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Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

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In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the young men in battle quickly learn that the war is a awful, destructive force that ruins lives. The boys, who are pressured by their teacher to join the army for glory, soon discover that the war is not glorious, but rather devastating. Paul, the narrator of this novel, goes through a lot of pain as a result of this war. The war destroys Paul and his friends’ lives, both physically and mentally.
The author expresses throughout the novel that the war destroys an entire generation’s lives. Paul explains, “[Him and the other young soldiers] had not as yet taken no root. The war swept [them] away. For the older men, it is but an interruption. They are able to think beyond it.[Paul and the other young soldiers], however, have been gripped by it and do not know what the end may be” (20). The young men who are forced to go to battle have not been given the chance to …show more content…

In order to stay alive during the long war, the young men are forced to become animals; to rely on their instincts, to not act as if they are human. Paul reveals, referring to him and his fellow soldiers, “We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation” (113). For the sake of staying alive and to not be annihilated, Paul and his comrades must leave their human thoughts behind. The war forced them to become animals, or beasts. Paul does not see himself as human anymore, the war has made him perceive himself as a beast. Again, Paul explains, “life is simply one continual watch against the menace of death; it has transformed us into unthinking animals” (273-274). The war requires the young soldiers to leave behind any trace of being a human in order to stay away from the death that is always there. The soldiers become animals that kill. They are no longer human, they are transformed into

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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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The soldiers went in as young men and came out feeling old, hardened, and incomplete. In order to survive such a gruesome war, the men must return to their animalistic ways and disconnect from their past selves. For instance, Paul Baumer transformed from an innocent young man into a hardened and distraught war veteran who must form a new path to get through his mental conflict of feeling

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Review All Quiet on the Western Front is great piece of literature because it incorporates a lot of different aspects into the book. It has the action of war, the happiness of friendship, and the sorrowness of loss and given up hope. It varies from other books i have read about war and loss because it gives a perspective that I have never seen through before. The book is based on the lives of German soldiers in World War I, rather than the usual book through the eyes of an American soldier.

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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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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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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.”

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All the same, we are not often sad. ”(Remarque 20). Paul talks about how the older man have lives back home, and thus are able to “think beyond” war, it doesn’t define these men, it is just a part of their duty. For the younger men, however, since they haven’t had time to develop any real significant identity out of war, it has become a part of who they are. They have become like the war they are fighting, evident where he calls the younger men a wasteland, like the area they are fighting in.

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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

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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.

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However, when they were sent out into the midst of the war many of them realised the misconceptions they had and were led to believe. They became disillusioned as they realized that the war was much more brutal and horrific than they had previously believed. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Remarque effectively comments on the horrors of war from Paul’s perspective, especially when Paul comments on injuries the soldiers endure and witness by stating “We see men go on living with the top of their skulls missing; we see soldiers go on running when both their feet have been shot away…Another man…with his guts spilling out over his hands as he holds them in.” (Remarque,

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To illustrate this idea, the author compares the older soldiers to the young soldiers, when the narrator states, “They have wives, children, occupations and interests... We stood on the threshold of life. And so it would seem. We had as yet taken no root... [We] do not know what the end may be.

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Paul learns that war obtains the capability to demolish society. War destroys so many innocent people’s lives, whether it kills innocent human beings or shatters the innocence of those who fight in

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"Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy? If we threw away these rifles and uniforms you could be my brother just like Kat and Albert (Remarque 223)". Comradeship among soldiers is a major theme throughout the novel, "All Quiet on the Western Front" because the soldiers knew each other before the war, protected each other during combat, and can relate to one another without having to literally speak. This story 's theme shows comradeship because Paul and the other soldiers were in class together before joining the war. In the beginning of the novel Paul introduces his friends he went to school with before going to war with. "

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