Experiences of World War One in All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque

All quiet On the Western Front, a book written by Erich Maria Remarque tells of the harrowing experiences of the First World War as seen through the eyes of a young German soldier. I think that this novel is a classic anti-war novel that provides an extremely realistic portrayal of war. The novel focuses on a group of German soldier and follows their experiences.

focusing on the life of the soldiers.The novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque, tells the story of the German soldiers in world war I. This novel illustrates the destructions of a war and the real effects of a war on a soldier’s live while finding villains and heroes amongst the soldiers. The soldiers are also shown to be normal human beings just like anyone else in the world. Villainous and heroic characteristics exists in or outside of a war, in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the villains and heroes are judged by a humanity scale

An anti-war novel often portrays many of the bad aspects and consequences of war. Erich Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel set in the First World War that is against war. Remarque describes the terrible reality of the war, focusing on the horrors and involved. The novel portrays an anti-war perspective as it brings up issues about the brutality of war, the narrator’s change of attitude towards war, the futility of war and the deaths of the narrator’s friends.

World War I caused suffering, pain, and devastation throughout the world. World War I was from 1914 to 1918. This war had many causes and results which Remarque used to help write his novel, All Quiet on the Western Front. Although many think the causes and results of World War I could never justify any problem, Remarque uses those events to justify the events that happen throughout his novel, All Quiet on the Western Front.

The act of war is something that should not be done for obvious reasons. Yet for centuries mankind has fought over everything and anything. Often it is idolized and great war stories are told throughout the ages, yet the Story All quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque takes a different view. He looks closely at the extreme physical and mental stress it had on the soldiers. Although the story revolves around one german soldier, many on both sides experienced very similar conditions and psychological stress. Because of such profound information, at the original release of the book, the Nazi officials banned the book to prevent their propaganda from being distorted with the truth. All quiet on the Western Front not only shed truth into the lives of civilians, it educated the civilians with the physical and mental stress war had on human beings.

Erich Maria Remarque's novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, follows the life of Paul Baumer, a German soldier fighting on the western front in World War I. Throughout the story, Paul discovers that war is not all that people have made it out to be. It was a book written to reflect the human cost of war. It shows us how war has an unseen face that most people do not see until it is too late. Paul realizes that being a part of the war has caused him to lose his identity. The novel accurately illustrates, through Paul's experience, that the negative effects of WWI were far greater for the younger generation of soldiers. This in turn, led to a lost generation of men.

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.

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.

Throughout history, war between man has been nearly inevitable. The impact of war has always been devastating on all aspects. However, loss in war is mostly seen within the loss of land, wealth and the numbers of lives lost. There are few accounts of the true losses felt from war, the loss felt by the survivors and the true cost of human life. In the excerpt from All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, illustrates the impact on human life and question what the cost of human life was impacted. While Vera Brittain memoir of Memory and Battlefield Tourism, recounts her pain felt as a survivor. The cost of war is not only a calculated number, it has a long-lasting effect on the survivors.

Throughout history, war has always been described as an atrocity and an unnecessary reason for the loss of life. This is not the case. War is necessary for the survival of the economy, the sustainability of non-renewable resources, and the progression of inventions.

The Novel All Quiet On The Western Front illustrates the effects of war can be highly effective on most soldiers. In this particular novel these characters go through some many hardships and are tested to the maximum. In many ways, World War I demanded this depiction more than any war before it completely altered mankind’s conception of military conflict with its catastrophic levels of carnage and violence, its battles that lasted for months, and its gruesome new technological advancements that made killing easier and more impersonal than ever before.

Over 60 million people dead, World War I took the lives of many, and destroyed hundreds of families. Many people wonder if they died a gruesome death, or died heroically; however, very few who survived the war were able to tell their experiences that occurred. One of the few was a German author, E.M. Remarque, who wrote about the life changing events in the war. The novel was called All Quiet on the Western Front and it exhibits the true horrors of war. Many people thought war was patriotic and heroic, which is exactly what the leaders wanted people to think. If more people believe war is heroic, then more are likely to join. Throughout the novel the true horrors are shown, even the leaders were shocked that someone had spoken the truth.

“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 shells, were destroyed by the war” (1). All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is considered to be the greatest war novel of all time. In the revolutionary novel, 19-year-old Paul Bäumer tells his story about the brutality that he, along with his classmates, endure during World War I fighting for the German army. Paul and a handful of his classmates were pressured to volunteer to enlist in WWI by their extremely patriotic teacher, Kantorek. Throughout the novel, Remarque uses literary devices such as

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, made in 1929, is in the perspective of a German soldier named Paul. This novel is based on World War I and follows Paul and his unit throughout the war. In the novel it had four different types of themes like universal brotherhood, comradeship, horror of war, and questioning of authority. The central argument that Remarque is trying to come across is that fighting in wars was not good for anyone. After the end of World War I, everyone thought war was still a good idea, but little did they know that there were so many soldiers dying, it was not helping anyone, it was hurting them. Remarque made this novel to make a a point across to everyone that war was not a good idea, and he shows that

The German author Erich Maria Remarque was born in 1898 in Germany and became a well-known novelist. While in school, Erich wanted to pursue a career in music but had to put that on hold when he enlisted into the German army. He fought on the western front, and was injured many times. After the conclusion of the war Erich began writing, and published his first very successful book in 1929, “All Quite on the Western Front.”