“It is the man that has nothing to lose or is willing to lose everything to beat you that I am afraid of,” said Bruce Lee. The reason for this is that when a person loses everything, they become desperate. They have endured so much and will go to any length to achieve what they have fought for. 

During war, you witness severe violence and lose everyone around you. In “All Quiet on the Western Front,” we read from Paul’s perspective about how everyone around him died.  He witnessed the young soldiers who fought alongside him pass away. It wasn’t until Katczinsky, the soldier he looked up to the most, died that Paul said, “Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more” (Remarque 295). However, throughout the book, we can see how the soldiers gradually lose their sense of humanity and life. Therefore, a person who has nothing to lose should be feared since they have endured so much trauma that they become invulnerable to violence.

As people are exposed to violence, they lose their faith in humanity. Usually, they create walls and eventually become unemotional. It’s a common defense mechanism that humans develop in order to stop experiencing the same pain. A common expression is “to harden your heart” or “heart of stone.” It refers to an unsympathetic, heartless person who closes people off. A person who has already lost everything is no longer naive and susceptible to being hurt. Their experiences and trauma help them learn from their past mistakes.