All Quiet On The Western Front Literary Analysis

In Erich Maria Remarque’s, “All Quiet on the Western Front” the soldiers face fear, hardships, love, trust, and death together during World War 1. The question is, why? All soldiers were clueless to the reason why they had to leave their families, friends, and loved ones, only to return home to suffer from the mental and physical pain afterward. The novel focuses on Paul Baumer who enlists in the German army and experiences the horrors of war while trying to survive in the trenches. “War Some More” by Sandra Osborne connects well with the novel in the sense that war is brutal and brings forth hatred without a solid explanation as to why.

This represents an idiom and helps the reader understand the dangers of going into this gruesome battle. Another example in line 3 is, “… valley of Death.” Of course this isn't an actual valley, but it does represent how the battleground was grim and many men had died. Imagery was used throughout the poem and gave readers a mental image of what the war must´ve been like.

In the book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, displays that nihilism is a result of war. Throughout the book, several key events occur that point back to that theme, nihilism is a result of war. War fosters nihilism and creates a loss of innocence in the soldiers. The feeling of nihilism causes the soldiers to expect death, and channel their feelings into caring only about material things. This book, All Quiet on the Western Front, gives countless examples that point to the main theme, war causes nihilism.

The poem features a soldier, presumably Owen, speaking to fellow soldiers and the public regarding those atrocities. Correspondingly, drawing on the themes of innocent death and the barbaric practices of warfare, Owen expresses his remorse towards his fallen comrades and an antagonistic attitude towards the war effort through a solemn tone and specific stylistic devices. The poem is structured as free verse, contributing towards the disorganized and chaotic impression Owen experienced while witnessing these deaths firsthand, enabling the audience to understand the emotional circumstances of demise in the trenches as well. Throughout the poem, Owen routinely personifies the destructive weapons of war, characterizing them as the true instruments of death rather than the soldiers who stand behind them. Owen describes how, “Bullets chirped…Machine-guns chuckled…Gas hissed…”

Aeschylus once claimed “And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our own will, comes wisdom by the awful grace of god.” Aeschylus shows that pain has incredible effects on the being. Pain plagues and diminishes the mind, body and heart, corrupting the soul itself. In Erich Maria Remarque 's All Quiet on the Western Front, the narrator, Paul Baumer, along with his fellow soldiers, experience these pains almost constantly throughout the story. Due to the traumatizing situations the men are put into during war, they are incapable of readjusting to humanity outside of the battlegrounds.

In All Quiet on the Western Front, a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, the main character, Paul, develops a new viewpoint on war as the reader follows the story of his time fighting for Germany during World War I. Remarque keeps a realistic, poetic, and contrastive style in his writing that conveys the scenes Paul sees and experiences in such a way that draws the reader in. Each style has its own significance and is represented at least once throughout the novel. The first style, realistic, is one of the most common styles throughout the book. Remarque goes into great detail in many scenes, helping to describe the feeling and sight of the scenes around Paul.

Although these novels focus on a false reality of wars, Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front illustrates Bäumer’s horrifying experiences that he and his regiment, the Second Company, faces throughout the front lines of World War I, along with the physical and emotional

War habitually desensitizes and numbs the fighting soldiers due to the harsh, crippling events they have witnessed. War creates a feeling of endless hopelessness felt by the comrades during the war. In “All Quiet on the Western Front”, Erich Maria Remarque exposes the change of characterization of Paul Baumer from an innocent boy transformed by the monstrosities of war into a desensitized soldier by repeating the pattern of soldiers going to the front, being at the front, and then being away from the front to expose the personal destruction caused by it. On the way to the front, the comrades are experiencing rising anxiety and intimidating tension from the realization of the unavoidability death on the frontline.

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.

Firstly within the poems, both Owen and Harrison present the horrific images of war through use of visual imagery. “And leaped of purple spurted his thigh” is stated. Owen describes the immediate action of presenting the truth of war as horrific and terrifying . The phrase “purple spurted” represents the odd color of the blood which was shedded as the boulder from the bomb smashed his leg in a matter of seconds. The readers

World War I is a well-known historical event, which resulted in immense casualties and distress in the early 20th century. The war paved the way for significant political changes to occur, and entirely reshaped the European map. Propaganda of the war was published once veterans and families were comfortable enough to share their experiences subsequent to the drastic war. Erich Maria Remarque 's All Quiet on the Western Front and Otto Dix 's "Transporting the Wounded in Houthulst Forest" and "War Triptych," portray the notion that war dehumanizes its soldiers and strips them of their identities. Remarque demonstrates this idea by telling solemn stories about soldiers in the war, while Dix renders graphic images of the horrors of war.

In the novel All Quiet on The Western Front, written by Erich Maria Remarque, the constant exposure to war results in devastation. The protagonist Paul Baumer, is amongst soldiers fighting in WWI along the front. A main focus in the novel is the devastating effects that war has on the soldiers who fight in it. Many soldiers are susceptible to constant physical and emotional danger, as they can be obliterated at any given moment. Throughout the story, the soldiers are living on the edge, and uncertainty overwhelms swarms their thoughts.

Contrary to other literary history works, “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Remarque Erich Maria is so unique because of the way it displays such a realistic view of war and the associated loss of humanity, innocence, and emotion that attend with it. Throughout this novel, Remarque proves his point that war is unnecessary, and dishonorable. Remarque’s focus is how one is changed and ruined after just a few nights in war, the effects of war, on everyone. The novel really emphasizes on the accumulating body count everyday, showing every aspect of how war is absolutely gruesome and such a waste of pure lives. Also, “All Quiet on the Western Front” shows how the position of being in war can change a person dramatically preventing them from returning

Kurt Vonnegut enlisted in the United States Army at the time of World War II. He was captured as a prisoner of war where he received much of his literary inspiration for Slaughterhouse-Five. The anti war theme throughout the book is touched on and also rebutted when Vonnegut states, “there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers” (Vonnegut 4). Vonnegut knows he is writing an anti war book but also is aware that wars cannot altogether be halted he is only trying to relay the horrors of war. The number of innocent victims killed by the bombing is alarming and Vonnegut keeping with his anti war theme made it a point to center his novel around the Dresden bombing which increased knowledge of what the historical city Dresden once was.

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.