In the book, All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque,in the epigraph he states,” Even though they may have escaped [the] shells, [they] were destroyed by the war”(Remarque Epigraph). The soldiers were destroyed in many ways, and one of them is that although they would return home they would still be thinking of the war and of the front, be it in thoughts of their friends, or nightmares. Also those that return home may not know what to door even if they can do anything. This is shown throughout World War One, in which this book was written. This is show in the book when “Müller… says:‘Albert, what would you do if it were suddenly peace-time again’” and Albert responded,”There won’t be any peace-time”(Remarque 76). Even Paul “can’t even imagine… [or] see anything at all”(Remarque 87). They also lost touch with anything from their previous life and it “has become so unreal… [that they] cannot comprehend it any more”(Remarque 19). It shows how the soldiers do not know what to do when they get home when Paul finds that he does “not belong [there]” and that “it is a foreign world”(Remarque 168). He also knows that the people around him have “worries, …show more content…
One such example is Pte Christopher Massie who had an amputated arm and could not think of a job for an amputee began to think, “Now I shall never work again. I suppose they will give me a sum of money and, after that is gone, I shall have to beg or starve”(A Very Bitter Victory). There are also the cases of shell shock. Shell shock is “the blanket term applied by contemporaries to those soldiers who broke down under the strain of war”(Trench Conditions). One case had a soldier have a dream “occur 'right in the middle of an ordinary conversation' when 'the face of a Boche that [they] have bayoneted, with its horrible gurgle and grimace, [came] sharply into view'”(Bourke). Also there are case of being “unable to
Then the ministers and generals of the two countries can have it out among themselves (Remarque, pg.41)”. This shows that Paul and the soldiers were not ready to be involved in a battle and at the moment scared to fight a war that doesn't involve them. Their understanding and look of the war changed for Paul and his friends. They could no longer be happy after seeing the horrors of war. “We see men living with their skulls blown open; we see soldiers run with their two feet cut off, they stagger on their splintered stumps into the next shell hole; a lance corporal crawls a mile and a half on his hands dragging his smashed knee after him; another goes to the dressing station and over his clasped hands bulge his intestines; we see men without mouths, without jaws, without faces we find one man who has held the artery of his arm in his teeth for two hours in order not to bleed to death (Remarque, pg.134)”.
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.
If we let him go he would run about everywhere regardless of cover”(109-110). The young soldier with no prior knowledge or training in battle is now being introduced to the mental drawbacks of warfare. The young combatant is reduced to relying on only his instincts, no matter how strong or weak they may be, instead of coping with war by not thinking much of it. The mental catalysis of war cause many to break down emotionally and mentally, and after they are left with an unstable mental state with no say at what they might do next. Ultimately, Paul himself begins hallucinating and imagining many commodities he has seen from the time he started the war till the present, “In whirling confusion my thoughts hum in my brain- I hear the warning voice of my mother, I see the Russians with the flowing beards leaning against the wire fence, I have a bright picture of a canteen with stools, of a cinema in Valenciennes; tormented, terrified, in my imagination I see the grey, implacable muzzle of a rifle which moves noiselessly before me whichever way I try to turn my head”(210).
During the book Paul talks about how the everyday things that you see during the war will affect you when you sleep. He talks about how at night men are waking up screaming, crying for loved ones or for buddies that they have loosed during battle. “ Some nights I am awoken by the awful screams of men” ( Remarque 92). When Paul and his unit are fighting in a graveyard they are hit with more artillery from the enemy a couple miles out. Paul talks about how the ground shook and how with every blow you would see the buried bodies of the people blown out of the coffins and litter the field.
Remarque also uses imagery to display the horrid environment of war. For example, in the Catholic Hospital that Kropp and Paul go to in the novel, people are trying to kill themselves because they can no longer take the pain of war, "In the evening, while he is being fed, the sister is called away, and leaves the plate with the fork on his table. He gropes for the fork, seizes it and rives it with all his force against his heart, then he snatches up a shoe and strikes with it against the handle as hard as he can" (261). Paul portrays the petrifying environment Paul had to see as followed, "Two fellows die of tetanus. Their skin turns pale, their limbs stiffen, at last only their eyes live- stubbornly.
