All Quiet On The Western Front: A Literary Analysis

In every Disney movie, the villain is portrayed as a horrendous beast who was once a human. The thing is, every wicked witch or horrendous beast was once a human with a kind soul who suffered a traumatic event. In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the German soldiers shift from fresh-out-of-high-school kids to shameless killing machines after witnessing the horrors of World War I. In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, while fighting the Vietnam War without understanding its purpose the soldiers are changed after experiencing war’s brutality. Even though one cannot undergo the experience of being in a war zone or fighting for one’s homeland, many lessons can be learned from reading literature.
In a time of war, feelings are always put aside because the obligation of being a soldier comes first while family, friends, and even human feelings such as love are tossed aside. In The Things They Carried, Jimmy Cross, the main character, is in love with a
girl named Martha. She sends him letters, which he prefers to view them as love letters, that he re-reads every night before bed. Cross claims that his love for Martha is what got one of his soldiers, Curt Lemon, killed. Instead, of letting his death go, Cross blames himself because, as his leader, it was his obligation to keep Lemon alive: “but Lieutenant Jimmy Cross reminded himself that his obligation was not to be loved but to lead” (O’Brien 25). By blaming the death of Curt Lemon on himself, Cross was inhumane towards himself. Cross, like many leaders, believed that he could have saved Lemon but his distraction caused Lemon’s demise. In a time of war, the soldiers are not allowed to be confused about their feelings, there’s no grief, or love, or lust. There is just death.
The weapons in modern warfare have made the act of killing man easier and are a more efficient way of fighting the enemy than direct combat. In World War I, poisonous gas was introduced as a weapon of mass destruction. In All Quiet on The Western Front, the recruits are easily murdered by this weapon in a savage way, “Their condition is hopeless, they choke to death with haemorrhages and suffocation” (Remarque 131). The act of throwing a grenade, or poison gas, and killing hundreds is a brutal act of treating other humans and shows how low humankind can reach. By losing contact and sight of the subjects being murdered, the opposing soldiers lost the humane touch and thought of kills as brownie points for their leader.
Through tough situations, the one thing that always keeps people going is hope.
Hope is a fierce power which can only be taken away after a person has been deprived of basic needs for a prolonged amount of time. In All Quiet on the Western Front, the German army lacked the resources to efficiently provide proper living conditions for human beings. Closer to the end of the book, the narrator describes in vivid detail the inadequate conditions the soldiers are living, “But we are emaciated and starved. Our food is bad and mixed up with so much substitute stuff that it makes us ill” (Remarque 280). Hunger can drive one insane, especially if the person is in a combat zone. In a combat zone, people must have energy and a clear mind to survive, but if a person is starving, they will be weak, and their mind will be occupied with thoughts of food, lessening their chances of survival. A human being needs a proper nutrition to efficiently function and when this is taken away, one begins to question
life. Death is a topic that is avoided by most humans because it provokes fear. When one thinks of death, one imagines all the things left unfinished, all the joyful memories shared with loved ones, etc... After being treated as a disposable object, with no certainty of a future, for a long period, one begins to look forward to death. In All Quiet on the Western Front, after witnessing the deaths of their comrades, the soldiers began to wonder about what future awaits them: “But our comrades are dead, we cannot help them, they have their rest – and who knows what is waiting for us?” (Remarque 139). The soldiers have lost hope of survival, and think the war won’t have an end, or if it does they would not get to see it.
After long periods of abuse, one’s self-perception may change. In All Quiet on the Western Front, the soldiers are treated as animals, thus begin thinking of themselves as wild creatures who are hunted down by the enemy, “We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation. It is not against men that we fling our bombs, what do we know of men in this moment when Death is hunting us down” (Remarque 113). The self-perception of the soldiers has changed drastically due to their superiors thinking of them as a pack of wild animals who are liberated to seek the enemy’s blood. In an ordinary life, there are only a few moments, if any, where choices must be made between life or death. The ability to make the right choice comes from within, there is no beforehand preparation or studying. In wartime, soldiers’ daily life is full of these choices, and being at the wrong place at the wrong time can get one killed. In The Things They Carried, Paul and Kiowa (one of his comrades) were hiding in a trail at an ambush site, where Paul spotted the silhouette of a man, and quickly threw a grenade (126). Paul felt horrible for killing this man and did not see him as the “enemy”, but Kiowa thought of the man’s death as a win for Team USA. Soldiers, like Kiowa, after a while, start thinking of killing the “enemy” as a hunting game: “We all had him zeroed. A good kill – weapon, ammunition, everything” (O’Brien 123) and forget that behind the uniform, the “enemy” is a person too. Coping methods, such as smoking or drinking, are taken up by people when faced with stressful situations. A time of war is constant stress factor in the life of soldiers. The deaths of comrades and leaders force the soldiers to react in ways which may not be inhumane. In The Things They Carried, Rat Kiley lost his best friend, Curt Lemon, and as a result tortured a baby water buffalo. Kiley projected his feelings of grief, anger, and frustration on this innocent baby buffalo because of his dear friend’s death, “He shot it twice in the flanks. It wasn’t to kill; it was to hurt” (O’ Brien 75), but torturing the baby buffalo would not bring his best friend back. The soldiers thought every living thing surrounding them was responsible for their suffering.
Although war has the utmost effects on soldiers and people who are in the combat zone, war can affect civilians at home. Whenever a war is happening, the country is divided among those who are in favor of it and those who are against it. The soldiers would not agree with the common phrase “All is fair in love and war” because many acts of war are brutal and cruel to those who are not directly involved. Often, civilians are spared from direct combat with the enemy but in rare occasions, they can suffer the direct repercussions of war. In All Quiet on the Western Front, as the German army is sent on a mission to evacuate a village, the French open fire (239-40). From the soldiers’ perspective, hurting civilians is not a justified act of war: “the French certainly will not fire on a town in which there are still inhabitants” (Remarque 240). The German soldiers do not expect the French to fire at them because civilians are supposed to be left untouched. The aftermath of war has long-lasting effects on the soldiers. When the soldiers get to go on leave, they get to experience how life would be like if they get to go back home. The sudden shift from their “before war” life and their “current” life produces a mind shock. After the soldiers return to the combat zone, the shell, which they created to survive, cracks: “What is leave? A pause that only makes everything after it so much worse” (Remarque 179). The soldiers are not able to enjoy their time at home with their families due to severe effects of war such as, haunting flashbacks or dreams, entering a paranoia state, and feeling watched or persecuted. For some, these daunting effects do not fade away after the war is over: “The bad stuff never stops happening: it lives in its own dimension, replaying itself over and over” (O’Brien 31).