Women In Erin Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

A century that started out as a “belle époque” due to several technological advances that helped the middle and higher classes live in a more comfortable and improved life than before contrasted with slums of the workers who made this life possible, furthering the separation of classes in society. Very few women during this time had occupations and most were expected to stay and take care of the “home and hearth” and the children. Young men who volunteered for the war were expecting the glory and pride of a short war that older veterans revered. World War I and the Bolshevik revolution were occurrences that challenged and eventually distorted these ideas into the working class taking control, women having a vital role in the war effort, and

So many were disabled physically and psychologically, that they distanced themselves from older generations and those who did not serve in the war. Men that had missing limbs and parts of their face decimated were a common sight on the streets. The term “shell shocked” evolved from the end of the war and applied to men that had been severely affected to what they had seen and experienced while fighting in the Great War. Young and old men came back from the trenches with different personalities and views of the world. Erin Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front shocked and surprised people when it first came out because of it’s raw and universal portrayal of a soldier on the western front. On Paul’s leave during the war his experience going back was less than pleasant. Being surrounded by civilians who are oblivious to the things Paul had to face when fighting in the war. When Paul talked to his ailing mother, the only one he connected with on his leave, he lies to her and does not explain the horror he faced during his tenure on the front lines. In his mind he thinks that she will never understand what he faced and that the only ones who do understand are in his troop or even with the other soldiers on the opposing side. Remarque furthers illustrates the distancing of soldiers from society was the blame on not the soldiers across the trenches but the men who are in