Summary: All Quiet On The Western Front

It is important to talk about war because talking about it can show the current and next generations how horrible war was. Effectively, it will help the coming generations avoid war and learn from previous mistakes. World War I was different from all previous wars because it was one of the first large wars that included all of the large powers. It was also significant because it was war in a new context and type. War before WWI was not very similar to it, a lot of new things and strategies were incorporated in WWI such as trench warfare and total war. All Quiet On The Western Front is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, the novel is about World War I and presents the main and large themes about how horrible war is. It shows how horrible war is

This is well portrayed in the novel All Quiet On The Western Front, especially in the later parts of the book when Paul returns home to notice that he does not enjoy his old life as much as he used to. The soldiers anticipated coming home and going back to their original lives, however, when they returned they noticed that their previous lives were not as good as they thought they would be while they returned. Remarque demonstrates this well in the following passage: “‘You are at home, you are at home.’ But a sense of strangeness will not leave me, I cannot feel at home amongst these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there is my case of butterflies, and there is the mahogany piano-but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a veil between us.”(Remarque 95) This quotation demonstrates the large amount of discomfort that was present in the returning soldier’s lives as they returned. [

According to World War I Casualties by Nadege Mougel on census.gov, 21 million soldiers were wounded. These wounds could have been minor to very large detrimental wounds, however, they affected the soldiers for the rest of their lives. The movie and book Johnny Got His Gun, is about a soldier that has lost all of his limbs and many of his senses such as hearing, sight, speech, taste, and smell. In the story, they keep the soldier alive and “save” him only for the purpose of learning how to treat the horrible injuries he suffered. The story points out how horrible the war can be, especially in terms of injury and life. From the story Johnny Got His Gun, the band Metallica made a song called “One” that is about the story. “One” takes the basis of the story and presents the feelings and emotions about how horrible it would be to have to live like that, and in those conditions, through a song. The song also portrays the horridity of war in talking about how he was left with life in Hell due to the war and the accident. This is prevalent when the song presents the lyrics “Left me with life in hell” that is talking about how the accident has taken everything from him and ruined his life, his life is ruined and his life is no better than life would be in hell. While he may not literally be in hell, these lyrics present the emotions and give them a way to be understood by the listener as