Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front – An Accurate Description of the Honors and Horrors of War
Ellen Glasgow said, "Violence commands both literature and life.” Violence commands Erich Maria Remarque’s literature in his novel All Quiet on the Western Front. Remarque accurately depicts both the physical and mental repercussions of war. All Quiet on the Western Front should be read by all members of the Armed Forces for several reasons. First, the novel describes in detail the worst case scenarios associated with war. By being exposed to such a portrayal of war, unprepared citizens would be able to make better decisions regarding enlisting. Second, those citizens who do decide to enlist would be better prepared mentally for the mental horrors that occur after war. Finally, All Quiet on the Western Front sets a standard for the patriotism needed to serve one’s country and the consequential honor that comes with that patriotism.
Perhaps the biggest argument for not mandating the reading of All Quiet on the Western Front is the possible decline in enlisting in the Armed Forces. Such an argument is moot, though. All Quiet merely depicts war as it actually is. In All Quiet, Remarque describes a moment of war by writing, “Everywhere wire-cutters are snapping, planks are thrown across the entanglements. . . the earth shudders, it crashes, smokes, and groans, we stumble over slippery lumps of flesh, over yielding bodies” (Remarque 117). The possibility of war is manifest in the duties of the military. Gulf War Veteran Alan Parks asserts, “If a man is going to be deterred from the military by the occurrences of war, he is not the type of man [one] would want defending [one’s country]” (Parks). By reading All Quiet ...
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... feels after a war by saying, “While in the ‘spotlight,’ it is the single greatest feeling anyone could ever imagine” (Parks).
Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front accurately describes both the horrors and honors of war. If the Armed Forces would require this novel to be read, more men would be better prepared for the feelings that await them in the military. By telling of the negative aspects of war, Remarque’s novel could successfully weed out those whom the army does not suit. By telling of the positive aspects of war, Remarque’s novel could encourage more men to join the military. Whether a man decides to join or not to join, Remarque’s novel can provide guidance in making the choice.
Works Cited
Parks, Alan. Personal interview. 3 April. 2001.
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. New York: Ballantine, 1956.
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.
Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel that takes you through the life of a soldier in World War I. Remarque is accurately able to portray the episodes soldiers go through. All Quiet on the Western Front shows the change in attitudes of the men before and during the war. This novel is able to show the great change war has evolved to be. From lining your men up and charging in the eighteenth century, to digging and “living” in the trenches with rapid-fire machine guns, bombs, and flame-throwers being exposed in your trench a short five meters away. Remarque makes one actually feel the fun and then the tragedy of warfare. At the beginning of the novel Remarque gives you nationalist feelings through pride of Paul and the rest of the boys. However at the end of the war Remarque shows how pointless war really is. This is felt when everyone starts to die as the war progresses.
Erich Maria Remarque's classic war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, deals with the many ways in which World War I affected people's lives, both the lives of soldiers on the front lines and the lives of people on the homefront. One of the most profound effects the war had was the way it made the soldiers see human life. Constant killing and death became a part of a soldier's daily life, and soldiers fighting on all sides of the war became accustomed to it. The atrocities and frequent deaths that the soldiers dealt with desensitized them to the reality of the vast quantities of people dying daily. The title character of the novel, Paul Bäumer, and his friends experience the devaluation of human life firsthand, and from these experiences they become stronger and learn to live as if every day were their last.
Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, a novel set in World War I, centers around the changes wrought by the war on one young German soldier. During his time in the war, Remarque's protagonist, Paul Baumer, changes from a rather innocent Romantic to a hardened and somewhat caustic veteran. More importantly, during the course of this metamorphosis, Baumer disaffiliates himself from those societal icons-parents, elders, school, religion-that had been the foundation of his pre-enlistment days. This rejection comes about as a result of Baumer's realization that the pre-enlistment society simply does not understand the reality of the Great War. His new society, then, becomes the Company, his fellow trench soldiers, because that is a group which does understand the truth as Baumer has experienced it.
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.
All Quiet on the Western Front tries to explain the purpose of war and its uselessness. It is a story of an almost obliterated generation that fought for nothing but the principle of hate. Change the name, and it could have been the tale of a Frenchman, an Englishman, or an American. It is perhaps the most tragic generation our human records tell of. It bears the overwhelming accent of simple truth that makes one wonder why war still exists.
All Quiet on the Western Front is the story of Paul Baumer’s service as a soldier in the German army during World War I. Paul and his classmates enlist together, share experiences together, grow together, share disillusionment over the loss of their youth, and the friends even experience the horrors of death-- together. Though the book is a novel, it gives the reader insights into the realities of war. In this genre, the author is free to develop the characters in a way that brings the reader into the life of Paul Baumer and his comrades. The novel frees the author from recounting only cold, sterile facts. This approach allows the reader to experience what might have been only irrelevant facts if presented in a textbook.
... as well as a tendency to question what caused us to be left alone. Filling the void of loneliness is an experience tied to human awareness, and with that awareness comes the potential for despair, be it a temporary absence or a permanent one. The concept of loss haunts all of our nights, cold or not, as it reminds us of our own temporality in the world.
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.
The oil companies are using a structured power approach while addressing the land use issues with the locals. The oil companies use formal authority, legal prerogative, and association to strengthen their side of the conflict. The Nigerian government has a history of being influenced by foreign money and influence, which gives big business a huge advantage over monetary decisions. The Nigerian government has gone as far as creating laws and legislation to benefit the oil companies because of the significant economic contributions the companies bring to the country. Omeje (2005) states “Oil is the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy and the state is largely dependent on oil rents, taxes and royalties paid by transnational oil companies (TNOCs) and on profits from its equity stakes in the TNOCs’ investments.”
In the early 1990’s several ethnic groups in Nigeria peacefully protested against big oil companies who caused pollution in their communities. The country’s military dictatorship took action against them and killed 80 people. A few years later when the people living in the Ogoni region protested to stop contactors from laying a new pipeline for Shell, Nigeria’s Mobile Police Force killed over 2000 people. Critics argued that Shell was partly to blame for the kil...
Bass, Bernard M. Bass. (1990). Bass & Stogdill's handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications (3rd ed). New York: The Free Press.
Oil is one of the most valuable natural resources in the world today. The oil industry carries with it a great deal of economic and political power across the globe. Having oil, or any natural resource, as a prime source of revenue has long been debated as being an advantage or a drawback. In any case it should at least lead to increased revenue and financing of industrial growth which, arguably, is related to an increase in the quality of life of the population. In the case of Nigeria, the oil industry is a double-edged sword. Since the discovery of oil in 1956, the oil industry in Nigeria has greatly increased the financial resources of Nigeria, and yet has proven a constant stumbling block in the creation of effective internal capability. The development of cutting edge technology and infrastructure, considering the resources available, has been marginal and the oil industry itself has not been extremely competitive (at least in expectations) on the global market. As the largest nation in Africa, a safe assumption should be that Nigeria is among the leaders in development as a whole, or at least be progressing toward that. The oil industry has, however, interfered somewhat in the development of alternative industries. In addition, even though it is directly associated with problems in leadership, corruption has been established as a normal order of business in Nigeria’s government and dealings with oil and has grown along with the industry. While the oil industry has introduced many significant problems in Nigeria, both socially and economically, there is still promise in what it can provide for the nation while oil remains in abundance. There are some positive examples across the glob...
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