All Quiet On The Western Front Reflective Essay

In Remarque’s book, “All Quiet On The Western Front,” the main character Paul Baumer, a German soldier in World War One , states that soldiers become “lost” (Remarque 123). This idea that soldiers become lost is illustrated throughout the book as seen when the young men no longer desire their prewar lives anymore as they feel foreign. Paul explained to the reader that, “The war swept us away. For… the older men, it is but an interruption” (Remarque 20). This explains how the war had a more significant impact on young soldiers rather than their elder counterparts. This most likely occurred due to the young soldiers having little to no roots in the real world. For example, most youth soldiers only had their parents, and very few a significant

Erich Maria Remarque’s literary breakthrough, All Quiet on the Western Front, describes two stories. It meticulously chronicles the thoughts of a soldier in World War I while simultaneously detailing the horrors of all wars; each tale is not only a separate experience for the soldier, but is also a new representation of the fighting. The war is seen through the eyes of Paul Baumer whose mindset is far better developed in comparison to his comrades’. His true purpose in the novel is not to serve as a representation of the common soldier, but to take on a godly and omniscient role so that he may serve as the connection between WWI and all past and future melees of the kind. Baumer becomes the

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

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.

In regards to war, Gandhi once commented, “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary, the evil it does is permanent.” In other words, violence masks its potential impairment by seeming innocuous at first; however, the true damage, often permanent, can be seen chronically. The idea reflected by Gandhi’s quote can be proven through an examination of World War I and Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Although soldiers and governments in both worlds initially saw honor and security of their countries as valid reasons for going to war, what ultimately came of that conflict were both immediate consequences, such as loss of innocence and development of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (often referred to as PTSD) among young soldiers, as well as permanent, long-term consequences, like the hatred the war had spurred in Germans which ultimately ensued to Hitler’s rise to power.

life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces…We are cut off

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

Erich Maria Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” discusses his view of war from a younger generation's viewpoint. Throughout the novel, Remarque describes in detail what it is like to be a soldier in fighting in the war during World War I. Remarque’s writing views the war as unnecessary, cruel, and evil. The images painted by Remarque demonstrates the horror and sacrifices that soldiers have to make when they enter the war. “All Quiet on the Western Front” is not an open anti-war novel. However, the novel has obvious anti-war themes and many people such as the Nazi party, consider “All Quiet on the Western Front” an anti-war novel. Erich Maria Remarque views of war are apparent in the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” considering the images and demonstrations of horror that the characters have to survive through as well as, the actual reality of who the true enemies are to the soldiers.

Paul’s attitude began to change soon after going home on leave when he realized that he no longer had any connections with his old community except for his school mates who also enlisted and eventually died in the army. Even the conditions at home were hopeless as illustrated in the moldy food, his father’s futile efforts to change the situation, and his mother’s illness. The hopelessness of war is obvious to the reader and to Paul when Tjaden and Paul are severely injured while attempting to protect a town. They resist medical treatment due to the number of fatalities that result from amputation. They realized that death was almost inescapable if they allowed themselves to be treated in just any hospital. At the end of the novel, one of Paul’s closest friends, Katczinsky has recently died due to a small splinter to the head as Paul was attempting to carry him to safety on one of the last days of battle. At this moment it is evident to the reader that because of the war this young man has lost everything that he once held including all of the members of his class and the ability to connect with the rest of the world. In October 1918, Paul even lost his most precious commodity - his life to a stray bullet on what the army pronounced to be still and quiet day on the entire front. It is ironic that the army considers only a few deaths to be a peaceful and quiet day. Death has become such apart of reality that only

World War I, the war that changed warfare. Dress uniforms had changed to camouflage, horses to tanks, and introduced the unconventional warfare of shelling and gas. The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was over 38 million. There were over 17 million deaths and 20 million wounded, making it one the deadliest wars in history. World War I was extremely brutal, especially with the warfare introduced. The setting of this war was immensely traumatizing to the civilians in the war zones and the soldiers fighting in them. This was emphasized all throughout All Quiet on the Western Front. In the novel, by Erich Maria Remarque, the setting plays a key role in the development of the characters, the plot’s development, and

Humanity relentlessly finds a reason to tear itself apart. The slaughter of man is read about almost daily and one never typically thinks twice about it; however, when the lackluster conditions of others’ lives throughout time is conveyed via a novel or movie, we are forced to delve into the lives of those who fought tirelessly for their beliefs – even if “their beliefs” are actually society’s beliefs and are not correlated to their own. Prime exemplum of soldiers fighting for differing causes, such as an attempt to save the sliver of humanity remaining in them, is demonstrated in Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front through Paul Bäumer in the film directed by Joseph Vilsmaier: Stalingrad by Lieutenant Hans von Witzland. While both protagonists suffer brutal warfare and die in the end of their works, their attempts to transcend the dehumanization of war may be one of the few reasons that the characters survive as long as they do.

All Quiet on the Western Front could definitely be considered an anti-war novel. The changes the characters in the novel subjected themselves to throughout the book allow the reader to view the negative effects soldiers went through during, as well as after the war. Anti-war means that you are against the war and leaning more towards the idea of peace. This novel showed the dissatisfaction and disappointment in each character once they begun to truly understand war and battle from first-hand experience. All Quiet on the Western Front had an anti-war theme in every aspect of the book starting with the eagerness of the characters at the beginning of the war and their transformation to

The final chapters of All Quiet on the Western Front are full of bitter irony. Even the battle-hardened soldiers are reaching the point of collapse. Their prewar lives have ceased to mean anything since they can no longer imagine a peacetime existence. Paul’s comparison of the war to disease reflects an attack on the romantic ideals of warfare. Until now, he and his friends have avoided allowing the disease of war to infect them. At this point, however, the sickness is creeping into their minds and souls because it is becoming their only existence. They have ceased to think of themselves as anything other than soldiers fighting a hopeless conflict. They share an intense bond with one another, but it has now taken on the character of a bond between fellow convicts sentenced to death. The war has become a mental prison, as their country refuses to end the hostilities in the face of obvious evidence that it is losing the war badly.

Erich Maria Remarque is quoted as saying “It is very [odd] that the unhappiness of the world is so often brought on by small men.” Erich Maria Remarque was a German writer, author of the famous, “All Quiet on the Western Front”, and was one of the many influential authors who wrote in the literary time of Modernism. Remarque was an important figure, and his books highlight both the uselessness of war, and the hellish realities of it.

Professor’s Comments: This is a good example of a book review typically required in history classes. It is unbiased and thoughtful. The Student explains the book and the time in which it was written in great detail, without retelling the entire story… a pitfall that many first time reviewers may experience.