All Quiet On The Western Front Effects Of War

894 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Literary impacts of world war 1

Unlike most writers, the author of All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque portrays war as it really is; full of visions with fear, butchery, and meaningless deaths instead of an abundance of romanticized and glory descriptions. Remarque includes the terror and savagery of war, showing the physical and mental toll taken on the soldiers. The only way for them to survive was to disconnect themselves from their emotions and the events happening around them.
The worst part of the war is the fact that even the soldiers who survived the war are broken by it. Remarque describes that generation as men who “may have escaped the shells, [but] were destroyed by the war.” After experiencing the war, they were shell-shocked or had PTSD so returning to life was abnormal. …show more content…

As Albert points out, “Kat and Detering and Haie will go back to their jobs… but we never had any. How will we ever get used to one after this” (86). Now that they have fought in the war, they will never emotionally be the same again. This puts the entire generation of young fighters at a disadvantage because it will be harder for them to move on from the war. Without a passion or love to anchor themselves to, their personality could be lost. In addition to fighting, the juveniles watched their surrounding friends be shoot down from around them. Seeing someone die and knowing that it could of easily of been you takes a toll on a person’s mental state. That is why many men distanced themselves from emotions like sadness; it was the only way for them to survive. Muller asks Kemmerich “[w]ill you be taking [the boots] with you” (16), for that exact reason. Logically, since Kemmerich can no longer use the boots Muller should get them to replace his raggedy pair. But at the same time, it feels insensitive to ask a dying man for his belongings before he gets to die in peace. Since Muller is

Show More
Related

  • All Quiet On The Western Front Quote Analysis

    1113 Words  | 3 Pages

    All Quiet on the Western Front is a powerful novel that communicates many messages concerning war’s hidden horrors and gives insight into the unique experiences of soldiers. Remarque uses a wide array of language techniques and writing concepts to expose readers to truth of the simultaneously corrupt yet complex affair that is war. It is an important, genuine novel – the type that needs to exist to end dreadful human affairs, such as

    Read More

  • All Quiet on the Western Front

    1386 Words  | 3 Pages

    This new perspective makes them realize how lucky they were not to be mortally wounded.  Another cause of change in the men besides the battles, results from seeing friends in the hospital.  The first display of this sorrow is Kemmerich’s death.  He was a good friend to all the men, especially Paul.  When the men see him lying in his bed about to die, they feel terrible. Because they feel this way, they tell Kemmerich that he is going to be okay.  The hospital scene with Kemmerich dying is meaningful and touching to the readers, because it too shows a change in the men.  This change shows the hate and anguish of the battlegrounds, contrasted with compassion towards a close friend who is in need.  This scene also lets the reader know how many people received injuries each day.  When Paul goes to tell the doctor that Kemmerich The doctors response was that he had already amputated five legs that same day. The reader sees why when one person dies, it really does not mean anything to the doctors, except a free bed.  This scene, plus the others which take place in the hospital, shows change in the way that men pull together when someone is in need. The hospital scenes also show that men are so accustomed to death, they know when someone is going to die, and can tell the degree of an injury when it happens.  There is a major change in the men in this novel.  At first, they are excited to join the army in order to help their country.  After they see the truth about war, they learn very important assets of life such as death, destruction, and suffering.  These emotions are learned in places like training camp, battles, and deal with death, which is very important to one’s life.     & nbsp;

    Read More

  • Destruction in Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front

    1541 Words  | 4 Pages

    Everyone knows what war is. It's a nation taking all of its men, resources, weapons and most of its money and bearing all malignantly towards another nation. War is about death, destruction, disease, loss, pain, suffering and hate. I often think to myself why grown and intelligent individuals cannot resolve matters any better than to take up arms and crawl around, wrestle and fight like animals. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque puts all of these aspects of war into a vivid story which tells the horrors of World War 1 through a soldier's eyes. The idea that he conveys most throughout this book is the idea of destruction, the destruction of bodies, minds and innocence.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front

    1091 Words  | 3 Pages

    All Quiet on the Western Front is a historical novel written by Erich Maria Remarque. The novel focuses on a young German soldier and the predicaments he encounters during his life on the front. The novel displays a powerful image to all of its readers and tends to have a long lasting effect on the way that they interpret war. All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel that encourages nations to consider the horrible hostilities that war brings on humans before entering into global conflicts. From his graphic imagery and his detailed description of character relationships, Remarque depicts the brutality of the war at the front.

    Read More

  • All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque: The Brutality of War on Soldiers

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel All Quiet on the Western Front is based on World War I; it portrays themes involving suffering, comradeship, chance and dehumanization. The novel is narrated by Paul, a young soldier in the German military, who fights on the western front during The Great War. Like many German soldiers, Paul and his fellow friends join the war after listening to the patriotic language of the older generation and particularly Kantorek, a high school history teacher. After being exposed to unbelievable scenes on the front, Paul and his fellow friends realize that war is not as glorifying and heroic as the older generation has made it sound. Paul and his co-soldiers continuously see horrors of war leading them to become hardened, robot-like objects with one goal: the will to survive.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the book, All Quiet On The Western Front, the character Corporal Himmelstoss is portrayed as a disciplinary, brutal, and sympathetic type of person in the training camps. Although prior to his position as a trainer he was a postman. Corporal Himmelstoss is in charge of No. 9 platoon. His petite size and the sleek moustache is not intimidating at first, until he displays his strict side towards the young soldiers. The brutal strictness of discipline that the corporal is known for changes once he has a taste of the frontlines. Thereafter a new soft tender person is born in the need for companionship.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front

