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Imagery In All Quiet On The Western Front

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Remarque utilizes both peaceful imagery of Mother Nature and harsh depictions of the troops' living circumstances in All Quiet on the Western Front to portray the experience of soldiers during World War I. Remarque describes how Mother Nature provides the soldiers with a sense of security because there is no one else nearby to soothe and console them. War comes with many difficulties, including shell shock, possible major injuries, death, and diseases. However, many of the younger soldiers struggled more with leaving their families. They realized that they wouldn’t have anyone there to console them as their parents did. Furthermore, the soldiers begin to realize that the earth, something they had taken for granted before, is a sense of security. …show more content…

While many soldiers thought that World War I was going to be exciting, they hadn’t yet realized the horrendous conditions they would have to live in. Remarque writes in the narrator and main character Paul Baumer's perspective: “Our food is bad and mixed up with do much substitute stuff that it makes us ill…The latrine poles are always densely crowded; the people at home ought to be shown these gray, yellow, miserable, wasted faces here, these bent figures”(280). Words like "miserable" and "wasted faces" let the reader clearly understand how the trenches' conditions affect the troops' morale. Furthermore, Remarque also employs nature and the earth as a comfort for the soldiers. Also, Remarque incorporates fond memories of Paul’s life before the war, when everything was calm and peaceful. Page 120 provides an example of one of these memories: “The pure fragrance of the water and the melody of the wind in the poplars held our fancies…It is strange that all the memories that come have these two qualities. They are always completely calm, that predominant in them; and even if they are not really calm, they become so.”(120). The words from the first quote in contrast to the words from the second quote. For instance, the first quotation uses words like 'miserable' and 'wasted faces' whereas the second quote utilizes phrases like 'pure fragrance of the water' and 'melody of wind'. However, the most important part of the quote talks about the two qualities of memories. Paul Baumer thinks that his memories will always keep him calm since they are always peaceful. They will eventually become calm and peaceful, even if they are not yet. Additionally, Paul will remain controlled and concentrated despite the challenging circumstances he encounters in the trenches

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Use Of Imagery In Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

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Remarque also uses imagery to display the horrid environment of war. For example, in the Catholic Hospital that Kropp and Paul go to in the novel, people are trying to kill themselves because they can no longer take the pain of war, "In the evening, while he is being fed, the sister is called away, and leaves the plate with the fork on his table. He gropes for the fork, seizes it and rives it with all his force against his heart, then he snatches up a shoe and strikes with it against the handle as hard as he can" (261). Paul portrays the petrifying environment Paul had to see as followed, "Two fellows die of tetanus. Their skin turns pale, their limbs stiffen, at last only their eyes live- stubbornly.

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Analysis Of Erich Maria Remarque All Quiet On The Western Front And Modern War

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However, this novel can be used in connection to almost any war, regardless of the time period. Many say that older wars, such as WWI, were extremely different than current ones. Their reasoning usually includes the fact that there are new technology, and strategies on the battlefield. While this is true, the war in Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front and modern warfare contains an extensive amount of similarities regarding the emotional and mental state of the soldiers, specifically their experience with PTSD, reactions to desensitization, and a reduction to animal quality and instinct. Remarque’s

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Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

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Imagine a world where trees are lying everywhere; there are craters in the earth as larges as busses and corpses of men lying everywhere. This is a world the past generation experienced. This is World War I. Remarque portrays the technological and military innovations in All Quiet on the Western Front as horrific, in the ways of creating mass casualties, causing psychological problems in the soldiers, and destroying nature. The technological and military innovations that remarque portrays creates mass casualties.

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All Quiet On The Western Front Dialectical Journal Answers

1891 Words | 8 Pages

On page 190, Paul says, "We return and find that everything has changed and is still changing. The old values are gone, the new ones have not yet emerged." This passage shows how the war has disrupted the social and political order in Germany, and how the soldiers are struggling to adjust to the new reality. The use of language, such as "old values" and "new ones," conveys the sense of change and uncertainty that the soldiers are experiencing. This passage also highlights the way in which the war has shattered the soldiers' sense of belonging and stability, and how they are struggling to find their place in the new

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333 Words | 2 Pages

In a time of great nationalism, Remarque showed the true horrors of war which many did not know, for they were told war was noble. All Quiet On the Western Front breaks the illusion painted by the leaders of all countries, showing the true loss of life, and mental and physical effects that war had on the soldiers. As a veteran soldier from the Western Front himself, Remarque experienced the horrors that were not mentioned when he was told to sign up and help his country. Remarque tells how the many young men forced to fight in the war under their older commanders had their lives completely destroyed, even if they survived.

