ipl-logo

All Quiet On The Western Front Fear Of War Essay

1051 Words5 Pages

Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front: Horrors of War
War. War never changes. It’s an act that will always be committed until the end of Man and the people who suffer the consequences are, most commonly, the soldiers who fight and die for ideals they may not even agree with. Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front conveys not only the atrocities of war, but also the mental, physical, and emotional toll it takes on the soldiers fighting it.
To get a real understanding of how war affects the soldier it must first understand what exactly happens to a soldier during war. When a soldier experiences war he is subjected to horrors the average citizen couldn’t even think of, things such as the constant sound of artillery and fear of death will make any man go mad so it’s no wonder that many soldiers experience some form of PTSD or Shellshock. This experience is magnified in World War 1 because of the fact that a war was never fought on this scale and with these tactics before. In the first year of the war British and French trenches were of atrocious quality which would cause disease and Trenchfoot. Soldiers at the frontlines always received their ration last and it was usually cold by the time they got it, if they even got them at all. The fact that when offensives took place they would be able to take a little bit of ground at the cost of many lives and then soldiers would have to retreat to their previous position and be back where they started. This tactic was used for the entirety of the war and it was very demoralizing for …show more content…

It had led to the beginning of PTSD psychiatric treatment as well as help us to understand just how war really affects our soldiers. And Erich Maria Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” gave us a taste of what these soldiers were really subjected to and how it affected

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of All Quiet On The Western Front

    843 Words  | 4 Pages

    The most common psychological issue that soldiers faced is a disorder known as “PTSD” or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is caused by the witness of an extremely traumatic event. Bombing, shelling, and even witnessing a close one die were all things that would have triggered a stress related disorder. Many soldiers, although young, began to feel worn out and old from the long, tiring years of the war. “I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow.

    Read More

  • Summary Of All Quiet On The Western Front

    761 Words  | 4 Pages

    The book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque portrayed war as a great hole of death and despair dug by a nation's higher power for the citizens to patriotically march into. All Quiet on the Western Front was written as a 'new-age' war story; The book focused on the horrors of war rather than the romantic veneer other previous writers had plastered on. The War obliterated the distinction between civilian and military targets. 'Armies were no longer targeting just their opponents, but the civilian towns that supply them too, killing innocent people. People still today, who are innocent civilians, are being killed for being on the wrong side.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front Literary Devices

    1667 Words  | 7 Pages

    All Quiet on the Western Front is a story, in which it allows people to know the true horrors of war. Throughout the story and in Erich Maria Remarque’s writing he uses many literary devices to emphasize what he experienced and the emotions he felt. The devices that he used are used in order to help the readers understand his experience and emphasize the theme of his war novel. Throughout this essay, I will show you a few of the literary devices used within the novel that emphasized the theme, the brutality of war. Within this essay you will learn about imagery, metaphors, and symbolism.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front: How Does War Affects Soldiers?

    92 Words  | 1 Pages

    How do you think war impacts soldiers? I believe that there are two different effects war can have on a soldier, a psychological and a physical one. One disorder involved with war is Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, in All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Bäumer, the narrator, tells of his experiences in World War I and the term associated with soldiers who have been corrupted by the war is “shell-shocked”. In my essay I will talk about the impact war has had on Paul, and how it 's affecting soldiers today.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Siegfried Sassoon And All Quiet On The Western Front

    841 Words  | 4 Pages

    "All Quiet on the Western Front" is a war novel by Erich Maria Remarque that reveals the ways in which war is not glorious, and the ways in which destroys a soldier 's happiness, innocence, and youthfulness. In addition, it uses imagery and characterization to describe some of the hardships the soldiers face in the trenches and at the front. Likewise, "Suicide in the Trenches" is a poem by Siegfried Sassoon that glosses over these topics as well, in the form of a poem. While both Remarque 's "All Quiet on the Western Front" and Sassoon 's "Suicide in the Trenches" portray war as a destroyer of innocence and youthfulness, Remarque 's use of characterization to illustrate the theme is more effective than Sassoon 's use of imagery and word play, because it is more

