Using flashbacks Remarque recalls Paul’s school experiences with his teacher Kantorek who, in his speeches of German nationalism, convinced Paul and his classmates to join the ranks and fight for his country. The school is not depicted as a “safe” and nurturing to young men, but rather an institution founded on structure and civic duty that breeds future soldiers blinded by idealism. Even at home, no one is safe from the dangers of war and the battlefield. Throughout much of the novel Paul recalls his experiences in the classroom with fondness, but neglects to recognize how his inevitable fate in the war is directly tied to the influence Kantorek’s classroom rhetoric. Even more impactful to Paul’s experience, perhaps in a negative way, are Paul’s journeys home during the war.
On top of their horrible conditions, there was food, clothing, supplies, and weapon shortage. This novel truly describes how soldiers die and in what true conditions they are when in war. This book made you want to hate Germany because these young boys were in a hell hole and all authority ignored them. Even though this book was published before all Nazi violence broke out against Jews, it still seemed like a threat. The world looked at Germany as a very powerful country especially when it came to war, and this book screamed the opposite.
Other character as well, but I think he represents the most of the characters in the book. First, when he got the letter saying that he should join the army and go to the war, he was so afraid and he didn’t want to give up everything that he had and go to the pointless war, so he planned to run away from home to Canada. But then when he was almost there, he realizes that it’s not the matter of if he wants to or not. He thought about the family that he left, the patriotic town people, and all of his memories there. He couldn’t just run away from his home leaving all the things behind him, and also he didn’t want the town people to talk about him.
The men worry they will not live a normal life because of the horrific experiences and horrors of war. To survive war, Paul Baumer and his fellow soldiers behaved like animals, which in turn created a more dehumanizing experience. The young 19 year old soldiers are forced to join the war unaware that they have to change their lifestyles. Remarque indicates that the only way for a soldier to survive war is to turn off their mind and operate solely on instinct, making them less like human and more like animals. “By the animal instinct that is awakened in us we are led and protected.
English 2 H, P. 4 20 January 2012 War’s warping ways: Analysis of Remarque's Use of Imagery to Demonstrate the Destructiveness of War in His Novel, All Quiet on the Western Front George McGovern opines, “I’m fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.” Young men’s lives forever change by entering battles which they do not comprehend. Older men who declare war easily sacrifice innocent lives. Similarly, in Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, nineteen year old Paul Baumer departs for the German Army. He becomes a victim of war, sentenced to death by government officials who persuade him and many other young men into fighting battles for their own essential needs. Paul and his comrades enlist as fresh creatures of the world that change due to the abhorrence in World War One.
We have drug wars, riots, and personal wars; and these go on every day of our lives, most going un-known except by the people it directly affects. I am terrified to have to live in the trenches where you would never have a bath and there are rats and other animals running around the place, and having the thought in your head there you probably going to die and never seeing your children, family, friends, love ones ever again, and the thought that you have to kill other people just to
David Zheng Mr. Gutmann AP literature November 27, 2012 The Impact of The First Person Narrative Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, a fictional account of the Great War, articulates the individual’s struggle against overbearing forces outside of his realm of control. The various countries involved in the complex war, especially Germany, blindly lodge into a conflict so grand that a “lost generation” conceives. The corrupt yet patriotic members of the older generation in Germany impose their fatalistic ideals on the younger generation, which inevitably crumbles under the gruesome nature of war. In the wake of the soldiers walks death, which garners fear in them to the extent of taking up violence as a means to extinguish it. Remarque employs the first person narrative and allows readers to follow the accounts of Paul Baumer, an
In 1914, men were expected to go to war and fight for their country, they were expected to be brave and couragous, they did not understand psycological problems. Talking about and expressing their feelings was considered a 'feminine' thing to do, at the time it was concidered that 'men who broke down, or cried, or admitted to fear, were sissies, weaklings, failures. Not men'. This idea of what is was to be a man is shown through the character of Prior's father, he shows the common sterotype of what it was to be a man in this time. His view on parenting is that 'you've got to toughen 'em up', he decribes how Prior came home crying once after being picked on, and Mr Prior decided 'i've had enough of this' and gave him a 'backhander and shoved him out the door'.
As they re-emerge into civilization, they struggle to establish a personal identity or a place in society because they lack the proper education or job skills. In addition, there are no supportive groups to help them find their way, which makes them feel even more isolated, unappreciated, and exploited for serving their country. This scenario is similar to what many Vietnam veterans have felt in their transition from battle to home, and as a result, they faced many struggles in their post-war lives. War has always had a profound effect on those who
Despite the constant threat of enemy fire, everyone there have to struggle for food, deal with the lack of trained replacement troops, and the large possibility of death. The book highlights just how horrendous a battle can be out at war. It reveals that in a battle people are really blew to bits. For instance, in one of the fights Paul observes just how badly people were being wounded. He sees his comrades legs, arms, heads being blew apart.