Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

Erich Maria Remarque wrote the novel All Quiet on the Western Front to show readers the impact that war and death had on soldiers during war times. Many men returned from the war with missing limbs, missing clothes, and missing minds. They felt displaced and lost in their own bodies and in society. The death toll in World War I was tragically high, and it left families without brothers, sons, husbands, and uncles.
All Quiet on The Western Front describes a group of soldiers living on western front fighting for Germany during World War I. Kantorek pushed the boys--Joseph, Kropp, Kemmerich, Leer, Müller, Tjaden, and Paul--to sign up for the war. Paul narrated the book, and explains his eventful time in the war. The men were very close due to
the experiences they shared on the front together. Himmelstoss, the men’s former Platoon leader, returns to the front, and the men tease him and treat him badly. He puts two of the men in open arrest even though he is not their leader at the time. Kemmerich got shot above the knee then the wound got infected with gangrene, and he had to get his leg amputated. He died, but he gave Müller his boots. Paul got leave and went home. He returned to his dying mother, who had cancer. He had a really hard time adapting back to war after being home, and he almost got killed because he wanted to prove his courage by seeing what technology the enemy had behind their lines. During the summer of 1918, everything went wrong: all of Paul’s fellow classmates and friends died. Due to his loneliness, Paul was ready to die. He died in October of 1918.
One of the main aspects of the book was survival. The men had to forget about their homes, families, and everyday routines to survive the war. The men had to be logical enough to know when to move and where to move. Paul describes his strategy for survival as Chance(101). He never knew when and where bombs or bullets would land, but he believed that Chance controlled it. He described Chance by relating back to a story when he walked to a friend’s dugout, and upon arrival, he found the dugout to be destroyed by a bomb. He proceeded to return to his home dugout, and he was shocked to see that it had been buried moments before. They had to be completely focused and adapt to their harsh environments. Paul had to get used to seeing the prisoners’ conditions. Paul described the prisoners as “meek, scolded, St. Bernard dogs,” and he had to watch the prisoners dig through the trash to find food(189). He felt sorry for the Russian prisoners, and he gave them half-cigarettes at night. He gave them some of the potato cakes that his mother made him, but he keeps some because he thinks about how much pain she must have been in to make them for him. The uniforms were not up to par. The soldiers adapted to holes being in their uniforms during attacks, and their boots fell apart. Kemmerich’s boots was the only pair that was in good condition. The boots got passed from Kemmerich to Müller, then to Kat, and Paul was going to give them to Tjaden. But, he died before Paul could. Paul talked about the polishing being done to the camp for inspection(201). The soldiers got used to having the rough and torn uniforms. The soldiers got new uniforms and boots during the inspection week, but they returned the new items when the inspection was done.
Another aspect of the book was where home is.
Paul feels that home was on the front because was there for so long. Home was where he was comfortable at and where his friends were. Paul feels awkward when he returns home because he feels really out of place. He described the feeling as “I find I do not belong here any more, it is a foreign world,” and this showed that his home was no longer in his hometown--it was on the frontlines(168). The frontlines was where he lived for a significant amount of time before he went home. He was familiar with the danger of living there, and he had friends who understood his survival instincts more than anyone in his hometown in Germany. Another example of his home being the frontlines was when he was to his friends. He was really worried that he would never get to see them again(152). He felt like he was leaving his first family to visit his second family. His home where his heart was. He felt like he belonged on the frontlines beside his brothers. He was “a soldier, and now I am nothing but an agony for myself, for my mother, for everything that is so comfortless and without end”(185). He felt so out of place there that he described himself as though he was a burden. He felt like he messed up everything by coming home because everything at home was in bad shape. He did not feel like a soldier
anymore.
All Quiet on the Western Front was an exquisite novel that kept readers on the edge of their seats. The soldiers had to fight for their lives every day. There was always something fighting against the soldier’s happiness. They never had any peaceful times except in the end when Paul is dying and there is no fighting happening. Readers who do not know much about the war and how it affects the emotional side of soldiers needs to read this book. Everyone who enjoys history should read this book because this book explained more than just what happened in the war. It told the humanity that it took to be a soldier. The book taught many readers how instincts play a big part in survival in any war. Readers got a close up lesson of the destruction of mortars and machine guns. Readers learned the displacement that soldiers feel returning home. Readers felt like they were in the story because Erich Maria Remarque describes the story in such detail.