Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

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War benefits no one, but consumes all. This idea is prevalent throughout Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front. Entering the war in his late-teens, Paul gives up his youth and dreams as his life becomes intertwined with war. He stands as an example of the “Lost Generation”, the group of young men who readily enlisted into the war effort, leaving their innocence behind as all courageously walked onto the battlefield. The reader follows Paul as he transforms from an innocent recruit to a man of war; the reality of war led to the dehumanization of men and the destruction of moral standards.
Paul undergoes a destruction of morals as he first-handedly sees and becomes accustomed to the animalistic behaviors of war. He gives …show more content…

The phrases “skulls blown open”, “two feet cut off”, “splintered stumps”, and “smashed knee” portrays the bloodthirsty battlefield that soldiers have become used to. Dotted with commas and semicolons, repetitive word choice and length are used to illustrate the multiple forms of pain the soldiers experience and impose upon others. Similarly, the gruesome word choice uses imagery to give the reader a sense of discomfort towards the actions human beings inflicted upon one another. As the men become accustomed to brutal killing, emotions and morals are slowly pushed away, replaced by the dehumanized desire for murder. The poem “Dulce Et Decorum Est” confirms Paul’s descriptions as it also describes the horrors of war, “GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!... But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And floundering like a man in fire or lime.-- Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light/As under a green sea, I saw him drowning”. The exclamation marks and capitalization depict an urgency and fear, but never does the author question why an individual would gas another person; this portrays the narrator as a …show more content…

As he stands alone in a trench with a helpless enemy soldier, Paul describes, “This is the first time I have killed with my hands, whom I can see close at hand, whose death is my doing. Kat and Kropp and Muller have experienced it already, when they have hit someone; it happens to many, in hand-to-hand fighting especially”(221). The terms “killed with my hands”, “whose death is my doing”, and “hand-to-hand fighting” illustrate the fear and desperation Paul faces, emotions that have released an inhumane murder. As Paul continues to process the event that has taken place, the reader can tell that he is flustered and frantic through the short segments and multiple forms of punctuation in this passage. Throughout Paul’s descriptions and experiences, one can learn of the true existence of war, as young boys are forced into situations where an animalistic fear can wipe out all morals and virtues. While Paul describes his first-handed experience, the World War I poem, “Remorse” depicts one of the many scenes taking place during a war, “Remembering how he saw those Germans run,/Screaming for mercy among the stumps of trees: /Green-faced, they dodged and darted: there was one/Livid with terror, clutching at his knees”(Sassoon). This poem is composed of multiple short fragments, separated by commas and colons; this portrays the narrator as an onlooker who

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