All Quiet on the Western Front Essay

7/30/2019 All Quiet on the Western Front Essay

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The social effects of war inAll Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Frontis not just one of the many books about the First World

War. While the others were mostly about memoirs, Remarque rather dealt with the social

effects of the war. Even though, he stated in the motto of the book that he is not intending to

accuse anybody or confess, he is. The books emphasis is not on the war but on its impacts on

the people andAll Quiet on the Western Frontis indeed an accusation for destroying people

not only physically but especially mentally. The main theme of the book is the

meaninglessness of the war, and the changes that take place in the souls of the soldiers.

Eksteins (345) says that the boom of war-related art started at the end of the 1920s.

Before that, war was mostly a taboo. People wanted to forget and look into the future. War

was still in peoples minds, remembering was still too painful. There was a nervous

exhaustion from which nations suffered after the war. (346) The interest started to evoke

around 1928. Books, plays, films about the Great War became a fashionable subject. Ten

years passed since the end of the war, when books got published about it, war dramas were

staged in a high number, war movies flooded the cinemas: suddenly everything in connection

with the war became saleable and popular. This was the trend mainly in Germany and Great-

Britain, but also in France and in the United States (345-347).

Remarques war experience is quite mysterious. As he was born in 1989, he was 16,

when the war broke out in 1914. He was conscripted two years later, in 1916. He is said to be

wounded five or six times, but only one of these was serious. After wounding in his leg and

under his arm, he got hospitalized in Duisburg till the end of the war. His days as a soldier are

little-known, but his war experience was definitely not as extensive as that of the main

character, Paul. After the war, he tried to write poems, novels and plays and he finally

published only two novels, but none of them became really popular (Eksteins 348). His life


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was not successful after the war, and in an interview he admitted [a]ll of us were and still

are, restless, aimless, sometimes excited, sometimes indifferent, and essentially unhappy.

(349) That is probably where the inspiration to the book came from.

The novel starts with the following motto:

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 its shells, were destroyed by the war.

It is already revealed here that Remarque does not want to deal with actual facts, but rather

with the impacts of the war. Although, he says that the book is neither an accusation nor a

confession, after reading it, it becomes obvious that it is indeed both. Eksteins states that

Remarque confesses his personal despair, and accuses the wrong social and political order

that produced the war and the horror that came with it. (351) His point is that there were

soldiers who returned home, however, they were mentally destroyed by their experiences.

They could never be the same people they were before. As Ekstein puts it into words: the

war has destroyed the ties, psychological, moral, and real, between the front generation and

society at home. (351)

Throughout the novel there are many scenes that are intended to show this irreversible

change in soldiers, which makes it impossible for them to return to their homes and live their

lives as they lived before the war. This is showed through the example of the main character,

Paul Buman, who might be based on Remarque himself, whose middle name was originally

Paul (Eksteins 347).

The most obvious change that the comrades go through is growing up. Paul and his

classmates are 18 years old, and when we get to know them they are on the front for about 2

years. But they are not young anymore. We are none of us more than twenty years old. But


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young? Youth? That is long ago. We are old folk. (Remarque 19) This topic comes up later

as well, when thinking about what has happened since they are at the front: We were

eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first

bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. (66)

Paul describes the change on the front a couple of times as becoming animals: we

reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals. (Remarque

44) Soldiers do not think any more, because if they did, they would go insane. They become

mindless killing-machines. It is not against men that we fling our bombs, what do we know

of men in this moment when Death is hunting us down. (83) At least, they try not to think

about killing, because if they do, it reminds them of their mortality. It happens, when Paul

goes out spying after his days off, and stabs a French soldier (152) or when he catches the eye

of a soldier from the enemy (82).

The question of survival became their law: either the enemy or them and they cannot

let themselves pity the enemy: if we don't destroy them, they will destroy us. (Remarque

84) The comrades lost their feelings and emotions and that is how they are still able to go on

and kill. Otherwise, it would be impossible, and Paul perfectly describes this state of mind:

We have lost all feeling for one another. We can hardly control ourselves when our glance

lights on the form of some other man. We are insensible, dead men, who through some trick,

some dreadful magic, are still able to run and to kill. (84)

In contrast with the animal-metaphor, while they totally alienate from their natural

self, nature and animals live their normal life. Seasons are changing, animals are building

their nests and then hatch the eggs. There are some brimstone-butterflies, although there are

no flowers (Remarque 93). Seeing the normal life of nature, the horror of war and the changes

it brought seem even more unnatural and abnormal.


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Another contrast is the one between quiet and noise. The normal life is quiet. When

Paul remembers some nice memories, he says that they are always quiet, even if they were

louder in reality. But at the front there is no quietness. (Remarque 91) When Paul is

spending his days off, he is frightened by the noisy of the tram. Sudden noises will always

mean the war for him, even if there is peace.

Home becomes alien and strange. Paul does not feel what he used to feel. He tries

really hard, but he cannot get that feeling again. Nothing has changed, but him. Even he

knows that: I find I do not belong here any more, it is a foreign world. (Remarque 120).

