Loss Of Innocence In All Quiet On The Western Front

An Evil Force through the eyes of an Innocent Man World War II was a devastating war with over 18 million casualties accounted for not even including famine and diseases. All Quiet on the Western Front follows a group of germanic recruits and their pathway throughout the way they saw the tragedy of the war. In the classic novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque uses symbolism to show camaraderie, a loss of innocence, and how life can be impacted in monumental ways when people choose to not back down when an evil force awakens.

During hardships and tough times, comradeship through a brotherhood can be tested but true comrades will stick together. Recruits always had to be under supervision so they remembered “how embarrassing they

When it is fairly quiet we can hear the transports behind enemy lines rolling ceaselessly until dawn. Kat says that they do not go back but are bringing up troops, ammunitions and guns”(55). Paul and Kat became very close with enemy lines as they heard trucks of supoplies and troops rumble down the road.In this sense, they havce lost their innocense but it is what the job requires. Sneaking close to the enemies to bring back intel, thats how its down. In another scene of the book, Paul and Kat climb out of a hole they jumped in and notice a recruit on the ground…”Kat looks around and whispers… shouldn't we just take a revolver and put an end to it? The youngster will hardly survive the carrying and barely last a couple of days.” When Paul and Kat find this recruit laying on the ground, in pain and without a gas mask, Cat's natural instinct is to put an end to his suffering. This choice takes away every part of innocence a person may present in the fact that taking a person's life no matter the state of the person is an extremely difficult/treacherous thing to do. Many people would have trouble ending a state of suffering because it doesn't seem like the right thing to do but

War is a very hard time especially for soldiers so “we have to take things as lightly as we can, so we can make the most of every opportunity and nonsense stands stark and immediate beside horror. It cannot be otherwise, that show we harden ourselves”(125). During times of large risks, a human can get very caught up in the wrong things as they can overthink it. Humans need to be able to realize that their life could be on the line at any moment and need to assume all precautions to take their life out of danger. During wars, many tactics may be considered and one soldier feels some tactics should not be considered as “I tell you it is the vilest baseness to use horses in war”(36). Many humans will say that horses and other animals should be left out of the battles because it is not their battle. Others will take an opinion where all tactics must be used even when non-human lives come into play. Lives can go from an extremely safe state to a very fragile state in an extremely small amount of