Brief Summary Of All Quiet On The Western Front

The book, All Quiet on The Western Front, gives a detailed account of the experiences that a few young ordinary German soldiers endured when World War I broke out; as well as how they changed and how they were impacted by the war. This book is more than just a story of combat, it is a story of a soldier's emotions how he felt; how he transformed; and how the war impacted his view on war. The narrator, Paul, explains that the war is mentally painful more than it is physically painful. The experiences that he and his fellow comrades go through are horrific and those of them who survived the war were still hurt by it mentally. Upon going into war Paul Bäumer and his friends were convinced by one of their school teachers, Kantorek, that it

The war made Paul a different man. Before the war he was very fond of poetry and he even wrote some, but after he had gone off to fight he no longer felt he had any interest in poetry. He talks about how he and the rest of the young soldiers' lives were ruined, just as their lives were about to begin where they would go off to study, become independent and start their career. They were cut off from that. The older men are the lucky ones, when the war ends, they will have their families and jobs to go to, whereas the younger ones will have nothing to go to. (pg. 13) "While they continued to write and talk, we saw the wounded and dying. While they taught that duty to one’s country is the greatest thing, we already knew that death-throes are stronger. But for all that we were no mutineers, no deserters, no cowards — they were very free with all these expressions. We loved our country as much as they; we went courageously into every action; but also we distinguished the false from the

The narrator seems to describe nationalism as a weapon used by political leaders to convince the nation's men to fight in the war and risk dying for their country. Paul and these other young soldiers soon realize that they are simply being used. Their opinions of nationalism quickly change as they go through the war fighting their political leaders' battles for them. As the novel progresses, they are no longer fighting for the glory of their nation, but rather to keep themselves alive. Paul and his friends don't consider the other armies to be their enemies, but instead their real enemies are the ones in power of their home nation. Paul and his friends see themselves as small sacrifices of the political