ipl-logo

All Quiet On The Western Front Innocence Essay

562 Words3 Pages

Innocence is not a strong enough force to combat the corruption from the evils of the world. Innocence can cause one to make bad decisions as they simply know no better. Furthermore, innocence can cause one to commit bad choices in the face of unfamiliar situations. Both All Quiet On The Western Front by Eric Remarque and The Quiet American by Graham Greene explore the concept that when one loses their innocence, it is swiftly replaced by wickedness. Both Remarque and Greene use their protagonists, Baumer and Fowler respectively, to exemplify the vulnerability of innocence and how leads to poor decision-making. Through the use of the protagonists in their novels, both authors would agree with Hemingway’s theory that “All things truly wicked start from innocence.” Although innocence usually receives a positive connotation, it supplies the garden to which wickedness can flourish.

Innocence is often the culprit to poor decisions, due to a lack of personal development and experience. Remarque and Greene both illustrate that bad choices can result in the transformation to wickedness. In All Quiet On The Western Front, main character Paul Baumer declares “I am young, I am …show more content…

Both Remarque and Greene demonstrate that vulnerability leads to evil. In The Quiet American, Fowler says that Pyle “never saw anything he hadn’t heard in a lecture-hall, and his writers and his lecturers made a fool of him.” This quote explains that Pyle was susceptible to the evils of Vietnam due to his innocence as a scholar back home. Similarly, Remarque uses Baumer’s belief that himself and his comrades “are not youth any longer,” to explain to the reader of the novel that these formerly innocent youths are now men destroyed by the evils in which they participated. Both authors use the demise of youths, who are generally associated with innocence, to demonstrate the power or wickedness as an influence on innocent

Show More
Related

  • All Quiet On The Western Front Literary Devices

    1667 Words  | 7 Pages

    Before World War I, all of Europe in 1914, was tense and like a bomb or a fire was waiting to erupt. Europe had not seen a major war in years, but due to Militarism, Imperialism, Alliances, and Nationalism tensions grew high. Each country was competing to be the best by gaining more territory and growing in their military size and successful economies. World War 1 was waiting to happen and the assassination of the Archduke was the spark that lit Europe up. In All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque we see the effects of the assassination.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front Nihilism Analysis

    906 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the war, soldiers lose their innocence. One example is when a new fair-haired recruit lost his innocence during his first bombing in the trenches. This boy is scared out of his mind. He is huddled on the ground in fetal position and his helmet has fallen off.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front: A Character Analysis

    1245 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the year 1914, a war started that would turn innocent people against each other, and have aftermaths that include thousands of people dead due to new equipment like tanks, gas attacks, and hand-to-hand combat. In this war there was a soldier named Paul Bäumer who is a German nineteen year old who has made friends that will last a lifetime during this experience, but has also felt immense pain. His daily routine is to sleep, eat, and fight in the trenches, and he experiences death every day. Most soldiers view death as a recurring event, but Paul views it as wretchedness, which makes him different from others by caring about his comrades more than others. Paul shows many qualities through this experience of being a soldier in the First World War, and he learns what is necessary in life, which takes some people years to figure out.

    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

  • How Does All Quiet On The Western Front Affect Humanity

    602 Words  | 3 Pages

    The book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque gives us a good understanding of what war was like for the people fighting on the front. When reading this book people can get a front hand experience of what it is like being in battle. Remarque wrote this book so well that often times you picture yourself actually with Paul and all his friends. The one thing you specifically get to see is how humanity affects warfare. Humanity affects our decisions in warfare because humans are selfish, have fear, and seek revenge.

