All Quiet On The Western Front Dehumanization Essay

Erich Maria Remarque’s main theme throughout All Quiet on the Western Front is the effect of war on a soldier and it is shown when the soldiers are weak minded, in bad physical and mental state, and lost their identity. In the beginning of the novel, the soldiers were considered to be the “Iron Youth”, they lived in hygienic conditions, and the soldiers found the happiness in life. After having to kill many men and seeing a negative point of view on life, the soldiers became weakened mentally, lived in constant fear and in unsanitary conditions, and they lost their identity. As one can see, one event can completely change the life of one individual, in this case, for the worst. An event should never change a person for the worst and make a person

As Winston Churchill states: “You ask: what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, no matter how long and hard the world may be; for, without victory, there is no survival.” This quote applies to times of war because in a war in order to try to achieve victories many countries are willing to sacrifice and go to the extremes. In All Quiet on the Western Front, the German army sacrificed millions in order to attempt to win World War One. However what they sacrificed is appalling. The German army went to high measures to try to achieve victory in World War one: including sacrificing the sanitary conditions of men, the civilized nature of men, and the value of their youth.

In the story “All Quiet on the Western Front,” WW1 is narrated by a German soldier, Paul. The war is explained as having mainly negative effects on the soldiers: “...men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war.” (1)

World War II was a devastating war with over 18 million casualties accounted for not even including famine and diseases. All Quiet on the Western Front follows a group of germanic recruits and their pathway throughout the way they saw the tragedy of the war. In the classic novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque uses symbolism to show camaraderie, a loss of innocence, and how life can be impacted in monumental ways when people choose to not back down when an evil force awakens.

A story that tells only of death, sorrow, and the bitter truth about World War One, Erich Remarque’s book, All Quiet On The Western Front, is simply a story of a generation of men who were lost to war. Told through the eyes of a 19 year old boy named Paul Bäumer, as he shows what World War One was, in all of its horrific glory. This ‘glory’ so to speak was a gruesome, traumatizing experience for many of the soldiers that fought in World War One, this experience engraved in their memory, that would continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives. In the epigraph in All Quiet On The Western Front, it tells that “ even though [the soldiers] may have escaped shells, [they] were destroyed by the war”. It is evident to say that even though some soldiers escaped death from the war, they all will be scared from the experiences they had.

Erich Maria Remarque was a man who had lived through the terrors of war, serving since he was eighteen. His first-hand experience shines through the text in his famous war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, which tells the life of young Paul Bäumer as he serves during World War 1. The book was, and still is, praised to be universal. The blatant show of brutality, and the characters’ questioning of politics and their own self often reaches into the hearts of the readers, regardless of who or where they are.

In All Quiet on the Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Bäumer enlists in the army as an enthusiastic soldier, but while in the trenches he displays the horrors of war. Before World War I, battle was glorified, but after the Great War there was a shift between emphasizing war to portraying the dangers of it. This book displays the terror within the western trenches and how it affects the soldiers in a realistic, non-heroic way. The new modern shift is caused by the intense amount of soldiers dead from World War I.

“We loved our country as much as they; we went courageously into every action; but also we distinguished the false from true, we had suddenly learned to see. And we saw that there was nothing of their world left. We were all at once terribly alone; and alone we must see it through” (Remarque 6). Joining the war is perceived to be glory, and an honorable act, but is it like all it seems? All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel about World War I and its effects upon those who served in it through the perspective of a German soldier by the name of Paul Bäumer. Through his eyes, truths about war are slowly revealing itself one by one. This novel contains heart-wrenching scenes which show the brother-like relationship among the comrades, and the

Throughout their lives, people must deal with the horrific and violent side of humanity. The side of humanity is shown through the act of war. War is by far the most horrible thing that the human race has to go through. The participants in the war suffer irreversible damage by the atrocities they witness and the things they go through. In the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front" is the description by Erich Maria Remarque of the graphic violence and gore and the psychological pain that the average soldier endured on the western front. However it may seem, this is not violence simply for the shock factor, neither is it simply included to add realism to the novel. Instead this is an effort on Remarque’s behalf to communicate the human aspect of war, and describe the immense suffering that could be inflicted on any soldier during the GReat War. Through the use of the Narrator Paul Baumer, and the graphic imagery and description, Remarque illustrates the suffering that a soldier had to go through, both psychological and physical.

World War I was a brutal time period, with over hundreds of deaths each day. The soldiers in this period had great exposure to many harsh environments and moments. The novel

The novel All Quiet on the Western Front Written by Erich Maria Remarque is not only a specific story of World War I, but also a criticism of the destruction and pointlessness of war. The book was banned in Nazi Germany because it was critical of German military, and the idea of the “Iron Youth”, a campaign that promoted patriotism and war to young men. The novel tells the story of soldiers who endure the terrors of battle, and shows how war destroyed and entire generation of men and irreversibly detached them from the normal world. Remarque uses his experience in the war to explain that the entire generation of “Iron Youth” were either dead after the World War I, or too separated from their previous lives after experiencing the hatred and

As a society we have become reliant on the media for information on what is going on in our world. This focus on media gives people a new perspective on a topic that can get them to change how they feel about these important events. Whether it’s movies, books, television,

The honor of defending your country, the pride of fulfilling a purpose greater than yourself, and the unwavering sense of patriotic duty felt by soldiers are some of the calling cards that invite citizens to join the army. Unfortunately, war proponents simply use these reasons as a guise to hide the true nature of war. Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front pulls the veil off of this facade and reveals the dark and twisted realities of war. Through the eyes of Paul Baumer, we witness the atrocities of war and the damaging psychological effect it has on him on his companions which paints the perfect picture as to why All Quiet on the Western Front is an anti-war novel.

Remarques uses realizations of Paul, horrors of war and carnage imagery effectively to convey the effects of war on soldiers. In the book AQWF the men are going through WWII and see despicable and gory images. War comes and go, but the men that come out of it are changed. Stuck living the rest of their life in the mind of a solider. Stuck reliving the war. Before they left for war they were boys. Boys just beginning to live life. Boys believing the world is not as cruddy as people make it out to be. Then they find out that it is exactly what people make it out to be. Maybe even worse. War plays with a soldier 's mind in terrible ways. War is not the best method for solving problems. It should honestly be the last method the government goes to. It is not the best way to prove that one is right or wrong. You play with a man’s life and if he comes out alive he is scarred forever. It just is not

Erich Maria Remarque, a World War I veteran, took his own personal war experience to paper, which resulted in one of the most critically acclaimed anti-war movement novels of all time, All Quiet on the Western Front. The voice of the novel, Paul Baumer, describes his daily life as a soldier during the First World War. Through the characters he creates in the novel, Remarque addresses his own issues with the war. Specifically, Remarque brings to light the idea of the “Iron Youth,” the living conditions in the trenches, and the sense of detachment soldiers feel, among other things. Therefore, All Quiet on the Western Front criticizes the sense of nationalism, which war tends to create among citizens by quickly diminishing any belief regarding it as a glorious and courageous act. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque exposes the reality of war by refuting the idea of the “Iron Youth,” revealing the mistreatment of soldiers, and showing the critical effects war imprints on them.