Division In All Quiet On The Western Front

“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.

The rise of World War I caused millions of casualties and was yet another demonstration of how supposedly civilized nations could be led into a chaotic war of power over lands and people. Since the beginning of civilization, war has been the way of the world. However, with major advances in technology, this idea of war has since become mechanized and deadlier. There is no doubt that the powerful men who lead wars often don’t care to think of nitty gritty of war, to them, rather, it’s a matter of power and legacy. In Remarque’s novel, the particular story of Paul and his comrades is a perfect example of how a generation can be used and manipulated to drive the agenda of power- hungry men. Through Remarque’s own personal experience and unparalleled writing ability, this novel presents many first-hand experiences into the living conditions of soldiers and peoples.

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

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

In 1929 Erich Maria Remarque published a vivid novel that highlighted the brutality of war, All Quiet on the Western Front. Remarque takes the reader on the journey of nineteen-year-old Paul Baumer, a young soldier fighting on the front line for Germany during World War I. Despite its critical acclaim, this celebrated war novel did little to celebrate war.

He was alone. There were so many dead people lying on the ground, and an awful smell of cigar smoke, gunpowder, and dirt that filled the air. There was no nationalism; all Paul wanted was survival. World War I was supposed to be about nationalism and the propaganda forced upon the soldiers to feel superiority over other countries, but Paul helps to prove otherwise, as his story tells what is was like to be at the front, and how tough it was to be a soldier. “All Quiet on the Western Front” portrays war as it was actually experienced, replacing the romantic picture of glory and heroism with an unromantic vision of fear and a meaninglessness feeling. “All Quiet on the Western Front” gives the impression that it is an antiwar novel, due to the deterioration of the war as life becomes meaningless and how brutal Paul and his fellow soldiers’ lives were as the novel went along as there is no nationalism to catalyze their fighting.

Chapter 11: The war continues and the German forces are weakening. Muller dies and gives Paul his boots. No one hears of Detering ever again after he tries to escape back home. Leer dies because of a thigh wound. Kat eventually dies too because of an exploding shell fragment landing on his head.

The novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is a tale about a group of young gentlemen in Germany who decide to join the army, and fight in World War I for their country. The boys become interested in fighting for their country after their schoolmaster informs them about the importance of this war. With much excitement, the young men have high expectations of what they want the war to be like. Throughout the course of the novel, the attitudes and opinions of the boys change as they develop an anti-war perspective. The war really takes a toll on the main character, Paul, as he often finds himself anxious and uncomfortable. This gives the feel that the novel has anti-war themes that are exhibited by this negative perspective on the part of Paul. The novel All Quiet on the Western Front shows an anti-war perspective that is demonstrated by Paul’s personal struggles in war, how Paul is changed by the war, and the theme of fearing war.

In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, human nature is the only abstract periphery between belligerent barbarism and justifiable violence. Through the insipid bombardments that rained shells over the Germans’ heads and noxious implementation of mustard gas, Remarque dexterously misleads the reader into believing that he fights in an apathetic war where all remnants of human nature and identity have been destroyed with the introduction of trench warfare. Through Paul Baumer’s eyes, Remarque identifies war as an artificial construct devoid of human identity and any subsequent emotions until the first bombardment, the first glimpse Baumer has of the unfettered abominations of war. After the shrieking of artillery shells ceased, it was replaced by the numbing scream of injured horses. Paul described this abhorrent noise as “the moaning of the world…, wild with anguish, filled with terror, and groaning” (Remarque 62), the first emotionally provocative scene in the novel. As if the description of the noise did not suffice to pique the reader, Remarque continues, “The belly of one is ripped open, the guts trail out. He becomes tangled in them and falls…” (Remarque 63). At this instant, Remarque sheds the obscure layer of superficiality and reveals the tatters of human nature and identity still exist even in most anguish conditions of comeradeship, sympathy, contrition, and selflessness.

In All Quiet on the Western Front, author Erich Maria Remarque uses tactile imagery to emphasize that war is horrific. The main character Paul fights to stay alive every day while in the midst of World War 1 as a German soldier, but injuries are bound to happen at some point, ¨The surgeon pokes around in the wound and a blackness comes before my eyes.” (243). In this quote Remarque uses 2 examples of tactile imagery, movement and feelings. The details used to describe this scene makes you feel as if you were in the surgery with Paul.

In the opening chapter, Paul Baumer, the narrator, recalls how schoolteachers, such as his own, persuaded their bright-eyed students to put on the German colors. Paul’s teacher, Kantorek, taught his students the importance of the war as he instilled in them the values of nationalism and patriotism. Everyday, he sprouted war propaganda at them in “long lectures” (Remarque 11). He glamorized the war telling his students that they were “the Iron Youth” (Remarque 18) and that “duty to one’s country is the greatest thing” (Remarque 13). Consequently, his students left class enlisted in the war one by one “until the whole of the class went” (Remarque 11). When the students left the comforts of home to volunteer for the war, they valued their country above all else and were prepared to face their own death as doing so lined up with what they believed in.

There is not as much symbolism shown throughout the text “All quiet on the western front” to show the effects of war too. However, Kermerich’s boots provide a symbol for the certain attitude a soldier would require – detaching their emotions only to act as an emotionless object that follows orders to reduce the effects of war inflicted on the soldiers. Each Solider (including Kemmerich) who took them from dead air pilot) dies when owning these boots. Therefore, it could be argued that the boots are worth more to people than a human life – Aslan argues that this represents the shallowness of society at the time of World War One. The audience is able to see how characters can become selfish for their own survival.

Through the use of symbolism, setting, and character, Erich Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front demonstrates the psychological effects war has on the soldiers.

A group of German soldiers rest behind the front lines of World War I. While enjoying their first good meal in weeks, Paul Bäumer[narrator], and his comrades Kropp, Tjaden, Leer, Katczinsky (Kat), and Müllerbitterly talk about how their old teacher Kantorek got them to enlist with his unrealistic ideas about war and glory. Now they’ve become so on survival that when they visit their dying friend Kemmerich in the hospital, Muller asks him if he can have his boots since he wouldn’t be needing them. Paul and the squad talk a lot about their old bootp-camp commander Himmelstoss and how little they liked him. They talk about why people like Himmelstoss, who was a mail man in the real world, become something so different in the war. Kat says that the army gives people an opportunity to act out.

Towards the end of Chapter 1 of Erich Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul believes that seeing their friends dying and the reality of war has molded them into “old folk” (18) and not “the Iron Youth” (18) that Kantorek calls them. At first, the students believed that enlisting to fight in the war was “the greatest thing” (13), but they quickly found out that the war was not what they thought it would be. They believed that the war would help their country and prove their patriotism. These thoughts rapidly disappeared as they started to see their old classmates and fellow comrades die, “Behm was one of the first to fall” (12). The soldiers started to question all the lies the “thousands of Kantoreks” (12) had told them about war.