All Quiet On The Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front

Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front is a story of war unlike most others. Instead of action and heroism that is the basis for a lot of war based novels; Remarque shows us the soldier, and what physical and psychological effects war can have on people. The horrors of war, death of friends, and the short-mindedness of people all contradict the positive ideals that were originally generated by supporting the homeland and patriotism.

The novels setting, World War I was a different approach in the history of warfare. The essential "rules" of war had evolved slowly over time and became more of the invisible enemy type of war. At this stage, trench warfare became evident, shelling each other until one side or the other would make a move. Technological advances also became evident as well, mustard gas and the machine gun had added to the present and future of warfare, being close to your enemy was not as common as it once was.

The main character, Paul Baumer a man of 19, is a German soldier on the French front who enlisted after being exposed to patriotic propaganda to fight for the motherland. After going through pre-war training and being on the front so quickly, the pride he once felt for the war had quickly changed to constant fear for his life and mental anxiety. Fighting in battles and returning with less than half or more of their company dead, starts to trigger such psychological tolls in Paul and other soldiers that war becomes life. The shocks of seeing such brutal terrors and seeing friends killed starts to disband their minds. The small things in life that are taken for granted become huge events when away from the front, such as meals, some small type of distraction from their minds on the front was good, even though if it was only for a little while. Those times could even be a struggle with the constant drive from commanding officers. Paul and his friends are normal young men who yet so young in life, cannot fully connect and understand why they are there fighting in this war, and that they were actually in this hell. Their respect for authority changes, the officers they trusted in training were so closed minded about war itself, while they were preaching ideals of patriotism earlier.

At one point in the story, Paul and fellow soldiers go on a mission to lay barbed wire at the front, a dangerous mission indeed. Shelling starts and while soldiers die around him, and the impacts from the shell blasts cause buried bodies to emerge from the ground. After returning, the soldiers that made it through discuss after war plans. Some of them have a few, but unclear for the most, Paul and a few others have barely thought about it. War had engulfed their lives so much, they could barley imagine the war ending and what they would do afterwards, if they even

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made it through. After another battle, Paul watches rats fight over bodies and limbs blown apart after a shelling. Noticing how brutal they were with each other convinces him that he must find the animal in him, trying to disconnect from feeling and emotion to survive in the hellish everyday that is his existence.

Paul receives some leave and returns home, he is unable to enjoy his time because of the disconnectedness he feels from being on the front. He is unable to discuss what he has seen and thinks he will never be able to talk about it for the rest of his life. He is also burdened with the news of his mother having cancer, another thing that captures his thoughts and feelings of the meaning of life, and the connections of the brutal ness of man and reasoning for war. Before his leave is finished, Paul tours a training facility where Russian POW's are held. He realizes that these soldiers he had been trained to fight, and generated opinions on, aren't as godlike as they have been portrayed.

Reconnected with his friends upon return to the front, Paul is separated from his company and takes cover in a shell hole. While there he is joined by an Allied