All Quiet On The Western Front was written by Erich Maria Remarque, a German author, after he served in WW1. Erich fled from Germany to Switzerland in 1932 and in 1939 he went to the US. The book is widely controversial and was burned by the Nazi party in 1933 in front of the University of Berlin because of its anti-war message and negative portal of Germany. This was the first book to be publicly published. In reality, All Quiet On The Western Front was not an anti-war or anti-military novel; it was only showing the truth of what war was really like. Throughout these chapters, there are motifs of soldier's animal instincts often comparing the soldiers to animals like wild dogs or beasts. The book also talks about the earth and how it saves …show more content…
WWI was also the first war where opponents used trench warfare which caused more deaths and a longer war as it was harder to gain land and invade enemies. All Quiet On The Western Front shows the realities of war and how horrific and dangerous it is. It often is said to have changed how authors write about war and even invented a new genre because no other book had shown such harsh war realities. This book is widely considered controversial and banned in many countries. Even war art was changed by WWI. In early wars art was often heroic and depicted victory, but after the war art changed dramatically, now showing severed limbs, explosions, and terrified soldiers. In chapter 4 there is a particularly gruesome paragraph talking about the horses after an attack. “We see a dark group, bearers with stretchers, and large black clumps moving about. Those are the wounded horses. But not all of them. Some gallop away in the distance, fall down and then run on farther. The belly of one is ripped open, the guts trail out. He becomes tangled in them and falls, then he stands up again.” (pg.39-40) The soldiers ride in on horses these large terrifyingly beautiful animals that have done nothing wrong. Then the horses are shown leaving the fight dying gruesomely as the soldiers try to put them out of their misery, which is more than what they do for the wounded