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All Quiet On The Western Front Effects Of War

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Disconnect from society War has shown to affect plenty of veterans in many different ways. Some mental effects that are commonly seen amongst soldiers are PTSD, anxiety, and even self-harm. Many of the soldiers that survived WWI experienced these effects. A very common effect that many WWI veterans experienced was feeling disconnected from society once they had returned home from war. In All Quiet on the Western Front Paul, the main character, didn’t have any shortage of this psychological effect. There were many moments throughout the book where he found it difficult to interact with people back at home, or at times he felt isolated. Also, at times he was not thinking as rationally as he would have before the war. These are all effects …show more content…

In the novel, we see this on some occasions with Paul. For example, he goes into a state of panic when a doctor wants to give him gas to make him fall asleep due to an injury that he sustained to his leg, which requires surgery. Paul has lost so much trust in everyone else that he immediately thinks that the doctor is trying to inflict harm. In the moment, Paul's violent reaction seems completely unnecessary and unwarranted, "I break loose with one of them and try to crash into the surgeon's spectacles just as he notices and springs back. ‘Chloroform the scoundrel,’ he (the surgeon) roars madly." Paul, in this traumatic moment shows how he has gotten to the point where he is losing his mind. He has lost trust in people so much that he thinks a doctor who has no reason to hurt him is trying to intentionally amputate his leg. He then comes to the conclusion that he has to attack the surgeon because they would gas him if he weren’t to resist. Prior to this, Paul most likely wouldn’t have reacted this way. For example, before incurring the trauma of war, Paul was seemingly capable of keeping his emotions under control even under extraordinary circumstances. For example, when he was in training, he was physically pushed to limits that he couldn’t reach, and despite being hghly frustrated with the punishments he would receive, he did not overreact when his good friend Kemmrich had his leg amputated and was dying despite neglect from the doctors that Paul felt could have saved

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