All Quiet On The Western Front

Attitudes towards War from Different Aspects of Life

In All Quiet on the Western Front, different attitudes are betrayed from different people. Attitudes that come from various walks of life. When someone lives in a certain area and is surrounded by certain things, I believe it forms your opinion about life and people. That attitude can either make you or break you. War is definitely an example of a situation that can change your thoughts, actions, and emotions.

The overriding theme of All Quiet on the Western Front is the horrible brutality of war, which informs every scene in the novel. This brutality is what makes them resent the war. The soldiers went on the battlefield proud to be fighting for a good cause. But what is the cause? They no longer know what they are there for. They have no idea what they are giving their lives for. This makes them angry that they people they loved the most would pressure them into going to such a horrific place. "On the threshold of life, they faced an abyss of death." They will never be the same.

The people at home were so ignorant to the fact of how horrible the war really was. They pressured these boys to go. Boys just out of high school to go risk their lives. People such as Kantorek, their teacher, used a patriotic and political way to convey the concepts of loyalty and glory of war. Just as Paul's dad. He wanted Paul to wear the uniform just so everyone would know he was in the army. Basically, the civilians liked it, or approved of it just for the "title." That is what made the soldiers resent the fact they were there. They had nothing to go back to. The older men had wives, children, and jobs to go to the war was over. Yet the boys had nothing. No life of their own.

Speaking of lives to go back to, the officers had jobs to return to when the war ended. The officers there sometimes had a severe case of superiority or power. That is understood in most circumstances. When someone is made an officer not by experience but by a position they held as a civilian that is not justifiable. Heimelstoss was made an