Young Men During World War I in the Novel, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque

The Courage and Strength in All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

War is a hellish battleground where many lives are taken. In war there is constantly images and events that happen which can change a soldier’s life forever. In the book All Quiet on the Western Front Remarque uses the symbols of boots, butterflies and horses to advance the main theme in the novel, that war takes young men’s innocence away.

In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque depicts the effects of power and authority on the characters. Young school-going “men” are given no choice but to support their country by signing up to be on the front line. Pushed into war by the ones they trust most, these soldiers quickly learn the realities of the abysmal trenches and immediately begin to question the older generations that pressured them to enlist. Furthermore, these leaders who speak of patriotism are willing to sacrifice the lives men of lower social classes even when it is evident that the war cannot be won. In the novel, Remarque brings to light how the circumstances of war influence an individual to abuse their role of authority. Additionally, Remarque depicts an individual’s desire for power exposing that their hunger intensifies over time. As a result, the authoritative figures depict that once power is given to an individual, greed and misuse begin to control the person and sway their decisions. Remarque portrays the abuse of power that arises due to the appalling circumstances of the novel, uncovering their inhumane behavior.

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

It’s no surprise that soldiers will more-than-likely never come home the same. Those who have not served do not often think of the torment and negative consequences that the soldiers who make it out of war face. Erich Remarque was someone who was able to take the torment that he faced after his experience in World War I and shed light on the brutality of war. Remarque was able to illustrate the psychological problems that was experienced by men in battle with his best-selling novel All Quiet on the Western Front (Hunt). The symbolism used in the classic anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front is significant not only for showing citizens the negative attributes of war, but also the mental, physical, and emotional impact that the vicious war had on the soldiers.

As seen in a series of quotes, Remarque strongly believed that the war had influenced the soldiers to think less of themselves, and give up the interest of life as we know it. In a portion of the novel, the German comrade Paul Bäumer gets his first true experience of war; the experience of killing a soldier of the opposing army. Overwhelmed with emotions of guilt and remorse, Paul begins talking to the dying comrade. He says, “I speak to [the dead soldier] and say to him… Take twenty years of my life comrade, and stand up -- take more, for I do not know what I can attempt to it now” (Remarque 223).

All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel written by Erich Maria Remarque that takes place in World War I. This novel is about an eighteen-year-old German boy that enlists with his classmates to the war. All of the boys that enlisted are very excited but they have no idea what war is really like. Throughout the years of fighting, Paul realizes that war is his life. He never really had a life after school so once the war is over he will have nothing to go back to. Paul thinks that war is horrible but that is all he has. During this novel, Paul experiences lots of brutal deaths. He watches his friends die and he can't do anything about it. He also sees young men risking their lives for their country. In this essay, I will go over the brutality of war using similes and personification quotes from All Quiet on the Western Front.

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.

The author, a war veteran himself, is very familiar with the trials and tribulations of war, and knows of the social aspects of being with the other soldiers first hand. In the book, using many different examples of characterization, the author explores how soldiers think of courage and are afraid of not being courageous in a time of war; making it not only a physical war, but a mental one as

Prior to the war the young men did not have roots in the community, and after the war they have nothing to go back to. Remarque transmits the theme that the generation after the war feels foreign and uncomfortable in their environments with the motif of the lost generation.

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

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque, is a classic anti-war novel about the personal struggles and experiences encountered by a group of young German soldiers as they fight to survive the horrors of World War One. Remarque demonstrates, through the eyes of Paul Baumer, a young German soldier, how the war destroyed an entire generation of men by making them incapable of reintegrating into society because they could no longer relate to older generations, only to fellow soldiers.

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

War forces young soldiers to grow up quickly. In Stephen Crane’s Civil War novel, The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming is no exception. He is faced with the hard reality of war and this forces him to readjust his romantic beliefs about war. Through the novel, the reader can trace the growth and development of Henry through these four stages: (1) romanticizing war and the heroic role each soldier plays, (2) facing the realities of war, (3) lying to himself to maintain his self-importance, and (4) realistic awareness of his abilities and place in life. Through Henry’s experiences in his path to self-discovery, he is strongly affected by events that help shape his ideology of war, death,

    He looked uncomfortable but pulled on the reins lifting it up gently and then bringing it down on the horses. The horses jerked forward slightly beginning with a slow trot. Then they.broke into a steady gallop. After the reigns flapped against them again.