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Death In Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

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“When a man has seen so many dead he cannot understand any longer why there should be so much anguish over a single individual.” (Remarque, 181) During the war, many soldiers may often become desensitized and not feel the emotions they would usually feel when a friend or comrade dies. The war causes them to have a feeling of loss; they lose their emotions and friends; they lose a part of themselves during the war. If the soldiers were to think about every single death that occurred they would go mad. There are so many deaths everyday that it makes them have to move on pretty quickly. Paul, the main character from Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on The Western Front, and Roland Gerard Garvin, known as Ged, a British soldier who often …show more content…

Paul is a kind-hearted 19-year-old soldier, but his time in the war forces him to disconnect from his feelings as acknowledging them would release too much pain. Like Ged, Paul coped with Kemmerich’s death, along with the death of anyone who was important to him, by accepting it and moving on. When Paul is telling Kemmerich’s mother about her son’s death, he thinks, “Why doesn’t she stop worrying? Kemmerich will stay dead whether she knows about it or not.” (Remarque, 181) Paul cared about Kemmerich, but he has accepted his death and has already stopped worrying about it. Like Ged’s parents, Kemmerich’s mom coped with her son’s death by being told that they died bravely and did not suffer. Paul helps Kemmerich’s mom cope by telling her that “He died immediately. He felt absolutely nothing at all. His face was quite calm.” (181) Since the parents do not get to experience the war, when they get told that the soldiers passed away in a very peaceful manner it makes it easier for them to accept it; otherwise, if they got told the real way their kid or someone they knew died, they would feel guilt and remorse for allowing them, or even encouraging them, to join the

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1. Erich Remarque’s purpose for writing All Quiet on the Western Front was to show the devastating effects of war on soldiers and to protest against the war. He does this by depicting the experiences of a group of young German soldiers who are fighting in World War I. One example of how Remarque fulfills this purpose is when the protagonist, Paul Baumer, reflects on the futility of war and the sacrifices soldiers are forced to make. On page 49, Paul says, "We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial - I believe we are lost."

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The most common psychological issue that soldiers faced is a disorder known as “PTSD” or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is caused by the witness of an extremely traumatic event. Bombing, shelling, and even witnessing a close one die were all things that would have triggered a stress related disorder. Many soldiers, although young, began to feel worn out and old from the long, tiring years of the war. “I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow.

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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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It illustrates when troops are back from the war their are considering taking their lives because their feel like murders since; they took someone else’s life and all the killing that happens within the war. For example, when one of their comrade’s is killed they feel guilty, and it will lead them to feel like their should have done a better job protecting each other. As a result, what they experience during the war can cause trauma to the brain, trigger the memory system and every man’s life

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In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque, Paul, a 19 year old German soldier in World War 1 struggles when confronted with the realities of war. He finds that war is quite unlike the tales of heroism that he and his young classmates were told at enlistment and instead drives each soldier down to the animalistic core of humanity that is unknown to most. The brutality of death in the book demonstrates Pauls's development into a shell of the man he once was. The death of Gerard Duval, in particular, reveals the soldier's transformation to instinctual living and how that affects a person.

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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.

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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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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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Every single soldier in the war came close to death, whether watching a fellow fighter die, almost dying themselves, or killing an innocent victim. Anywhere from 620,000-850,000

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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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The war novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque depicts one protagonist, Paul, as he undergoes a psychological transformation. Paul plays a role as a soldier fighting in World War I. His experiences during the war are not episodes the average person would simply experience. Alternatively, his experiences allow him to develop into a more sophisticated individual. Remarque illustrates these metamorphic experiences to expose his theme of the loss of not only people’s lives but also innocence and tranquility that occurs in war.

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In enduring these complex emotions, this section was the most remarkable part. One of the first apparent emotions the boy experiences with the death of his father is loneliness to make this section memorable. The boy expresses this sentiment when he stays with his father described as, “When he came back he knelt beside his father and held his cold hand and said his name over and over again,” (McCarthy 281). The definition of loneliness is, “sadness because one has no friends or company.”

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In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque shows the perspective of a German soldier, Paul Baumer. Though the two works show the perspective of enemies, the two narrators are not so different.

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Only those people were not just the enemy, they were sons, husbands, fathers, daughters, mothers, and above all, human. The deaths of people are becoming as meaningful as credits on a movie screen. “-people who die by gunfire are usually only extras, or deserve to die.” We pay attention for a fleeting second and then it is suddenly unimportant.

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All Quiet on The Western Front shows the dependence the soldiers convey to one another. For example, Kat, “Kat appears I think I must have been dreaming he has two loaves of bread under his arm” (Remarque 39). Without Kat the soldiers would be starving all the soldiers realize this and appreciate him for being there. Kat has the ability to find food in the middle of nowhere. The soldiers also depend on each other for comfort.

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