Commentary on Erich Maria Remarque´s All Quiet in the Western Front

In “all quite on western front,” Erich Maria Remarque tells the a story of six young German men who volunteer in World War I, at the age of eighteen. This novel was published in 1929. Remarque himself fought in World War I, but he only endured one month after obtaining of several injuries. He spent rest of the war in the hospital where he had some realization about the nature of war. This novel is told from the point of view on one young soldier named, Paul Baumer. Baumer is an attentive soldier, discloses how life really was really on the war front. Through the character of Baumer, Remarque describes his fears, and experiences and what he went through as a soldier in the war. This novel gives, us a different observation of how World War I, was for most of the people.

In the story, six close friends are persuaded to go to war to serve their country by their schoolteacher, kantorek. They go through the necessary training under the, malevolent sergeant Himmelstoss. The friends dislike the training. Their sergeant is very arrogant and tortures Paul and his friends, but after realizing his mistakes he tries to get along with them. After, reaching the battlefront, most of Paul’s friends die or are injured in cruel ways. Especially, Kat was shot in the head. Now, Paul’s friends’ no longer believe war is noble, and what is the point of going to war. As war continues, they live in constant alarm. They never know when the next attack was going to happen. This novel depicts the soldiers’ day-to-day experiences on the front, including violent scenes of battles, gas attacks, and loss of youth.

Through these brutal and traumatic scenes, the novel presents several themes, one of which is “Loss of Youth.” These young soldiers endure a lot, pai...

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...y. Especially, in World War I where, a lot of bad things happened to soldiers as of being depressed, and mentally exhausted. One scene where I agree, with Remarque is when Paul and his friends are in hospital where they see the real side of war where everyone is injured. While reading, this book, I was very sad to hear all these gruesome things about a war that we never heard of and how it changed their lives. In today’s world, this happens to most of the people who have served in the war. Most of the people never come out of it. They are constantly are thinking about being at the battlefront and this leads them into sever trauma. They cannot live their life normally.

In conclusion, Remarque wanted to tell us the reality of war. It’s just a brutal thing to go through where there were bodies of dead soldiers laying and seeing your close friends die in front of you.