Erich Maria Remarque's Novel 'All Quiet On The Western Front'

n Erich Maria Remarques’ Novel All Quiet On the Western Front even though soldiers escaped the war, they were still mentally and physically destroyed by what they witnessed and experienced. Destroyed in this sense means that they were ruined by war, they will never be themselves again. WW1 and any war for that matter was and are brutal on the soldiers bodies and souls. Many soldiers say that even after returning home they have a strange feeling of “strangeness”. “It will try simply to tell of a generation of men, who even though they may have escaped the shells, were destroyed by war.”

Soldiers were emotionally and mentally destroyed by their experiences at war. They were forced to deal with a continuous attack on the nerves, forcing soldiers to cope with a fundamental, instinctive
“We have lost all feeling for one another. We can hardly control ourselves when our haunted glance lights on the form of some other man. We are insensible, dead men, who through some trick, some dreadful magic, are still able to run and to kill.” (Page 116) “He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come." (Page 296) Paul’s death as far as we can tell was quick and peaceful. Paul was ready to die. He had already suffered as much as a single person could from the war and already knew that because of this he was not going to be able to lead a successful life after the war. Death was a release from all of his pain and suffering. The day Paul died was described as “all quiet on the western