Essay On All Quiet On The Western Front

“This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure,

for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a

generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.”

(Preface) This was Erich Maria Remarque’s sole purpose in writing All Quiet on the Western

Front. He wanted to tell a story of a group of men called “The Lost Generation” who were

destroyed in World War I. However, these men were not destroyed by bullets, shells, or aerial

attacks; they were destroyed by the war itself. Almost everyone knows that war destroys people

just by the sheer psychological damages it has. This novel does a great job of giving the events

inside

Let the months and years come, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so

without hope that I can confront them without fear. The life that has borne me through the years

is still in my hands and my eyes. Whether I have subdued it, I know not. But so long as it is there

it will seek its own way out, heedless of the will that is within me.” (295) By now, Paul has lost

all hope in coming out of the war alive. However, it is not like he cares anymore. He has lost his

comrades and his best friend in the war. He has seen countless men die for a foolish conflict such

as power. He has lasted for years fighting willingly yet unwillingly for his country. The reader is

able to tell these things by reading the novel through Paul’s point of view. The reader is able to

understand that Paul is broken beyond repair.

All in all, Erich Maria Remarque did a fantastic job of bringing the psychological and

internal events in the novel to life. Because Remarque used imagery, the readers were able to feel

the fear in Paul’s mind when he was fighting on the Western Front. Remarque used a sad and

confused tone to show how shocked Paul was about Kat’s death. By using point of