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All Quiet On The Western Front Themes

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The book All Quiet on the Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque, has many apparent themes throughout it. One of the main themes is the Lost Generation. It is defined as, by dictionary.com, as “the generation reaching maturity during and just after World War I, a high proportion of whose men were killed during those years”. The novel is set during World War I, focusing on young men fighting for Germany. All Quiet on the Western Front emphasizes the Lost Generation because of how it focuses on how the soldiers were affected mentally and physically at such a young age. Paul and his friend went into the war very young. Some of the boys did not even finish high school, Before the war, all they had was schooling, and some other hobbies but not many. During the war, Paul thinks back to the stories he used to write, and he calls them childish. “We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in war.” (Remarque 121) These teenagers had not found themselves before the war. Being soldiers is the only thing that they knew. Paul and his friends were also pushed to join the war; they never had a chance to find themselves on their own. Many men never really found themselves, the war formed them into who …show more content…

Paul and all of his friends died. Death was a very real thing during the war. All the time comrades were dying. “Under the skin the life no longer pulses, it has already pressed out to the boundaries of the body. Death is working through from within. It already has command in the eyes.” (Remarque 72) Death is personified a lot throughout the book. When Kemmerich died it was hard for all of the men. Paul had been friends with Kemmerich since they were children. It was also Paul’s first experience with being with someone as they took their last breath, but definitely not the last death to be

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Similarly, when Paul says, “We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves.” (87), he is saying that not only was their youth and innocence compromised when they entered the war, but also the drive and motivation to be adventurous also has fled.

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Throughout the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the narrator of the story, Paul Baumer goes through the realization how joining the war was destroying his and others’ youth while turning people against each other. Remarque uses the phrase “abyss of sorrow” as figurative language to describe the suffering and heartbreak the young boys experience in the front line, earning the generation of boys that served in World War 1 the name “the Lost Generation”. After Paul observes the pain of the prisoners that he is assigned to watch, he sees for himself “how people are set against one another, and in silence…slay one another”. Just because two sides are waging war, people are brainwashed or persuaded to sacrifice themselves for a fight that is

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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.

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“breeding, education are changing…hardly recognizable any longer”(121)this shows how the norm for paul has become the war. Paul has been in the war for so long that when he returns home he feels out of place and later goes on to talk about he his new home is the front line. Towards the end of the book paul goes into great detail about how the war has drastically changed them all and that for those who have survived the war things will never be the same “few will adapt themselves, some others will merely submit and most will be bewildered”(131). This depicts how paul and his generation will never fully recover from the war things will never be the same few will be able start over but most were scared and lost at war. Paul and his generation are considered the lost generation because they will never be able to fully recover from the war they will forever live in the war mentality because of PTSD or other mental health

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After the traumatic experiences he suffered through, Paul made mental growth in the human aspect. He figured out that “there are still human faces” even in his enemies. Further in this realization he sympathizes with the rest of the wounded soldiers stuck in similar hospitals all over the enemy lines. This identification attaches Paul to the enemy, positively affecting his mental condition. He recognizes that he is not as drastically different as he thought which ultimately changes his outlook on the war.

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The book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque gives us a good understanding of what war was like for the people fighting on the front. When reading this book people can get a front hand experience of what it is like being in battle. Remarque wrote this book so well that often times you picture yourself actually with Paul and all his friends. The one thing you specifically get to see is how humanity affects warfare. Humanity affects our decisions in warfare because humans are selfish, have fear, and seek revenge.

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In agreement with Eksteins, Paul’s generation is lost psychologically and bodily. All Quiet on the Western Front is not just the biography of one man as Pfeiler argues but rather the story of many men. Men that had potential to become more than dead soldiers. In the end, a lost generation exists from the dead that will not return home and the living that will return home as different people. Paul’s generation has lost its potential and energy to the war.

