Erich Maria Remarque in his realistic novel All Quiet on the Western Front, written in 1928, dramatizes how the unrelenting power of war ultimately results in the death of childhood and the birth of manhood in the men of the war. Paul Baumer, the protagonist, has a first hand view of the destructiveness of war, which took his companions, his life and his innocence. With the loss of innocence of the young men came the foreboding of death. With the foreboding of death came the harsh reality of the destructiveness of war. On the front on the eastern side of France in 1916, the romantic ideals of the nineteenth century are challenged with the reality of trench warfare. In All Quiet on the Western Front, the truth is let go, the truth that war is not a romantic saga that is fought for their country, but an unrealistic blood bout that destroys everything. Remarque uses the idea of loss of innocence to show that the boys of the war had become men in a few months and to show when one of the comrades died they felt a little bit of the person die away with them. This brings them to the disintegration of all the hopes and dreams of the soldiers. The destructiveness of the hopeless war took the innocence known in the vague pasts of the fatigued warriors and made them not men but killing machines.
             Initially, the day-to-day experiences of a small band of comrades-made-soldiers took away the love and innocence from the ones who least handle it. Paul returns home and finds a consoling friend upon the bookshelf, but finds his friendships are not among books anymore but rather among alcohol and sex. This brings to the readers' attention the minds and hearts lost because of the mentally disturbing war experiences they encounter. The war not only took away their will to live a happy and joyful life but their will to live. Furthermore, the short-term pleasure of sex is the one indulgence that can bring happine
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