Theme Of The Abyss In All Quiet On The Western Front

In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque, Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen, and Route March by Charles Sorley the notion of the abyss must be overcome in order to survive. The notion of the abyss takes over and threatens Paul's life. He discovers the abyss when he meets the Russian Prisoners. Paul states "A word of command has made these silent figures our enemies; a word of command might transform them into our friends" (Remarque 193-194). Paul can only survive the war by killing these men and that forms Paul's abyss. Another abyss is found in Route March creates the reality that you will die out at the front. There are men marching along and a man sings a chant part of it being "Wherefore men marching On the road to death,
sing! Pour gladness on earth's head, So be merry, so be dead" (Sorley). Being told to act happy while marching to death is the only way to overcome the abyss and survive. Meanwhile Anthem for Doomed Youth has perhaps the worst abyss of all. This poem the reveals the abyss of the entire war dooming generations. Wilfred says "The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, and each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds" (Owen). The young men of the WWI era died in war and the truly doomed youth consists of the next generation that suffers because their would be fathers died in war and the mothers never married. The other abysses in the war must be overcame so more men can survive and the Doomed Youth can overcome the ultimate abyss created in WWI.