The horrors of World War I had many effects on the expendable soldiers and left them feeling traumatized, alienated, desensitized, and physically damaged.…
The movie starts with a high schooler Paul Baumer with many of his other friends including Albert Krupp and Franz Kemmerich sitting in class with their teacher Kantorek talking with them about the superiority and glory of the “Fatherland” and indoctrinated them to enlist in the German army. The friends eventually enter training camp under their Corporal Himmelstoss; who tried to torture Paul every chance he got. After surviving training camp, the soldiers got to board a troop train the same time another group of young boys were entering training camp. Faithfully, at the trains station they notice another train arriving loaded with returning injured soldiers. Once they reached the front lines, they meet their mentor Kat; who takes them on their first patrol and tried to teach them may skills in order to be able to survive at the front lines.…
‘All Quiet on the Western Front”, written by Erich Remarque was a book written in the perspective of a German soldier in World War I. The significance of this section is that it sheds light on all of the aspects on war, and the fact that war was not what everyone made it seem like. Being from the viewpoint of a soldier, it gives first hand explanation as to what led him to become a solider. It is important to understand that no one really knows what happens in war until you are actually in it.…
“The front is a cage in which we must await fearfully whatever may happen” said Paul in All Quiet On the Western Front. In this book friends from college are recruited to the army to fight for their country in the Great War. The boys were full of pride until they got to the front and were conquered by fear. The front wasn’t what they expected; everything that was done was for nothing but survival. Like any war the war came to an end but not all the college classmates/friends survived, and many of them didn’t get the chance to visit their families. This was a good book due to its tone, theme, point of view, and plot.…
WWI a war that killed seventeen million men, wounded twenty million more and physically and mentally destroyed the lives of countless men that suffered the rest of their lives from traumatic events that stated place in WWI. Erich Remarque brilliantly brings the tragedy into focus for the new generations in his historical novel All Quiet on the Western Front a book about physical and mental battles fought along the trenches of WWI. The story revolves around the early nineteen hundreds a group of young German men who will all join the war after being urged by one of their high school teachers to pursue in being patriotic to their country. The story starts out with nineteen year old Paul Baumer and his young comrades he went to highschool with, they enjoy the leftover rations from fallen soldiers who have died on the front. One of the first to die from their high school classmates and many more to come is Joseph Behm because the death of this…
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 a time period filled with war and conflict, the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is a difficult read due to the heavy topic it pertains to. The story begins with Paul Bӓumer and his friends from school joining the army. They joined because they thought war would be honorable thanks to Kantorek, their teacher. After their ten weeks of training and their first two weeks of being on the front lines, only eighty of the one hundred fifty men return. Paul’s friend, Franz Kemmerich, has his leg amputated and he eventually dies because of it. At this point, Paul learns to disconnect his feelings from himself. Reinforcements come for their company and they are sent on a mission to place barbed wire on the front lines.…
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.…
In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, the author uses strong imagery and detailed descriptions to convey the horrors of the Great War and their detrimental effects on soldiers from all fronts. Images such as desperation, starvation, trauma, guilt, and camaraderie create a lasting impression on the reader as they are planted in the shoes of German soldiers, fighting and depending upon each other for survival. These themes were the unfortunate reality of life in the trenches, where rival sides are united in the battle of maintaining sanity and preserving life in any way possible. Specific images that have lingered in my mind after reading the novel are the types of brutal weaponry used in warfare. Trench mortars blew the clothes right…
Erich Maria Remarque’s original 1928 novel, turned movie, All Quiet on The Western Front, is very useful in helping to understand the many social and cultural difficulties soldiers faced in WW1 during the period of 1914-1918. One could argue that the given film is reliable, but being a secondary source this is arguable. AQOTWF exhibits the saviour physical, and mental stress German soldiers of World War 1 encountered, and the raw emotional detachment from civilian life displayed by many on returning home from the front. The film has a strong connection and relation to many poems, letters and images received and taken right from the Western Front itself and is very useful in helping viewers to grasp unique insight of physically commencing in battle, living conditions, and rare friendships formed in such harsh, dreadful conditions.…
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.…
After selling over 50 million copies and enjoying translation into 55 languages, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front has been a very successful novel. Upon the book's publication in 1929 the book was an instant success in the war boom era, and is considered by many to be the greatest war novel of all time. The main character, Paul, accompanied by fellow comrades, demonstrates the difficulties faced on the front line of World War I and the hardships of returning home to a broken country. The immense struggles displayed throughout the novel convey a protest theme, which is exemplified through the use of satire. This satire is used to illustrate the senselessness of war and the distress it can bring to a country.…
All Quiet on the Western Front is a historical novel, written by Erich Maria Remarque. It is set during the World War I between France and Germany. The book explores the lives and deaths of men who fought the war and how it tore them apart. The story is told through the eye of Paul Baumer, who enlists with his class mated in the German army. They become soldiers with youthful enthusiasm, not expecting the hardships and despair they are about to experience. Because of the narrow explanation of the war, most people thought that war was, “romantic”, “heroic” “. Even though many would disagree with Remarque’s feelings towards the war, his novel is a great argument as to why the war was dehumanizing and it how it caused extreme physical and mental stress.…
War is a very controversial topic for many people. Depending on the person’s outlook on the war, it can be depicted as something good or bad. War brings destruction wherever it goes, whether it is on a place or the people, and it ultimately is inevitable. War also protects a country from having further destruction and keeps the people at home safe from any danger. As a person can see in many recordings of war, there are many comparisons and contrasts that are expressed through soldiers, veterans, and civilians. Some comparisons seen in many of the testimonies given by effected people are dehumanization, dislocation, and alienation; but they also have contrasts that can be seen through nationalism, technological advancements, and the coming home for many…
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,…