Analysis Of Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

The Courage and Strength in All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

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

Throughout Erich Maria Remarque’s novel; All Quiet on the Western Front, various stylistic features and language conventions are used in varied scenarios to help express and create a scene for the reader. Remarque specifically focuses his use of metaphorical statements, repetitive language of particular phrases, to slow or speed the pace, or provide a scarring image for and while in small cases, he also provides an insight into how he feels alienated by Germany.

     “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 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

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.

Remarque's metaphors are powerful and thought provoking, for they help the readers see war through items that are seen in their everyday life, such as robots, clay, and beast. Remarque calls the soldiers beast and he Paul thinks the same thing in the novel he says,“We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation. It is not against men that we fling our bombs, what do we know of men in this moment when Death is hunting us down--now, for the first time in three days we can see his face, now for the first time in three days we can oppose him; we feel a mad anger. No longer do we lie helpless, waiting on the scaffold, we can destroy and kill, to save ourselves, to save ourselves and to be revenged. We crouch behind every corner, behind every barrier of barbed wire, and hurl heaps of explosives at the feet of the advancing enemy before we run. The blast of the hand-grenades impinges powerfully on our arms and legs; crouching like cats we run on, overwhelmed by this wave that bears us along, that fills us with ferocity, turns us into thugs, into murderers, into God only knows what devils; this wave that multiplies our strength with fear and madness and greed of life, seeking and fighting for nothing but our deliverance. If your own father came over with them you would not hesitate to fling a bomb at him” (113). All

Remarque addresses his memories that don't matter to him because he saw things that left him “weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope. We will not be able to find our way home anymore (Remarque 6)”. This quote is important because he talks about his feelings and how he felt after everything. Remarque said, “ I am a soldier, I must cling to that (Remarque 8).” Knowing that he fought and survived is all he needs to feel important and not forgotten to himself or people who forgot about him. While signing up for the war thinking he would be honored he hasn’t felt like he should be honored for fighting and saving their

One way Remarque shows destructiveness of war is by showing loss of innocence. For example, when paul says “I do not think at all, I make no decision- I strike him madly at home,” (Remarque 216). In this quote, Paul stabs Gerald Duval without thinking. This shows loss of innocence

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

In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque demonstrates that war changes men in irreparable ways. Paul, the main character of the novel is a compassionate, nice, sensitive guy and his life was changed forever after getting drafted to the front. Remarque paints the picture that Paul, once a totally different person before the war, changed into a numb, dispassionate man. Paul loved his family and wrote poetry, but the war changed him “It is strange to think that at home in the drawer of my writing table there lies the beginning of a play called “Saul” and a bundle of poems” in the way needing to keep certain warming and enlightening feelings at bay in order to keep his mind straight to survive in the horrific war (19).

“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.

There are plenty of factors that makes Erich Maria Remarque book, ‘All Quiet on the Western Front universal. Factors such as, the brotherhood between the guys, loss of youth/innocence, the horror of war, denial of the soldiers, and Kemmerich’s boots. I will discuss three of these universal themes that stood out the most to me throughout the book. I will focus on the brutality of war, the denial to talk about their experiences outside of the war zone and on Kemmerich’s boots and the role it played in this novel.

In Remarque’s book, All Quiet on The Western Front, Remarque shows the true effects on war through means of Paul’s character development. War emotionally destroys people, and the book pushes this fact. Towards the end of this book Paul is an emotionless shell of a human. Plenty of other character the book lose their sanity as well, but for this we focus on some of the main characters.

As mentioned previously, the story is told from Paul's point of view. This view of his is parallel to that of Remarque's. Remarque's characterization of paul and the other soldiers is intended to convey information and instruction to the reader. For example the way these characters are described instructs the reader in the needless suffering and loss brought on by war. The author makes a point about military leaders through one of the characters. Kropp notes about rise in rank, "As sure as they get a stripe or a star they become different men, just as though they'd swallowed concrete" (43). Kat mentions that military life brings out the worst in men, particularly the abuse of power over lesser men. This is a significant part that the author adds into the book because it illustrates a metaphor of the greater powers wanting to attack the weaker countries to gain more power; imperialism, which is one of the main causes of the war. In chapter 4, one of the most dramatic in the book,