Throughout history, war has been constantly evolving. Over time, it has taken a new less glorious form. World War One was one of the most devastating and transformative events in human history. In Erich Maria Remarque’s book, All Quiet on the Western Front, he depicts the horrors of “the great war” by showing the complete disregard for human life in modern warfare. This war modeled the way that any future war would be fought. It would shape human history by completely changing the game of warfare and people’s opinions of it. Remarque shows, from his point of view, the terrors that happen on a daily basis on the front lines, and away from it, of World War One. World War One changed the perception of war in a big way and opened the eyes of so many people to the horrors of modern warfare.…
“All Quiet in the Western Front” is a social commentary on how soldiers are effected emotionally and socially throughout the war and are conflicted on how to readjust to their lives after the Great War. Soldiers are conflicted by their character and do not know whether to pick back life up as a youth or as adults who have endured hard circumstances. The book does not focus on battles and it does not focus on a specific time frame, it rather evaluates what goes through the minds of a soldier. These men are literally being bombarded in the war front by explosives and in the home front by misinformed public who want to know the extremity of the war. Bystanders set High expectations for soldiers to be tough and to know how to behave in order to survive, yet those who did not participate in the Great War could only speculate what was going on in the soldier’s minds. The Great War damaged these soldiers physically and mentally, however certain elements gave the survivors the ability to pull through the war. The youth shifted its mentality and lost its innocence in the Great War. Therefore, Remarque did not focus his book on the combat that took place during the Great War, rather he presents social issues, which does not belittle his experience rather it presents a different view of the…
War stories before Erich Maria Remarque's times still leaned toward themes of glory, adventure, and honor. In presenting his realistic version of a soldier's experience, Remarque stripped that from war novels in his antiwar novel, All Quiet on the Western Front. Remarque accurately depicts both the physical and mental hardships of war. This novel should be read by all soldiers thinking of enlisting in the army for several reasons.…
War, what is it good for. What seems to be just a catchy song from the late 60’s, actually has an accurate depiction of the gruesome wars this world has gone through. In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, WWI soldiers learn the cold hard facts about how nothing good comes out of wars. Not everyone is born a fighter, some are peer pressured into volunteering not knowing the treacherous path ahead of them. Throughout the book Remarque uses symbolism to express the gruesome effects on soldiers.…
On brisk September mornings, civilian residences often answer the door to a military officer whom bears bad news about their sons. During the reconstruction, the sex ratio is off balance and many women do not have a full grasp on why they are lonely. In “War is Kind” by the famous poet Stephen Crane; he adopts sarcastic diction and syntax to display war as a destructive force.…
War is an event that brings about destruction, no matter which side a person is on. Also, war causes change, whether its physically or mentally. Through the use of several literary devices and a realistic writing style, Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Wiesel's Night demonstrate that the horrible situations caused by war lead to the loss of humanity.…
War is a hellish battleground where many lives are taken. In war there is constantly images and events that happen which can change a soldier’s life forever. In the book All Quiet on the Western Front Remarque uses the symbols of boots, butterflies and horses to advance the main theme in the novel, that war takes young men’s innocence away.…
It is always easier to say how you would respond to war while looking upon it as an outsider who has seen little outside of movies and pictures. We tell ourselves "I could never imagine doing that", or "How could any human be so corrupt?" That is what we say, but I wonder what those same men said just prior to their war time experience. Surely they would not follow the same path that so many before them had, choosing to allow war to consume them from the very destructive nature of its existence. In the novel "All Quiet On The Western Front" by Erich Remarque, the author conveys the message of how war can corrupt how people view, respect, and handle authority. Through his writing, he has helped to enlighten the world as to how exactly war can change our views on authority that we once stood firm on. No matter who you are, war can find a way to work into your character, at least in some slight way.…
perspective on war, as presented in the characters’ experiences with its brutal and crude nature,…
"Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing anymore. I am so alone and so without hope that I can confront them without fear" War is a political hotbed. Regardless of the warring nations’ reasons or the outcome, in the wake of the battle, the soldier, or country’s hero, actually becomes the victim. Youth is sacrificed, lives are lost, and the survivors are forever altered.…
John F. Kennedy once said, “Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.” War has taken lives, stolen innocence and caused suffering. These themes have had a large impact on literature especially in the book, All Quiet on the Western Front and the poem, “Apologia Pro Poemate Meo”. The two are described from the point of view of soldiers within the war which is especially appropriate considering the authors Erich Remarque and Wilfred Erich were soldiers in World War I. Both works emphasize the horrors of war and the toll it takes on individuals involved. The different approaches taken strongly reflect the themes of camaraderie, the glorification of war and the killing of those who may be similar.…
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.…
In the autumn of 1918, Paul Bäumer, a 20-year-old German soldier, contemplates his future: "Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing anymore. I am so alone and so without hope that I can confront them without fear" (Chapter 12). These final, melancholy thoughts occur just before his young and untimely death. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque creates Paul Bäumer to represent a whole generation of men who are known to history as the "lost generation." Eight million men died in battle, twenty-one million were injured, and over six and a half million noncombatants were killed in what is called "The Great War." When the smoke cleared and the bodies were finally buried, the world asked — like Paul and his friends — why? Remarque writes his story to explain their reason for asking this question and why they felt betrayed by their teachers, families, and government. He creates a tale of inhumanity and unspeakable horror and the only redeeming themes of his book are the recurring ideas of comradeship in the face of death and nature's beauty in the face of bleak hopelessness.…
Throughout the story, All Quiet on the Western Front can be classified in many themes that befits the novel written by Erich Maria Remarque. The journey includes how people changed their definition of war, correlating to what they experienced, a taste of how it felt, feeling as if it changed them mentally and physically. Before and after the war, the experiences gained affected them, throughout the whole novel as the theme of identity appears, defining the concept of war. As if words are not enough to express how war changed who the soldiers were, and their way of life, who they identified with during war changed previous teachings through experience. Not only how the soldiers would identify themselves as, but the identification of who was the enemy makes them question the reason of war. The novel caused the main character to question who he has become as well as the reasons why wars must be fought throughout the experience he faces.…
The virtuous are bathe in blood. In Stephen Crane’s “War Is Kind,” the speaker tells the harsh reality of what war causes. Crane uses multiple literary devices such as irony, symbols, and tone to convey that war itself has no glory.…