All Quiet on the Western Front: A Literary Analysis
The Author and His Times Erich Paul Remark (most commonly known as Erich Maria Remarque) was born on June 22nd, 1998 in Onsabruck, Westphalia; a town in Germany. He was the son of his mother Anna Maria Stallnecht Remark and his father, Peter Franz Remark, who was a master machinist and a bookbinder. As a young boy growing up in a lower-working class family, he moved houses eleven times between 1898 and 1912 and was called Schmieren, or “Smudge” by his fellow students. He began to write when he was aged sixteen in which he developed a passion for creating stories. Erich eventually attended the University of Münster in 1913 to pursue a career as an elementary school teacher. In 1915, him and other students created a brotherhood focusing on literature. Through this, he created a short story titled “The Lady with the Golden Eyes”, an essay called “From the Time of Youth”, and a poem which is titled “I and You”. All of these were published in the Onsabruck newspaper and sparked Remarque’s popularity in the literary culture of the time. After he won an essay contest in 1916, he was spontaneously drafted into the German army as a musketeer. Sadly, his mother died right after he completed basic training in Onsabruck on September 9, 1917. In July of that year, Remarque’s fleet advances to Flanders, where the some of the bloodiest fighting was happening in World War I. The effects of trench Warfare took a toll on him and he never truly recovered from when he carried his friend Troske out of enemy fire before he shortly after died of shrapnel wounds on the way to a medic. During a period of five months, the German and the Allied armies fought away eventually creating up to 770,000 casualties. Remarque eventually becoming sprayed with grenade splinters in neck, wrist, and knee, he left the battlefield on July 31. He suffered from PTSD after the war and it took him a year to recover to a decent state, but he was still concealing it through his wit. During this year he wrote an abundance of poems, essays, and sketches and started to get jobs at local posts. From 1920 to 1922, he juggled being an aspiring pianist, a worker in a post, and being an avid writer for his own
1. Paul Baumer and his friends, as German soldiers in World War I, collectively fight any who oppose the German army. However, Corporal Himmelstoss is an enemy whose transgressions are taken far more personally by Paul and his friends. Himmelstoss often torments Paul and his comrades for the sake of doing so, as he is power-driven and tries to exert control over others whenever he can. It is never stated that the soldiers hate or even dislike the enemies that they fight daily on the battlefield; yet they disfavor Himmelstoss openly. In addition, they all begin to harbor distaste for their former teacher, Kantorek, for encouraging them to join the army. All of the men also struggle against the knowledge that
This essay will consider the different effects created by Erich Maria Remarque in his novel All Quiet on the Western Front. As a writer, Remarque unknowingly left his novel open to readers with completely different perspectives, and to various forms of criticism. This undoubtedly meant that every single reader had been affected by the novel in many different ways which unfortunately for Remarque may have been an effect that he never intended. This essay is divided into 5 main sections. Firstly it will address any of the intentions Remarque could have possibly wanted to propose through his novel, and closely examine the purposes and motives behind All quiet on the Western Front. It will then go on to analyse Remarque’s use of language in various extracts of the novel. Then the content is analysed in two parts; the third part is a brief insight into one of the key themes of the novel, and the fourth part highlights the effects Remarque causes. Finally, some conclusions will be drawn as to whether or Remarque may have intended to achieve a certain effect in his novel, and as to whether or not I personally agree with the comment that through his shaping of language and content, Remarque may have achieved an effect he might not have intended.
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.
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.
"Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die"- Herbert Hoover. The leaders who decide to start the war do not have to fight, but the people who do not want to fight, like nineteen year old Paul and his friends, are the ones who are killed and injured. In the book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul changes physically and emotionally through war. Set in Germany during World War I, Paul and his friends must do the unthinkable to survive the war and it causes them to slowly lose their identity. Paul is changed by the harsh effects of the war through his dehumanization, rapid personal growth, and alienation from the rest of the world.
Chapter 11: The war continues and the German forces are weakening. Muller dies and gives Paul his boots. No one hears of Detering ever again after he tries to escape back home. Leer dies because of a thigh wound. Kat eventually dies too because of an exploding shell fragment landing on his head.
All Quiet On The Western Front Essay | English – Parks | 9/8/2017 | Noah Fallon
In All Quiet on the Western Front, author Erich Maria Remarque uses tactile imagery to emphasize that war is horrific. The main character Paul fights to stay alive every day while in the midst of World War 1 as a German soldier, but injuries are bound to happen at some point, ¨The surgeon pokes around in the wound and a blackness comes before my eyes.” (243). In this quote Remarque uses 2 examples of tactile imagery, movement and feelings. The details used to describe this scene makes you feel as if you were in the surgery with Paul.
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.
The author of The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien, and the author of All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque, both use literary devices and overlying theme to show that war changes people. For example, Tim O’Brien has used setting as a great metaphor of a person forever orbiting a vortex caused by the Vietnam War. The theme is also quite prevalent in All Quiet On The Western Front, particularly when Paul goes on leave to his hometown and experiences a sort of “culture shock” because of his experiences in World War I . Each author displays this change of character in their own unique styles.
There is no doubt that war can have a huge physical and psychological impact on the people involved in it. World War I was an enormous outburst which caused millions of fatal deaths and injuries. The novel All Quiet on the Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque, is narrated by Paul who is a young student that joins the army alongside his friends. The novel shows Paul’s perspective on joining the army and experiencing his first role in the battlefield. Furthermore, it shows the different aspects that a war changes about a person. All Quiet on the Western Front's main characters of the lost generation represent three key factors of the First World War; the naivety and inexperience of the youth, the irreversible changes soldiers go through, and the affects on an individual's emotions.
World War I was one of the most destructive wars in recorded Human History and it was only 100 years ago. The book, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque proves that war is very destructive. The people we are looking at are Paul Baumer, Albert Kropp, and Detering. These people are brainwashed and are told that they are the “iron youth” and are coerced to join the army during World War I. Then they go into the war and see that war is not glorious, but see an ugly reality that is war. War is very destructive of physical places, emotionally, and can cause a loss of a generation, and this book shows this very well.
In All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul embodies the lost generation by losing parts of his previous personality and no longer being able to enjoy his life in the way other people can.