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All Quiet On The Western Front Dehumanization Essay

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The book All Quiet on the Western Front takes place during World War I. The author, Erich Maria Remarque, describes how dehumanizing war can be for soldiers who give their life to serve their country and protect it. Remarque specifically describes the hardships of a German soldier Paul during the war. Through Remarque’s story we learn that war affects relationships, thought processes, natural instincts and many more functions of a soldier. We learn over the course of this book that all soldiers change through war. All Quiet on the Western Front brings about all of the dehumanization that is brought on by war. “The front is a cage in which we must await fearfully whatever may happen” (101). War is a trap that changes soldiers forever. The soldiers never know what fate miserably awaits them. They could die any …show more content…

The war changes the way that soldiers feel and interact. A soldier cannot perceive that they are killing another woman or man’s husband or wife, son or daughter, or brother or sister. He simply does it for his own survival. These soldiers are used to witnessing other soldiers and friends die in front of their faces which causes their feelings to be dehumanized. “It is not fear. Men who have been up as often as we have become thick-skinned. Only the young recruits are agitated” (53). The men who have endured the war thus far and have succumbed a death that possibly awaits them have become stalwart. The inexperienced soldiers are flustered at how disturbing the war is. War changes your sensitivity. While Paul, the main character, was on leave from the war he says, “I find I do not belong here any more, it is a foreign world” (168). For the soldiers the real world is hard for them to cope because they are so accustomed to battling for their lives. They are so used to be in a world where all they do is fight; to come home to normalcy where there is no battling and worrying is

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