ipl-logo

Analysis Of Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

2179 Words9 Pages

When soldiers enlist in the war, they know they might have to kill people. Even though the soldiers are supposed to kill them, Paul realized he would have to live with it for the rest of his life. This also made his perception change on how he saw the Russians. On his leave, he went up to the fence where the Russians were and thought about how, “their life is obscure and guiltless; -if I could know more of them, what their names are, how they live, what they are waiting for, what their burdens are, then my emotions would have an object and might become sympathy” (Remarque 193). By knowing more of their lives, he would see them as more human.
Throughout the story, Remarque shows how the men involved in war have different perceptions of war …show more content…

She wanted to know what war was like but Paul thought, “Was it bad, you ask -You, Mother, - I shake my head and say; “No, Mother, not so very. There are always a lot of us together so it is not so bad” (Remarque 161). He didn’t tell her because if she really knew what was going on it would have broken her. She was already sick and he did not want to hurt her more by telling her about the war. This adds on to the idea of people having different perceptions of what is going on in the war. The men involved do not have the heart to tell the people not in the war what it is really about while the people not in the war get mad that the soldiers do not tell them about the war. The men in the war do not tell them because if they did, the people not in the war may be hurt by how bad it is. Because of this, they skirt around saying what war is like. This also happens again when Paul goes to Kemmerich’s house to tell his mom how he died. His mom wants to hear the truth about how he was killed but Paul makes up how he because he thought, “When a man has seen so many dead he cannot understand any longer why there should be so much anguish over a single individual. So I say rather impatiently: “He died immediately. He felt absolutely nothing at all. His face was quite calm’” (Remarque 181). He does it because he thinks that it does not really matter how he died, he is dead anyways. Also, if he did tell them, it would have been hard for her to hear the true

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of All Quiet On The Western Front

    843 Words  | 4 Pages

    I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another” (263). As the war comes to a gruesome end, Paul realizes how the war aged him. And how he went into the war a young man with a hopeful life ahead of him and ended the war as an exposed, aged

    Read More

  • Summary Of All Quiet On The Western Front

    857 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front Character Analysis Essay

    743 Words  | 3 Pages

    In addition, the entire situation that Paul goes through when his father “drags [him] along to a table with a lot of others. ”(p. 166) He sees that they don’t understand what war is like at all, as when “a head-master shakes hands with [him] and says: ‘So you come from the front? What is the spirit like out there? Excellent, eh?

    Read More

  • What Are The Major Changes In All Quiet On The Western Front

    1068 Words  | 5 Pages

    The familial relationship between father and son shows how innocent he was before he went to war. When Paul was just a kid he “knew nothing about the war, we had been

    Read More

  • The Effect Of Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

    1933 Words  | 8 Pages

    The way Remarque recalls the experiences of Bäumer is done in such a way that the reader is instantly hooked and to some extent linked emotionally with Bäumer, especially when Bäumer talks about how he is affected individually, and when he recounts his personal experiences before, after, and during the war. At one point in the novel, it appears that Remarque was trying to show us that despite the horrors and brutalities of the war, these young soldiers were unable to completely forget

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front: A Character Analysis

    1245 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout the story Paul shows that he cares about his comrades by protecting them from the dangers of war, and he also displays that he will guide them in war. Paul uses his skills of intelligence to guide his team in the trenches and at the front, and he passes on his knowledge and tricks of war to the new recruits. Not many soldiers have all of these qualities, which makes Paul stand out more than his comrades. Even today some men don't express the passion and leadership Paul shows in All Quiet on the Western Front, which brings up the fact that the war needs more men like Paul. To sum up, Paul is an honest and true man who will always be there for his comrades when needed, and he is a man the troops are proud to say is a patriotic

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front Theme Analysis

    671 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the novel on way the theme is portrayed is when you would go home from war on leave it was hard for some soldiers to deal with. Being on leave the soldier would eventually have to go back, but they would go home and some could have a hard because some of them could have been through a lot. When soldiers would be on leave they would usually arrive home with their family hugging them and showing them love. In the story Paul is going home on leave to arrive at his mother’s house. When soldier usually go on leave they go to visit the people that are most important to them.

