Essay On All Quiet On The Western Front

Erich Maria Remarque, the author of the prestigious novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” was born on June 22, 1898, and had a first hand insight on the war the book is based on, the first World War. Before he started his career as a writer, Remarque started his fight for the German army at the age of 18. Remarque’s previous military history helped shape his story behind the book. The characters Remarque chose for “All Quiet on the Western Front” portrays his personal thoughts and experiences. The relationship between Remarque and his characters in “All Quiet on the Western Front” is seen in the first couple pages “And four are nineteen years of age, and all four joined up from the same class as volunteers for the war” (Remarque 2). The correlation of the age of Remarque’s drafting is similar to those of his
“The young veterans, he felt, did not receive the respect they were entitled to after what they had been through. He became a teacher, but as early as December 1920 quit in disgust-no one understood the young veterans, he complained.” (Taylor 4). Remarque’s expression of his feelings of young veterans who are not understood is a recurring topic in “All Quiet on the Western Front”. He explains through Paul Baumer that war destroys innocence, and no one gives appreciation to the veterans who had to make that sacrifice. “And men will not understand us--for the generation that grew up before us, though it has passed these years with us already had a home and a calling; now it will return to its old occupations, and the war will be forgotten--and the generation that has grown up after us will be strange to us and push us aside. We will be superfluous even to ourselves, we will grow older, a few will adapt themselves, some others will merely submit, and most will be bewildered;--the years will pass by and in the end we shall fall into ruin.” (Remarque