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

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In the book, All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque,in the epigraph he states,” Even though they may have escaped [the] shells, [they] were destroyed by the war”(Remarque Epigraph). The soldiers were destroyed in many ways, and one of them is that although they would return home they would still be thinking of the war and of the front, be it in thoughts of their friends, or nightmares. Also those that return home may not know what to door even if they can do anything. This is shown throughout World War One, in which this book was written. This is show in the book when “Müller… says:‘Albert, what would you do if it were suddenly peace-time again’” and Albert responded,”There won’t be any peace-time”(Remarque 76). Even Paul “can’t even imagine… [or] see anything at all”(Remarque 87). They also lost touch with anything from their previous life and it “has become so unreal… [that they] cannot comprehend it any more”(Remarque 19). It shows how the soldiers do not know what to do when they get home when Paul finds that he does “not belong [there]” and that “it is a foreign world”(Remarque 168). He also knows that the people around him have “worries, …show more content…

One such example is Pte Christopher Massie who had an amputated arm and could not think of a job for an amputee began to think, “Now I shall never work again. I suppose they will give me a sum of money and, after that is gone, I shall have to beg or starve”(A Very Bitter Victory). There are also the cases of shell shock. Shell shock is “the blanket term applied by contemporaries to those soldiers who broke down under the strain of war”(Trench Conditions). One case had a soldier have a dream “occur 'right in the middle of an ordinary conversation' when 'the face of a Boche that [they] have bayoneted, with its horrible gurgle and grimace, [came] sharply into view'”(Bourke). Also there are case of being “unable to

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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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Approximately 20% of all war veterans suffer from a mental disorder called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD for short. This continues to affect many soldiers, just like it did in the past. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is a first person narrative set during World War I about a young boy and his friends’ journey to war. An anti war propaganda, Remarque’s novel debates the corruption of WWI.

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For so long prior to the war, Paul and his friends from school were told that they are the Iron Youth. They were young and innocent with splendid memories. All to be crushed by the war. ‘’Our early life is cut off the moment we came here. ’’[5]

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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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Remarque applies inclusive language so we can sympathise with how the soldiers must have felt to be wandering in their hometown feeling like an outcast. The lost generation grew up in the war and couldn’t escape from it, and by applying metaphors, high modality language, and negative connotation in his work, “consumed in the fires of reality”, it is implied that the war is inescapable to these men, Remarque’s purpose of this is to illustrate to the readers that when the soldiers go on leave and they feel out of place since they grew up in the war, he is writing on behalf of all soldiers. The soldiers are depicted as being numb as they stroll around civilians who haven’t engaged in war and can live their daily lives, but for them it is the opposite. Remarque positions the readers in the sense of fear of war and evokes empathy for the soldiers who risked their lives and were forced to give up any life they had prior or the life they could

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“Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” is the old lie of glory told to sacrifices of war. Erich Maria Remarque, author of the historical fiction All Quiet on the Western Front, tells the tale of Paul Baumer, a German soldier fighting on the western front in World War I. Baumer struggles to realize the purpose he is fighting for, and the justice behind it. Remarque demonstrates how the promised glory presented to soldiers is not worth the sufferings of war in All Quiet on the Western Front. Soldiers face countless horrors on and away from the battlefield. Corpse rats and rats that feasted on human flesh plagued the trenches and “attacked 2 large cats and a dog, bit them to death and devoured them” (Remarque 103).

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The horrors of war can be seen throughout most of the novel All Quiet on the Western Front. Although this novel takes place during World War I, horrors of war have been around since the beginning of war, and can still be seen here today. Almost all soldiers, regardless of which war they’re in, end up losing themselves. This is due to the experiences these soldiers have gone through and the horrors of war that they have seen or been a part of. War is a gruesome part of human history, and the different horrors often hidden within can tear the soldiers apart, both mentally and physically.

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Before World War I, all of Europe in 1914, was tense and like a bomb or a fire was waiting to erupt. Europe had not seen a major war in years, but due to Militarism, Imperialism, Alliances, and Nationalism tensions grew high. Each country was competing to be the best by gaining more territory and growing in their military size and successful economies. World War 1 was waiting to happen and the assassination of the Archduke was the spark that lit Europe up. In All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque we see the effects of the assassination.

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Paul notices the dramatic transformation that he has endured and struggles to see his home as a “foreign world;” his connection with family and friends at home is “crushed” entirely. His inability to connect with people at home shows the loss of connection with society as a whole. Prior to the war, Paul himself was a civilian and connected well with society. Now that Paul has been submerged in life on the battlefield, he has lost touch with his old self, leaving his identity a shell of his old self. After his visit to home, he finds himself more excited to return to the front due to the exhaustion he faced at home.

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World War One was an extremely gruesome and vile event to ever happen to the world, where millions of young men risked their lives to fight for their country. Many great poems, books, and literature had been composed to expose the vileness of the war, and hopefully to prevent future wars. Throughout the intense novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Remarque and some of the poems explored during class, exemplifies the themes about the horrors of war and the lost generation prevalently within these somber, yet incredible works to showcase the ghastly effects of war. Horrors of war is a crucial theme that is repeated through most of the literature analyzed throughout this tragic unit, and the effects of the horrific war takes an extreme

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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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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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804 Words | 4 Pages

Paul learns that war obtains the capability to demolish society. War destroys so many innocent people’s lives, whether it kills innocent human beings or shatters the innocence of those who fight in

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The First World War was a lengthy and brutal affair that claimed the lives of over 17 million individuals. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, its effects were equally as ferocious on the intellectual front, where it marked a turning point in the clash of European intellectual values. Philosophers such as Nietzsche had already challenged established institutions of Positivistic thinking toward knowledge and progress; however, his movement lacked widespread support. It was the disaster of WWI that accelerated their movement by inspiring culture-wide undermining of prior intellectual beliefs through newfound uncertainty: authors such as Erich Remarque and Vera Brittain drew upon sudden doubt underscored by the war to completely reverse prior thinking by breaking down pre-war notions of intellectual

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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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