Erich Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

Through Erich Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front the reader learns that war is not all combat and wounded men. It is brainwashing soldiers, forcing them to forget their homes and families. The war suffocates innocent people simply trying to serve their country, and turns them into living corpses. In the beginning of the book all the new soldiers are very excited. They are fresh into the war and ready to fight for their country. They bond over talk of their life at home and some of their hobbies that they miss already. They join together against their superiors and constantly disrespect them. It is all fun and games. Soon they find out war is not all they thought it would be. They assumed that if they could get through the training,
He gets a glimpse into how the war has changed these people and how it will eventually change him. Luckily, these men still held on to their hobbies. One played an instrument and others kept themselves busy with games from when they were children. Paul felt bad for the imprisoned and even snuck in food for them. This shows that he is already giving into the strength of war. At one point in the book the main character Paul was forced to lay in a trench with a dead Russian soldier. This was one of the most obvious turning points for him and his mind. He had to kill this man with hand-to-hand combat and then lay there looking at him for days. The guilt ate him alive, especially when he found out he had a whole family at home. From that point on he lost hope. Even his friend’s did just from hearing about it. One would rather be killed than losing a leg. Everything hits them harder after that. In chapter eleven one soldier gets reminded of home from a leaf that flew past them. Before that leaf he was not even thinking about his life before. This is because they have lost all hope completely. They have decided not even to waste time dreaming of returning home. They are mindlessly going on with their lives and not caring where it