All Quiet On The Western Front Analysis

One of the best, if not the best war novels that is Erich Remarque's “All Quiet on the

In 1929 Erich Maria Remarque published a vivid novel that highlighted the brutality of war, All Quiet on the Western Front. Remarque takes the reader on the journey of nineteen-year-old Paul Baumer, a young soldier fighting on the front line for Germany during World War I. Despite its critical acclaim, this celebrated war novel did little to celebrate war.

Paul feels as though his family has lied to him because they said he would be a hero and it would be so great because he would be protecting his nation but then he goes and has to see people being blown to pieces.“…at that time even one’s parents were ready with the word ‘coward’; no one had the vaguest idea what we were in for. The wisest were just poor and simple people. They knew the war to be a misfortune, whereas those who were better off, and should have been able to see more clearly what the consequences would be, were beside themselves with joy” (11). Their families do not understand what his going on there. But then, Paul gets out there and there are men losing legs and arms.

In All Quiet on the Western Front Paul witness all the horrors of war. He sees death crawling towards the wounded soldiers in the wood, hospital, and on the front. When a soldier was wounded it killed them, they lost a limb or they got sent back to the front. Another awful part of war is soldiers would get shot and stranded out in the woods. They would yell for help, but were never found. Mental wounds were another injury of war. Paul would see people go insane on the front and some soldiers got shellshock. The worst part of the war for Paul was watching all of his comrades die, and his connection with the ones he loved at home fade away. The horrors of war is clearly represented in both Battle Scars and All Quiet on the Western Front with physical wounds, mental wounds, and loss of loved ones.

In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque, starting with the epigraph of the book, defaces the didactic tips that the war burdens Bäumer with, "This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war" (1). A variety of books are written about wars, aggression, and the vast majority of them are full of patriotic pathos and romantic passages. As the novel's raconteur and protagonist, Bäumer is the focal figure in All Quiet on the Western Front and fills in as the mouthpiece for Remarque's reflections about war. All through the novel, Bäumer's internal identity is stood out from the way the war drives him to act and feel. His recollections of the time before the war demonstrate that he was at one time an altogether different man from the miserable fighter who now portrays the novel. Bäumer is a caring and naive schoolboy; before the war, he adored his family and composed poetry. Witnessing the awfulness of the war and the tension it instigates, Bäumer, as different warriors, figures out how to separate his psyche from his sentiments, keeping his feelings under control with a specific end goal to save his rational soundness and survive. With his epigraph, Remarque immediately separates

The First World War was a war of many firsts. Not only was it the first true contemporary war, but it was also the first war that introduced new forms of industrial warfare, which resulted in many repercussions. One of these repercussions was the development of shell-shock or neurosis as a result of war in soldiers returning from the battle front. In “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Enrich Maria Remarque the psychological effect of industrial warfare on soldiers was depicted as a paradoxical combination of exhilaration on the battlefront as well as a deep state of numbness and melancholy.

Every person feels lost at least once in his or her lifetime, whether it is physically lost in a crowd or psychologically lost in an abyss of unanswered questions about life. To be able to fit in properly is difficult in this dysfunctional society where conflict and ignorance linger in people’s lives. From the past, World War I emerged from one of these many conflicts and disrupted the lives of many men as they were lured to abandon their lives and fight. This group of men who have difficulty fitting back into the society after war is known as the “lost generation”. Similarly, Eric Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, tells the story of the generation of young men who feel alienated and lost in society after participating in the war. As they begin thinking about their post-war life, the soldiers realize how war transforms their generation into a group of individuals who have no stable life to readjust to when they return; the horrors of war disrupt their lives psychologically and ruin their innocent youth, making it impossible to return to their past lives or build upon their dream life.

All Quiet On The Western Front Essay | English – Parks | 9/8/2017 | Noah Fallon

he meal scene in chapter 10 of All Quiet on the Western Front is a sharp contrast from the earlier chapters in the novel. Readers observe the men have a chance to unwind and enjoy the the general amenities of life that they rarely have the time to exhibit during their duty at war. From the tone of the narrator, readers will notice a peaceful and relaxed atmosphere that is created among the interactions between men coming together and sharing goods they worked to find around the village. “So we zealously set to work to create an idyll-an idyll of eating and sleeping of course” (232), summarizes the soldier’s initiative which deviates from the animalistic and hostile course of action the men rely on to survive while fighting on the front.

Guided by the ideas of patriotism and honor from their old schoolmaster Kantorek, Paul, and his classmates enlisted in the German Army (11-12). But after returning from battle, Paul explains,”… in our hearts we trusted them…. The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces,”(12-13). Through the first encounter of warfare, Paul learns that war was nothing he expected and that he was set on a path that would lead to destruction. As a part of the younger generation, Paul looked up to the authority figures of the older generation as his guidance to the future. But in contrast, the first death shattered his belief, and because of it, Paul believed that most of the older generation is incapable of teaching them. Consequentially, Paul must turn towards the younger generation and his survival instincts to concentrate on war as he enters a hopeless

Earlier in the book, as Paul is scrambling for his life, he dives into a hole to try and survive the shells, or bombs, falling all around him. Going into war, dead soldiers littering the fields are expected as Paul experiences hands on, ¨...my fingers grasp a sleeve, an arm. A wounded man? I yell to him--no answer--a dead man.¨ (67). Tragedies in the battlefield is as common as flowers growing in a meadow when in war.

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.

Throughout All Quiet on the Western Front perspectives of war are explored through multiple avenues; such as the characterisation of Kantorek, the Assistant Headmaster and multiple literary techniques. Additionally, “Dulce et Decorum est” by Wilfred Owen explores similar perspectives, deviating from the archetypal representation of war to display the ignorance of the home-front to the realities of war, and the contrast in views between the front line and the home-front. In unison, the texts exhibit the devastating effects of war upon prospective, serving and returning soldiers.

While the disconnection allows the soldier to adapt to the brutal war environment, it inhibits them from re-entering society. When he takes his leave, he is unable to feel comfortable at home. Even if Paul had survived the war physically, he most likely would not have integrated back into society suitably. The emotional disconnection inhibits soldiers from mourning their fallen friends and comrades. However, Paul was somewhat less than able to completely detach himself from his feelings, and there are several moments in the when he feels himself pulled down by emotion. These rush of feelings indicate the magnitude to which war has automated Paul to cut himself off from feeling, as when he says, with unbridled understatement, “Parting from my friend Albert Kropp was very hard. But a man gets used to that sort of thing in the army (p. 269) .”

A young soldier's life is changed by war before he can develop their identity. Remarque uses Paul as an example of how soldiers evolve from eager and enthusiastic recruits to cynical, hardened, veterans. When Paul thinks about the past he remarks that “We were eighteen and had begun