“It’s All Quiet On The Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque Book Review

Erich Maria Remarque was a famous German writer, whose works were mostly devoted to the theme of the life of usual people after the end of the World War I. The writer was born to a lower-middle-class family and was taken to the German army, which without any doubts had serious impact upon both his personality and his life position, as well as his writings. Ten years later after the end of the war, he produced his famous writing All Quiet on the Western Front, telling the readers about the life and experiences of usual German soldiers. The war times had certainly serious impact upon Remarque and his views, this was the reason, why he was blamed for his lack of patriotism, as he didn’t support Nazis. Upon publishing of his All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque had to flee to Switzerland. The central figure of the novel is Paul Baeumer, being the mouthpiece of the impressions and feelings of Remarque after the war; Paul’s personal feelings and desires are to the same extend contrasted to the surrounding reality, as they were of the author during that period and this was the reason, why he was considered to belong to the so-called lost generation.

Paul has a lot of memories, which serve the proofs of his other life before the war, revealing absolutely different individual. However, the story is told by the despairing soldier, lacking optimism and moral strength. It is difficult to imagine that before the war this young man was able to write poetry and appreciated his family. The war changed him in the same way it managed to change thousands of other ordinary soldiers, making him learn to separate his emotional state from his actual physical condition, banning any kind of expression of his emotions and concentrate purely upon the only aim in his life – surviving. As time passes, a young man, who used to be loving and sensitive, doesn’t express any emotions near his dead friends, finds no comfort among his family members and is not even able to talk about his moral and psychological problems and concerns, which were all related to the war. The war became an integral part of his life and it is utterly difficult for him to imagine his future life without it, he doesn’t know any more, how he wants his life to be built. In order to describe better the moral state of his protagonist Remarque used the phrase “human animal”, comparing the soldiers with animals, who are following their instincts and living only for the sake of killing other species around them and surviving themselves.

At the same time Paul is not like all the rest soldiers, probably because of his natural sensitivity and character. This is the reason, why it is utterly difficult for him to separate his feelings and emotions from his mind. With the help of such moments, as death of Kat, time, spent with his mother, who is sick, death of Kemmerich the author provided the perfect examples of this in order to pass these emotions to the readers and make them at least partially penetrate into the world, Paul was living in. Paul is ready to acknowledge it himself that those events have devastating and ruining effect upon his moral state, when he said that although parting with his close friends was hard for him, he got used to such things during the war.

The experiences and feelings of Paul could be in a way generalized and be related to the whole generation of men, living after the war, which was called lost generation. This is the reason, why Paul is not talking about his personal past and future, rather in the frames of the whole generation, because those people, who became adults during the war, would be absolutely lost after its end, not knowing what to do further in their lives and which direction to go.

 

Works cited:

Remarque, E., M. All Quiet on the Western Front. Vintage; New Ed edition, 1996

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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