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In the year 1914, a war started that would turn innocent people against each other, and have aftermaths that include thousands of people dead due to new equipment like tanks, gas attacks, and hand-to-hand combat. In this war there was a soldier named Paul Bäumer who is a German nineteen year old who has made friends that will last a lifetime during this experience, but has also felt immense pain. His daily routine is to sleep, eat, and fight in the trenches, and he experiences death every day. Most soldiers view death as a recurring event, but Paul views it as wretchedness, which makes him different from others by caring about his comrades more than others. Paul shows many qualities through this experience of being a soldier in the First World War, and he learns what is necessary in life, which takes some people years to figure out.

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“ I am young, I am twenty years old, yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous … I see how the people are set against one another, and in silence …” This quote means that in war, there is nothing else except for the death, fear, of the people, so it makes Paul feels life is just a joke because there is nothing lives in war, everyone tries to survive and protect the country. That makes the word “life” becomes dimmer over time in their heads. The sentence “I am young, I am twenty years old” shows for us to know that although they are not old enough to understand the life, with a full meaning in it, they still have to avoid from the deaths, avoid from the fear of losing friends, and avoid from the dreams which they used to want because the war is taking away all of those things; therefore, there is no meaning of life in this cruel

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Paul reaches this stage when he returns to the front after staying at the hospital due to a leg injury. In a moment of deep thought, Paul ponders, “...life is simply one continual watch against the menace of death;--It has transformed us into unthinking animals to give us the weapon of instinct...“ (Remarque 273-274). The soldiers may be courageous for their spontaneous acts but are thoughtless, controlled creatures. In this case, it is a negative as they are sacrificing their wits to

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In addition, Paul was injured in the book and goes home and stays with her family while he recovers. He is no longer able to relate to his family, since it is very difficult to think and have emotions and at the same time with much death all around him in the war. There is much talk of how he and his friends do not think about deep things, but just think about eating and silly things. His father and people over all his people want me to tell them stories of war and hate Paul because their experiences are horrible. Paul has just returned to the fight and basically everyone in the book is wounded and dies.

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Throughout the ages, wars have wreaked havoc and caused great destruction that lead to the loss of millions of lives. However, wars also have an immensely destructive effect on the individual soldier. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, one is able to see exactly to what extent soldiers suffered during World War 1 as well as the effect that war had on them. In this essay I will explain the effect that war has on young soldiers by referring to the loss of innocence of young soldiers, the disillusionment of the soldiers and the debasement of soldiers to animalistic men. Many soldiers entered World War 1 as innocent young boys, but as they experienced the full effect of the war they consequently lost their innocence.

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Moreover, commonly, soldiers are exhilarated to finally go home after long periods of time at the front, and the men dread when they have to return to battle. However, in Paul’s case, he desires to return to the front, rather than staying in his home town and seeing his mother in pain, he yearns to feel numb again. Therefore, Paul is in “agony” because before going on leave, he was hopeless and had no will to live, thus making him a better soldier. Although, after visiting his mother and sister, he has rediscovered a reason to survive, making it harder to go back. Moreover, the word, “comfortless,” illustrates how Paul feels isolated even at home, he feels little comfort where he grew up.

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They had been damaged mentally and they cannot become their old selves. At the start of the book, Paul reflects on the line, "We are none of us older than twenty years old. " The tone of this line reflects the soldiers at the start of the book. They have completely changed after dealing with the horrors of the war. What humans are trained to do daily, is not as bad as what the soldiers were taught.

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During drill-time Kantorek gave us long lectures until the whole of our class went, under his sheparding, to the District Commandant and volunteered. I can see him now, as he used to glare at us through his spectacles and say In a moving voice 'Won 't you join up, comrades? ' (Remarque 110)". Paul and his friends all went through the class with Kantorek who eventually persuaded them all to enlist where they would go to war together. Peers that Paul knew like Albert Kropp before the war realties to comradeship because they both had to fight alongside with each other.

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