All Quiet on the Western Front is by Erich Maria Remarque. This book was an extraordinary war story. Remarque uses excellent words and phrases to describe crucial details of the book. Remarque had first hand experience because he was a German in World War I. So he expresses his opinions through Paul the main character of the book. One of the strongest themes in this book is that war makes man inhuman. From the author's point of view soldiers was often compared to various nonliving objects that were inhuman. The soldiers are compared to coins of different provinces that are melted down and now they bear the same stamp(236). Remarque thinks that the soldiers mind state has been changed from when they were school boys the stamp being the…
In the first chapter, right away it is revealed that the book is told in first person point of view. The narrator, along with other men fighting in the war, is resting and is five miles away from the line of fighting. They had been fighting for the last fourteen days; one hundred fifty men went, but only eighty survived. He mentions how when they are fighting, they barely get any sleep and that the war wouldn’t be as bad if they had more time to rest. Certain charaters are then introduced: Albert Kropp, Müller, Leer, (and the narrator) Paul Baümer. They are all nineteen-year-old volunteers for the war and were from the same class. Additionally, there are Tjaden, Haie Westhus, Detering, and Stanislaus Katczinsky. During meal time, the cook had prepared food for 150 men, but when the cook realizes that only 80 remained after the rest died in battle, the second company is delighted to have more to eat.…
“The front is a cage in which we must await fearfully whatever may happen” said Paul in All Quiet On the Western Front. In this book friends from college are recruited to the army to fight for their country in the Great War. The boys were full of pride until they got to the front and were conquered by fear. The front wasn’t what they expected; everything that was done was for nothing but survival. Like any war the war came to an end but not all the college classmates/friends survived, and many of them didn’t get the chance to visit their families. This was a good book due to its tone, theme, point of view, and plot.…
The negative effects of World War 1 are endless. Despite some of the positive outcomes, the book focuses on the main points of how the soldiers felt emotionally, physically, and mentally. When reading the book, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, one can further understand the true sadness, physical pain, and mental exhaustion that the German soldiers actually went through. This changes our perspective about the war because we can oversee our American bias and understand the pain on both sides. When Paul says, “We were all at once terribly alone; and alone we must see it through,” it shows how although there were hundreds of thousands of soldiers fighting together, the pain and the suffering was…
November through December in 1928, Erich Maria Remarque published a novel in the German Newspaper. The novel was soon published a year later as a huge success in 1929 in book form. The novel was titled All Quiet on the Western Front. Remarque published this novel to show of a generation of men who, “even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war. " This novel discusses the struggles young men had to go through during the time of war.…
In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, the author uses strong imagery and detailed descriptions to convey the horrors of the Great War and their detrimental effects on soldiers from all fronts. Images such as desperation, starvation, trauma, guilt, and camaraderie create a lasting impression on the reader as they are planted in the shoes of German soldiers, fighting and depending upon each other for survival. These themes were the unfortunate reality of life in the trenches, where rival sides are united in the battle of maintaining sanity and preserving life in any way possible. Specific images that have lingered in my mind after reading the novel are the types of brutal weaponry used in warfare. Trench mortars blew the clothes right…
Contrary to other literary history works, “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Remarque Erich Maria is so unique because of the way it displays such a realistic view of war and the associated loss of humanity, innocence, and emotion that accompany it. Throughout this novel, Remarque proves his point that war is unnecessary, and dishonorable. The novel really emphasizes on the accumulating body count everyday, showing every aspect of how war is absolutely gruesome and such a waste of pure lives. Also, “All Quiet on the Western Front” shows how the position of being in war can change a person dramatically preventing them from returning to their previous lives, and scarring them permanently.…
War. Very few words invoke such strong and conflicting reactions. War demands honor and death. War offers hope and despair. War creates the ultimate challenge and the pinnacle of defeat. Throughout history, man struggles to understand war and its impact on the people engaged in its horrors. Paul Baumer, the protagonist in Erich Maria Remarque’s historical fiction novel All Quiet on the Western Front, enlists in the war with his comrades. Throughout the novel images reveal the ultimate emotional and physical destruction faced by Paul and his fellow soldiers, whom World War I corrupts. In his novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Enrich Maria Remarque employs imagery of animals, nature, and water to convey the theme of destructiveness of war.…
The military life has not treated me well at all, and all of the propaganda about the Germans back home riled me up for a job that I would have never expected. The living conditions here are horrid, and every day I question how I am still living and have enough power left in my body to write this letter. Every day, my friends in my platoon die from either the awful conditions, or they are blown to fractions from enemy shrapnel. Besides the numerous dead bodies, there are large, repulsive rats that feed on the dead bodies of my friends. Since they are so numerous, they’ve gotten bold enough to start stealing our bread.…
Written by Erich Maria Remarque is a novel about young men who are fighting in the German army on the French front in World War I. The story expresses life in the war from the view point of Paul Baumer a young German soldier fighting for his life in the war. Throughout the novel, Remarque expresses vivid details based on his own experiences at war. “During World War I, Remarque was conscripted into the army at the age of 18. On June 12, 1917, he was transferred to the Western Front...”…
In All Quiet on the Western Front, different attitudes are betrayed from different people. Attitudes that come from various walks of life. When someone lives in a certain area and is surrounded by certain things, I believe it forms your opinion about life and people. That attitude can either make you or break you. War is definitely an example of a situation that can change your thoughts, actions, and emotions.…
Interpretation of war and the relationship between soldiers and civilians are different when discussing World War 1 and the wars of today. Whether one is a soldier, spectator from far away, or a civilian watching it first hand, war cannot truly be comprehended and understood, unless it has been physically experienced. Erich Maria Remarque, a German World War I veteran, depicts the atrocities and brutalities of war in his novel, All Quiet on the Western Front. The gap between the expectations of soldiers and civilians are solidified through civilians’ inability to comprehend the impacts of war. This destruction of war has created such a profound impact on soldiers as they are now unable to formulate and comprehend their true identity as compared to their interpretation of who they were before the war.…
War is a very controversial topic for many people. Depending on the person’s outlook on the war, it can be depicted as something good or bad. War brings destruction wherever it goes, whether it is on a place or the people, and it ultimately is inevitable. War also protects a country from having further destruction and keeps the people at home safe from any danger. As a person can see in many recordings of war, there are many comparisons and contrasts that are expressed through soldiers, veterans, and civilians. Some comparisons seen in many of the testimonies given by effected people are dehumanization, dislocation, and alienation; but they also have contrasts that can be seen through nationalism, technological advancements, and the coming home for many…
War is often viewed as one of the most dangerous and brutal events ever created. It utterly destroys the humanity and mental state of soldiers fighting in the war. In All Quiet on the Western Front, a world renowned war novel by Erich Maria Remarque, the epigraph states that this novel “will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.” Staying true to this quote, Remarque tells of the horrors of World War I and fittingly describes the effects that war has on humans through the eyes of the protagonist, Paul Bäumer. In his epigraph Remarque says, “this book is to be neither an accusation, nor a confession, and least of all an adventure.” Except for a few notable exceptions,…
In the movie “All Quiet on the Western Front”, the German soldiers were sent into the battlefield thinking that they were going to win. The inexperienced boys were persuaded in to fighting and dying for the victory of their country. This brought on a profound sense of disillusionment with the values of Western Civilization.…