An Analysis Of Erich Maria Remarque's 'All Quiet On The Western Front'

Noah Shamsai

Ms. Humes

AS English II

13 November 2014

The Lost Generation

“Only the dead have seen the end of the war,” says Plato, and those who survive continue to be touched by the experience of the front. In Erich Maria Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front”, Paul Bäumer, representative of World War I’s youth soldiers, describes his escapade in war, filled with life, death, and horror. The young, unmarried soldier will be lost even if he survives the war because of a loss of ambition, a loss of innocence, and a loss of relatability.

The first reason the men in the war will be destroyed by it is because they all become cannon fodder, expendable entities that no longer have any aspirations, and therefore are unable to assimilate into

society after the war. When Paul and his classmates receive the letter from Kantorek regarding the “Iron Youth,” Paul reflects upon their current status: “Kantorek would say that [they] stood on the threshold of life.

And so it would seem. [They] had as yet taken no root. The war swept [them] away … [The men] knew only that in some strange and melancholy way [they] had become a waste land” (20). Early in the novel, Paul has already decided that he and his troop of young men have been destroyed by the war, as a plant that has been pulled up before its roots have taken hold in the soil, the youth have little previous life, and of that nothing remains. Before the warfare, the men had just begun to construct their life goals, but the combat cleared away these hopes, and hence, upon returning home, the young men will be misplaced in the world. Another statement that further expresses Paul’s lack of objectives is given when his comrades are inquiring about what Paul plans to do if he were to return from the war: “When [Paul hears] the word ‘peace-time,’ it goes to [his] head: and if it really came, [he thinks he] would do some unimaginable thing

… But [Paul cannot] even imagine anything. All [he knows] is that this business about professions and studies and salaries ands so on − it makes [him] sick, it is and always was disgusting, [he does not] see anything at all” (87). Paul’s response illustrates that despite seeking to do something upon his return, he has lost his desire for work, demonstrating that the men cannot return to anything. If the men have no drive to find work when they return, they will be rendered as unfit for society, where a man is defined by what his occupation is. These young men have been stripped of their goals and spirit through the war, causing them to be lost even if they survive.
Second of all, Paul and his classmates enlist in the German army when they are at the ripe age of nineteen, the period in which boys become men and are close to the peak of their lives, but Paul and the other men’s experience in the military causes them to lose the innocence they had before the war. When Müller is questioning his comrades about what they when the fighting ends, they come to a stark conclusion: “[They] are not youth any longer. [They] don’t want to take the world by storm … [They] were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and [they] had it shot to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in [their] hearts. [They] are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress” (87-88). The innocence that Paul had before the war was the ability to “love life and the world,” and during the course of the many bombardments, fatalities, and injuries, this motivation was lost, as if he had skipped this stage of his life. He is no longer a young, inexperienced boy, but instead he is a weathered man with different values than those who are not enlisted in the army. An additional event that reveals Paul’s lost innocence is the permanent link between intercourse and the army brothels, which Paul realizes during his encounter with the little brunette: “How different is this from the conditions in the soldiers’ brothels … [Paul wishes he] never thought of them; but desire turns [his] mind to them involuntarily and [he is] afraid for it might be impossible ever to be free of them again” (150). The only place Paul has experienced sexual intercourse until now has been at the brothels, and even when he is removed from this setting, there is an ingrained relation between the two, representing the war’s effect on Paul’s love life. Brothels often carry a negative connotation, and because a key part of Paul’s adolescent years are subjected to them, his innocence and social judgment will be forever changed. If Paul returned home after the war, his level of comforts and norms, both measures of innocence, would be much different than what is expected of a man his age, therefore he would be ostracized by his peers who have not been to war.
The final, key reason why the young men of World War I will be lost if they return home is due to the fact that they cannot relate to their previous selves, families, and friends; The men that joined the army are not the same as the men that escaped it. Upon Paul’s leave, he encounters a shocking revelation when he attempts to read the books he once was so interested in: “[Paul] takes one of the books, intending to read, and turn over the leaves … [He stands] there dumb. As before a judge. Dejected. Words, words, words − they do not reach [him]. Slowly [he places] the books back in the shelves. Nevermore” (173). Most adolescents of this time would find pleasure in reading a novel or a textbook, and Paul can no longer connect with his old hobby, unlike the other young people, because the war has scrubbed his mind of what knowledge and pleasure are. Paul does not believe that words on a page are useful, but instead that skills needed for survival in warfare are, something not shared between Paul and his hometown colleagues, making adjustment back to civilization difficult. Paul’s disconnect goes beyond reading; after he spends time with a previous teacher of his during his leave, he concludes that “[Everyone at home talks] too much for [Paul]. They have aims, desires, that [he] cannot comprehend. [He] often [sits] with one of them in the little beer garden and [tries] to explain to him that this is really the only thing: just to sit quietly” (168). The war has reduced Paul to a point where he “cannot comprehend” the ambitions that the others have, so if he returns from the front, Paul will not be able to connect on the same topics. Although Paul once had similar dreams, the necessity to survive in the battle has taught him that ignorance toward his future is bliss. Interaction with others is a fundamental for everyday life, and a soldier wouldn’t be able to do so, leaving him astray in the world.
Representing a lost generation, Paul Bäumer demonstrates how the youthful men that went to war, being ill informed of the consequences, were destroyed by a devastation of the will to live that is required to enjoy life, a premature loss of innocence that changes many important experiences faced by budding youths, and the split between soldiers and common people that makes finding a relatable subject matter very difficult.

While the older, settled men simply see the war as bump in the road of life, the young men are so traumatized and altered by it, as if in their road of life, they crossed the bridge of war, which fell behind them, leaving a gap between who they were and who they are now. In Paul’s final passage, he blatantly states, “Men will not understand [the young, unmarried group of soldiers] − for the generation that grew up before [them] … will now return to its old occupation, and the war will be forgotten − and the generation that has grown up after [them] will be strange to [them] and push [them] aside … the years will pass by and in the end [they] shall fall into ruin”

(294).