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Romanticism In Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

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attempted many jobs, a journalist, a teacher, a librarian and of course, a writer. All Quiet on the Western Front was published in 1929 and translated into twelve different languages and later made into a movie. The novel was a colossal success. Not only did it give civilians a real account of the dehumanizing effects of the war but it gave a voice to those solider’s that had their own taken from them. During the war, there was little to no way that the families of the men fighting would know what the war was like. There was no way of knowing the sheer horror of what happened to the soldiers. At the time, there was a misconception about the war, a romanticism that formed. From this romanticism, a certain false patriotism rose. Young men were encouraged to leave school and join the war for their country. The idea of “fighting for the fatherland” was used as an incentive to join the fight. After the Nazi’s rose to power, Remarque’s novel was deemed “unpatriotic” and banned by the Nazis. Remarque used his personal experience of fighting in the war to write All Quiet on the Western Front. A novel that was so necessary, so vital that soldiers from around the word identified with the characters. 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

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