All Quiet On The Western Front Analysis

Remarque in his novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” explores war itself as the enemy of German soldiers in World war 1. He achieves this by suggesting that W.W.1 created a lost generation and that this generation felt betrayed by their leaders. Remarque depicts the atrocities and inhumanities that war introduces soldiers to as well as the way it both facilitates and destroys camaraderie.

Para 1. Remarque uses symbolism to explore how World War One created a lost generation of German youth. They became known in history as “the lost generation.” Paul often dreams about his life before the war, he knows that he can never return to it. The war had destroyed an entire generation of young men, leaving them “lost” physically and psychologically
Irony is employed by Remarque in depicting how soldiers felt betrayed by an older generation of Germans, and in this way, war became ‘the enemy’. It was ironical that an older generation should’ve looked after them and did not. Kantorek's betrays Paul and his classmates by coercing them to enlist in the army which fights against the British. Kantorek mentally forced Bhem to join the army when he refused to. Kantorek used the bandwagon and insisting that they were “patriotic” to have them enlisted in the army. The older generation had “let them down badly” and told them they must fight for Germany. Behm, in the end was convinced by Kantored and ended up getting killed. Their government let them down. They started the war, not the younger generation. They let it go on too long, didn’t recognise the sacrifices of a younger generation and often provided poor leadership “A word of command made there our enemies” Another one of their leaders, Himmelstoss, was treating Paul and his comrades with cruelty and inequality, was eventually sent to the front line to serve as an ordinary soldier. Having no experience or training on the battlefield, Himmelstoss was frozen from head to toe out on the battlefield. Evening faking to be dead when he was supposed to point his gun at enemies. Him faking to be dead shows betrayal to Paul and his comrades who were risking their lives on the front with
One of the positive aspect of the war to Paul was that it melds extraordinarily strong bonds between soldiers. The men of the Second Company are comrades-in-arms, closer than family or even lovers. They have seen unspeakable horrors and endured unimaginable suffering together, experiences they will never be able to share with those who did not fight. The war creates sharp distinctions between soldiers and civilians, but it erases other distinctions. Class divisions, for example, are no longer significant: well-educated young men like Paul fight and die alongside peasants like Detering.

Comradeship is such an intense bond that one would expect the death of one soldier to trigger a strong emotional reaction from the others. But grief is a luxury these battle-hardened soldiers cannot afford. Apart from brief outbursts of rage or sorrow, the men are unable to properly mourn their fallen friends. Paul becomes increasingly numb to these losses over the course of the novel, as he watches every single one of his friends die. Paul continues fighting after the death of his last and closest friend, Kat, but he seems to have lost the will to survive. The novel’s final paragraph suggests that Paul accepts and even welcomes his own