All Quiet On The Western Front By Eric Maria Remarque

All Quiet on the Western Front is a World War I novel written by Eric Maria Remarque. Some believe it has become known as the greatest war novel of all time. Remarque himself fought in World War I, so it is based off of events that he experienced first-hand. He endured five injuries during this war, and never forgot about his experiences. The reader is taken on a journey through the war experience of nineteen-year-old Paul Bäumer. Throughout the novel, Paul tells the reader about his life, both in the war and at home.

The narrator of All Quiet on the Western Front is Paul Bäumer. Although Paul is never given a full physical description, the reader is taken on his journey in the war throughout the entire novel. He and some of his classmates

Their life during the war was hard on them at first. When they were just starting out, they had “proudly shaved for the first time before going to the barracks” (Remarque 21). Remarque is showing the reader how young these classmates really are. Paul recalls “how embarrassed we were as recruits in barracks when we had to use the general latrine” (Remarque 7), and how they have adapted now, and use “square, neat boxes with wooden sides” (Remarque 7).

During World War I, many soldiers from all sides, and from many countries were killed. Personally for Paul, he was only affected by certain deaths, specifically, his classmates’. The first classmate of his to die is Joseph Behm, “a plump, homely fellow,” who “did allow himself to be persuaded” (Remarque 11). He was shot in the eye during an attack, and they left him there because they “had to come back helter-skelter” (Remarque 12). Later they saw him crawling in No Man’s Land, because he was only unconscious before. Unfortunately, he was shot before they could go get him. He is the first of

He did an incredible job writing a truly fascinating World War I novel that was very hard to put down. He went through a lot during his time serving in the war, and that is apparent as he tells his story through the character Paul Bäumer. He showed more insight than anyone could ever imagine of the lives of the soldiers during those four years. Remarque incorporates the more fascinating aspects of the war, and used them in such a way to intrigue the reader. He did an excellent job of writing about life in their platoon, on the front, and Paul’s home life. The book itself never became too boring to keep reading. The amount of detailing Remarque used was extremely effective. It was long enough to keep a vivid picture in the reader’s mind of what was happening, and wasn’t too long as to become tedious. There is only one criticism that some may have of this particular novel. Remarque usually named the characters just by their last name, but that was not always the case. There were three characters whose first and last names were mentioned, but at different points in the story: Paul Bäumer, Franz Kemmerich, and Albert Kropp. As an example, in one chapter Remarque would mention something Kropp did, but in the next he mentioned that Albert’s wound was healing fine. It took a few minutes to realize that they were the same person, so that was a bit confusing.