All Quiet On The Western Front By Erich Maria Remarque

“Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” is the old lie of glory told to sacrifices of war. Erich Maria Remarque, author of the historical fiction All Quiet on the Western Front, tells the tale of Paul Baumer, a German soldier fighting on the western front in World War I. Baumer struggles to realize the purpose he is fighting for, and the justice behind it. Remarque demonstrates how the promised glory presented to soldiers is not worth the sufferings of war in All Quiet on the Western Front.

Soldiers face countless horrors on and away from the battlefield. Corpse rats and rats that feasted on human flesh plagued the trenches and “attacked 2 large cats and a dog, bit them to death and devoured them” (Remarque 103). The starved voracious rats were particularly hungry as they scrambled to devour any scraps of food. This was a constant problem for soldiers, they starved as rats gorged themselves on rations. Soldiers also had to deal with curl decisions on the battlefield, as Kat, a soldier, contemplates whether to “take a revolver and put an end to it” as he observes another crippled soldier (Remarque 72). Kat

As Paul returns home he is,”Afraid they [topic of war] might then become gigantic and I be no longer able to master them” (Remarque 165). Paul feels no pride from his time in war, he instead fears that they may consume him He is afraid of war, he doesn’t want to hear it or be a part of it. Paul questions,”what is there that is sacred to me” as he loses hope in what he once believed. He lost the respect he had for his role models as they failed to fulfill the empty promise of glory and stole away the youth and childish dreams he once had. Paul loses much more than he gains, leaving a hole in him that will always remain empty. Paul and the soldiers lose everything as battle after battle start to whittle them away to shards of their past selves, devoid of joy nor any speck of