All Quiet On The Western Front Essay

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Recommended: Disadvantages of war to children

Wisdom does not always relate to how many years we have lived but rather how much we have seen in this world. In All Quiet on the Western Front and They, both Erich Maria Remarque and Siegfried Sassoon created characters who were forever changed at a young age because of what they had seen. The horrors of trench warfare force men to do unimaginable things and become numb to their surroundings symbolizing the alienation of a generation.
In They by Siegfried Sassoon, a story is told of how soldiers come back from war mentally and physically changed. "They have challenged Death and dared him face to face" (Sassoon 6). Sassoon had been in WW1 so he knew when writing this poem the reality of what he was saying. Soldiers saw death everyday and just …show more content…

In All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Remarque brings up the idea of the soldiers fighting in WW1 represent the lost generation. "And men will not understand us...and the war will be forgotten-and the generation that has grown up after us will be strange to us and push us aside" (Remarque 294). This generation of soldiers in WW1 are often referred to as the lost generation because of how little they truly lived. The only part of life most of them really lived was growing up. In the war they lost themselves and came back damaged emotionally. They returned without the capability of feeling. For example in All Quiet on the Western Front Paul once loved reading. Reading was an escape from reality for him but when he came back he no longer got lost in books. Something he once found comfort in was gone. While other people in Germany and other places will go back to a normal way of living after the war, the soldiers will not. Soon enough the war will be part of the past for most but for them they are in battle every time they close their eyes. "Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing anymore. I am so alone and so without hope that I can confront them without fear" (Chapter 12). These men have nothing left. Nothing else can happen in life to them that will cause any more damage. Everything has been

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