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
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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