World War One was an extremely gruesome and vile event to ever happen to the world, where millions of young men risked their lives to fight for their country. Many great poems, books, and literature had been composed to expose the vileness of the war, and hopefully to prevent future wars. Throughout the intense novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Remarque and some of the poems explored during class, exemplifies the themes about the horrors of war and the lost generation prevalently within these somber, yet incredible works to showcase the ghastly effects of war. Horrors of war is a crucial theme that is repeated through most of the literature analyzed throughout this tragic unit, and the effects of the horrific war takes an extreme
Paul notices the dramatic transformation that he has endured and struggles to see his home as a “foreign world;” his connection with family and friends at home is “crushed” entirely. His inability to connect with people at home shows the loss of connection with society as a whole. Prior to the war, Paul himself was a civilian and connected well with society. Now that Paul has been submerged in life on the battlefield, he has lost touch with his old self, leaving his identity a shell of his old self. After his visit to home, he finds himself more excited to return to the front due to the exhaustion he faced at home.
Throughout the novel Remarque symbolizes the soldier’s behavior is similar to “dangerous animals” – they ignore their human instinct to survive death, and “for the first time in three days we can defend ourselves against it”. Representing the social impact that war can have on individuals becoming aggressive, conveying to the reader the effects of being in the environment of a war zone can have and the influence it provides on how they see their enemies and themselves. Paul’s characterization towered the enemy changes significantly when his confronted face to face with the Russian Prisoner of War camp, “I sense in them is the pain of a dumb animal”, however changes his point of view towards the prisoners. “A word of command has made these…figures our, enemies a command might transform them into our friends”, this defines a sense of comradeship towards the enemy. The transformation of Paul’s character reflects to the reader the sympathy he has towerds them an ignores the propaganda of .
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
“Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” is the old lie of glory told to sacrifices of war. Erich Maria Remarque, author of the historical fiction All Quiet on the Western Front, tells the tale of Paul Baumer, a German soldier fighting on the western front in World War I. Baumer struggles to realize the purpose he is fighting for, and the justice behind it. Remarque demonstrates how the promised glory presented to soldiers is not worth the sufferings of war in All Quiet on the Western Front. Soldiers face countless horrors on and away from the battlefield. Corpse rats and rats that feasted on human flesh plagued the trenches and “attacked 2 large cats and a dog, bit them to death and devoured them” (Remarque 103).
Also, Remarque incorporates fond memories of Paul’s life before the war, when everything was calm and peaceful. Page 120 provides an example of one of these memories: “The pure fragrance of the water and the melody of the wind in the poplars held our fancies…It is strange that all the memories that come have these two qualities. They are always completely calm, that predominant in them; and even if they are not really calm, they become so. ”(120). The words from the first quote in contrast to the words from the second quote.
The horrors of war can be seen throughout most of the novel All Quiet on the Western Front. Although this novel takes place during World War I, horrors of war have been around since the beginning of war, and can still be seen here today. Almost all soldiers, regardless of which war they’re in, end up losing themselves. This is due to the experiences these soldiers have gone through and the horrors of war that they have seen or been a part of. War is a gruesome part of human history, and the different horrors often hidden within can tear the soldiers apart, both mentally and physically.
Moreover, commonly, soldiers are exhilarated to finally go home after long periods of time at the front, and the men dread when they have to return to battle. However, in Paul’s case, he desires to return to the front, rather than staying in his home town and seeing his mother in pain, he yearns to feel numb again. Therefore, Paul is in “agony” because before going on leave, he was hopeless and had no will to live, thus making him a better soldier. Although, after visiting his mother and sister, he has rediscovered a reason to survive, making it harder to go back. Moreover, the word, “comfortless,” illustrates how Paul feels isolated even at home, he feels little comfort where he grew up.
Erich Maria Remarque, a World War I veteran, took his own personal war experience to paper, which resulted in one of the most critically acclaimed anti-war movement novels of all time, All Quiet on the Western Front. The voice of the novel, Paul Baumer, describes his daily life as a soldier during the First World War. Through the characters he creates in the novel, Remarque addresses his own issues with the war. Specifically, Remarque brings to light the idea of the “Iron Youth,” the living conditions in the trenches, and the sense of detachment soldiers feel, among other things. Therefore, All Quiet on the Western Front criticizes the sense of nationalism, which war tends to create among citizens by quickly diminishing any belief regarding it as a glorious and courageous act.
The main character in Erich Maria Remarque's book All Quiet on the Western Front is Paul Baumer. He is a soldier in the German army and is used as an example of what war can do to people. Throughout the story Paul's mental state slowly deteriorates until he becomes a total psycho. By the end of the book Paul no longer wants to live because of what he has seen and done. Paul literally longs for the day that he will die.