All Quiet on the Western Front -symbol analysis
A Glimpse of Destruction through Symbols in All Quiet on the Western Front
War. Very few words invoke such strong and conflicting reactions. War demands honor and death. War offers hope and despair. War creates the ultimate challenge and the pinnacle of defeat. Throughout history, man struggles to understand war and its impact on the people engaged in its horrors. Paul Baumer, the protagonist in Erich Maria Remarque’s historical fiction novel All Quiet on the Western Front, enlists in the war with his comrades. Throughout the novel images reveal the ultimate emotional and physical destruction faced by Paul and his fellow soldiers, whom World War I corrupts. In his novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Enrich Maria Remarque employs imagery of animals, nature, and water to convey the theme of destructiveness of war. Remarque first utilizes water imagery to convey the theme of annihilation battle inflicts on the soliders. Water sustains life; a powerful force that cannot cease. Even though Paul focuses on the battle he occasionally lets his mind wander thinking; “... [the] front is a mysterious whirlpool. Though I am in still water far away from its centre, I feel the whirl of the vortex sucking me slowly, irresistibly into itself” (Remarque 55). The front corrupts Paul's mind to a point when not located near the actual fighting he cannot
Hall 2 help but think about it. Describing the front as a destructive force like a whirlpool, not letting soldiers leave once near it, illustrates the damage of combat. The men cannot dodge war's ultimate fate because one the vortex consumes a soldier they remain held in its grasp. They struggle against the pull and push of war. Their thoughts are caught and trapped. Soldiers lose clarity of purpose and goals, becoming unsure of what is truth and what is falsehood. Paul illustrates this theme of destructiveness of war by expressing; “[f]arther on the mist ends. Here the heads become figures; coats, trousers, and
War. Very few words invoke such strong and conflicting reactions. War demands honor and death. War offers hope and despair. War creates the ultimate challenge and the pinnacle of defeat. Throughout history, man struggles to understand war and its impact on the people engaged in its horrors. Paul Baumer, the protagonist in Erich Maria Remarque’s historical fiction novel All Quiet on the Western Front, enlists in the war with his comrades. Throughout the novel images reveal the ultimate emotional and physical destruction faced by Paul and his fellow soldiers, whom World War I corrupts. In his novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Enrich Maria Remarque employs imagery of animals, nature, and water to convey the theme of destructiveness of war. Remarque first utilizes water imagery to convey the theme of annihilation battle inflicts on the soliders. Water sustains life; a powerful force that cannot cease. Even though Paul focuses on the battle he occasionally lets his mind wander thinking; “... [the] front is a mysterious whirlpool. Though I am in still water far away from its centre, I feel the whirl of the vortex sucking me slowly, irresistibly into itself” (Remarque 55). The front corrupts Paul's mind to a point when not located near the actual fighting he cannot
Hall 2 help but think about it. Describing the front as a destructive force like a whirlpool, not letting soldiers leave once near it, illustrates the damage of combat. The men cannot dodge war's ultimate fate because one the vortex consumes a soldier they remain held in its grasp. They struggle against the pull and push of war. Their thoughts are caught and trapped. Soldiers lose clarity of purpose and goals, becoming unsure of what is truth and what is falsehood. Paul illustrates this theme of destructiveness of war by expressing; “[f]arther on the mist ends. Here the heads become figures; coats, trousers, and