The horrors of World War I had many effects on the expendable soldiers and left them feeling traumatized, alienated, desensitized, and physically damaged.…
He makes his argument by explaining that war is not the heroic, friendly battle it is commonly believed to be. Many soldiers lost their innocence and values during wartime. They found themselves killing twenty-two helpless prisoners, committing suicide, and just killing at random. A type of animalistic instinct kicked in when sent off to fight; the heroic aspect of war quickly vanished and was replaced with the fear of survival. He relays the account of an injured German trying to reach out for help after being wounded. The American soldiers automatically thought he was trying to get a grenade and shot him to death. The German was only reaching in his pocket to get a picture of his daughter. This is an example of a changed soldier who, after serving for so long, thinks of only one thing--killing. Evidence supporting March’s thought on WWI’s violent battles opens the eyes of uninformed readers to what wartime was truly like. Thus, Co. K gives its audience a different perspective on wartime…
Erich Maria Remarque’s book All Quiet on the Western Front explains the brutal and filthy life inside the trenches during the first world war. The story revolves around high school friends who through nationalism and propaganda are convinced to join the war effort. However they did not get the heroic lifestyle they were expecting. Instead they got years filled with death, despair, and fear as they continued to fight and attempt to stay alive. Readers will follow the story and learn the true horrors on the battlefield and how even in a state of hopelessness people will still be human.…
Throughout Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, vivid images of gruesome animal instincts and the innocent animals’ lives ending are illustrated for the reader repeatedly. Remarque indicates that for a soldier’s survival in battle they must cease sanity and rely solely on primitive instinct. This notion of animal instincts leads soldiers to be less like a human being with rational thoughts. The protagonist, Paul Bäumer, believes he is a “human animal,” and similarly, soldiers who survive multiple attacks think the same. Battle has wounded many, and throughout the novel the reader is given a chance…
In the story All Quiet On The Western Front, the author Erich Maria Remarque uses the motif of blood and death to display a theme of withering innocence, and how soldiers had to witness horrible events through humanity’s downfall. Erich uses animals to show crude human nature, the story describes to us how “the belly of one horse is ripped open, the guts trail out. He becomes tangled in them and falls, then he stands up again” (63 Remarque). This passage of gruesome death shows decaying innocence by humans forcing innocent creatures of the land, to fight for their own selfish needs and ways. Throughout the story, Paul is thrown again and again into life or death situations, “I grab for my gas-mask.…
Contrary to other literary history works, “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Remarque Erich Maria is so unique because of the way it displays such a realistic view of war and the associated loss of humanity, innocence, and emotion that accompany it. Throughout this novel, Remarque proves his point that war is unnecessary, and dishonorable. The novel really emphasizes on the accumulating body count everyday, showing every aspect of how war is absolutely gruesome and such a waste of pure lives. Also, “All Quiet on the Western Front” shows how the position of being in war can change a person dramatically preventing them from returning to their previous lives, and scarring them permanently.…
Remarque tells of the dehumanizing effects that are perceived in ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’. When the young soldiers arrive at the frontline its nothing to what was anticipated as they had “just begun to love the world and being in it, but we had to shoot at it.” Remarque’s characterisation of Paul is naive and inexperienced as he only just begins to grasp the understanding, through torment and fatality, that they didn’t “believe in those things anymore; we believe in war” their new objective was to survive. Trained to disregard their conscience and distancing themselves from their own emotions, taught to let go of their former lifestyle. “Keep things at arm’s length” was their innovative technique in being able to endure the horrors of war. The audience is alarmed by the lack of emotion deemed by the young soldiers through Paul’s metaphoric language that “we have become wild beasts” enlightening context to the overall traumatic experiences that were inflicted. Remarque continues to portray the emotional state in a distant tone that “we are dead” convincing the audience they are completely detached…
The novel, All Quiet on the Western Front is the harshest story about war ever written. This novel was written by Erich Maria Remarque, based on his real life experience about World War 1. It tells a story about a group of companions at war and how they live their life everyday there. After analyzing the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, readers realized that almost all the characters were either very noble or not noble at all. The one character that stood out of all the character for being a noble man was the narrator, Paul. He is the most noble for being loyal to all his companions, for being sensitive to others and for being selfless in difficult times.…
