All Quiet On The Western Front (991 words)

All Quiet on the Western FrontThe remains of Paul Baumer’s company had moved behind the German front
lines for a short rest at the beginning of the novel. After Behm became
Paul’s first dead schoolmate, Paul viewed the older generation bitterly,
particularly Kantorek, the teacher who convinced Paul and his classmates to
join the military, feeling alone and betrayed in the world that they had
left for him. Paul’s generation felt empty and isolated from the rest of
the world due to the fact that they had never truly established any part of
themselves in civilian life. At boot camp, Himmelstoss abused Paul and his
friends, yet the harassment only brought them closer together and developed
a strong spirit amongst them. Katczinsky, or Kat, was soon shown to be a
master scavenger, being able to provide the group with food or virtually
anything else; on this basis Paul and him grew quite close. Paul’s unit
was assigned to lay barbed wire on the front line, and a sudden shelling
resulted in the severe wounding of a recruit that Paul had comforted
earlier. Paul and Kat again strongly questioned the War. After Paul’s
company were returned to the huts behind the lines, Himmelstoss appeared
and was insulted by some of the members of Paul’s unit, who were then only
mildly punished. During a bloody battle, 120 of the men in Paul’s unit were
killed. Paul was given leave and returned home only to find himself very
distant from his family as a result of the war. He left in agony knowing
that his youth was lost forever. Before returning to his unit, Paul spent
a little while at a military camp where he viewed a Russian prisoner of war
camp with severe starvation problems and again questioned the values that
he had grown up with contrasted to the values while fighting the war.
After Paul returned to his unit, they were sent to the front. During an
attack, Paul killed a French soldier. After discovering that this soldier
had a family, Paul was deeply shattered and vowed to prevent other such
wars. Paul’s unit was assigned to guard a supply depot of an abandoned
village, but he and Kropp were soon wounded when trying to escape from the
village. Paul headed back to the front, only to engage in final battles
where all of his friends were killed. The death of Kat was particularly
hard for Paul because they were very close. One month before the Armistice,
Paul was killed.

Ramarque’s purpose in writing this book was to display the hidden costs of
war. The physical aspects of death and wounds did not begin to portray the
mental anguish that the soldiers experienced during and after the war. He
hoped to show the results of war on an entire generation; a loss of
innocence in life which those who were once soldiers could never replace.
Remarque’s message came across very clearly. There were constant
tragedies which forced Paul or the other soldiers to question war and
become detached from civilian life. After viewing the death of a close
friend and a recruit whom he had comforted earlier, Paul went home finding
that war had isolated him from his family and his childhood. With the
return to his unit he again felt the presence of belonging. Soldiers had
become his family. The mental anguish was again vividly displayed after
Paul killed a French soldier; discovering that the soldier had a family,
Paul slipped into a deep agony vowing to prevent such wars from again
occurring. The depth of the emotions that soldiers experienced created a
very believable example of the psychological impacts of war.

A strong bias against war in general was shown in this novel. The
experience of “lostness” from society as a result of war seemed to be a
point presented often and possibly an experience of Remarque. Numerous
times Paul found his unit to be separated from the rest of the world. He
found no belonging to civilization but instead a brotherhood amongst his
comrades in the military. The constant questioning of war and its values
was presented very frequently and in fact may have included a few of
Remarque’s own questions of society and biases against the immorality and
murder committed during war.

I have gained a great deal of insight into World War I from this novel.
Previously, I understood the diplomacy and the military strategies involved
with this war, but I have now also been exposed to the physical and
foremost mental anguish that the soldiers on the front experienced. I had
never thought about a soldier’s loss of identity when leaving behind all of
the values, schooling, and family that once revolved around them. A new
perspective of the battlefield was presented in which soldiers of opposite
forces are in much of the same state: frightened human beings with family
and loved ones at home, attempting to avoid death each day by whatever
means possible; many very likely questioning the purpose of war as Paul
constantly did. Many conflicts of values were presented constantly
throughout the course of World War I. One of the strongest which I had not
previously considered was the fact that as children homicide is certainly
presented as a terrible act, yet on the front an unseen document legalizes
mass murder. As a result of this novel, I can now clearly see how the
mental anguish of soldiers on the front developed.

This novel was written very well. The plot was fast paced and the
incredibly realistic war depiction’s kept my attention alone. Yet merged
with the physical activity in this book was an extraordinary depth of the
emotional impacts of the war upon the soldiers. I did not find the
characters to be superficial in any way. Their physical actions and mental
ideals coincided very closely. The emotional state of characters developed
very genuinely throughout their endeavors; this realism forced me to look
at the purpose of war more closely and examine its results on the militia.

Foremost, I have gained a multitude of new perceptions, some of which make
a great deal of sense, from the vividly portrayed physical results of war
and the depth in which the dynamic emotions of the soldiers, particularly
Paul, were presented. This book has simply given me new views of war. It
was an incredible work to read.