Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front is a very
             riveting and engrossing novel based in the first world war. The main
             character is Paul Baumer, a nineteen year old teen who is swept into the
             war, along with his friends, not one day before he is out of school. They
             are sent to the front to "protect the fatherland" or Germany as it is
             called. Paul and his friends go from this idealistic opinion to
             disillusionment throughout the book as they discover the truth that the
             enemy is just like them, and Paul's friends start being killed one-by-one.
             This novel is a gripping story of how war is bloody and horrid. The few who came out of this war were not the same people they were when they left. They become pale and emotionless, without feeling or thought. Some even killed themselves. They had experienced ultimate horror, the horror of war. The novel starts two years after Paul and his friends first reached the front and then goes back and forth between present and
             past. The main topics throughout the book is the change from idealism to
             disillusionment, the loss of Paul's friends, and especially the loss of
             The change from idealism to disillusionment is the driving
             force behind his book. From young school boys, listening to their
             schoolmaster asking "Won't you join up comrades?" they transformed into "weary,
             broken" men. Idealism and disillusionment play a major role on Paul's
             decisions and thoughts. For example, on the second page of the novel,
             Paul says, "It would not be such a bad war if only one could get a little
             more sleep." Later in the book, a disillusioned Paul says of the same
             war, "I see how people are set against one another and in silence,
             unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another."
             Even though he has been in the war two years, the first quote shows how
             Paul's idealism is still strong. In the s
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