War is seen as horrific at any point of history as it exhibits unjust death and destruction. Most exclusively shown by World War I and its new and improved technologies and powerful governmental drives lead to millions of lives not only lost but also destroyed. Rich Maria Remarque expresses this view of war through his renowned novel “All Quiet on the Western Front”, a story about a group of soldiers who fought in this horrific war. War forces a soldier to find comfort in unlikely places, such as the earth, emphasizes meaning but takes away the quality of life, as shown through the symbol of boots, and shows how war takes away passion and replaces it with a forced drive, shown through the horses. These symbols are all expressed within Remarque's story.
Earth, which symbolizes comfort, helps to develop Remarque’s theme that soldiers must find comfort in the things around them rather than the people around them. This is because war has taken those away who give this sense of comfort. Paul explains that “to no man does the earth mean so much as to the soldier...when he buries his face and his limbs deep in her from the fear of death by shell-fire, then she is his only friend, his brother, his mother” (55). The earth holds a comforting feeling, the same that one would feel with a mother or significant other. These men have comradeship, but they don’t have the physical comfort of a loving relationship. The earth is there to provide that for the soldiers, making it more
In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, the author effectively utilizes these literary devices in order to highlight his negative opinion toward the subject of war. Imagery is consistently used throughout the novel as Remarque accurately depicts the cruelty of warfare and its effects on the
The topic of war is hard to imagine from the perspective of one who hasn't experienced it. Literature makes it accessible for the reader to explore the themes of war. Owen and Remarque both dipcik what war was like for one who has never gone through it. Men in both All Quiet on the Western Front and “Dulce Et Decorum” experience betrayal of youth, horrors of war and feelings of camaraderie.
War is a hellish battleground where many lives are taken. In war there is constantly images and events that happen which can change a soldier’s life forever. In the book All Quiet on the Western Front Remarque uses the symbols of boots, butterflies and horses to advance the main theme in the novel, that war takes young men’s innocence away.
It’s no surprise that soldiers will more-than-likely never come home the same. Those who have not served do not often think of the torment and negative consequences that the soldiers who make it out of war face. Erich Remarque was someone who was able to take the torment that he faced after his experience in World War I and shed light on the brutality of war. Remarque was able to illustrate the psychological problems that was experienced by men in battle with his best-selling novel All Quiet on the Western Front (Hunt). The symbolism used in the classic anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front is significant not only for showing citizens the negative attributes of war, but also the mental, physical, and emotional impact that the vicious war had on the soldiers.
One of the best, if not the best war novels that is Erich Remarque's “All Quiet on the
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
In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque progressively shows the brutality of war through the eyes of soldiers claiming their innocence, and also the effects of war on the people in the home front . In this essay I will be discussing the effect of war on both the combatants and non combatants in this novel.
Remarque uses another tactile imagery, touch, to elaborate on this scene. When reading, you feel as you can almost join Paul in the hole, clinging for survival, and suddenly feeling an arm inside a sleeve behind you. Dead bodies are all around, which shows the brutality of being in a war. Being in war is already bad enough, but having to go home is even worse. Participating in war changes you as a person, as demonstrated by Paul, ¨I was a soldier, and now I am nothing but an agony for myself, my mother, for everything that is so comfortless and without end.¨ (185).
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 All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque uses metaphors to help the reader better understand the mindset and hardships of a soldier. Earlier in the book, Remarque talks of the soldier’s unexplainable longing to be a part of the war. He compares the front to “a mysterious whirlpool” and himself to the still water just outside of it (Remarque 55). Although he is far from the center, he is still “slowly, irresistibly, inescapably” sucked into combat. Remarque also illustrates the horrors of war and the mental obstacles a soldier must go through. The soldiers are “little flames poorly sheltered by frail walls”, meaning the war has made their minds fragile and prone to many dangers. Their tragic experiences makes their flame “flicker and sometimes
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.
“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 its shells, were destroyed by the war” (Remarque Prologue). All Quiet on the Western Front recounts the tale of six German warriors who volunteered to battle in World War I, and it reports their hardships mentally, religiously, and physically. The novel is told from the point of view of one staggeringly perceptive youthful warrior, Paul Bäumer, who uncovered subtle elements of life on the Western Front. Creator Erich Maria Remarque himself had battled on the Western Front when he was eighteen years of age, and he endured a few wounds. The repulsions of what he saw as an officer stayed with him.
The horrors of the war is by far the most horrifying event that the world has to go through. The soldiers that take part in war suffer irreversible damage because of the tragedies they have seen and beared. The worst things about war is the severity of deaths that are bestowed on mankind, the majority of soldiers that have nothing to go home to after the war, and the physical and mental harm that can occur after war. During the war people are victims and witnesses of broken limbs, blood oozing mouths, and lifeless bodies. All Quiet on the Western Front portrays the war as it was experienced, replacing the fantasy of glory, and heroism with a picture of fear and massacre. For example, in chapter one Paul reflects on the story of Joseph Behm,
The novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Eric Remarque is a powerful anti-war novel. It is about a young man of nineteen who fights in the German army at the western front. He is accompanied by his friends and soon realise that war isn’t glorious or honourable, and they live in constant terror. Throughout the novel Remarque describes the physical and psychological horrors of war as well as how they have become the lost generation and the question of who is the enemy. He includes many writing techniques to describe each topic, especially the physical horrors of war.
“All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque is characterized as an anti-war novel which takes place during World War I. The book details, as stated by the epigraph, soldiers who are utterly destroyed by the physical and mental stress of the war. Paul Baumer, the protagonist, and his comrades goes through many ordeals that contributes to the dehumanizing effects of war. With the disastrous living conditions, the constant fear of death and encounters with other soldiers in the war, Remarque was effective in articulating the monstrosity of war.