Summary Of All Quiet On The Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front is a historical fiction novel by Erich Maria Remarque. It was first published in 1929 and is based on Remarque’s experiences as a soldier in World War I. Throughout the novel, Remarque uses imagery and his characters to critique how war is often romanticized and viewed as patriotic and an honor, because he views war as inglorious and destructive. Remarque’s thoughts and critiques of war can still be applied today because war is still as glamorized and harmful as it was in World War I. Remarque critiques the romantic rhetoric of war and honor, while showing how he feels that war is inglorious by mentioning the horrors of the war, like death, and by demonstrating how the ordinary person cannot understand war.

Remarque uses that statement to show and criticize how people describe war as an exciting adventure because they do not understand what it is like to be constantly on death’s doorstep. Remarque feels that war cannot be majestic or respected, if there is so much continual death surrounding everyone. Later, the main character, Paul Bäumer, is used to criticize how people fancifully talk about war and show it off, regardless of how much they understand. When Bäumer goes home during his leave, his dad asks him a bunch of questions because “he is curious in a way that I find [Bäumer finds] stupid and distressing” (165). Bäumer does not want to talk about the war because he is afraid that flashbacks of his traumatic war experiences will overwhelm him (165). This shows that Remarque thinks that it is ridiculous how people love talking about war when they cannot fathom the horrors soldiers face out on the front. A

Today, society is filled with romanticized images of war including video games and movies. The video games and movies make it seem like going into war is an exciting adventure, but that is because no one can truly understand the horrors of war unless they have been in it. The soldiers of today, who have been exposed to emotionally and mentally scarring experiences in war, like Remarque’s characters, often face Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In some countries, people are still being encouraged to fight in the patriotic spirit, which pins innocent people against each other, causing more unfair injuries and death. Additionally, as weapon technology becomes more modernized each day, the amount of damage increases. The new and improved weapons allow for the killing of more people and an increase in the severity of injuries. This damage also extends to the earth they live on when it is polluted by the smoke and trash of war and unnaturally shifted by the blasts of bombs and other activities. Today, war still falls under Remarque’s critiques because it is still as inglorious and destructive as Remarque writes about in All Quiet on the Western