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Effects Of PTSD In Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

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PTSD has been known by numerous different names throughout history. Returning soldiers from the Civil War were said to have suffered from “soldier’s heart”. Used later in history, the term nervous shock was used in the late 19th century. At this point in history doctors thought nervous shock was only only caused physically. However, some doctors opposed this viewpoint and believed patients suffering from nervous shock had symptoms of hysteria, an outdated medical term for anxiety. These doctors started to piece together that nervous shock could be a mental illness rather than a physical disability. By the time World War I took place this debate became an even more pressing matter.
World War I took place in Europe between 1914-1918. Within …show more content…

Although Erich Maria Remarque wrote a couple more war stories after All Quiet on the Western Front, none became nearly as popular ("Erich Maria Remarque."). Remarque created a story about Paul, a young German soldier who suffers the effects of war. By being placed in the everyday life of Paul, the readers are able to read about the slow progression of PTSD. The experiences of war have aged these characters beyond their years, leaving Paul to believe they are “ forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, [they] are crude and sorrowful and superficial.” (Remarque 123). This feeling of disconnection from other people and society as a whole is a common symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (Frey & Fran; Poole 30; “Post-traumatic stress disorder.”). Paul and his comrades are unable to relate to anyone outside of their company. This isolation is depicted again when Paul returns home to his family. “But a sense of strangeness will not leave me, I cannot feel at home among these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies, and there the mahogany piano―but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a veil between us.” (Remarque 160). Individuals who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder not only feel disconnected from society as a whole but also from their loved ones (Frey & Fran; Poole 30; "Post-traumatic stress

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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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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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At the time, in order to understand the struggles and experiences of war, the person may have had to undergo war themselves due to the lack of the truth in writings about war, until Erich Maria Remarque wrote All quiet on the Western Front in 1929 and enlightened millions. Rather than glorifying war and portraying it as “heroic”, Remarque purpose was to reveal the truth about the horrors of war, therefore becoming the most loved and hated book of WW1. Remarque much of the time used personal situations he came across in combat as inspiration towards his writing. In an interview, he explains how “the shadow of war hung over [himself and friends]” even when they attempted their hardest to shut it out. With this common thought amongst them, Remarque

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In the year 1916,German born Erich Remarque was drafted into the German army to fight many battles of World War I, to which he was evidently wounded. He published, Im Westen Nichts Neues, ten years following the ending of the war. a year later, All Quiet on the Western Front was rewritten in English, a novel surrounding the confrontations German warriors faced. Remarque captures the essence of World War I in his all famous novel, which entices the readers opinion on this particular war. In creating his brutal but practical novel of a normal soldier's experience, Remarque exhibited a delightful war story in his accurate anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front.

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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 chapter of All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque shines light on the cruelty and futility of war. Paul, the main character of the novel, describes both the physical and emotional horrors resulting from bombardments and attacks on soldiers. From his experiences on the front, he also realizes how useless the war is for the soldiers involved in it. It is obvious that death is the biggest aspect of war.

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Shell Shock was the term used during the World War I to describe the psychological trauma effect that men suffer during their wars. Shell Shock was resulted from being exposed to artillery that was dangerous in the war. When men spent a lot of time in the trenches or on the battlefield listening to the sound of the weapons and bombs being used. It took into effect on the solider, which caused the solider to have a mental breakdown stress in their mind. The process of the battle tactic caused the solider to have a shock of a nightmare because in their mind they think the war was still going on in their head.

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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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Those who had mental illnesses were placed in institutions that were essentially like jails, and those patients were mistreated heavily, confined in small spaces, and were receiving harsh methods of treatment. The first account of the term PTSD being used is in 1980; one hundred and fifteen years after the Civil War. The Civil War was essentially the reason that mental health- especially in soldiers coming home from war- was finally being researched. Until PTSD was given its name in 1980, it was called shell shock- referring to the reaction to the explosion of artillery shells-, war neuroses, combat stress reaction, and battle fatigue ("History of Mental Health"). Overall, mental health was not thoroughly researched until post Civil War when soldiers that came home showed -what will be known as PTSD-

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Paul’s reunion with his mother permits him to recognize the impacts war has had on his mind and life. In the seventh chapter, Paul receives 17 days of leave. During this time, he visits his mother as she suffers in ominous distress. After Paul witnesses his mother deteriorating, he aspires to “weep and be comforted too, indeed I am little more than a child” (Remarque 183). Paul feels little, if any, content with his life as a consequence of experiencing a plentiful

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His mind has been programmed to be a soldier ever since he was in combat. In chapter 7 we see how being a soldier has affected Paul when he states the following, “I ought never to have come here. Out there I was indifferent and often hopeless;--I will never be able to be so again. I was a soldier, and now I am nothing but an agony for myself, for my mother, for everything that is so comfortless and without end. I ought never to have come on leave” (Remarque 185).

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