All Quiet On The Western Front: A Literary Analysis

In his book, Night, Elie Wiesel spoke about his experience as a young Jewish boy in the Nazi concentration camps. During this turbulent time period, Elie described the horrifying events that he lived through and how that affected the relationship with his father. Throughout the book, Elie and his father’s relationship faced many obstacles. In the beginning, Elie and his father have much respect for one another and at the end of the book, that relationship became a burden and a feeling of guilt. Their relationship took a great toll on them throughout their journey in the concentration camps.

Erich Maria Remarque’s literary breakthrough, All Quiet on the Western Front, describes two stories. It meticulously chronicles the thoughts of a soldier in World War I while simultaneously detailing the horrors of all wars; each tale is not only a separate experience for the soldier, but is also a new representation of the fighting. The war is seen through the eyes of Paul Baumer whose mindset is far better developed in comparison to his comrades’. His true purpose in the novel is not to serve as a representation of the common soldier, but to take on a godly and omniscient role so that he may serve as the connection between WWI and all past and future melees of the kind. Baumer becomes the

All quiet On the Western Front, a book written by Erich Maria Remarque tells of the harrowing experiences of the First World War as seen through the eyes of a young German soldier. I think that this novel is a classic anti-war novel that provides an extremely realistic portrayal of war. The novel focuses on a group of German soldier and follows their experiences.

Night by Elie Wiesel is an autobiography about his experience during the Holocaust when he was fifteen years old. Elie is fifteen when the tragedy begins. He is taken with his family through many trials and then is separated from everyone besides his father. They are left with only each other, of which they are able to confide in and look to for support. The story is told through a series of creative writing practices. Mr. Wiesel uses strong diction, and syntax as well as a combination of stylistic devices. This autobiography allows the readers to understand a personal, first-hand account of the terrible events of the holocaust. The ways that diction is used in Night helps with this understanding.

In 2006, Elie Wiesel published the memoir “Night,” which focuses on his terrifying experiences in the Nazi extermination camps during the World War ll. Elie, a sixteen-year-old Jewish boy, is projected as a dynamic character who experiences overpowering conflicts in his emotions. One of his greatest struggles is the sense helplessness that he feels when all the beliefs and rights, of an entire nation, are reduced to silence. Elie and the Jews are subjected daily to uninterrupted torture and dehumanization. During the time spent in the concentration camp, Elie is engulfed by an uninterrupted roar of pain and despair. Throughout this horrific experience, Elie’s soul perishes as he faces constant psychological abuse, inhuman living conditions, and brutal negation of his humanity.

“Never shall I forget that smoke… Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever...Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams into ashes…”(page 34). Elie Wiesel, the author of “Night”, describes his experiences in the Holocaust. Elie experiences pain and suffering throughout his time in the concentration camp, Auschwitz, and he shares how he survived. In the book “Night” the main character, Elie, is affected by the events in this book such as loss of faith, emotional connections with his father, and his self changes mentally and physically.

In the incredible book, All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, the reader follows Paul Baumer, a young man who enlisted in the war. The reader goes on a journey and watches Paul and his comrades face the sheer brutality of war. In this novel, the author tries to convey the fact that war should not be glorified. Through bombardment, gunfire, and the gruesome images painted by the author, one can really understand what it would have been like to serve on the front lines in the Great War. The sheer brutality of the war can be portrayed through literary devices such as personification, similes, and metaphors.

Elie Wiesel’s book “Night” shows the life of a father and son going through the concentration camp of World War II. Their life long journey begins from when they are taken from their home in Sighet, they experience harsh and inhuman conditions in the camps. These conditions cause Elie and his father’s relationship to change. During their time there, Elie and his father experience a reversal in roles.

It is obvious from the opening chapter that this novel will center on the war and the effects it has on a young group of soldiers, none of them more than twenty years of age. They are all friends and former classmates of Paul Baumer, the narrator and protagonist of the book; they have enlisted in the German infantry because their teacher, Kantorek, had painted for them a glorious picture of fighting and saving the homeland from destruction during World War I. In this first chapter, Baumer and his friends are away from the front lines, relaxing a bit after two weeks of fierce fighting. As each of the young men is introduced, it is apparent that they are tired, hungry, angry, and disillusioned over the war.

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque, is a classic anti-war novel about the personal struggles and experiences encountered by a group of young German soldiers as they fight to survive the horrors of World War One. Remarque demonstrates, through the eyes of Paul Baumer, a young German soldier, how the war destroyed an entire generation of men by making them incapable of reintegrating into society because they could no longer relate to older generations, only to fellow soldiers.

The novel All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, is story of the fictional character Paul Baumer and his troop Troop 9 as they battle in World War I on the Western Front for Germany. This novel differs from most war novels in that it does not portray the men as valiant soldiers protecting their country. The way that the story is told strips away the romanticized view warfare and portrays the raw emotions that come with being on the front lines of a battle. As both Paul Baumer’s life and the battle progress, Paul’s values, along with those of the other soldiers, evolve until they culminate in Baumer’s own passing.

In the two books we read in class, All Quiet on the Western Front and Night we see that the two world wars of the twentieth century produced unprecedented destruction to human life. We see this because in Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, he says that after witnessing bodies getting blown up, people getting shot, things burning down and loud noises every day, he was forced to realize that he no longer belonged to the society that he came from. He realized that he now belonged to the world of war and that even if he tried to go back to his home, there would be nothing left for him to go back to. Throughout the books he makes references that his family becomes the people he was fighting with, even the people he was fighting against because they were the only ones who understood what he was going through (Remarque, 1929). He and his family no longer kept in contact and so he was basically in the world alone with no practically no loved one to lean on. The same goes for the Ellie Wiesel’s Night. Ellie gets taken away from his family and forcibly put into a concentration camp in which he never knew existed. The camp life was harsh and brutal. He saw sons killing their fathers for food and people dying every day simply for the lack of water. He was forced to do hard work and take long journey’s in which had the intention of killing him and his counter parts because they were Jewish. He no longer spoke to his mother or sister and his father had just died.

In All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque contrasts the protagonists Paul Baumer’s the transition from a naive 19 year old  schoolboy living in a false fantasy to an empty man on the front lines of World War I. Through the progression of the novel Remarque displays Paul Baumer ’s swap from innocence to maturity and how he transitions into a cold hearted person. Just as many other young boys, Paul had an attraction to the idea of going to war and fantasized about becoming a brave, heroic soldier  that would stand by his country.  

My nose is bleeding profusely as they lead me away from the fighting. The blood is thick and warm on my skin. I try to see the people who are carrying me away from my comrades. All I can see are their uniforms. The ripped stitching along the sleeve, the muddied breast of the shirt makes the name barely legible. Then I realize, even if the uniform was in pristine condition, I still would not have been able to read the writing above the right pocket. It is a name different from the classic Russian names that I grew up with. The black bolded lettering on the soldier’s uniform spelled out a German name.

The days are hot, and the nights are stuffy, so I am guessing it is July or August. I lost track of the date a while back, but it seems like yesterday we landed on the Gallipoli peninsh. The Johnny Turks still have the high ground advantage, and everyday hope slowly slips through my fingers. I miss my mum, and I think of her all the time.