War is a transformative event due to the people at first believing war is exciting opportunity that they should not miss out but later it seemed to be frightening and gloomy which changed them emotionally as well they may get injured and transform the physically. As said by Stefan Zweig in The World of Yesterday which is about Austrians excitement of going into WWI, “the young people were honestly afraid that they might miss this most wonderful and exciting experience of their lives; that is why they shouted and sang in the trains that carried them to the slaughter”(Document H). At first it shows how excited everyone was but then they experience war which causes them to realise that war is not a great time but it is a horrific event that will
Born June 22nd 1898, in Osnabrück, Germany Erich Maria Remarque became one of the greatest war time authors to ever live. Being born before World War 1 Remarque experienced Germany while it was still an empire. Eventually, when Germany began World War I his viewpoint on life would change into the viewpoint that makes his writings so intense and memorable. For example, “All Quiet on The Western Front” his most popular piece of literature was banned from Germany for being non-nationalistic due to its grim realism on war. There are many works Remarque has made and all of them have been focused on the idea of short phrases and realistic values. Through the Author’s first hand experience with war and grim
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.
The book All Quiet on the Western Front takes place during World War I. The author, Erich Maria Remarque, describes how dehumanizing war can be for soldiers who give their life to serve their country and protect it. Remarque specifically describes the hardships of a German soldier Paul during the war. Through Remarque’s story we learn that war affects relationships, thought processes, natural instincts and many more functions of a soldier. We learn over the course of this book that all soldiers change through war.
Erich Maria Remarque’s classic account of misery, woe, and war overrides the plot of All Quiet on the Western Front, recreating the devastation and emotional dismemberment of German soldier, Paul Baumer, and his childhood acquaintances. Baumer is violently ripped through a symbolically eternal dispute between opposing nations; however the entirety of the novel is seen through Remarque’s eyes. As a vessel for propaganda and persuasion, Remarque attaches parasitic personalities, desolate descriptions, and vivid verbs to convey desperate times on The Western Front. Without Remarque’s vocabulary and literary devices, the novel would be stripped of its ability to evoke passionate emotions in the reader.
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 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. He published his book in 1929. Although his books are fictionally written; they are inspired by his experience through the mind of a different character like Baumer rather than his own. Being in the mind
Soldier Boys is a novel about two young boys, Spencer and Dieter, who have gone off to fight in World War II. Both boys decide to enlist to prove a point; Spencer joins to show his family that he is no longer a silly teenage boy with a crush and Dieter to prove how great of a German boy and soldier he is to the Fuhrer and Germans all over the world. They soon learn that the war is not about them, but instead the people they have chosen to protect and the beliefs they must stick by. The author, gives great insight to both sides of the same war and the emotions involved, because he writes about why people on either side join, how other soldiers and their actions influence what type of soldier a person becomes, and how the outcome of a single
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.
In the novel Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers, the main character is Richie Perry. At seventeen he graduated high school in Harlem, and he wanted to go to college, but his mother couldn’t afford to send him to college since she was an alcoholic. So he joined the army to escape his unfortunate future, but joining the army meant he had to leave his little brother Kenny, who saw him as a father figure since their father left when they were younger. Perry was sent to Vietnam and through his journey, he made lifelong bonds with many different people such as PeeWee, Monaco, and etc. Also in his journey, he suffers from mental and physical wounds. In the end of the book he was completely changed, he has lost his innocence, his sense of normalcy and morality, their hope, and his faith, and the
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. In the story, the audience, is immersed in a typical Germans soldiers life when going to the front, waiting to go to the front, injured, and when on leave. The audience is shown the terrible experiences the soldiers experience and the emotions that they feel in many
Kemmerich, Paul’s classmate, is visited by his fellow soldiers at the hospital after he wounded his thigh. He states to Paul that “they have amputated my leg”, and as Paul tries to comfort him, Kemmerich explains how he “wanted to become a head-forester once” (Remarque 27-28). After being incited through nationalistic pressures by his teacher, Kemmerich enlists in the army only to lose a part of himself. Kemmerich’s lose and the cold pointlessness of his eventual death disillusions the idea that there is honor in war. Remarque also shows opposition to the war later on in the book when he illustrates a scene of soldiers starting to question the actions of the higher authorities and pondering the reasons for war. After the Kaiser’s visit to see the army, many of the soldiers are left in disappointment as the Kaiser was not as remarkable as they hoped. Tjaden asks his fellow soldiers, “What exactly is the war for?”, and Kat explains that “every full-grown emperor requires at least one war, otherwise he would not become famous” (205-206). Months of fighting in horrid conditions lead the soldiers to wonder what their sacrifices were worth. Instead of benefiting the people who shed blood in the battlefields, it only serves to bring prestige to the men who signed their death sentence and illustrate the meaninglessness of war to those who
In the deeply sorrowful novel All Quiet on the Western Front, young protagonist Paul Baumer serves as an example for how World War I effects soldiers not only physically but also psychologically. Author Erich Maria Remarque illustrates the horrific truth of the battle front through use of literary elements such as onomatopoeia and metaphors. Remarque strips all romanticized stereotypical ideas of war and serves readers a plate full of flat out tragic reality. The trauma filled scene in the novel in which Baumer defends his life and kills the enemy soldier, Gerard Duval, displays a perfect example of what every soldier has to go through. Most important in the disturbing moment is not what is going on outside of Baumer but the turmoil and conflict
From 1914 to 1918 World War One occurred due to the murder of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by a Serbian group named the Black Hand. Additionally, several powerful countries, including Germany, France, and Britain, established a series of alliances that amplifies the size of the war. Likewise, the war expanded by the strong nationalist beliefs of each country, therefore a countless amount of men desired to fight the war, in order to support their country. This sense of nationalism is a theme explored throughout Erich Maria Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front, through the lense of a young German Soldier. The protagonist, Paul, a 19 year old soldier, explores the horrors of war through strong comradeship, the death of companions,
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