The front is their new home. It has its own rules and its own value system, where they do not

have any comfort, but their comrades. They are more to me than life, these voices, they are

more than motherliness and more than fear; they are the strongest, most comforting thing

there is anywhere: they are the voices of my comrades. Berkley also emphasizes that the

friendship with Kat, who became the most important person in the life of Paul (71).

When Paul returns home, first he does not even know how to behave. No one can

understands him. Even if they know what is going on at the front, they are unable to grasp it.

When Pauls mother is asking her son, if it was really bad out there, he thinks:

Mother, what should I answer to that! You would not understand, you could

never realise it. And you never shall realise it. Was it bad, you ask.--You,

Mother,--I shake my head and say: "No, Mother, not so very. There are

always a lot of us together so it isn't so bad." (Remarque 115)

Even those, who are the closest to Paul cannot understand the horror of the war. Only those

can who are out there fighting and lived through it (Delahunty and Yoo 923).

This not-understanding is even worse in the case of strangers. When Paul meets his

German teacher, and the head-master of his school, they seem to understand even less. Paul

tries to explain them how bad the situation is, but his efforts are in vain. These two people


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only laugh, and think that they can win with a little more effort. They say they understand, but

they would not say things like that, if they really could.(Remarque 118).

Returning their previous life is impossible for the soldiers, because they gained

characteristics that are essential to survival and war. Things without which, they would go

insane or die, but attributes that are not only useless in normal life, but make life much harder.

Remarque also gives these words into Pauls mouth: We became hard, suspicious, pitiless,

vicious, tough - and that was good; for these attributes were just what we lacked. Had we

gone into the trenches without this period of training most of us would certainly have gone

mad. (Remarque 24) The soldiers does not realize but the war was the meaning of their

lives (Delahunty and Yoo 925), which loses its meaning the minute they return home.

The other thing that Remarque wants to prove is that war is meaningless. There is a

scene in the book, when one of Pauls comrades called Kropp is wondering about this. He

implies that both countries think that are right and that they are the only one that is right. He is

also thinking about why the war started. Someone says it is patriotism, because one country

offended the other, but Kropp reaches the conclusion that it still does not make sense because

he personally not offended (Remarque 142-145). These people are those that give the

commands that influences the lives of all the soldiers: A word of command has made these

silent figures our enemies; a word of command might transform them into our friends. (146)

At an earlier point, the comrades are daydreaming about a war where only the actual parties

would take part: Then in the arena the ministers and generals of the two countries, dressedin bathing-drawers and armed with clubs, can have it out among themselves. Whoever

survives, his country wins. (32)

Paul gradually starts to understand the impacts of the war on himself, and sometimes,

he is thinking about them. He already knows what he would experience going back to society,

and he puts it into words a couple of times. In the last chapter he concludes: Now if we go


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back we will be weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope. We will not be able to

find our way any more. (Remarque 199) It is the way Remarque wants to emphasize it. He

does not only show it in action, but also gives the actual words into Pauls mouth.

Paul symbolizes the average soldier. He got conscripted from high school at the age of

18. He is believable, sensitive, and intelligent but not remarkably different from his

companions. (Berkley 71) He is gradually changing, as he sees his friend die, then himself

kills an another soldier by stabbing him. This is a change that might slow down when he goes

home, but it cannot be turned back.

The structure of the book also highlights the meaninglessness of the war. Berkley says

that there is no real plot, the book is written in journalistic style. There are some recurrent

images (such as eating or bombings), which makes the novel rather a circular narrative then

one that consists of causes and effects. It reflects the nature of the war that it is unpredictable,

and pointless. (71) The first person singular narration and the present tense evoke immediacy

that is also a feature of war. Also the language and the gruesome images reflect the horror of

the war (Eksteins 350).

Even though, the main character and his friends are German, it is not very much

emphasized. They could be French, as well as English or Americans. It does not matter,

because results of the war are the same for all country. A generation that grew up in the war,

survived it, but is mentally destroyed, it is the common fate of our generation. (Remarque

65)

To summarize, Erich Maria Remarques purpose with this book was showing how

pointless the war is, and how it destroys even those who survive it. All Quiet on the Western

Front is not only a description of the war, but also an accusation of the order that makes

people kill each other. The authors point is very clear, he emphasizes it in the scenes of the

book, characters say it out loud, and even the novels structure and style highlights it.


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Works Cited

Berkley, June. "Recommended: Erich Maria Remarque." National Council of Teachers of

English 75.5 (1986): 71-72.JSTOR. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

Delahunty, Robert J., and John C. Yoo. "Peace through Law? The Failure of a Noble

Experiment." The Michigan Law Review Association 106.6 (2008): 923-39.JSTOR. Web. 20

Mar. 2013.

Eksteins, Modris. "All Quiet on the Western Front and the Fate of a War." Journal of

Contemporary History 15.2 (1980): 345-66.JSTOR. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

Remarque, Erich Maria.All Quiet on the Western Front. London: Putnam & Company Ltd.,

1970. Print

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All Quiet on the Western Front Essay