All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the greatest war novels of all time. It is a story, not of Germans, but of men, who even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war. The entire purpose of this novel is to illustrate the vivid horror and raw nature of war and to change the popular belief that war is an idealistic and romantic character. The story centers on Paul Baumer, who enlists in the German army with glowing enthusiasm. But in the course of war, he is consumed by it and in the end is "weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope." Through Baumer, Remarque examines how war makes man inhuman. He uses excellent words and phrases to describe crucial details to this theme. "The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts." Baumer and his classmates who enlisted into the army see the true reality of the war. They enter the war fresh from school, knowing nothing except the environment of hopeful youth and they come to a premature maturity with the war, their only home. "We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. We are not youth any longer." They have lost their in
The terror of death will infest the minds of soldiers and bring about horrible images of death and destruction until they break down and go to pieces. Everything they are taught, "the world of work, duty, culture, and progress" are not the slightest use to them because the only thing they need to know is how to survive. The life of a man is the price you pay for your continual existence. All that matters is that he wants to take your life. " He has rid himself of all feelings and thoughts. May 11, 1998English III Honors Word Count: 1036. He wants to live at all costs so "every expression of his life must serve one purpose and one purpose only, preservation of existence, and he is absolutely focused on that. "We will not be able to find our way any more. The war takes an heavy toll on the soldiers who fight in it. "And of that you are not able to judge. "Every hour and everyday, every shell and every death cuts this thin [line of sanity], and the years waste it rapidly. They have experienced the horrors of war but not experienced enjoys of life.
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