All Quiet On The Western Front Silence Analysis

     “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 (263).” Powerful changes result from horrifying experiences. Paul Baumer, the protagonists of Erich Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front utters these words signifying the loss of his humanity and the reduction to a numbed creature, devoid of emotion. Paul’s character originates in the novel as a young adult, out for an adventure, and eager to serve his country. He never realizes the terrible pressures that war

Erich Remarque uses compelling symbols in chapter six of All Quiet on the Western Front, many of them have a significant meaning, only two have a powerful meaning. A shelled schoolhouse, in a sense brings the reader this sort of comfort because the feel of school brings them back to the good ole days. It is the days when you did not have to worry about things because mom and dad were there. The shelling part is another thing, it is showing the amount and the type of war going on. The violence in this time and place is unimaginable and the shelled schoolhouse is an example of the violence is being revealed. Remarque is trying to display to the reader that in this day and age of war they did not care about what they destroyed. He describes many bloody situations because he wants the reader to feel the pain and suffering how

Pursuing Remarque’s tone throughout the novel was rather easy to find because of the horrific, depressing, yet at the same time a little sympathetic scenes. Paul explains a scene after a bombardment, “In the branches dead men are hanging. A naked soldier

The novel, All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque describes the grim reality of WWI. The poem, The Target by Ivor Gurney also talks about the war, and the thoughts a soldier has after killing his enemy. Both works of literature share many similarities.

In war, both violence and fear revokes a soldier’s humanity. These elements of war cause a person to shut down their emotional instincts, which causes the soldiers to mature rapidly by taking innocence along with joy and happiness in life. Through the experiences that the soldiers encounter, their humanity is compromised. Thus, as war strips soldiers of their innocence, they start to become disconnected from themselves and others. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque illustrates the negative effects war has on a soldier’s humanity, through his use of Paul’s books and the potato pancakes by revealing the soldiers loss of emotion that causes them to become detached from society. Through these symbols they deepen the theme by visually depicting war’s impact on Paul. Paul’s books helps the theme by depicting how the war locked his heart to old values by taking his innocence. Likewise the potato pancakes reveal Paul’s emotional state damaged by the war with his lack of happiness and gratitude.

“We developed a firm, practical feeling of solidarity which grew on the battlefield, into the best thing that the war produced - comradeship in arms” (Remarque 19). In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front the men are faced at the decision of life and death, protecting each other so each individual will make it home. Facing horrific images while being put at risk on the line in the front. Comradeship plays an important role in All Quiet on the Western Front, by being able to survive, build a brotherhood bond, and restoring comfort and courage.

To soldiers, fighting on the front lines is a life changing event that can forever alter the way they look, think, and feel. By using juxtaposition, Erich Remarque is able to capture how feelings and behaviors can change while trying to become free from the war experience in Chapter Seven of All Quiet on the Western Front. The main character, Paul, faces three events that make him yearn to rid himself of the terrible weight of war on his shoulders. It is clear that you can never truly understand what it is like in a war until you are the one doing the fighting.

Erich proves his thesis by taking from his war experiences and describes it in details how soldiers have negatively changed and couldn’t cope with reality. Despite of the fact, the novel All Quiet On The Western Front remained hugely popular, it received highly mixed reviews from critics. It was banned and burned by the Nazis, who were against anything that might call into question with their nationalistic views. Nonetheless, it is beyond question that Remarque gives voice to the side of the war and its experience that was overlooked or suppressed at that time. Erich proved his thesis by describing the gory details of the front and the coming of age for many characters who haven’t been well trained or experienced with gore. “ We see men living with their skulls blown open: we see soldiers run with their feet cut off, they stagger on their splintered stumps into the next shell

Written by Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front is the tale of a young man by the name of Paul. Paul who is nineteen years old gathers several of his friends from school and together they voluntarily join the army fighting for the Axis alliance. Before they are sent off into actual battle, they are faced with the brutal training camp. Along with this they face the cruelty of the life of a soldier. This made them question the reason for which a soldier fights. They are told that they fight because they must be nationalists and must therefore be patriotic. But they began to understand that these are just clichés and are used to brainwash soldiers. Soon after they graduate they are sent into the fray of war. The premature idea of war being glorious and honourable is destroyed when they step into the gruesome actuality of war. They are forced to live in constant fear for their life. Kemmerich, a friend of Paul, gets injured and contracts gangrene. From this his leg is amputated to stop the infection from spreading. Sadly, the operation was done too late and Kemmerich is declared to be slowly dying. Paul and his friend visit Kemmerich is slowly dying, and Müller, another former classmate, overlooks Kemmerich’s horrible state and says that he wants Kemmerich’s boots for himself. Accustomed to life at war, Paul doesn’t consider Müller insensitive. Paul understands that Muller knows Kemmerich will no longer use his boots

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

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.

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 chapter four of Erich Remarque’s book All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque uses sensory images. Putting extra sensory images into a scene gives the reader more idea of what’s happening “I hear aspirant for the frying pan” (52). By describing how excited the men are when they hear geese Remarque is, in a way, letting the reader know that, to soldiers at war the smallest thing can be the brightest beaken of hope. When Remarque outlines how happy the soldiers get over some simple geese, it really helps to show how while the war has helped the men grow up, they are still young boys. In the previous chapter Remarque used sensory images to make the boys seem more grown up by giving them power while beating Himmelstoss “It was a wonderful picture”

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.

As Paul is notifying everyone that gas is being let out, he hears, “A bell sound[...] between the explosions, gongs, and metal clappers warning everyone--Gas--Gas--Gaas”(32). The sound of the bell informs Paul and other militia men that violence is on its way. It foreshadows the wickedness that is coming, while representing the disorder that is taking place. Remarque chooses to resemble the definition of sound with explosions, gongs, and metal clappers to aid in creating the immoral, villainous meaning of sounds within this novel. While Paul is forced to hear the sounds of death and tragedy, the beautiful noises within Nigeria begin to chime and bring the community together.