All Quiet On The Western Front Critical Analysis

Paul and his classmates are forced to grow up and fight the enemy, even though they have not experienced life yet. “I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another.” (Remarque 263). The destruction of these young men’s innocence is a subject not typically covered by resources such as textbooks, giving the reader a different outlook on how individuals were affected. According to Novels for Students, “[Paul’s] loss of innocence during the cataclysm is the focus of the author's anti-war sentiment.” (All). Remarque effectively projects this idea when Paul goes on leave and returns to his home to visit his family and teachers. Upon his arrival, the first apparent change is physical: he has grown taller and his features are more mature. However, as he interacts with the people he has known all his life, he feels like an outsider because he neither understands them nor is understood. Remarque

Erich Maria Remarque portrays his view of war through Paul in “All Quiet on the Western Front”. Remarque mentions briefly several times what it is like for soldiers from their generation to be fighting in the war. For example, “For us lads of eighteen, they ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress--to the future. We often made fun of them and played jokes on them, but in our hearts we trusted them. The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom. But the first death we saw shattered this belief. We had to recognize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs.” (pg. 7) This quote has a lot of significance throughout the story because this is when Paul and his friends started to understand who the true enemy was.

While on leave, Paul also visits his father and some of his father's friends, but does not wish to speak to them about the war. The men are "curious [about the war] in a way that [Paul finds] stupid and distressing." They try to imagine what war is like but they have never experienced it for themselves, so they cannot see the reality of it. When Paul tries to state his opinion, the men argue that "[he] sees only [his] general sector so [he is] not able to judge." These men believe they know more about the war and this makes Paul feel lost. He realizes that "they are different men here, men [he] can not understand..." and Paul wants to be back with those he can relate to, his fellow soldiers. Paul wishes he had never gone on leave because out there "[he] was a soldier, but [at home] he is nothing but an agony to himself." When Paul returns to the battlefield, he is excited to be with his comrades. When he sees his company, "[Paul] jumps up, pushes in amongst them, [his] eyes searching," until he finds his friends. It is then

In this quote, Paul describes what was going through his fellow soldiers and his mind as they enter the war. Remarque also writes that soldier in the

As Paul and his friends fight, they lose innocence with every battle and bullet. Prior to the war, they were students, learning about life, with strong ambitions and dreams, beginning to “love life and the world; [but they shot] it to pieces” (Remarque 87). They had expectations of becoming heroes due to the romanticism of war, but in reality they watched their friends fall one by one. They expected to return home as if nothing

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

For Paul and his fellow comrades to survive the gruesomeness of the front, Paul comments how “[e]very conceivable method of parade-ground soldiering is used to become hard, suspicious, pitiless vicious, tough”(26). The gruesome training shows how Paul is changing. His original young and happy self has ceased to exist as he reflects on the training imposed on him. Later on though, 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.

Additionally, Paul needs to stay resolute when in tough times, and must continue on. He goes through many hardships through the book. In the beginning, Paul watches his friend, Kemmerich, die in vain. Despite his friend dying, he still continues on. In the middle of the book, Paul is on leave and decides to go visit his mom and sister. Once he arrives, he finds out that his mom has just been diagnosed with cancer. Paul has to focus on the war, even if he can’t help his mom all the time, Paul has to focus on the war. Later, Paul has to say goodbye to his good friend. “Parting from a friend Albert Kropp was very hard. But a man gets used to that sort of thing in the army” (269). Eventually, all of Paul’s original group of classmates die, and Paul is the only one left. He becomes more resolute as he continues his job as a soldier, and needs to be mentally

Paul embodies the lost generation by losing parts of his previous personality. In the text it says, “ Iron Youth! Youth! We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young? Youth? That is long ago. We are old folk” (chapter 1 pg. 18) In this quote we see the way that another troop, Kantorek sees these men. Most people would look at these men who are only 20 and see them as young and full of life. People of twenty are just getting to the beginning of their lives. But through being in this war Paul and his friends now regard themselves

He illustrates the mental transformation that the soldiers undergo during battle, saying, “By the animal instinct that is awakened in us…we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals” (27). As soon as they hear gunshots, these young men go from being cheerful or gloomy, to pumping adrenaline, swelling fear, and the need to survive. In a war that isn’t tangible to them, that leaves them feeling useless like pegs on a game board, the only motivation they have is not dying. “We do not fight,” Paul explains, “we defend ourselves against annihilation” (48). At one point when he gets close enough in battle to see French soldiers—actual, touchable enemies—he then feels the anger and becomes violent. “We can see his face…we can oppose him; we feel a mad anger. No longer do we lie helpless” (54). Finally, Paul cannot take the loss of his close friends. Some of them lose their legs, and the majority of them die in front of his very eyes. Just witnessing even the enemy’s death is overwhelming. Hence, the men turn off all feelings, for the burden is simply too much to carry. “We have lost all feeling for one another…We are insensible, dead men, who through some trick, some dreadful magic, are still able to run and to kill”

As men arrive at the training camps, the boys are more excited than ever and even make joked about killing the enemy. Their commander, Kemmerich, who used to be the local mailman, works hard to get the boys in shape and tries to tire them out. The boys slowly realize how war changes people even Kemmerich who had been a fun loving man who loved joking with the boys. They got a small tast of the realities of war but yet that still doesn’t shake the pride and excitement from their eyes for they are just getting started on their big adventure.

“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.

The Tragedies of Youth in War In WW1 over 10 million young men were killed. This took away all of the soldiers hopes and dreams. In All Quiet on the Western front a novel by Erich Remarque about the evils of war shown through Paul Baumer a German Soldier, It also shows how the men all lost their youth and their lives as young men. The worst place for a young man to be is in war because of the deaths of soldiers, the loss of their youth, and the loss of their sense of home.

All Quiet on the Western Front describes how war positively impacts soldiers, however, it causes hardships. The narrator, Paul Baumer, describes his experience of fighting in WWI. Paul was a German soldier who faced troubles of war with the other men. The Germans in the Triple Alliance were fighting against the Triple Entente, which contained Great Britain, France, and Russia. The men face injury, wounds, death, and disagreements. The war causes soldiers to become emotionless and afraid because of the horrors of the war. However, it also causes soldiers to form a close bond with enemies due to one’s selflessness and retain strong friendships. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque shares how Paul is emotionally affected by hardships