Reader Response Essay: All Quiet On The Western Front

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

Do you know anyone who has been in a world war? Do you know what happens to people in war? The novel All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque is the story of the German man Paul and how he copes with the war and how he gets through it. World War 1 was an international conflict which lasted from 1914 to 1918. War transforms people in many ways and nobody except those who have experienced it can understand the terrors. War can change whole societies, how people live in it, and how it runs. Many people go into war thinking that it will be very adventurous and fun because that's what they see in advertisement and propaganda. The reality of war is that it is brutal and you have to kill people to survive and every day you survive is

There is no doubt that when war occurs, every single human being is affected by it even if it is just a little. In the novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front” written by Erich Maria Remarque, a group of teenage men, who also appear to by classmates, are in the German army of World War I because they have chosen to leave their adolescence at home and school for grown up work at the army. Throughout this fictional novel, they face many challenges that result in them not seeing each other ever again because of death. War affects individuals by leaving behind necessities such as education or jobs, not being able to watch over others such as their health, and injuries that soldiers receive while they are at war.

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

Throughout history, there has always been war, in which survival has been one of the most important aspects. For an individual soldier fighting for a cause, the need for survival is vastly heightened. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front camaraderie plays a huge role in helping the soldier survive for several reasons; sanity, sense of understanding, and to be at ease. This seemingly small aspect of a soldier's life can be very important and as Lake Bell puts it “The finest lesson I've learned with age is that all I need is a small team of comrades who inspire me, try not to judge me, and remind me when I'm judging myself.”

The chapter begins with German soldiers at rest after fourteen days of fierce battle on the Western Front. A double ration of food has been prepared so the soldiers are eating their fill. Paul Baumer, the protagonist and narrator of the novel, watches in amazement as his friends, Tjaden and Muller, eat another helping; he wonders where Tjaden puts all the food, for he is as thin as a rail. Baumer is only nineteen years of age. He enlisted in the German infantry because Kantorek, his high school teacher, had glorified war and talked him into fighting for the fatherland. Kropp, Behm, and Leer, former classmates of Baumer, were also persuaded by Kantorek to join the infantry. They are all now fellow soldiers along with Tjaden,

In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque, starting with the epigraph of the book, defaces the didactic tips that the war burdens Bäumer with, "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). A variety of books are written about wars, aggression, and the vast majority of them are full of patriotic pathos and romantic passages. As the novel's raconteur and protagonist, Bäumer is the focal figure in All Quiet on the Western Front and fills in as the mouthpiece for Remarque's reflections about war. All through the novel, Bäumer's internal identity is stood out from the way the war drives him to act and feel. His recollections of the time before the war demonstrate that he was at one time an altogether different man from the miserable fighter who now portrays the novel. Bäumer is a caring and naive schoolboy; before the war, he adored his family and composed poetry. Witnessing the awfulness of the war and the tension it instigates, Bäumer, as different warriors, figures out how to separate his psyche from his sentiments, keeping his feelings under control with a specific end goal to save his rational soundness and survive. With his epigraph, Remarque immediately separates

In chapter four of Erich Remarque’s book All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque uses sensory images. Putting extra sensory images into a scene gives the reader more idea of what’s happening “I hear aspirant for the frying pan” (52). By describing how excited the men are when they hear geese Remarque is, in a way, letting the reader know that, to soldiers at war the smallest thing can be the brightest beaken of hope. When Remarque outlines how happy the soldiers get over some simple geese, it really helps to show how while the war has helped the men grow up, they are still young boys. In the previous chapter Remarque used sensory images to make the boys seem more grown up by giving them power while beating Himmelstoss “It was a wonderful picture”

The novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque describes the psychological and physical battles of young soldiers such as the main character Paul Baumer who was pressured by the spirit of nationalism and his school master into joining the German army during World War I. In the beginning the young students are glowing with enthusiasm with the honor to be trusted with serving their nation in a time of crisis. The inexperienced soldiers soon loose their innocence and eagerness as they watch the new technological capabilities of the twentieth century painfully kill their comrades one by one and in the end become weary, burnt out, rootless, and hopeless. Over time the young soldiers, through

Humanity relentlessly finds a reason to tear itself apart. The slaughter of man is read about almost daily and one never typically thinks twice about it; however, when the lackluster conditions of others’ lives throughout time is conveyed via a novel or movie, we are forced to delve into the lives of those who fought tirelessly for their beliefs – even if “their beliefs” are actually society’s beliefs and are not correlated to their own. Prime exemplum of soldiers fighting for differing causes, such as an attempt to save the sliver of humanity remaining in them, is demonstrated in Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front through Paul Bäumer in the film directed by Joseph Vilsmaier: Stalingrad by Lieutenant Hans von Witzland. While both protagonists suffer brutal warfare and die in the end of their works, their attempts to transcend the dehumanization of war may be one of the few reasons that the characters survive as long as they do.

The novel All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, is story of the fictional character Paul Baumer and his troop Troop 9 as they battle in World War I on the Western Front for Germany. This novel differs from most war novels in that it does not portray the men as valiant soldiers protecting their country. The way that the story is told strips away the romanticized view warfare and portrays the raw emotions that come with being on the front lines of a battle. As both Paul Baumer’s life and the battle progress, Paul’s values, along with those of the other soldiers, evolve until they culminate in Baumer’s own passing.

All Quiet on the Western Front could definitely be considered an anti-war novel. The changes the characters in the novel subjected themselves to throughout the book allow the reader to view the negative effects soldiers went through during, as well as after the war. Anti-war means that you are against the war and leaning more towards the idea of peace. This novel showed the dissatisfaction and disappointment in each character once they begun to truly understand war and battle from first-hand experience. All Quiet on the Western Front had an anti-war theme in every aspect of the book starting with the eagerness of the characters at the beginning of the war and their transformation to

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

In the words of Otto Von Bismarck, “Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war.” Many of the preceding war novels to All Quiet on the Western Front, misrepresented or overlooked the anguish of war, in favor of more resplendent ideals such as glory, honor, or nationalism. The predominant issue of All Quiet on the Western Front is the terrible atrocities of war. The reality that is portrayed in the novel is that there was no glory or honor in this war, only a fierce barbarity that actually transformed the nature of human existence into irreparable, endless affliction, destroying the soldiers long before their deaths.

Professor’s Comments: This is a good example of a book review typically required in history classes. It is unbiased and thoughtful. The Student explains the book and the time in which it was written in great detail, without retelling the entire story… a pitfall that many first time reviewers may experience.