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

The topic of war is hard to imagine from the perspective of one who hasn't experienced it. Literature makes it accessible for the reader to explore the themes of war. Owen and Remarque both dipcik what war was like for one who has never gone through it. Men in both All Quiet on the Western Front and “Dulce Et Decorum” experience betrayal of youth, horrors of war and feelings of camaraderie.

     “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

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

Erich Maria Remarque utilizes many symbols in chapter 6 of All Quiet on the Western Front to help emphasize the importance and meaning of certain aspects in the book. Within the abundance of symbols used, two that exceedingly stood out were the broken down schoolhouse and the butterflies in the battlefield. At the beginning of this chapter, the soldiers describe “a shelled school-house.” (99). The destroyed schoolhouse signifies how useless their prior education is in their current situation. As they walk past the building, there is a constant reminder that their knowledge of the outside world and how it works cannot help them on the front lines, and many of the soldiers will not make it home in order to even have any hope of receiving an education

It is no coincidence that Remarque and O'Brien include extremely graphic descriptions of the dead and dying throughout their work, because each author experienced these horrors firsthand from the field of combat. Remarque fought for the German Army during the infamous trench battles of World War I, witnessing death and destruction enacted on an industrial scale for the first time in human history, and his novel

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 uses imagery to foreshadow the coming of massive death and also the death of Paul. On the way to the front the soldiers see “at least a hundred” coffins, which the soldiers know are for them, not the enemies. The readers are able to picture the “yellow, unpolished, brand-new coffins” leaning against the school through the visual imagery. Remarque uses this imagery to foreshadow the coming attack and the death of many soldiers. Remarque also uses the pre-ready coffins to show the expendability of the soldiers; the german leaders were already planning on the soldiers dying. The “brand-new coffins” were used to foreshadow the new recruits in particular dying, because they were not ready to be sent out to the front. The main foreshadowing

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

In the novel, Remarque presents the brutality of war. Early on in the novel, he describes the sound of the wounded horses and how brutal the war atmosphere is. “There is a whole world

Using defense mechanisms to cope with the gratuitous struggle of war was definitely insufficient, especially when the bloodbath of the young soldiers’ loved ones overpowers a simple device like daydreaming. Sometimes, all they needed was a breath of fresh air and different scenery to ease into; “These are wonderfully care-free hours. Over us is the blue sky. On the horizon float the bright, yellow, sunlit observation-balloons, and the many little white clouds of the anti-aircraft shells… We hear the muffled rumble of the front only as very distant thunder; bumblebees droning by quite drown it. Around us stretches the flowery meadow. The grasses sway their tall spears; the white butterflies flutter around and float on the soft warm wind of the late summer.”; (Remarque 9). Generally, the creative imagery and the depictions of nature were spread largely throughout the war novel, and specifically from this moment in time, it was clearly illustrated. Paul and his fellow comrades found themselves in a seemingly protected paradise and were able to ease in with the tranquility of the “wonderfully care-free hours.” They were detached from both the physically inhumane and mentally deteriorating workings of war. After all the bloodshed and brutality, there was no doubt in mind that the soldiers would not presentably steal the opportunity in being able to be surrounded once again with such thriving life.

We can hardly control ourselves when our glance lights on the form of some other man. We are insensible, dead men, who through some trick, some dreadful magic, are still able to run and to kill” (Remarque 116). Paul’s description of himself and his comrades does not sound human; rather, it sounds as if he were describing a pack of wolves. Furthermore, when Paul becomes trapped in the middle ground during a skirmish, he realizes he must defend himself. A French soldier jumps into his hole, forcing Paul to kill him. Paul “strike[s] madly at home and feel[s] only how the body suddenly convulses” without any thought (Remarque 216). The language employed by Remarque suggests Paul’s behavior is animalistic and brutal. His mad stabs into the body of the Frenchman imply the violent and impersonal nature of man that coincides with war.

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 #).

In the book All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque illustrates the picture of World War I to the reader. This book is the story of Paul Baumer, who with his classmates recruits in the German Army of World War I. This anti-war novel is an excellent book because through the experiences of Paul Baumer, I am able to actually feel like I'm in the war. It is a very useful piece of literature, which increases the readers' knowledge on how the war affected the people at the time setting. By reading this book, one is drawn into the actual events of the war, and can feel the abyss of death. I believe this piece is very well written. It is entirely simple, lacking any bias

Remarque makes one theme abundantly clear throughout his novel; in order to survive in the war, a soldier must abandon any human feelings. Paul Bäumer, Albert Kropp, Müller, Leer, and Behm are all students in Kantorek’s class. Kantorek is ironically, a school teacher. A teacher is an