    1018 Words  | 3 Pages

    The war scarred the soldiers permanently, if not physically then mentally. After the war the soldiers usually never recovered from the war. Two of the most common side affects of the war were shell shock and stir crazy. When suffering from shell shock a soldier’s brain doesn’t function properly and the man is a “vegetable”. This means the man is alive but he can’t do anything because he is in a state of shock because of the war. Stir crazy is a mental illness caused by the firing of so many bullets that when no bullets are heard by the victim he goes insane. Everyone was scared to go to war when it started. Young recruits were first sent because the veterans knew they were going to come back dead. "When we run out again, although I am very excited, I suddenly think: “where’s Himmelstoss?” Quickly I jump back into the dug-out and find him with a small scratch lying in a corner pretending to be wounded.” (P 131) Even the big men like Himmelstoss are scared to go fight. They too go through the mental illnesses like stir crazy and shell shock. “He is in a panic; he is new to it too.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front as an Anti-War Novel

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    All quiet On the Western Front, a book written by Erich Maria Remarque tells of the harrowing experiences of the First World War as seen through the eyes of a young German soldier. I think that this novel is a classic anti-war novel that provides an extremely realistic portrayal of war. The novel focuses on a group of German soldiers and follows their experiences. Life for the soldiers in the beginning is a dramatic one as they are ordered up to the frontline to wire fences. The frontline makes Paul feel immediately different, as described here. "

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front

    611 Words  | 2 Pages

    All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Delbert Mann, is based on the novel written by Erich Maria Remarque. It tells the story of a German schoolboy, Paul Baumer, and a group of his classmates, who journey from fantasies of heroic glory to the real horror of actual soldiering. Their journey is a coming of age tale that centers on the consternation of war and emphasizes the moral, spiritual, emotional, and physical deterioration suffered by the young soldiers.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story of several schoolmates who symbolize a generation destroyed by the dehumanisation of the First World War, All Quiet on the Western Front tells of the men who died, and the tragically changed lives of those who survived. Remarque follows the story of Paul Bäumer, a young infantryman, from his last days of school to his death three years later. Whereas the journey motif is typically used to portray a positive character development, that of Paul is deliberately the opposite. In what has been dubbed the greatest antiwar novel of all time, Remarque depicts the way in which Paul is snatched away from humanity by the brutality of war. However while Paul and his comrades become separated from society, and begin to rely on their basic survival instincts, in their own surroundings they still show humane qualities such as compassion, camaraderie, support and remorse. Paul’s transformation from human to soldier begins in training camp, and is reinforced by the trauma at the front. His return home further alienates him from society, and Paul begins to feel safe at the front with his friends. Nonetheless throughout the novel suffering and mortality bare Paul’s true side, and he momentarily regains his former self. Bäumer, the German word for tree, is an early indication that Paul must remain firmly rooted in reality to survive the brutality of war.

    Read More

  • All Quiet on the Western Front and the Horrors of War

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout their lives, people must deal with the horrific and violent side of humanity. The side of humanity is shown through the act of war.  This is shown in Erich Remarque’s novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front”.  War is by far the most horrible thing that the human race has to go through.  The participants in the war suffer irreversible damage by the atrocities they witness and the things they go through.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many of Remarque’s ideas expressed in All Quiet on the Western Front were not completely new. Remarque emphasized things that portrayed the magnitude of issues soldiers face, and how the physical body and senses affects their emotional well-being. The ideas in All Quiet in the Western Front of not knowing the difference between sleep and death, seeing gruesome sights of people, and frustration towards people who cannot sympathize with soldiers, are also shown in Siegfried Sassoon’s “The Dug-Out”, Giuseppe Ungaretti’s “Vigil”, and Sassoon's’ “Suicide in the Trenches”.

    Read More

  • All Quiet on the Western Front

    671 Words  | 2 Pages

    World War I had a great effect on the lives of Paul Baumer and the young men of his generation. These boys’ lives were dramatically changed by the war, and “even though they may have escaped its shells, [they] were destroyed by the war” (preface). In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Baumer and the rest of his generation feel separated from the other men, lose their innocence, and experience comradeship as a result of the war.

    Read More

  • The Vietnam War: The Causes Of The Vietnam War

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Vietnam War tore some families apart (Olson). Some families were getting divorced. Being gone for so long can be hard on families and soldiers. The War lasted up to at least 15 years with United States involved. Loved ones were gone and not being able to take care of their families and loved ones. The deployment of loved ones was hard to comp with some families (Logan). Children were sad to see their dad have to leave and not knowing if he will come back. During the war many terrifying images were being showed (Friedman). The images made families and loved ones worried and scared if their loved ones had died (Friedman). The families with soldiers that had lived had to deal with their loved ones having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Logan). Not only do the families have emotions during the war so do the soldiers. Soldiers who had lived were feeling guilt over them living and their friends dying (Friedman). Soldiers were wishing it was them that had died and not one of their brothers. Some soldiers had committed suicide years after war had ended because of the guilt they had felt for living. (Fallstrom). The soldiers didn’t only have emotions after war they had some during war. A war veteran had said “every time I pull the trigger, I was killing a little bit inside me. “ (Friedel).Even knows he wasn’t physically killing a little bit of himself, mentally he was.

    Read More

  • All Quiet on the Western Front: Destroying a Generation of Men

    1157 Words  | 3 Pages

    All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque, is a classic anti-war novel about the personal struggles and experiences encountered by a group of young German soldiers as they fight to survive the horrors of World War One. Remarque demonstrates, through the eyes of Paul Baumer, a young German soldier, how the war destroyed an entire generation of men by making them incapable of reintegrating into society because they could no longer relate to older generations, only to fellow soldiers.

    Read More

More about All Quiet On The Western Front Effects Of War

Open Document