life, it is eternal, and death, with all its inevitability, is instantaneous. In Russia, a novel under the first title was published in the journal Foreign Literature. Based on the motives in 1977, the film "Bobby Deerfield" was created, the driver was played by Al Pacino (director Sidney Pollack).
Waiting for the inevitable
So, a novel about life and death. The main characters: Lilian and Clerfe. They are united by directly opposite desires: Lilian is sick with tuberculosis, so she wants to live madly, and Klerfe recklessly risks her life, checking her strength and, apparently, striving to die.
The philosophy of the “lost generation" has affected the minds of the main characters of the novel. The senselessness of the life being lived excites them both.
Here are some quotes from the book by E. M. Remarque "Life on loan":
They all strive either for adventure, or for business, or to fill the void in themselves with the sound of jazz.
Entertainment and hunting for adventure haunt a whole generation of people, because, as the wars have shown, there are no guarantees for tomorrow. The only way to feel alive is to rush into the abyss of life with all its strength.
They say that nowadays you can get rid of money in two ways. One of them is to save money and then lose it during inflation, the other is to spend it.
At the same time, a meeting with Lilian makes Clerfe take a different look at life: from the point of view of a girl for whom every day spent is a gift of fate.
Another quote from the book "Life on loan":
She chases after life, only after life, she hunts for it like crazy, as if life is a white deer or a fabulous unicorn. She is so surrendered to the pursuit that her passion infects others. She knows neither restraint nor looking back. With her you feel now old and shabby, then the most perfect child.
And then someone’s faces suddenly emerge from the depths of forgotten years, old dreams and shadows of old dreams come back to life, and then suddenly, like a flash of lightning at dusk, a long-forgotten feeling of the uniqueness of life appears.
Auto rally in life
What can revive an almost dead soul in the midst of boredom and routine? 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 perfectly understands that this is a temporary condition. But why do you want to continue it? Really - omnipotent love makes a person live ...
Quotes "Life on loan" on this topic:
She knows that she must die, and got used to this thought, how people get used to morphine, this thought transforms the whole world for her, she does not know fear, she is not afraid of vulgarity or sacrilege.
Why the hell am I feeling something like horror, instead of rushing into the maelstrom without thinking?
The protagonist of the novel does not immediately trust the erupted feeling, because he too often risks his life, it has no value for him. Too intrusive, short and unpredictable, says Klerfe.
You come, watch a play in which at first you do not understand a word, and then, when you start to understand something, it is time for you to leave.
He is annoyed by any manifestations of insincerity, any falsehood, hypocrisy. The symbol of such an indifferent manifestation of care for him becomes the attending staff of the sanatorium for tuberculosis patients where Lilian is being treated.
E. M. Remarque, "Life on loan," quotes:
And why are these health guards treating people who are in the hospital with such patient excellence as if they were babies or cretins?
But unexpectedly for himself, he concludes that it is the inevitability of death that makes it possible for a person to feel 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 ability to compassion and even our idea of God - all this was bought at one price: we knew that, according to the understanding of people, 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 in various ways to establish it. In addition to the main characters of the novel, which go against the course of life. Why? What makes Lilian rush into the maelstrom of life as soon as possible, leave the shelter, where there may be a chance for recovery.
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 almost don’t remember what cities look like at night. What do I know about the sea of lights, about the avenues and streets sparkling at night? I only know the darkened windows and the hail of bombs falling from the darkness. I only know the occupation, the search for shelter and the cold. Happiness? How narrowed is 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 fired upon.
The death of a friend pushes Lilian to a reckless act: to leave the sanatorium. This rebellion is actually an escape from death, an escape for a dream. She especially did not hesitate, because the price of life can be found out only 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 nearness of death ?!
Clerfe resists, he is used to take risks, and meeting with Lilian at first seems to him an adventure with a provincial. Unlike Lilian, he has something to lose, he had a desire to take risks and had no particular desire to live. He resisted until he realized that love cannot be overcome. Love is like death - also inevitable and inevitable. 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 preparedness for everything, nor goodwill - nothing can help, such is the gloomy and ruthless law of love.
And no plans for the future
To seek solace in everything, to find even where it is not there, obsessed with this thought, Lilian flees death.
I have no future. To have no future is almost the same as not obeying earthly laws.
She searches in the environment for symbols confirming her innocence. Even the Saint-Gotthard Railway Tunnel, through which the heroes pass on their way to Paris, seems to be Liliane 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 possible. And they find.
Life does not have to face, just feel it.
Now, like light and shadow, they were inseparable from each other.
Lilian suddenly realized how they looked alike. They were both people without a future. Clerfe's future extended to the next race, and hers to the next bleeding.
For Clerfe, gaining love meant a new attitude towards life.
He admits to himself:
I realized that there is no place that would be so good that it would be worth throwing your life for it. And there are almost no such people for whose sake it would be worth doing.
He decides to marry Lilian, proposes to her. He sees the charm in what was previously not accessible 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, respectable burghers, breadwinners; women who catch us in their nets, promising to turn us into gods. Aren't they beautiful?
In fact, it was a sentence to their relationship. Lilian could not make plans for the future, she knew too well about her illness. She decides to part with her lover, because they can have no future ...
The truth is the opposite
Embraced by love, the main characters of the novel forgot that everything in this world is of course and death is already waiting for the bend. But she did not die, waiting for death, but he perishes during the races - he decided to live for love.
I want to own everything, and that means not own anything.
After all, there is no point in bargaining 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 a lie, like an illusion without reality - all these concepts are not only connected with each other, but also inseparable from each other.
Lilian did not survive her hero for long, she died a month and a half later, returning to the sanatorium. Before death, she suggests that a person lives only a few days in his life, when he is truly happy.
Well, Lilian was really happy with Clerfe. Despite the tragic ending of the novel and the death of both heroes, the story is riddled 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 charms of love help us forget about it for a short time. Therefore, anyone who is even a little familiar with death is familiar with love.
After all, the value of life is determined not by its length, but by the relation of a person to it - Her Majesty - Life.