How To Write An Essay On All Quiet On The Western Front
Christine Barna
Date 2/29/12
Per. 4
All Quiet on the Western Front Essay
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.
During World War I, there were about seventy millions of men and women in uniform, half of them were either killed, wounded or became prisoners of war. Paul Baumer and his comrades, Muller, Kemmerich, Behm, and Kropp are all part of that total at the end of the war. But Paul expresses that he and his friends were dead long before any bullets pierced their skin. In the last battle scene of the …show more content…
“What is leave? – A pause that only makes everything after it so much worse.” (Remarque 179) Unable to express his feeling towards the war or even talk about it or his experiences on the front at home among his family. Unable to think about the past without pain, or hope for the future without war.. He becomes a human animal, capable of relying on animal instinct to kill and survive in battle “If anyone jumps in here I will go for him. It hammers in my forehead; at once, stab him clean through the throat, so that he cannot call out; that’s the only way…”(Remarque 215”) the advanced technology in the WWI made killing easier and more impersonal than ever
Date 2/29/12
Per. 4
All Quiet on the Western Front Essay
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.
During World War I, there were about seventy millions of men and women in uniform, half of them were either killed, wounded or became prisoners of war. Paul Baumer and his comrades, Muller, Kemmerich, Behm, and Kropp are all part of that total at the end of the war. But Paul expresses that he and his friends were dead long before any bullets pierced their skin. In the last battle scene of the …show more content…
“What is leave? – A pause that only makes everything after it so much worse.” (Remarque 179) Unable to express his feeling towards the war or even talk about it or his experiences on the front at home among his family. Unable to think about the past without pain, or hope for the future without war.. He becomes a human animal, capable of relying on animal instinct to kill and survive in battle “If anyone jumps in here I will go for him. It hammers in my forehead; at once, stab him clean through the throat, so that he cannot call out; that’s the only way…”(Remarque 215”) the advanced technology in the WWI made killing easier and more impersonal than ever