Summary Of All Quiet On The Western Front

In the war novel of All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the imagery of nature is used to describe the battle of the front of the war. Because of the grotesque battle scene that is associated with nature, soldiers would change by losing their innocence and being dehumanized. Although nature often associated with peace, it is more substantial than humans because nature has an impact on the soldiers.
During the war, there are times of peace because nature is everywhere. For example, “These are wonderfully care-free hours. Over us is the blue sky. On the horizon float the bright yellow, sunlit do observation-balloons, and the many little white clouds of the anti-aircraft shells.” (9). This quote illustrates the theme of

For example, “life is simply one continual watch against the menace of death;--it has transformed us into unthinking animals...awakened in us the sense of comradeship, so that we escape the abyss of solitude--it has lent us the indifference of wild creatures, so that in spite of all, we perceive the positive in every moment, and store it up as a reserve against the onslaught of nothingness.” (273-274). In other words, this quote shows the process of dehumanization because nature has given the soldiers the instinct of an animal, so they can survive. Since this quote is about dehumanization, it shows the theme of loneliness because it is the trigger of the process of soldiers being dehumanized, and once they are dehumanized, they do not have to alone because there will be other soldiers that are also dehumanized. Additionally, Paul Baumer, the narrator, have witnessed the death of Kemmerich and “He looks ghastly, yellow and wan. In his face there are already the strained lines that we know so well, we have seen them now hundreds of times. They are not so much lines as marks. Under the skin the life no longer pulses, it has already pressed out the boundaries of the body. Death is working through from within.” (14). More specifically, the motif of yellow is used to foreshadow death because during the morning the yellow, sunlight reveals the body of the fallen soldiers. Therefore, yellow is part