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All Quiet On The Western Paul's Influence On War

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In the novel All Quiet on The Western by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul and his fellow soldiers are forced to fight for their lives. This lasting trauma seriously influences how he views his life back home and during the war. Although these soldiers were strongly influenced by higher authority, in the war they became aware of the harsh reality and soon felt disconnected from their previous life. These young men originally decide to join the war to show their patriotism. Paul describes how his positive view of this quickly transitions to something much worse. “The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and more humane wisdom. But the first death we saw shattered this belief” (Remarque 12). The …show more content…

Once the soldiers were made aware of the realities of war they felt disconnected from their old life and the life they would have had. Paul describes this loss of feeling by saying “We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces.” (Remarque 87). When the men were recruited they had a new found passion for life that was quickly ruined. This serious self-destruction that was forced upon them left a long lasting impact afterwards. The soldiers had an illusion of the joys of war that was immediately shattered. The war caused Paul and his friends' view on life to be completely ruined. They are continually forced to fight causing it to almost consume them completely. Paul describes the intense feelings war provokes by saying “Here, on the borders of death, life follows an amazingly simple course, it is limited to what is most necessary, all else lies buried in gloomy sleep; in that besides our primitiveness and our survival.” (Remarque 273). This statement shows how the soldiers slowly became aware of the violent loss of war. So much so that they were forced to bury happy memories and allow war to completely consume them. It shows the loss

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