Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

We Are Lost The protagonist of the All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Baumer, says, "I believe we are lost" (Remarque 123). The soldiers themselves recognize that they are part of a lost generation. They are, "forlorn like children, and experienced like old men" (123). Lost Generation is revealed in All Quiet on the Western Front through the young soldiers loss of innocence, loss of life, and loss of home. The First World War has no positive effect on the lives of the young soldiers. The soldiers lose their innocence on the front. They are typical 19-year-old, young German men at one moment. Suddenly the soldiers are enrolled in the army and in trenches fighting for their lives. "We are the Iron Youth" (Remarque 18). There is irony in "Iron Youth" (18), they are the textbook definition of youth. However, their age is superficial, they
are now, "Old folk" (18), as said by the protagonist Paul Baumer. They have lost the innocence of a young man. Baumer no longer feels he can be called young and even laughs at the idea of thinking of himself as young. These soldiers are stripped of what is arguably one of the most important parts of a man's youth, their innocence. The soldiers are not only asked to mature to the level of a normal man, but to the level of a soldier. Furthermore, the soldiers do not only lose their innocence but their lives are lost. The second company walks by the shelled school house where coffins are stacked the, "shelled school-house" (Remarque 99) represents their childhood. The school is their past and the coffins are their future. The coffins are representative the soldiers almost certain death and they foreshadow the death of the soldiers. When the soldiers are in school they are young in age. During the war the young soldiers are relatively the same age but they have similar responsibilities and troubles as the older soldiers who can handle them better. The coffins are "yellow, unpolished, brand-new coffins" (99) and not well made with tons of work put into them because their deaths are not significant and most people already consider them dead. Muller says, "That's a good preparation for the offensive," (99) because he knows that the coffins are for them and he accepts that his own people expect them to die. Muller knows the horrors of war, and that the odds are high that they will die during this offence or an upcoming one. Soldiers who do not die, experience loss of home.
When the soldiers return home after the war or during leave, they are not comfortable in their own homes. The war has no positive effects on the soldiers lives, it takes everything away from them, even their homes. "A sense of strangeness will not leave me; I cannot feel at home amongst these things" (Remarque 160). Baumer is at home with his mother and his sister, he should be able to feel comfortable with them. However, he does not feel at home here, he feels a stranger. Baumer leaves everything behind and grew up in the trenches. He has not been away for that long, but to Baumer it feels like forever. Even though he hates being on the front it feels more like home to him. Baumer says, "She calls me "Comrade," but I will have none of it" (156). Baumer is not understood by the people who stay home, while he goes off to fight on the front. Comrade is a word that the soldiers use, so he does not like it when people who have skipped out on going to the front to fight call him comrade. Baumer resents the people who get to stay at home while he has to return to the horrors of the
war. When a soldier goes off to fight in The First World War, they can be part of the lost generation in many ways. Furthermore, loss of innocence is an immediate effect of the war, for if they do not mature quickly they will lose their lives. Loss of life, is the harsh reality for a horrifyingly large percentage of the soldiers but even those who do not get killed experience loss when they return home. All soldiers, even the soldiers who escape death, lose their homes. No soldiers can escape the lost generation.