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Mla Citation For All Quiet On The Western Front

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A story that tells only of death, sorrow, and the bitter truth about World War One, Erich Remarque’s book, All Quiet On The Western Front, is simply a story of a generation of men who were lost to war. Told through the eyes of a 19 year old boy named Paul Bäumer, as he shows what World War One was, in all of its horrific glory. This ‘glory’ so to speak was a gruesome, traumatizing experience for many of the soldiers that fought in World War One, this experience engraved in their memory, that would continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives. In the epigraph in All Quiet On The Western Front, it tells that “ even though [the soldiers] may have escaped shells, [they] were destroyed by the war”. It is evident to say that even though some soldiers escaped death from the war, they all will be scared from the experiences they had.

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Summary Of All Quiet Men Of The Western Front

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The reading part describes a horrible scene of the battle field. The writer explain in details the time he spent in the war in a way that helps the readers imagine themselves being with him. Remarque, in his novel “All Quiet Men of the Western Front”, showed the suffering of soldiers while they are on the battle field. He talked about the fear possessing the men of not being able to go back alive. Remarque also talks about human parts and dead corps pilling up in the graveyards in front of him.

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Summary Of All Quiet On The Western Front

884 Words | 4 Pages

He is initially excited to leave and go home but as soon as he gets to the train station he becomes sad. Suddenly I become filled with consuming inpatient to be gone” (Remarque,154). Even in a time where he should be filled with excitement to go home he immediately misses his comrades. In a heated battle with the enemy country one of Paul’s closest comrad, Kemmerich, is shot in the leg and is heavily bleeding. Once the battle is over with the soldiers surround Kemmerich.

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How Is Personification Used In All Quiet On The Western Front

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The lost generation present in All Quiet on The Western Front by Remarque showcases the innocence taken away from the soldiers who were forced to partake in the war, and emphasizes the frustration about the loss of innocence forced upon the soldiers. Remarque’s use of personification in his work, “The war swept us away.” The war is unable to physically sweep you away and the composer implies that men were powerless to the events and consequences. The use of personification evokes the reader to connect with their emotions while reading All Quiet on The Western Front and acknowledge what the lost generation had to deal with, and how they felt powerless in the war. By saying that the war swept us away, Remarque positions us to understand that although the

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Summary Of All Quiet On The Western Front

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In the war novel of All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the imagery of nature is used to describe the battle of the front of the war. Because of the grotesque battle scene that is associated with nature, soldiers would change by losing their innocence and being dehumanized. Although nature often associated with peace, it is more substantial than humans because nature has an impact on the soldiers. During the war, there are times of peace because nature is everywhere.

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All Quiet On The Western Front Literary Devices

1667 Words | 7 Pages

All Quiet on the Western Front is a story, in which it allows people to know the true horrors of war. Throughout the story and in Erich Maria Remarque’s writing he uses many literary devices to emphasize what he experienced and the emotions he felt. The devices that he used are used in order to help the readers understand his experience and emphasize the theme of his war novel. Throughout this essay, I will show you a few of the literary devices used within the novel that emphasized the theme, the brutality of war. Within this essay you will learn about imagery, metaphors, and symbolism.

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1079 Words | 5 Pages

However it may seem, this is not violence simply for the shock factor, neither is it simply included to add realism to the novel. Instead this is an effort on Remarque’s behalf to communicate the human aspect of war, and describe the immense suffering that could be inflicted on any soldier during the GReat War. Through the use of the Narrator Paul Baumer, and the graphic imagery and description, Remarque illustrates the suffering that a soldier had to go through, both psychological and physical. The physical injuries sustained by men on the frontline in All quiet on the western front were absolutely horrendous. Remarque communicated this through his vivid use of gore and graphic imagery, however did was not supposed to be a surprise factor, but more for the reader to truly understand what soldier could go through.

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All Quiet On The Western-Western Front Thesis

665 Words | 3 Pages

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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804 Words | 4 Pages

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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1361 Words | 6 Pages

Erich Maria Remarque, a World War I veteran, took his own personal war experience to paper, which resulted in one of the most critically acclaimed anti-war movement novels of all time, All Quiet on the Western Front. The voice of the novel, Paul Baumer, describes his daily life as a soldier during the First World War. Through the characters he creates in the novel, Remarque addresses his own issues with the war. Specifically, Remarque brings to light the idea of the “Iron Youth,” the living conditions in the trenches, and the sense of detachment soldiers feel, among other things. Therefore, All Quiet on the Western Front criticizes the sense of nationalism, which war tends to create among citizens by quickly diminishing any belief regarding it as a glorious and courageous act.

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