All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque Essay

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

"A wounded soldier? I shout to him-no answer- must be dead." The dead body has fallen out the coffin and the coffin has been unearthed because of the shelling. Even the dead and buried cannot rest in peace during this war. This just adds to the horror of the situation Paul is in.

This shows us how war can bring men together in peace. During the roasting of the goose Kat's voice brings Paul peace and reassurance. Toward the end of the book Kat is killed, and for Paul it is such a horrible loss. The only thing helping Paul survive was the brotherhood of his friends. With Kat dead that is no longer possible.

     When Paul becomes stranded in No Man’s Land, he undergoes the transformation from a carefree young adult to an inhumane, lifeless shell of a man. The change begins when Paul hides in a shell-hole, waiting for a pause in the bombardment. A French soldier jumps in as well, looking for shelter. Paul has prepared for this circumstance and stabs him three times. Paul’s strikes are not mortal enough, for the wounds do not immediately kill the Frenchman. The enemy soldier dies over the next day, and while the soldier slides inexorably into the throes of death, Paul

There are many heroes in this novel, Stanislaus Katczinsky (Kat) is one of them. Kat is a normal forty years old soldier who helps others because of his kind nature and true leadership. He provides food for the soldiers when it’s most scarce. When the group of soldiers land on an unknown spot and there is no food, Kat takes in charge and goes look for some. “ We[Paul] are dozing off when the door opens and Kat appears. I think I must be dreaming; he has two loaves of bread under his arm and a blood-stained sand bag full of horse-flesh in his hand.” ( Page 39) In a situation of getting bombed and shot at, Kat tries to lighten up the mode. “ It’s good Kat is there. He[Kat] gazes thoughtfully at the front and says: ‘Mighty fine fireworks if they weren’t so dangerous.’ ”(Page 60) Kat lifts the soldier's spirits when they are down, his presence and words provides a little bit of comfort just when others need it. Kat’s nature of heroism is caring for and helping others, while being a true leader. Standing up to a bully is another kind of heroism. Therefore when Paul, Kropp, Tjaden, Haie, and Muller taught Himmelstoss a lesson by beating him up, they became heroes to all the soldiers affected by Himmelstoss’s cruel actions. This group of boys had the courage to make a change for the better by standing up to a bully. They were described to be the “young heroes”(Page 50). No one on the German side was humane towards the prisoners of war, though Paul was the only one who shows compassion towards them. Instead of being cruel towards the defenseless prisoners, Paul helps them by providing some comfort by giving them some cigarettes. Being put in situations like those shown in the novel, these men show the best of themselves through their heroic actions. Regardless of who the person is or what side they fight on, this novel shows the nature of heroism is about the soldiers helping each other out when

The French soldier dies an agonizingly painful and prolonged death; his gurgling and whimpering haunting Paul, but when the soldier finally dies, the resulting silence is even more haunting and debilitating. “Paul describes the trenches, the shelling, the screams of wounded horses and men, the poison gas attack, and the rain that drenches everything. [He] describes the tension and the horror of a major battle, with the confusion, the noise, and death turning the soldiers into numbed, unthinking machines.” (All). Paul recognizes how war forces people to think and act in ways that differ from their values and beliefs, as they are desperate to survive. Remarque uses imagery and sensory details to skillfully formulate a raw and grisly atmosphere that leaves no aspect hidden. Towards the end of the novel, many of Paul’s comrades have died, and he is the only person left in his class who is alive. He expresses the desolation and misery he feels, “I am very quiet. Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear.” (Remarque 295). Paul has nothing left to lose at this point, so he faces his enemies free of fear and obligation to return back to his friends and his home. His sorrowful tone conveys his indifference towards death and his desire

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

Yet another example of the brutalization and dehumanization of the soldiers caused by the war occurs during Paul’s leave. On leave, Paul decides to visit his hometown. While there, he finds it difficult to discuss the war and his experiences with anyone. Furthermore, Paul struggles to fit in at home: “I breathe deeply and say over to myself:– ‘You are at home, you are at home.’ But a sense of strangeness will not leave me; I cannot feel at home amongst these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies, and there the mahogany piano – but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a

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 #).