    Read More

  • All's Quiet On The Western Front Critical Analysis

    748 Words  | 3 Pages

    The First World War was a lengthy and brutal affair that claimed the lives of over 17 million individuals. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, its effects were equally as ferocious on the intellectual front, where it marked a turning point in the clash of European intellectual values. Philosophers such as Nietzsche had already challenged established institutions of Positivistic thinking toward knowledge and progress; however, his movement lacked widespread support. It was the disaster of WWI that accelerated their movement by inspiring culture-wide undermining of prior intellectual beliefs through newfound uncertainty: authors such as Erich Remarque and Vera Brittain drew upon sudden doubt underscored by the war to completely reverse prior thinking by breaking down pre-war notions of intellectual

    Read More

  • Themes In All Quiet On The Western Front

    799 Words  | 4 Pages

    "Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy? If we threw away these rifles and uniforms you could be my brother just like Kat and Albert (Remarque 223)". Comradeship among soldiers is a major theme throughout the novel, "All Quiet on the Western Front" because the soldiers knew each other before the war, protected each other during combat, and can relate to one another without having to literally speak. This story 's theme shows comradeship because Paul and the other soldiers were in class together before joining the war. In the beginning of the novel Paul introduces his friends he went to school with before going to war with. "

    Read More

  • Innocence In Alden Nowlan's The Fall Of A City

    704 Words  | 3 Pages

    Innocence is the idea of being blameless and free from any wrongs because one devoid in making any decisions. However, at times those who are innocent cause frenzy and disruptions in a family. Alden Nowlan’s, The Fall of a City, portrays how Teddy, an eleven year old boy, full of imagination in his own little world is ridiculed by his aunt and uncle whom believe that he is up to something in the attic. Subsequently, it is accentuated that his imagination blinds him from realizing the reality that his imaginations are illusions. Throughout this short story, Nowlan demonstrates how naivety and innocence blinds one from realizing the truth by juxtaposing the two settings and emphasizing on the conflicts.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front Rhetorical Analysis Essay

    403 Words  | 2 Pages

    Using diction, Remarque is able to communicate an anti-war theme in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front. For example, after a very arduous battle, Paul tells the reader “Monotonously the lorries sway, monotonously come the calls, monotonously falls the rain” (24). The use of the word monotonously shows how monochrome, black and white, and lifeless and dull the world feels. Furthermore, after another battle, Paul tells the reader “ And at each call a little group separates itself off, a small handful of dirty, pallid soldiers, a dreadfully small handful, and a dreadfully

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front Essay

    972 Words  | 4 Pages

    All Quiet on The Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque, is a novel composed after World War One to convey the experiences of German soldiers during this horrific time of fighting. He brought to light many important issues that occur during wars. In this book, three horrors of war that had the largest impact were the lack of sanitation in the trenches, the loss of comrades, and the shock that came from unexpected and ongoing shelling. The lack of sanitation in the trenches caused many diseases, infections, and terrible memories to me made.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front Effects Of War Essay

    1064 Words  | 5 Pages

    However, when they were sent out into the midst of the war many of them realised the misconceptions they had and were led to believe. They became disillusioned as they realized that the war was much more brutal and horrific than they had previously believed. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Remarque effectively comments on the horrors of war from Paul’s perspective, especially when Paul comments on injuries the soldiers endure and witness by stating “We see men go on living with the top of their skulls missing; we see soldiers go on running when both their feet have been shot away…Another man…with his guts spilling out over his hands as he holds them in.” (Remarque,

    Read More

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

    1079 Words  | 5 Pages

    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. The physical injuries sustained by men on the frontline in All quiet on the western front were absolutely horrendous. Remarque communicated this through his vivid use of gore and graphic imagery, however did was not supposed to be a surprise factor, but more for the reader to truly understand what soldier could go through.

    Read More

  • Major Themes Of Comradeship In All Quiet On The Western Front

    841 Words  | 4 Pages

    Comradeship “We are brothers and press on one another the choicest pieces.” (Remarque 96) All Quiet on The Western Front introduces the major themes of comradeship, because the soldiers depend on one another when in danger, they have love for one another, and they have the common goal to survive with one another.

    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

More about All Quiet On The Western Front Innocence Essay

Open Document