How The First World War Affects The German Soldiers In All Quiet On The Western Front

The First World War impacted the lives of many people, especially the young soldiers who enlists in the war without knowing how much they must sacrifice. Enlisting in the war not only meant that they might lose their lives, but also that they might lose their youth, themselves and might never be able to have a normal life again. All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque in 1928, is an anti-war novel that depicts the horror of World War I and how it impacts the German soldiers. The novel tells the story of a young, nineteen-year-old, German soldier, named Paul, who enlists in the army during World War I. After being exposed to a patriotic brainwashing by their school teacher, Kantorek, he and his colleagues voluntarily enter

Going to war is one of those decisions that can change one’s life forever. It is a dreadful decision and has some long-lasting negative effects on a soldier’s life. The soldiers in the novel are only nineteen-to-twenty years young, and they leave everything behind to fight for their country, not knowing that they will never be able to live a normal life again. They are broken and can never relate to anyone their age, except for soldiers like them who go through the same hardship as them. Just as stated in a critical overview of All Quiet on the Western Front, the soldiers “have been cut off from their roots by the traumatic experiences of war, and have been stripped of their youth… the war has cut them off from the values of a cultured civilization, reducing them to animals with nothing to exist for but the present moment, and no philosophy save that of pure chance, which determines from one moment to the next whether or not they survive” (Last, para. 1-2). They are fresh out of high school and never had the chance to experience life and get to know themselves and what they would like to do with their lives. They were not home to see what else is happening in the world while the war is happening. They live every day on the front based on chance, even though they know that things might not turn out well. After all, "the front is a cage in which [they] must await fearfully whatever may happen… [they] live in a suspense of uncertainty. Over [them] Chance hovers" (Remarque 119). They understand how it is out there and are ready for whatever may happen. They cannot decide the outcome of the war; it is a whatever happens, happens type of