The Role Of Iron Youth In All Quiet On The Western Front
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In "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque Paul's generation is referred to as the "Iron Youth". The idea is that the youth are strong patriotic soldier expressing their pride for their country by enlisting in the army. They have a single role to fulfil and once they are used up, they become either near impossible to fix or tossed away or recycled. The Term "Machine" can be used to describe the German youth that enlist in the army.
The "Iron" part of the youth is supposed to make the soldier unaffected by the horrors to come, in reality, they aren’t machines they are human being capable of feeling emotion and pain. They are the "Iron Youth" and will forever be the same as they are a generation bred for war and nothing but war. Their lives are for the war, and without war they are just rundown machines.…show more content… Weapons, vehicles, machines, everything was made of iron. The great thing about it is that the metal is cheap, abundant, and readily available. Once the iron has fulfilled its duty a number of things will happen to it, it might be fixable but chances are it will just be tossed away. The traditional soldier functions just like a machine. They both rely on an operator and have single purpose. The soldiers are just as abundant as iron is and therefore they aren’t care of, just used up and replaced. Similarly the two are cheap. Like buying milk, people in our country have no problem using up a jug of milk and buying a new one with no