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The Effects Of A German Soldier In All Quiet On The Western Front

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“We loved our country as much as they; we went courageously into every action; but also we distinguished the false from true, we had suddenly learned to see. And we saw that there was nothing of their world left. We were all at once terribly alone; and alone we must see it through” (Remarque 6). Joining the war is perceived to be glory, and an honorable act, but is it like all it seems? All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel about World War I and its effects upon those who served in it through the perspective of a German soldier by the name of Paul Bäumer. Through his eyes, truths about war are slowly revealing itself one by one. This novel contains heart-wrenching scenes which show the brother-like relationship among the comrades, and the …show more content…

“The dead man might have had thirty more years of life if only I had impressed the way back to our trench more sharply on my memory” (Remarque 99). In this scene, Paul has stabbed a French soldier. The man is lying next to him, and he has no choice but to stay until his comrades can come and rescue him. He is forced to listen to the noises that the dead man makes and soon finds himself feeling remorse towards the soldier. At one point, he even tries to help the French soldier by bandaging the wound from where he had been stabbed. He tries to picture what the soldier’s family and wife would have looked like and whether or not he should write back a letter. In the next quote, the French soldier has officially died. Paul props him up and talks to him, “Comrade, I did not want to kill you…I see you are a man like me” (Remarque 99). In this line, Paul apologizes to the soldier and explains that he did not mean to kill him as it was an act of protection. This shows that although at the time of fighting, soldiers tend to lose their humanity as they depend upon their instincts to help protect themselves, in the end the situation is different. When face to face with an individual, the humanity trait kicks back in and no longer is killing perceived as a purpose. All that is felt is sympathy towards the

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Throughout All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul and some of his comrades wonder why they’re fighting a war that they have no relation to. Furthermore, that doesn’t give them a sabbatical for going home, even though they aspire to go home to their families. In the book, Paul and the other soldiers are taught that the country they are fighting against is their enemy, and whenever they are to approach any of the “enemies” they are to tranquilize them promptly. Just because you are fighting against a country that you believe is atrocious or corrupt, doesn’t mean that an individual on that side is in that manner. Nevertheless, a book should not be judged by a cover.

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The reading part describes a horrible scene of the battle field. The writer explain in details the time he spent in the war in a way that helps the readers imagine themselves being with him. Remarque, in his novel “All Quiet Men of the Western Front”, showed the suffering of soldiers while they are on the battle field. He talked about the fear possessing the men of not being able to go back alive. Remarque also talks about human parts and dead corps pilling up in the graveyards in front of him.

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884 Words | 4 Pages

The men battle in the war together and become very close with one another. They need to rely on one another to survive. In chapter three of the novel the general, Himmelstoss, is lost. The soldiers are sad and distraught about the loss of him. Then, a soldier named Tjaden runs over and breaks the news.

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The trenches of World War I reveal the petrifying realities of war and the profound bond between soldiers in the chaos of battle. The All Quiet on the Western Front Novel follows the life of Paullistened to by Paulclimbed, a young man who has just joined the war as a German soldier fighting on the Western Front. Alongside him are his schoolmates and other soldiers going through similar hardships. Comradeship is shown strongly across All Quiet on the Western Front, which Erich Maria Remarque supports by showing the bond between classmates, the connection between enemy and friendly soldiers, and the struggles that these soldiers go through together. The strong bond between these men is shown throughout the novel in the early chapters, especially between Paul and his schoolmates.

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This portrayal reveals the shared humanity of the soldiers on both sides and how in war beauty and horror

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1580 Words | 7 Pages

All Quiet on the Western Front is a World War I novel written by Eric Maria Remarque. Some believe it has become known as the greatest war novel of all time. Remarque himself fought in World War I, so it is based off of events that he experienced first-hand. He endured five injuries during this war, and never forgot about his experiences. The reader is taken on a journey through the war experience of nineteen-year-old Paul Bäumer.

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Despite a similar internal struggle, Paul and the speaker cope with their emotions in different ways. Although both characters do in fact suppress the guilt of killing an enemy, Paul still struggles with some regret. In “The Man He Killed”, the speaker acknowledges the fact that he is at war. The idea of killing another man becomes normal to him as he realizes that he enlisted for this purpose. The speaker states that “I shot at him as he at me”, if he had failed to shoot, he could have been the one dead, thus he had to fire back in order to survive.

