Review Of Erich Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

‘All Quiet on the Western Front”, written by Erich Remarque was a book written in the perspective of a German soldier in World War I. The significance of this section is that it sheds light on all of the aspects on war, and the fact that war was not what everyone made it seem like. Being from the viewpoint of a soldier, it gives first hand explanation as to what led him to become a solider. It is important to understand that no one really knows what happens in war until you are actually in it. The author wrote this book with the intention of enlightening people to was really happened in WWI. He goes into great detail about the teacher that convinced all of the boys to join the war, now they all realize that he only knew what he had been told. “Naturally we couldn’t blame Kantorek for this. Where would the world be if one brought every man to book? There were thousands of Kantoreks, all of whom were convinced that they were acting for the best - in a way that cost them nothing” (Remarque). We learn from this that teachers, and mentors only know way they have
read. None of the ever experienced the horrors of war, their only knew what to tell other people. Remarque shows us the truth by describing the Kemmerich’s pain in great detail, though all of the boys comfort him he knows he will die. In this time period if you told people what was really happening to their friends and family, they would pull out of the war. It is like a similar situation as to what America did with Vietnam. The soldiers lived in a world where death was constantly surrounding them, unable to control anything. The soldier’s progress to becoming desensitized. This also happens well into the industrial revolution, all of the weapons are the same, but the medicine was not. For these people infection basically meant death. Just living was hard for these people. In war, nothing can last forever.
“Strange to say, Behm was one of the first to fall. He got hit in the eye during the attack, and we left him lying for dead. We couldn’t bring him with us, because we had to come back helter-skelter. In the afternoon suddenly we hear him call, and saw him crawling about in No Man’s Land. He had only been knocked unconscious. Because he could not see, and was mad with pain, he failed to keep under cover, and so was shot down before anyone could fetch him” (Remarque). Soldiers were subject to watching this happen every day, the watch their friends die in the field knowing someday it will be them. The psychology of these people can become greatly disturbed this way, and might explain why so many soldiers had PTSD after returning. These were dark times in German, even when Germany lost the war none of the soldiers were sad. They were just glad they didn’t have to fight
anymore. Erich Remarque wrote this story based on the misconceptions of war, and all of the horrors that are truly involved in trench warfare. The soldiers were tricked into believing everything was fine, until the got into their first battle. The only thing left was a shell of that former person. The moment in history depicts it’s dark side.