Remarque's Opposition To War
All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, is considered an anti-war novel. Remarque states in the preface, “This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with. It will simply tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped the sells, were destroyed by the war” (preface). Erich makes it clear in the preface that war is not to be taken lightly, for it is something that will stay with a soldier for forever, and that death in any war is inevitable. However, more specifically in this novel nearly all men were as good as dead by means of the war. Erich Remarque showed his opposition to war in this novel by having
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The most important issue was the effects on the soldiers during and after World War I. The constant site of death and fighting makes the soldiers become numb to the world around them. They lose a grasp on the world that they were once a part of and become consumed by the war. “We have become wild beast. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation. It is not against men that we fling bombs, what do we know of men in this moment when Death is haunting us down...” (pg. 113). This quote demonstrates how the soldiers would often tell themselves that killing is just another side effect of being on the front lines. They are forced to push out any humanity in order to survive; they had two options, kill or be killed. After the years of war, if they survived, most of the men felt as if they were alone and haunted by their past. “We will be superfluous even to ourselves, we will grow older, a few will adapt themselves, some others will merely submit, and most will be bewildered;- the years will pass by and in the end we shall fall into ruin” (pg. 294). The quote states that no matter how much time will pass, the war will always be a part of them. Only few will learn how to truly live with the burden of war, while trying to get back into the way that life was beforehand. No matter what happens in the war, a soldier’s life is always
The most important issue was the effects on the soldiers during and after World War I. The constant site of death and fighting makes the soldiers become numb to the world around them. They lose a grasp on the world that they were once a part of and become consumed by the war. “We have become wild beast. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation. It is not against men that we fling bombs, what do we know of men in this moment when Death is haunting us down...” (pg. 113). This quote demonstrates how the soldiers would often tell themselves that killing is just another side effect of being on the front lines. They are forced to push out any humanity in order to survive; they had two options, kill or be killed. After the years of war, if they survived, most of the men felt as if they were alone and haunted by their past. “We will be superfluous even to ourselves, we will grow older, a few will adapt themselves, some others will merely submit, and most will be bewildered;- the years will pass by and in the end we shall fall into ruin” (pg. 294). The quote states that no matter how much time will pass, the war will always be a part of them. Only few will learn how to truly live with the burden of war, while trying to get back into the way that life was beforehand. No matter what happens in the war, a soldier’s life is always