    Read More

  • Essay About The Great War

    903 Words  | 4 Pages

    Not only were they physically and psychologically damaged, their new lives in the trenches were horrific, and after the war, veterans returned home unemployed. To begin with, the battle had put so much stress on those fighting in the war; many were not able to return to who they once were. Wounds were battle scars that the soldiers forever carried, and many who could no longer handle the memories of warfare broke down and were taken over by shell shock. William Halse Rivers, a neurologist who treated officers during World War One, states, “I hope to show that many of the most distressing symptoms from which the subject of war neurosis suffer, are not necessarily the result of the strain and shock to which they have been exposed, but are also due to an attempt to banish the mind distressing memories of warfare.” Shell shock and other damages were the results of the battle.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front Dehumanization Essay

    554 Words  | 3 Pages

    The war changes the way that soldiers feel and interact. A soldier cannot perceive that they are killing another woman or man’s husband or wife, son or daughter, or brother or sister. He simply does it for his own survival. These soldiers are used to witnessing other soldiers and friends die in front of their faces which causes their feelings to be dehumanized. “It is not fear.

    Read More

  • Juxtaposition In All Quiet On The Western Front

    930 Words  | 4 Pages

    Millions of people have gone through life-altering experiences in their time in World War I. In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Bäumer, a 19-year-old German soldier, narrates his personal memoirs of this war. He describes the mental change and suffering he goes through as he is forced to mature from a young boy to a soldier in order to survive, leaving him permanently scarred from the throes of war. By employing juxtaposition to contrast Paul’s mindset, before and after the war, Remarque demonstrates how the mental health of the World War I soldiers is damaged because of the abrupt loss of their youth, leaving them in a state of survival and mental instability.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front Rhetorical Analysis Essay

    403 Words  | 2 Pages

    War is a harsh reality that is inflicted upon the unwilling through the “need” of it’s predecessors and those whom wish it. All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is about 19 year old Paul and his friends in the “Second Company”. Even though they are just out of school age, they have already seen things that many could not bear to even think about. Eventually, all of his friends die, and even Paul too, dies. Remarque uses diction and syntax as literary devices to express his anti-war theme, or lesson.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front Effects Of War Essay

    1064 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout the ages, wars have wreaked havoc and caused great destruction that lead to the loss of millions of lives. However, wars also have an immensely destructive effect on the individual soldier. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, one is able to see exactly to what extent soldiers suffered during World War 1 as well as the effect that war had on them. In this essay I will explain the effect that war has on young soldiers by referring to the loss of innocence of young soldiers, the disillusionment of the soldiers and the debasement of soldiers to animalistic men. Many soldiers entered World War 1 as innocent young boys, but as they experienced the full effect of the war they consequently lost their innocence.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Graphic Violence In All Quiet On The Western Front

    1079 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Erich Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

    1240 Words  | 5 Pages

    The book cover of, All Quiet on The Western Front, quotes to be ‘’the greatest war novel of all time’’. The author, Erich Remarque, experiencing war himself; uses the protagonist, Paul Baumer, to express his own background and horrors of World War One. With this, it alternates between his vividly dying memories of the times before the war and the nightmares of trench warfare; although a first person narrative. Erich served in combat during WW1 in Germany and was wounded five times. The last injury was very severe and kept him out of the war.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western-Western Front Thesis

    665 Words  | 3 Pages

    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. Brutality and images of war are abundant in this book, giving the story a feeling of reality.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

    804 Words  | 4 Pages

    The war novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque depicts one protagonist, Paul, as he undergoes a psychological transformation. Paul plays a role as a soldier fighting in World War I. His experiences during the war are not episodes the average person would simply experience. Alternatively, his experiences allow him to develop into a more sophisticated individual. Remarque illustrates these metamorphic experiences to expose his theme of the loss of not only people’s lives but also innocence and tranquility that occurs in war.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of All Quiet On The Western Front By Erich Maria Remarque

    1361 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about All Quiet On The Western Front Fear Of War Essay

Open Document