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1661 Words | 7 Pages

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is not a typical war novel. There is no glorious win, no remarkable war hero, no romance. It doesn’t over-dramatize and it isn’t the least bit glamorous. All Quiet is the brutally honest tale of ordinary young soldiers faced with the horrifying reality of World War I. Remarque himself was a drafted into the German army at age 18, but was wounded in battle and spent the rest of the war recovering.

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The author wrote, “Terror can be endured so long as a man simply ducks;- but it kills, if a man thinks about it” (Remarque 138). The horrific time that the soldiers underwent resulted in their emotions being shut off and ignored for the sake of their mental and physical survival. As the soldiers flipped the switch that controlled their emotions, they separated war and peace, so much so that they could not comprehend their life without war. Paul’s friend Albert said, “There won’t be any peacetime” (Remarque 76), this mindset occurred because of the daunting and gruesome occurrences in war. Furthermore, Paul mentioned memories of his home life and said, “…they belong to another world that is gone from us” (Remarque 121), showing again how a soldiers live emotionally disconnected from their home life, leaving them unprepared for life after war.

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In the year 1914, a war started that would turn innocent people against each other, and have aftermaths that include thousands of people dead due to new equipment like tanks, gas attacks, and hand-to-hand combat. In this war there was a soldier named Paul Bäumer who is a German nineteen year old who has made friends that will last a lifetime during this experience, but has also felt immense pain. His daily routine is to sleep, eat, and fight in the trenches, and he experiences death every day. Most soldiers view death as a recurring event, but Paul views it as wretchedness, which makes him different from others by caring about his comrades more than others. Paul shows many qualities through this experience of being a soldier in the First World War, and he learns what is necessary in life, which takes some people years to figure out.

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How was dehumanization an essential part of All Quiet on the Western Front and being a soldier in World War I? The book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is the account of the character Paul Baumer and his classmates who serve in World War I that illuminates the horrors of the war from the German perspective. Dehumanization is the greatest theme of the story; it defines every soldier and their way of life before, during, and after the war. It is seen in how the soldiers handle death and the grueling training they endure.

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1226 Words | 5 Pages

In Erich Remarque’s tragic novel, All Quiet On The Western Front, he depicts the hardships war has on an individual, especially the younger generation. From these hardships, the audience understands why the individual is not able to find a way to reconnect with his past life. Paul’s war experience destroys his empathy, as well as his connection to others and the society that he once was a part of. The impact of the war stripped Paul of his humane connections between him and his society, and in the end a naive teen had to endure bloodshed. Paul and his comrades had no idea what the war would do to them and sadly learned that the war was more a misfortune than an honor.

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After days in the trenches waiting for the continuous bombing to end, Paul and his comrades seize the opportunity to attack and “become wild beasts”(Remarque 113). Although soldiers enlist in the war to fight for their country, or for the honor of experiencing the massacre of the battlefield, they no longer fight for an idea, but for their lives which makes them fight more viciously and with more vigor. For instance, Paul describes how “if your own father came over with them [the French enemy troops] you would not hesitate to fling a bomb at him”(114). The soldiers are driven by their will to live and therefore are not hesitant to kill even if it were their family on the other side. Furthermore, as Paul hides in a shell-hole, a body falls into the hole and his fear-induced robot-like state of mind leads him to murder by his own hand: “I do not think at all, I make no decision - I strike madly at home, and feel only how the body suddenly convulses, then becomes limp, and collapses.

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1098 Words | 5 Pages

In our life, there is a moment when we lose our innocence. We stopped going out to play with our friends, we no longer believed in the Tooth Fairy and in Santa Claus. There are multifarious ways we lost our innocence, but the one experience that genuinely ruins your innocence is war. In the novel “ All Quiet on the Western Front”, by Erich Maria Remarque, is by a soldier’s point of view, Paul Baumer’s, talking about a group of teens who were recruited to fight in the World War I. The novel depicts how their innocent minds were turned around by all the experiences they were subjected to.

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841 Words | 4 Pages

Comradeship “We are brothers and press on one another the choicest pieces.” (Remarque 96) All Quiet on The Western Front introduces the major themes of comradeship, because the soldiers depend on one another when in danger, they have love for one another, and they have the common goal to survive with one another.

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