All Quiet On The Western Front Themes

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All Quiet on the Western Front is the terrible brutality of war, which is the main theme in the novel. The novel centers on a young German soldier, Paul Bäume and his experiences throughout a period of World War I. One of the major themes found in the novel was the difficulty for the soldiers to revert to their civilian life after having experienced extreme combat during the war. "this book will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war." (1)This internal comment made by Paul Bäume the main characterof the novel, entirely explained how each of his fellow classmates, friends, and soldier left about them being in the war.Nationalism can be defined as having a sense of belonging …show more content…

At the Beginning of the novel, we read that Paul Baumer and hisclassmates had volunteered to enlist in the war. However, what really happened was Their schoolmaster Kantorek, their parents filled their head with lies which glorified the war. Not enlisting in the war would be liketurning your back against your family, your country and everybody else. “We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war.” (42) all their life goal changed their aspiration and desire to become somebody, or even find somebody.This novelsets out to enfaceswar as it was experienced, replacing the romantic picture of glory placed by their parents and teacher with a decidedly unromantic vision of fear, meaninglessness, and butchery which was, in fact, the reality.Paul Bäume is the main character of the novel. Throughout the novel, he is forced to mature for his safety, which eventually deeply affected him as a person. Paul’s experience is intended to represent the experience of a whole generation of men, the so-called lost generation—men who went straight from childhood to

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