    Read More

  • Lost Generation In All Quiet On The Western Front

    1080 Words  | 5 Pages

    I was a soldier, and now I am nothing but an agony for myself, for my mother, for everything that is so comfortless and without end. I ought never to have come on leave" (Remarque 185). Here, Paul puts aside his emotions, a symbol of his humanity, in favor of animal-like instincts to survive during the war. During his leave, Paul struggles to connect with his family and friends due to his war experiences. He can not agree with the principal's vision of the war because Paul sees through the lies of nationalism and actually experiences the horrors of war.

    Read More

  • Differences Between All Quiet On The Western Front Book And Movie

    933 Words  | 4 Pages

    In addition, Paul was injured in the book and goes home and stays with her family while he recovers. He is no longer able to relate to his family, since it is very difficult to think and have emotions and at the same time with much death all around him in the war. There is much talk of how he and his friends do not think about deep things, but just think about eating and silly things. His father and people over all his people want me to tell them stories of war and hate Paul because their experiences are horrible. Paul has just returned to the fight and basically everyone in the book is wounded and dies.

    Read More

  • Paul's Evolution In All Quiet On The Western Front

    1425 Words  | 6 Pages

    Paul is happy to be home but is frustrated by all of the questions. He is on leave and would prefer to not talk about the pain and suffering of the war. Paul is struggling with feeling at home as he has spent so much time away, and has already had close friends die and seen horrific things, why would he want to relive that? Especially because it is his mother, he doesn't want to explain the awful parts of the war. He then decides to lie to her.

    Read More

  • Dehumanization In All Quiet On The Western Front

    1439 Words  | 6 Pages

    In All Quiet on the Western Front, many young soldiers around seventeen years old are being sent to fight in the war without sufficient training. These young recruits are not being sent into this war because they are powerful and prestigious soldiers, but are rather sent in because the German soldiers are losing hundreds of thousands of men and are desperate for replacements. These are teenagers who have a whole life ahead of them, but in All Quiet their lives are being wasted and destroyed in the cruel war, showing that these soldiers are dehumanized because their lives and futures are not valued. In the book, Remarque is able to show the harsh consequences the war does to adolescents that destroy and dehumanize them. One soldier that Paul encounters in All Quiet on the Western Front to a young recruit, described as “such a kid,” (73), by Kat, suffered from a serious injury: “a hip covered with blood,” (71) only recently after arriving at the Front.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front Lost Generation Quotes

    565 Words  | 3 Pages

    Such events in the front has shaped his perspective in human beings, he has lost that compassion he used to held. Paul parents also realize that his life will never be the same. Also another piece that supports this evidence is Paul openness towards his feelings when seeing dying patients at the hospital:”...and all men of my age, here and over there, throughout the whole world see these things, all my generation is experiencing these things with me. ”There for showing that all the cruelty Paul has suffered of the war is tag along the same experience towards his

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

    1848 Words  | 8 Pages

    In Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, the author explores the horrors of the war. Remarque writes about famine amongst the ranks of soldiers, the casualties of war, the constant terror of attacks, and the horrendous diseases that plague many soldiers in his World War I-era novel. Remarque’s novel is centered around a group of German schoolboys, who enroll in the army due to the patriotic and consistent recommendations of their teacher. The novel primarily focuses on one of the schoolboys, Paul Bäumer, and the terrible tragedies Bäumer suffers throughout the war. Before Remarque’s novel, many war novels focused on the patriotism and welfare of war, omitting the dark reality that was

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

    804 Words  | 4 Pages

    Paul’s reunion with his mother permits him to recognize the impacts war has had on his mind and life. In the seventh chapter, Paul receives 17 days of leave. During this time, he visits his mother as she suffers in ominous distress. After Paul witnesses his mother deteriorating, he aspires to “weep and be comforted too, indeed I am little more than a child” (Remarque 183). Paul feels little, if any, content with his life as a consequence of experiencing a plentiful

    Read More

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

    1361 Words  | 6 Pages

    In All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque exposes the reality of war by refuting the idea of the “Iron Youth,” revealing the mistreatment of soldiers, and showing the critical effects war imprints on them. When any war begins, young men are always the first ones to be sent into the war zones. To clarify, older generations believe young adults are the best options for fighting; these boys are strong, full of energy, and do not have anything to lose. “The chief source of this pro-war ideology were the older men of the nation: professors, publicists, politicians, and even pastors” (Literature and Its Times).

    Read More

More about Analysis Of Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

Open Document