Essay on All Quiet On The Western Front

Chapter 2 sums up the war in a different fashion, showing the contrast between the uselessness of past knowledge and the “raw and emotional skills necessary” in the trenches (20). The duties imposed on the camp by Corporal Himmelstoss symbolize the hours of work and duties done before enlistment that mean nothing during the war. Being “put through every conceivable refinement of parade ground soldiering” shows how schoolbook tasks were diligently performed only for fear of how society would perceive the boys if they were to do otherwise (26). Himmelstoss himself is the embodiment of previous responsibilities that only make the men “howl with rage” at present (26). The death of Kemmerich goes hand in hand with the death of innocence, Kemmerich’s shiny boots being the small glimpse of hope that keeps the men going. Baumer receives saveloy, hot tea, and rum from Muller for salvaging the boots. In return for giving Muller a sense of hope, Baumer receives a more needed sense of comfort and satisfaction. His hunger, one “greater than comes from the belly alone” (33), is thus satisfied. Chapter 7 directly reinforces this transition from an old life into a new one. Baumer “feels an attraction” to the

Paul Bäumer is a German, young boy, who, together with his classmates, enlists for the army to fight in the Great War. Full of enthusiasm and adventurous thoughts, they arrive at the front, but then are faced with the horrific and soul-destroying war. One by one the classmates are fall in action…

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.

By reading both “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Testament of Youth”, we learn that World War 1 had a tremendous effect, not only on the men in the trenches; but essentially on everyone; of all genders throughout Europe and the World. Vera Brittains, “Testament of Youth” tells the tale of her experiences working as a V.A.D (Voluntary Aid Detachment Nurse) in many areas, however in chapters five and six, she is stationed in London. She describes, in vivid details the struggles of working as a nurse in London during the war. In Remarques’ novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front” we follow the life of a soldier, Paul Baumer who essentially enlists in the Army and is later deployed to the western front. Baumer experiences the horrors of war in many ways, due to this; he undergoes severe physical and psychological stress and he feels as if he will never be able to recover and become an ordinary civilian.

In the opening chapter, Paul Baumer, the narrator, recalls how schoolteachers, such as his own, persuaded their bright-eyed students to put on the German colors. Paul’s teacher, Kantorek, taught his students the importance of the war as he instilled in them the values of nationalism and patriotism. Everyday, he sprouted war propaganda at them in “long lectures” (Remarque 11). He glamorized the war telling his students that they were “the Iron Youth” (Remarque 18) and that “duty to one’s country is the greatest thing” (Remarque 13). Consequently, his students left class enlisted in the war one by one “until the whole of the class went” (Remarque 11). When the students left the comforts of home to volunteer for the war, they valued their country above all else and were prepared to face their own death as doing so lined up with what they believed in.

Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the greatest war novels of all time. It is a story, not of Germans, but of men, who even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war. The entire purpose of this novel is to illustrate the vivid horror and raw nature of war and to change the popular belief that war has an idealistic and romantic character.  The story centers on Paul Baümer, who enlists in the German army with glowing enthusiasm.  In the course of war, though, he is consumed by it and in the end is "weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope"  (Remarque page #).

One of the main characters of All Quiet on the Western Front is Paul Baumer, the protagonist of the novel and faces a huge conflict, which is Man vs. Self. Although he is a kind man at heart, he dares not to show it in fear of appearing vulnerable and not surviving during war. Previous to the war Peter was a lively young man who used to write poetry. However, after participating in the war he began to feel and look older and because of this he funds it impossible to mourn, even though he tries hard to at times. Corporal Himmelstoss is also an important character of the book because he proves how war brings the wickedness out of people. He sends his recruiters on ridiculous errands and acts cruel towards his men in attempt to teach them “discipline”. In Remarque’s novel he represents the most vicious and meanest of them all that war brings out. An additional important character is Stanislaus Katczinsky; a he is the leader of the pack and a mature and strong forty year old with a family back home. He is also of the Second Company, as well Paul’s best friend. He is also the major factor of his friends’ survival since he provides food and shelter for

The main character of the novel is known as Paul Bäumer, a nineteen year old man. Paul is someone who could be classified as being sensitive, but his experiences in the war have slowly deteriorated who he is as a person. A man that once wrote poetry, Paul now has a disconnection with his feelings due to the bitter reality and horror of war. He can not even feel close to his family members while on leave. Paul no longers feels as though he is a man, reaching the point of relying on animal instinct to survive and kill while in combat. Feeling no remorse for those who die, he simply criticizes the young recruits for not being able to survive,

The story revolves around Paul Baumer that was a young soldier serving in the German army during the First World War. However, the action took place around the very last days before the end of the war. The book is very suitable in describing the problems that young men encounter during war. The idea of the author to use first person allows the reader to generate the feeling of being present in the time and area of the war (Olbright par.2).