The war continues to rage, but now that the United States has joined the Allies, Germany’s defeat is inevitable, only a matter of time before German will have to surrender” (All Quiet on the Western Front). During one battle, the allies use chemical warfare against the Germans, and Paul is exposed to the Mustard gas and has been given fourteen days to leave, but he does not because he’s afraid of not fitting in with society and knowing what to do with himself, so he stays and fights. For over four years, Paul has been fighting the greatest war in the 20th century, but on Paul is finally killed in October, 1918. Later that day, the army reports only one casualty and calls it “All Quiet on the Western Front”, which is very intriguing because no shots were fired and both sides weren’t engaged in a fight, Paul seemed to have died on the most peaceful day of the war. Paul and his friends all died during the war, but died together, and the one thing that they foresaw as the enemy was death. Death was all around them and they needed to survive as a unit, but death was taking them away one by one until, Paul dies on the most peaceful day of the

returning to the front was hard for him. The days were getting cold and one by one he watched his friends die. The hardest loss was that of Kat. After Kat had been shot, Paul had to carry Kat to the nearest first-aid station a few miles away. Kat was the last of Paul's friends to die in the war. Then, in October of 1918, Paul is killed on a quiet day shortly before the armistice ends the war.

Before Kemmerich dies, he asks Paul to give his boots to Muller knowing that it would be no use to him after he dies and that it would be better off with Muller then thrown away. The story goes on with Paul and his friends struggling to survive with small portions of food and the never ending war continuing on the front. Paul and his friends survive many attacks and bombardments learning and understanding different weapons the enemy is using and the different noises or sound that can help them understand where a shell is hitting or where a gas grenade might have been thrown. Paul also watches unexperienced rookies who gets taken over by the terror of the war and also watches them fall one by one. Soon, Paul receives seventeen days to go back home and realizes that his mother has cancer. He also feels different and realizes that he might never be the same person as he was before he joined the war. At his time at his hometown, he visits Kemmerich’s mother and does not tell her the truth about how her son really died. Instead of stating the truth, he tells her that her son died an instant and painful

While the disconnection allows the soldier to adapt to the brutal war environment, it inhibits them from re-entering society. When he takes his leave, he is unable to feel comfortable at home. Even if Paul had survived the war physically, he most likely would not have integrated back into society suitably. The emotional disconnection inhibits soldiers from mourning their fallen friends and comrades. However, Paul was somewhat less than able to completely detach himself from his feelings, and there are several moments in the when he feels himself pulled down by emotion. These rush of feelings indicate the magnitude to which war has automated Paul to cut himself off from feeling, as when he says, with unbridled understatement, “Parting from my friend Albert Kropp was very hard. But a man gets used to that sort of thing in the army (p. 269) .”

Paul and his friends joined the army as a group, with their schoolteacher, as a way to say thank you to their country. These friends are minor characters, as they are important to the story, but not as important as Paul. The names of these people are: Kat Katczinsky, Albert Kropp, Tjaden, Haie Westhus, Leer, Franz Kemmerich, Fredrich Müller, and Corporal Himmelstoss. All of these characters get along, except none of the aforementioned people get along with Corporal Himmelstoss. Kat Katczinsky is a “seasoned” war veteran and acts on behalf of Paul’s group- tutoring them and teaching them about war. Albert Kropp is a bright student and acts to stop Himmelstoss’ harsh treatment of Paul and others. Tjaden is nineteen, and likes to eat- so much

Paul finally escaped the hostile world he lived in, but his money-bought romance did not last long. When he discovers that his theft has been made known in the new papers, and all the stolen money has ran out, he knew he had to go back to his real life. After a week of having the glamorized life he was longing for, Paul refused to go back to face the reality that he left behind in Pittsburgh. Paul knew he couldn’t go on forever in the City with no money in his pockets so he decided to give up on his own life. While going to get on his train that would bring him back to reality, Paul stepped out in front of it and killed himself.