Symbolism in All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque displays unsettling images and symbols of war as it follows Paul Baumer, a young soldier, during World War I. The constant bombardments and escaped shells of war cause the soldier to sink into a barbaric mindset of war. By using imagery and symbols to show how soldiers sink into the mindset of war the author creates a vivid picture of the many horrors of war and its mentality.

A pair of boots represents one of the most profound symbols found in Remarque’s novel. The soldiers each pass the boots, owned by Kemmerich, to a new owner after the previous owner dies in combat. Even Kemmerich himself took the boots from the dead corpse of an airman. As Kemmerich’s own death bed approaches, Müller tries to possess boots:

“Though Müller would be delighted to have Kemmerich's boots, he is really quite as sympathetic as another who could not bear to think of such a thing for grief. He merely sees things clearly. Were Kemmerich able to make any use of the boots, then Müller would rather go bare-foot over barbed wire than scheme how to get hold of them. But as it is the boots are quite inappropriate to Kemmerich's circumstances, whereas Müller can make good use of them. Kemmerich will die; it is immaterial who gets them. Why, then, should Müller not succeed to them? He has more right than a hospital orderly. When Kemmerich is dead it will be too late. Therefore Müller is already on the watch” (Remarque, 11).

After Kemmerich dies, Paul brings Müller the boots and then later inherits them from Müller after he gets shot to death in the battlefield. The boots represent the animalistic qualities of life in the war as they prove to be more important to the soldiers than the life of a friend. The...

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...be perceived: "I merely wanted to awaken understanding for a generation that more than all others has found it difficult to make its way back from four years of death, struggle, and terror, to the peaceful fields of work and progress" (Eksteins) Although we will never even begin to understand what horror these soldiers have experienced, Remarque’s novel give us a glimpse into this mindset and compels us to be grateful for the life that we have.

Works Cited

Eksteins, Modris. Rites of Spring. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1989. Quoted as "All Quiet on the Western Front as a Postwar Commentary," in Bloom, Harold, ed. All Quiet on the Western Front, Bloom's Guides. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2008. Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 30 Apr. 2014

Remarque, Erich Maria, and A. W. Wheen. All Quiet on the Western Front. Boston: Little, Brown, 1929. Print.