All Quiet On The Western Front: An Analysis

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
They forget who they are, and usually block the pain and death that comes with the experience of war. As seen in All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Baumer explains, “We want to live at any price; so we cannot burden ourselves with feelings which, though they may be ornamental enough in peacetime, would be out of place here” (139). Paul and many of the other soldiers have had to make themselves prone to the horrors of war, which results in many them having to dehumanize themselves. Paul also describes a form of dehumanization by saying, “We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers--we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals” (56). If Paul and his fellow soldiers on the front were to let the effects of war get to them, they would have not have lasted as long as they did. The soldiers had to force themselves to become different people to save themselves and others who surrounded them. In Brian Turner’s memoir, My Life as a Foreign Country, he also expresses the way that the war dehumanized him as well. Turner says, “We are surrounded by the dead, and by parts of the dead” (1). This