FREE ESSAY ON ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

All Quiet on the Western Front 
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 innocents. 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. They need to know how to escape the shells as well as the emotional and
psychological torment of the war. The war takes an heavy toll on the soldiers who fight
in it. 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. Every hour and
everyday, every shell and every death cuts this thin [line of sanity], and the years
waste it rapidly. In these dangerous moments, anybody would have gone mad, have deserted
their post, or have fallen. It takes a special kind of soldier to deal with this
emotional abuse; a soldier who will not go to pieces at the sight of a mutilated body; it
takes a soldier like Baumer. Baumer has grown accustomed to it; war is the cause of death
like influenza and dysentery. The deaths are merely more frequent, more varied and
terrible. He has rid himself of all feelings and thoughts. His emotions lie buried in the
earth along with the soldiers who fell prey to them. His dullness protects him from going
mad at the sight a slaughtered comrade or butchered friend. 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. For the cost of life is the death of
his emotions, his survival depends on it. Every shell that falls, every shot that fires,
a soldier must face the possible certainty of death. To Baumer, death carries hand
grenades and a bayonet, and a rifle really to take what he has long protected-his life.
Whenever he looks into the eyes of an enemy soldier, he does not see a man, but sees
death staring back at him. What can you do but fight back? He can not and will not
coexist with you. It does not matter that he is a man of your same distinction; it does
not matter if he has a mother, a father, a sister or a brother. All that matters is that
he wants to take your life. The only way for you to live is to destroy him before he does
destroys you. Your salvation means his sacrifice. The life of a man is the price you pay
for your continual existence. Baumer would destroy him because he threatens his survival
and his survival is most important. We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers-we reach
the zone where the front begins and become on the instant animals. The fate of Baumer and
the fate of all soldiers depends on their faith in their primal instincts. The menace of
death has transformed us into unthinking animals in order to give us the weapon of
instinct... His instinct protects him from the madness and the horror of mutilation. He
says ...We have become wild beasts. We do not fight... we defend ourselves against
annihilation. It is survival of the fittest; killed or be killed. Baumer not only
believes this but also reinforces this idea with every shot he that fires and every man
he that kills. They are different men here, men I cannot properly understand, whom I envy
and despise. This is how Baumer feels, he cannot relate with men who have not fought the
war. They are disillusioned by the war because they have not experienced it. And of that
you are not able to judge. You see only your little sector and so cannot have any general
survey. They believe they can command the war without personal fighting in it. Baumer and
all soldiers are different, changed from when they entered the war. We will not be able
to find our way any more. They are the lost generation; they dread the end of the war
almost as they dread wound and death. They have nothing to forward to but years of rage.
They have experienced the horrors of war but not experienced enjoys of life. They will be
pushed aside and forgotten and the years will past, and in the end they will fall into
ruin. All Quiet on the Western Front tries to explain the purpose of war and its
uselessness. It is a story of an almost obliterated generation that fought for nothing
but the principle of hate. Change the names, and it could have been the tale of a
Frenchman, an Englishman, or an American. It is perhaps the most tragic generation our
human records tell of. It bears the overwhelming accent of simple truth that makes you
wonder why war still exists. May 11, 1998 English III Honors