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

Oftentimes, mankind does not grasp that once an event is over, it may not in reality be over for some. How coincidental it is that the men doing the brunt of the fighting, most of which they know not what for, end up suffering the greatest. One would assume that, to a soldier, a return home would be a time of peace and reprieve, but in reality, the return home introduces. an entirely new set of problems to the mind of the soldier. In the timeless war novel All Quiet on the Western Front, author Erich Maria Remarque portrays through his character Paul Bäumer the inability of soldiers to integrate themselves back into regular society as a result of their impossible to forget experiences on the front.

The vivid descriptions Paul offers of the

Paul is among the many that share this mindset as a result of their unimaginable experiences that cannot be erased from their memories. One would presume that a chance to leave the front would be a reprieve from the hectic, chaotic atmosphere of the front; however, Paul speaks of his thoughts of returning after the war, prophesying: “If we go back we will be weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope. We will not be able to find our way any more” (294). The soldiers on their return will simply become wanderers, “rootless, and without hope.” Paul has actually already experienced this hopelessness in his initial leave. He thinks to himself prior to his departure back to the front, “What is leave?—A pause that only makes everything after it so much worse” (179). Seeing your family and old friends and getting time off of the front would, for most noncombatants, seem like a joyous time; however, for Paul and the entire lot of young men on the front, the reality is too real: home does not offer any more comfort than the front. A soldier can flee the front; however, he can never escape the lasting effects it leaves on

Because these men are out on the front during their maturing and growing stage in their lives, they end up sacrificing almost all of their opportunities for development. Bäumer speaks of this hinderance, saying: “I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, and fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow” (263). How could one expect a young man to endure such miserable conditions? “Despair, death, and fear” are only a mere scratch on the surface as to what these maturing boys endure. In addition, these kids have no prior lives to return to unlike the Kantoreks and the Himmelstosses, old men with a family and a job to which to return. Bäumer gives the reader some more insight into the problem, questioning: “What do they expect of us if a time ever comes when the war is over? Through the year our business has been killing;— it was our first calling in life. Our knowledge of life is limited to death. What will happen afterwards?” (264). Their “first calling in life” was not business school nor was there an opportunity to pursue a law career, it was killing. Like Kantorek is an established school director, and Himmelstoss a comfortable postman, the young men, not only in the second company but on the entire front, know nothing but this atmosphere of demise and chaos. One