Paul is constantly referring to himself as old in the book. The aspects of war have changed Paul and the way he thinks. There are a couple of reasons why Paul keeps referring to himself as old. First of all, Paul knows that he could die any day because he is constantly in the trenches facing enemy fire. Another reason why Paul considers himself old is because soldiers even younger than himself surround him. Paul says, "they are about two years younger than us". (Remarque, 35) Between the combination of knowing you could die any day and being around younger soldiers than him make him feel a lot older than he really is. He feels like a veteran compared to all the young soldiers he is working with.…
All Quiet on the Western Front and The Sufferings of Young Werther are books that have impacted literature in ways no one ever dreamed. All Quiet on the Western Front was one of the first popular books that were written from the perspective of a solider that was on the German side. This allowed for a whole new side of the war to be seen. It also showed how the soldiers struggled to cope with the world around them and how they reacted to it (Remarque). The Sorrows of Young Werther brought light to the storm and stress and later the romanticism movements. This showed the strain that the young people had with the old world. Both these books presented something new…
As soldiers, Paul and his friends are treated with little care. Their superiors act as if they are animals, replaceable and expendable because there are so many of them, and they hold so little power by themselves. Although only teenagers, these soldiers have had to grow up quickly in order to fight for their apparently insignificant lives. It is said that “[they] are the Iron Youth” (21). By describing the soldiers as “Iron,” Paul expresses how much the war has changed them. Iron, which can be interpreted both literally and figuratively, is a strong metal that covers a lot of the Earth as well as residing in its core. Therefore, with the soldiers described as “iron”, they are referred to as replaceable, expendable, and abundant in numbers. Also, “iron” can be used to describe someone who is determined, tough, and strong, showing how much these 19 year old soldiers have had to grow up in order to stay alive in the war. They lost their childhood, aging into old men because of the devastation and experiences they’ve encountered. And slowly, as their childhood goes, their humanity and liveliness leaves as well.…
In Paul’s own life, he finds that “The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom. But the first death we saw shattered this belief” (Remarque 12) Paul and his friends enter the war because of the impassioned glorifications of battle by their teacher Kantorek. However, the actuality of war negates all preconceptions, but leaves them trapped in a cycle of self-destructiveness. Furthermore, the soldiers discover that, “While they taught that duty to one's country is the greatest thing, we already knew that death-throes are stronger” (13). In the act of seeking a romanticized notion of joy from serving his country, Paul loses his youth, his friends, his hope, and his life. He claims to “know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow” (263). This cost can only be justified in extreme…
War is often viewed as one of the most dangerous and brutal events ever created. It utterly destroys the humanity and mental state of soldiers fighting in the war. In All Quiet on the Western Front, a world renowned war novel by Erich Maria Remarque, the epigraph states that this novel “will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.” Staying true to this quote, Remarque tells of the horrors of World War I and fittingly describes the effects that war has on humans through the eyes of the protagonist, Paul Bäumer. In his epigraph Remarque says, “this book is to be neither an accusation, nor a confession, and least of all an adventure.” Except for a few notable exceptions,…
The courage of a soldier is heightened by his knowledge of his profession, and he only wants an opportunity to execute what he is convinced he has been perfectly taught. A handful of men, inured to war, proceed to certain victory, while on the contrary numerous armies of raw and undisciplined troops are but multitudes of men dragged to slaughter. (Renatus, 2001)…
In his speech made to the House of Commons in 1940, Winston Churchill once said “Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.” Many historians as well as leaders argue that although the road to victory is strenuous and arduous, it often proves worthy in the end for victory has a direct correlation to survival. This proves true in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque. Paul, the protagonist goes to fight for Germany at an early age of 19. There he sees the realities of war, completely opposite to the vision he held that persuaded him to enlist, and loses most of his comrades including his own life towards the end…