The book reveals the story of such a man, a man to whom war appeared as something incomprehensible and bizarre eventually. The man is named Paul B채umer and he is presented as a young German soldier fighting in the French lines. What makes the reading intriguing is how the author uses the Present Tense to make things happen right at the moment of reading, only to introduce some paragraphs at times as to imply that everything is but a memory, but a memory so vivid almost as though eveything happens right now. Paul feels that Kantorek, his schoolmaster, had pushed the unexperienced schoolboys to volunteer for war by giving them "long lectures". Faced with the reality of facts, Paul eventually realises that his teacher had been nothing more than another one of the "thousands of Kantoreks, all of whom were convinced that they were acting for the best in a way that cost them nothing". In the middle of

Baumer writes of how he and his fellow classmates from back home are fighting in World War I together. They got the idea to all join from their former schoolmaster, Kantorek. Kantorek told the young men how it was their duty to join and fight for their country. Baumer and his classmates joined the German army to fight this war. They thought they were being patriotic to their country. Kantorek glorified the war, but they would soon see there was nothing glorious about war. Baumer describes watching his classmates slowly being killed off as the war goes on. He, himself was injured a few times, but went back to the battlefield until his death.

Chapter 1: Paul Bäumer is introduced as the main character in the novel, and the novel is told in his experience and his perspective. He starts the story off by explaining the daily life of a soldier in war and explains how the food and the tobacco supplies were rationed during the war. He goes on to talk about how they were at the front line battling for 14 days and what they have gone through and how that was like. Unfortunately, almost half of their regiment was gone with only 80 members left out of 150. Bäumer then explains who some of the soldiers are and like in his regiment. He introduces Leer, Müller, and Kropp, and explains that they were all friends from the same school, same age, and they all in the same class who volunteered

Paul Baumer, a nineteen-year-old soldier, serving the German army on the French front is the protagonist and the narrator of the story. Due to their teacher, Kantorek, expressing high levels of Nationalism, Paul and his friends are influenced into joining the army to fulfill the erg to glorify their country. However, after the excruciating training by Corporal Himmelstoss and experiencing life on the front for themselves they quickly realize that enlisting might have been a mistake. Throughout the novel Paul has difficulty settling back into a modern society. He experiences countless number death of his company and of his closes friends. Paul is the subject of innocence and humanity being taken away by the experiences of war. He feels that

Even though War is necessary for imperialism to develop and capitalism to flourish, Paul and his friends voluntarily joined the army only after hearing the grandstanding patriotic words of their older generation. Not realizing the truth would cost entire generations of men across nations their lives. Paul Baumer shares terrifying experiences of himself and fellow soldiers, as they awaken from the deceptive tales of glory and honor as told by Prof. Kantorek, who ended up drafted. They enlisted on the ideals of nationalism and patriotism when the truth of war is an endless supply of physical and mental exhaustion. It is less than glorious or honorable, to live in the trenches with “corpse rats”, lice, and dead carcasses as expressed by the characters. The novel an antiwar statement explores the romantic illusions of war through brotherly bonds of young nieve men; by forgoing any instilled nationalistic pride while engaging in a journey of enlightenment via the terror

It was unpredictable. It was unsanitary. It caused many soldiers to lose their hope and their lives. It was World War I. The horrors of World War I are shown clearly in Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Paul Baumer is the protagonist, he is just a regular young man who has not had any major life experiences, until he enlists in the war. He goes from just a regular unexperienced teenage boy to a mature adult in a short time. This novel is set in WWI behind the German frontlines where Paul and his friends Katczinsky, Muller, Kropp, Tjaden, and Kemmerich are all assigned. These six young men decided to enlist in the army because their school teacher Kantorek pressured them into supporting their country and going to war. At first, the young men had a feeling of patriotism but later figured out that Kantorek completely misguided them about what it would be like when they got there. The lies eventually caused the men to hate and resent the schoolteacher that deceived them and make them wish they never enlisted in the first place. Remarque uses dramatic irony, and suspense to portray the detachment and problems with emotions in this novel.