During the time that the Frist World War broke out, many were affected. However, a whole generation experienced a loss like no other. Having little to no idea the challenges they would soon face, many eighteen and nineteen year olds got ready to fight honorably for their country. The young men entered the traumatic war zone, leaving their home as an adolescent having had no time to build a life for themselves. Hence, leaving home as an adolescent produced a lost generation and left the young men lost emotionally, in their maturity, and in their relationships, when the war came to an end. Young men just out of school departed from their comfortable and secure homes and headed towards the battlefield, with little to no maturity or perception …show more content…
The author wrote, “Terror can be endured so long as a man simply ducks;- but it kills, if a man thinks about it” (Remarque 138). The horrific time that the soldiers underwent resulted in their emotions being shut off and ignored for the sake of their mental and physical survival. As the soldiers flipped the switch that controlled their emotions, they separated war and peace, so much so that they could not comprehend their life without war. Paul’s friend Albert said, “There won’t be any peacetime” (Remarque 76), this mindset occurred because of the daunting and gruesome occurrences in war. Furthermore, Paul mentioned memories of his home life and said, “…they belong to another world that is gone from us” (Remarque 121), showing again how a soldiers live emotionally disconnected from their home life, leaving them unprepared for life after war. Clearly, when the soldiers turned off their emotions because of the abundant trauma, their connection to life without war disappeared. They were left lost and confused, when peacetime occurred, trying to rejoin their two worlds together. They are now living with the very emotions they taught themselves to ignore on the battle field to