Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is a World War I anti-war novel that uses different objects that all symbolize different themes that impact the story. The leaves and different seasons impact the storyline to show the point in the lives of Paul and his comrades and to represent their feelings. The beginning of the novel takes place in late summer while everyone is experiencing a short period of lighthearted fun (9). The end of summer is usually associated as a time that people begin to wonder what had happened to the time that had previously appeared to be everlasting. Paul is faced with the stripping of his childhood due to being exposed to the harshness of war immediately after he was living without a care. Paul reports…
In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque describes World War I through the eyes of a soldier, Paul. It goes into details about combat, food shortage, going on leave, and the life at home. While reading this book, I couldn't help but notice that I would get nervous in some chapters about what would happen next. The author goes into so much detail, giving the reader that first person feeling while he/she is reading the book. Remarque also describes the horrific and unthinkable events of World War I by going deeper than the average "war novel," allowing the reader to engage more. The author reveals that World War I is different than the other wars before it because it details the artillery and the civilians' lives. It also reveals that World War I is a trench and chemical warfare which is new.…
In All Quiet on the Western Front, author Erich Maria Remarque reinforces the idea that war is horrific, through his use of visual, auditory, and tactile imagery. Towards the end of the second chapter of the book, Remarque begins to disillusionize the glorious imagery of war by describing the death of Kemmerich, a German soldier and a fellow classmate of the protagonist Paul. Paul and his other classmates that enlisted sit by Kemmerich's deathbed, illustrating the mourning for their comrade by saying “Franz Kemmerich looked as slight and frail as a child...There he lies...Nineteen and a half years old, he does not want to die!” (29) Remarque uses words such as “slight” and “frail” to describe the condition in which Kemmerich is in. As you approach twenty years old, you should be in prime shape, ready for or already in college, strong and independant, not “slight” nor “frail.” When you are twenty, it should be the start of your life, not the end of it.…
All Quiet on the Western Front Is a Novel told from the perspective of Nineteen year old Paul Bäumer, a German Soldier who joins the war effort on the French front during World War I. Bäumer and a few friends get the idea to join the military after listening to patriotic speeches from their previous teacher, however quickly forsake these ideologies after experiencing the horrors of warfare on the front.…
How do soldiers deal with relationships at home and while serving in a war? Paul was faced with many moral decisions brought on by the war. Paul and Kat struggled on what to do when they come up to the Fair Haired Recruit; latter Paul stuck with Kropp though his injuries to make sure he stayed safe. When Paul was on leave, he longed to be with back with his fellow soldiers, because being at home was complicated. In the book All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque, Paul’s life before the war was that of a school boy who had a healthy relationships and dreams. Paul says his future has been stolen and he is forever damaged because of what he has seen and experienced while fighting .…
“He is a craftsman of unquestionably first rank, a man who can bend language to his will.” This is how The New York Times Book Review describes Erich Maria Remarque’s writing in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front. Remarque uses figurative language to enhance his ideas. The most developed device he uses is personification because it grabs the reader’s attention and helps the reader understand the mood of the novel.…
“The first bombs, the first explosion, burst into our hearts.” (Remarque 88) This is what the soldiers felt like in Erich Maria Remarque novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Baumer, a young man serving in the German army during World War One, is constantly being faced with the horrible and terrifying aspects of war. From seeing, his fellow soldiers lying dead on the battle field, to learning how to survive on the western front of the war. With his rifle by his side and his comrade’s right next to him, he knew what his job was to do in the war and that was to serve his country. Although Paul fought for his country in the War, Corrie Ten Boom a member of the Dutch reformed church was faced with the horrific scenes…
Throughout history, war has been constantly evolving. Over time, it has taken a new less glorious form. World War One was one of the most devastating and transformative events in human history. In Erich Maria Remarque’s book, All Quiet on the Western Front, he depicts the horrors of “the great war” by showing the complete disregard for human life in modern warfare. This war modeled the way that any future war would be fought. It would shape human history by completely changing the game of warfare and people’s opinions of it. Remarque shows, from his point of view, the terrors that happen on a daily basis on the front lines, and away from it, of World War One. World War One changed the perception of war in a big way and opened the eyes of so many people to the horrors of modern warfare.…
World War I was a brutal and murderous fight. Over 38 million people suffered casualties with 17 million deaths and around 20 million soldiers were wounded during the war. Soldiers showed courage by fighting and learned how important it is to trust other men. They faced hard conditions and suffered many injuries. In the novel, All Quiet on The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque portrays the main character, Paul Baümer, as a superior comrade, a smart decision-maker, and a brave soldier.…
Erich Maria Remarque’s novel “Im Westen Nichts Neues”, translated to English “All Quiet on the Western Front”, was published in 1928. Remarque began to write this novel when he left the German military. He began to work odd professions, all the while writing this book. Remarque closely related the characters and plot in this novel to his military experiences and comrades that fought next to him.…
The major themes that are found in the book is the pressure of patriotism, shattered dreams, and the tragedy of war. During World War I, joining the military was a patriotic thing to do for one’s country. In the book, Paul and his friends reference their old teacher Kantorek quite a number of times. In chapter one, Paul says that “Kantorek gave us long lectures until the whole of our class went, under his shepherding, to the District Commandant and volunteered” (Remarque 11). Kantorek would encourage all his students to go out to enlist in the German military because they were the “Iron Youth” and because it was a patriotic thing to do. Paul and his friends would end up losing their sense of patriotism during their experience at the Western Front since they feel as if they were pressured to join the German military because of nationalism. Paul believes that the older generation who have him and his friends fight in the frontlines do not understand what they go through on the Western Front. For example, when Paul goes home for a little in chapter seven, a patriotic German man tells Paul how the Germans can win the war. Paul then says that “the war may be rather different from what people think. He dismisses the idea loftily and informs me I know nothing about it” (Remarque 167). Paul believes that time has undeniably changed, but the…
In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Bäumer and his generation feel separated from the rest of the world. These boys’ lives were drastically changed by the war, and “even though they may have escaped its shells, they were destroyed by the war,” (Remarque Epigraph) describing that even though they survived the war physically,they were mentally destroyed by the dangers and chaos of war. Paul expresses that “he has been crushed without knowing it” and “does not belong anymore, it is a foreign world” (Remarque 168). The generation of men who fought in the war are “pushed aside,” (Remarque 249) as an unpleasant reminder of a war that society would like to disregard. After surviving such dreadful…
War is often viewed as one of the most dangerous and brutal events ever created. It utterly destroys the humanity and mental state of soldiers fighting in the war. In All Quiet on the Western Front, a world renowned war novel by Erich Maria Remarque, the epigraph states that this novel “will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.” Staying true to this quote, Remarque tells of the horrors of World War I and fittingly describes the effects that war has on humans through the eyes of the protagonist, Paul Bäumer. In his epigraph Remarque says, “this book is to be neither an accusation, nor a confession, and least of all an adventure.” Except for a few notable exceptions,…
The early involvement with the war resulted in the lost generation of young men. When talking about how the war ruined everything, Paul stated, "We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war” (88). Paul, amongst several others, developed as a pawn in the lost generation. World War I captured the souls of youth and never let go until death…
How do you get someone to pick up a gun and execute another who has done him no wrong? It is surprisingly easy, just convince them that they are doing it for their country. Convince them to embrace nationalism. The concept of nationalism pops up somewhere in the early-to-mid-1800s. This word came to mean a devotion to one’s country. For some people, that devotion turned fanatical. Nationalism became the way to justify wars and mass executions.…