All Quiet On The Western Front War Analysis

For Paul and his comrades, who had sacrificed so much to participate in the war, the unfair leadership created tension between the ranks. For example, when Paul was on leave and strolled the streets of his hometown, a nearby Major became furious at Paul because he had missed the opportunity to salute. This man, with the considerable power to overthrow Paul’s leave, orders Paul, “Twenty paces backward, double march!” Paul complied, but was infuriated and contemplated the validity and relevance of these men. This, “ruins everything” (163), for Paul, as he abandoned wearing his uniform to avoid another confrontation. It was shown that the most controlling officers were so often those without combat experience on the front. In fact, Himmelstoss, a Corporal that trained Paul and his company, showed fear toward the battle when he was called to participate. In Chapter Six, he was found, “pretending to be wounded.” The thought of him progressing made his, “lips quiver, his moustache twitch” (131-32). Pretending to represent their country, these men showed no respect for the soldiers, resented them, and expressed the deepest inhumane actions in the name of

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

“He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to a single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front” (Remarque 296). Paul Baumer, the narrator of All Quiet on the Western Front, enlisted into the German army at a young age of nineteen with a group of friends from school. Kantorek, Paul’s teacher, “gave us long lectures until the whole of our class went, under his shepherding, to the District Commandant and volunteered” (Remarque 11). After Paul and his friends underwent the ten weeks of horrific training, under the control of brutal Corporal Himmelstoss, they found out that everything Kantorek had told them about the war being illustrious was inaccurate. Paul and his fellow combatants experienced the war to be an alienating event that led the young men to feel alone because of the relationships between the young men at the front, the problems Paul faced when returning home, and the prewar and wartime civilian society.

Throughout time, war has changed a person in both physical and emotional ways. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque strived to write about the true realities of war which contradicted the common, romantic belief about war. This novel captures and shifts the audience into a world so different than their home and allows them to almost experience war first-hand. All Quiet on the Western Front tells the story of a normal teenager named Paul Baumer who went from a typical school in Germany, to the front lines of World War 1. As we read the story, we could feel the many changes that Paul experienced, from just arriving at the front, all the way until his death. Two of many horrific changes that Paul experienced are the

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

The first memory that sparked my mind when reading this section was the whole idea of do the ends justify the means. When discussing the wartime battle at the trenches of Somme and having the men gain mere feet in the German defenses and loosing thousands of lives, the question really comes to beg were the lives justified. It brings me back to the discussion that we held in class over weather we thought that the athenians should take over the island of Crete. Although in that in class discussion, we were deciding on the stance of the athenians, if you take the perspective of the Cretes and question if what they chose to do justified what was the result of there action it looks very difficult. If they had simply gone along with the athenians, they would also have to betray their own moral judgements towards enslavement and conquest. However, because they chose instead to stand their ground, we read that countless men, women and children were brutally killed; did the ends make it

All Quiet On The Western Front Essay | English – Parks | 9/8/2017 | Noah Fallon

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.

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.

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.

“War is a practice necessary for national defense” seems like a reasonable statement. The United States and other nations must defend themselves from enemies both domestic and abroad. Congress can declare war, but then who fights the war? Congress? Obviously this is not so. The common man must take up arms so that his leaders are safe to play politics. Even while varying vastly in perspective, style, and specific themes , Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front possess sentiments similar to the aforementioned one: The effect of institutionalized political, social, and militarized authority on an individual and the idiotic bureaucratic practices of the military.

As the war and the book were coming to an end, and with the rumours of peace appearing in the story I began to hope, perhaps against my better judgment, that Paul’s story would have a happy ending. That hope faded with Paul’s spirit. “Weary, broken, burnt out, rootless and without hope” was how the soldiers had become. This depiction of the soldiers revealed that there are no happy endings in war, not for those who have seen its ugly side. This way in which the soldiers have been beaten down endlessly and their subsequent loss of hope fits under the psychological label of learned helplessness. The feelings of hopelessness arising from trauma or the failure to succeed characterizes learned helplessness and the war. Shortly after this description,

In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque; Erich illustrates the brutal conditions on the front lines. Effects of war in the novel change the purpose these men have in life; their survival is priority, living with that mindset for years causes lots of social barriers and inhumane mindsets. For example the narrator states, “We are insensible, dead men, who through some trick, some dreadful magic, are still able to run and kill” (116 ), showing how the soldiers see the cruelty at the front, yet feel helpless in stoping it as they are the problem. Most soldiers chose to fight blindly, wondering later, why were they fighting to begin with. Remarque portrayed the fear and distrust the soldiers had in the war throughout the

All Quiet on the Western Front is the story of Paul Baumer’s service as a soldier in the German army during World War I. Paul and his classmates enlist together, share experiences together, grow together, share disillusionment over the loss of their youth, and the friends even experience the horrors of death-- together. Though the book is a novel, it gives the reader