Analysis Of All Quiet On The Western Front By Erich Maria Remarque

Erich Maria Remarque’s classic account of misery, woe, and war overrides the plot of All Quiet on the Western Front, recreating the devastation and emotional dismemberment of German soldier, Paul Baumer, and his childhood acquaintances. Baumer is violently ripped through a symbolically eternal dispute between opposing nations; however the entirety of the novel is seen through Remarque’s eyes. As a vessel for propaganda and persuasion, Remarque attaches parasitic personalities, desolate descriptions, and vivid verbs to convey desperate times on The Western Front. Without Remarque’s vocabulary and literary devices, the novel would be stripped of its ability to evoke passionate emotions in the reader.

Remarque ruthlessly commands diction in All

After much time, Baumer is trapped in a sink hole between opposing countries. A man that Baumer stabs suffers due to lethal, but sparing gashes inflicted upon him. The newly and regretfully titled killer is forcefully subjected to watch the woes of death stating, “He is dead, I say to myself, he must be dead, he doesn't feel anything any more; it is only the body that is gurgling there” (218). Baumer is described as shocked and figuratively elsewhere. The denial encrusted imagery allows a sense of fading consciousness, while producing a vividly descriptive scene. This also marks the emotional passing of the victim, changing words like him and he to it. The lifeless corpse is sealed in its liberating coffin through Baumer’s view saying, “The body lies still, but in the eyes there is such an extraordinary expression of fright that for a moment I think they have power enough to carry the body off with them” (218). Without the imagery of the body and its freed state, an end would never be achieved involving the war-induced execution of Baumer’s

During one of the first described battles, Baumer is found next to a new recruit who is fearful, stating, “He looks up, pushes the helmet off and like a child creeps under my arm, his head close to my breast. The little shoulders heave” (61). The stark comparison of child and soldier pulses throughout, symbolizing how recruits feel emotionally and physically. These men are pulled into the army, curtailing their adolescents to systematically download the incompatible, unjust nature of fighting; mixing like water and oil. Soon after the battle, Baumer returns home on leave once again. On Baumer’s journey to his home town, he notes the scenery saying, “…Far away, in a long line one behind the other, stand the poplars, unsubstantial, swaying and dark, fashioned out of shadow, light, and desire” (155). Lines of poplars drenched the fields in long columns symbolically representing the army. One must learn to form straight rows upon command, all while attempting to become unsubstantial by blending into the single body. The soldier’s shadows, inner-lights, and desires are all symbolized by these humble