A story that tells only of death, sorrow, and the bitter truth about World War One, Erich Remarque’s book, All Quiet On The Western Front, is simply a story of a generation of men who were lost to war. Told through the eyes of a 19 year old boy named Paul Bäumer, as he shows what World War One was, in all of its horrific glory. This ‘glory’ so to speak was a gruesome, traumatizing experience for many of the soldiers that fought in World War One, this experience engraved in their memory, that would continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives. In the epigraph in All Quiet On The Western Front, it tells that “ even though [the soldiers] may have escaped shells, [they] were destroyed by the war”. It is evident to say that even though some soldiers escaped death from the war, they all will be scared from the experiences they had.
War is a harsh reality that is inflicted upon the unwilling through the “need” of it’s predecessors and those whom wish it. All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is about 19 year old Paul and his friends in the “Second Company”. Even though they are just out of school age, they have already seen things that many could not bear to even think about. Eventually, all of his friends die, and even Paul too, dies. Remarque uses diction and syntax as literary devices to express his anti-war theme, or lesson.
Characters in “All Quiet on the Western Front” continually die throughout the story due to wounds that they sustain during battle. An influential character to the development of the novel, Kemmerich, dies early on. In his important role in the novel, Kemmerich has a deep camaraderie with his fellow soldiers, an impactful death, and his symbol of the inability to have good foresight. An important part of being in war: the ability to trust fellow soldiers, camaraderie, and Kemmerich displays this perfectly. When Kemmerich dies, Paul and other soldiers stay by his side, and his “face is still wet from the tears” after leaving his comrades to continue fighting in war (Remarque 32).
Although these novels focus on a false reality of wars, Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front illustrates Bäumer’s horrifying experiences that he and his regiment, the Second Company, faces throughout the front lines of World War I, along with the physical and emotional
Erich Remarque, author of the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, presents a true story of a soldier throughout World War I. At the young age of 19, Paul Bäumer voluntarily enters the draft to fight for his home country, Germany. Throughout the war, Paul disconnects his mind from his feelings, keeping his emotions away from the bitter reality he is experiencing. This helps him survive mentally throughout the course of the war. The death of Paul 's friend Kemmerich forces him to cover his grief, “My limbs move supplely, I feel my joints strong, I breathe the air deeply. The night lives, I live.”
The trenches of World War I reveal the petrifying realities of war and the profound bond between soldiers in the chaos of battle. The All Quiet on the Western Front Novel follows the life of Paullistened to by Paulclimbed, a young man who has just joined the war as a German soldier fighting on the Western Front. Alongside him are his schoolmates and other soldiers going through similar hardships. Comradeship is shown strongly across All Quiet on the Western Front, which Erich Maria Remarque supports by showing the bond between classmates, the connection between enemy and friendly soldiers, and the struggles that these soldiers go through together. The strong bond between these men is shown throughout the novel in the early chapters, especially between Paul and his schoolmates.
Before World War I, all of Europe in 1914, was tense and like a bomb or a fire was waiting to erupt. Europe had not seen a major war in years, but due to Militarism, Imperialism, Alliances, and Nationalism tensions grew high. Each country was competing to be the best by gaining more territory and growing in their military size and successful economies. World War 1 was waiting to happen and the assassination of the Archduke was the spark that lit Europe up. In All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque we see the effects of the assassination.
In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Bäumer participates in the bloodiest war of all time, and he develops the skills of intelligence, leadership, and loyalty. In
Never before had a war lasted so long or with such a terrible and destructive death toll. It brought in the new century with an unconscious amount of violence, death, and gore. In Erich Maria Remarque 's war novel "All Quiet on the Western Front," a young man by the name of Paul Baumer remembers and retells his personal story as a German soldier in World War I. Although his accounts are based on a fabricated idea they are based on an actuality that many men had to genuinely endure during their fight front experiences in World War I. There are a large number of themes and ideas in this novel that range from the overall depiction of World War I to the personal struggle of a soldier in comparison to what the people from back home believes what is happening during the war.
Throughout their lives, people must deal with the horrific and violent side of humanity. The side of humanity is shown through the act of war. War is by far the most horrible thing that the human race has to go through. The participants in the war suffer irreversible damage by the atrocities they witness and the things they go through. In the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front" is the description by Erich Maria Remarque of the graphic violence and gore and the psychological pain that the average soldier endured on the western front.
War is a devastating and horrific experience that changes all those who have fought in it. In the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front,” by Erich Maria Remarque, the author portrays the beauty of going to war and dying for one’s nation as a lie made by the old generation. Paul Baumer, the protagonist of this novel, goes through harsh conditions of war to only find out that everything he was taught before the life of war was meaningless. Paul is a reflection of all the experiences that the author himself has gone through during his time in war. Although the narrator isn’t based on the author himself there are many things that are portrayed in Paul that is similar to Erich.
Erich Maria Remarque was a man who had lived through the terrors of war, serving since he was eighteen. His first-hand experience shines through the text in his famous war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, which tells the life of young Paul Bäumer as he serves during World War 1. The book was, and still is, praised to be universal. The blatant show of brutality, and the characters’ questioning of politics and their own self often reaches into the hearts of the readers, regardless of who or where they are. Brutality and images of war are abundant in this book, giving the story a feeling of reality.
"All Quiet on the Western Front" is a war novel by Erich Maria Remarque that reveals the ways in which war is not glorious, and the ways in which destroys a soldier 's happiness, innocence, and youthfulness. In addition, it uses imagery and characterization to describe some of the hardships the soldiers face in the trenches and at the front. Likewise, "Suicide in the Trenches" is a poem by Siegfried Sassoon that glosses over these topics as well, in the form of a poem. While both Remarque 's "All Quiet on the Western Front" and Sassoon 's "Suicide in the Trenches" portray war as a destroyer of innocence and youthfulness, Remarque 's use of characterization to illustrate the theme is more effective than Sassoon 's use of imagery and word play, because it is more
Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front illustrates the horrifying repercussions of war on soldiers, showing how it creates psychological trauma, shatters relationships, and robs soldiers of their innocence. War is physically demanding, causing soldiers to get injured and exposing them to traumatic events that cause many mental health issues, such as, post-traumatic stress disorders, . These events are taking a toll on Paul Baumer's mental health, leaving him in exhaustion, fear, and depression. As Paul finishes a hard day of fighting, he says: “Night again. We are deadened by the strain--a deadly tension that scrapes along one's spine like a gapped knife.
The First World War was a lengthy and brutal affair that claimed the lives of over 17 million individuals. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, its effects were equally as ferocious on the intellectual front, where it marked a turning point in the clash of European intellectual values. Philosophers such as Nietzsche had already challenged established institutions of Positivistic thinking toward knowledge and progress; however, his movement lacked widespread support. It was the disaster of WWI that accelerated their movement by inspiring culture-wide undermining of prior intellectual beliefs through newfound uncertainty: authors such as Erich Remarque and Vera Brittain drew upon sudden doubt underscored by the war to completely reverse prior thinking by breaking down pre-war notions of intellectual
