Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

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Lying in cold water, waist deep, waiting for the next shot, the young German foot soldier lives in a brutal world in WWI. Paul Baumer’s is a lowly German soldier. He is twenty years old. Baumer , sees his friends slaughtered in battle; many from his hometown. Eventually injured himself, Paul’s struggles on a different battlefield, and returns home. His inability to adjust to civilian life is frightening. Ideas have no meaning. Returned to duty on the frontlines, Paul describes the forces dwindling even more. In just a breath away from the armistice; Paul dies. War is not glorious. Remarque’s, All Quiet on the Western Front Is a timeless classic. Told from the perspective of a German foot soldier in WWI, Paul Baumer’s story is emotionally…show more content…
It is. Yet, I think it is more. All Quiet on the Western Front remains contemporary because it shows not only the war, but the unintended social consequences of survivors who are physically and emotionally destroyed. For example, "Bombardment, barrage, curtain-fire, mines, gas, tanks, machine-guns, hand-grenades--words, words, words, but they hold the horror of the world." Chapter 6, pg. 132. Remarque destroys the concept of military heroes, the glory of battle, and the notion of the happy warrior. Man in a lost and fallen state with no future introduces the 20c; this is the modern…show more content…
He once was innocent and viewed the world as an open space waiting for ideas improving mankind. This is what he is taught in school. Until a jingoistic teacher pressures him into signing up for the glorious war effort, Paul was a bright young man. Only a few years later, the bright young man becomes an isolated and mentally wounded young man. Upon returning home for a brief time, Baumer realizes he is out of sync with his mother, family, and town. Mentally destroyed by the reality of war; ideas lose meaning. Books are of no interest to him. He knows he can never go back to this kind of life. “Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear. The life that has borne me through these years is still in my hands and my eyes. Whether I have subdued it, I know not. But so long as it is there it will seek its own way out, heedless of the will that is within me." Chapter 12, pg. 295; Baumer’s humanity. This is perhaps the most frightening moment for me as I read this book. Here is where Remarque excels. Contemporary society is asking our men to fight, but what becomes of them afterward? How can they cope? Life seems to pass before their eyes and they don’t live here anymore. Baumer return’s to the
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