War is never a pretty thing. We’re separated by the ones we love, lose the ones we care about, and forget who we were before it all began. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, it proves just that when a group of soldier’s lives are completely turned around due to the effects of war. The narrator and protagonist of the book Paul Baumer, persuaded by his schoolmaster Kantorek, volunteers for the war at the tender age of nineteen with friends Kropp, Muller and Leer, hoping to be considered courageous once he joins the war. Kantorek often calls them the iron youth because he describes their efforts as brave and heroic.
Remarque uses the First World War as a primary setting in All Quiet on the Western Front to show the frontline experiences of Paul Baumer, an 18-year-old recruit for the German army who loses his innocence through his experiences in war. The opening of the novel juxtaposes the instances Paul considers “wonderfully good” (7) with instances of pure terror and fear on the battlefields of France, forcing him to become “hard, suspicious, pitiless, vicious, tough…” (26). Remarque uses the battlefield’s unrelenting violence to communicate a sense of terror amongst the soldiers in his vivid depictions of “shells, gas clouds, and flotillas of tanks – shattering, corroding, death. Dysentary, influenza, typhus – scalding, choking, death. Trenches,
All Quiet on the Western Front Almost 100 years ago every continent, every country, all the people and children in them experienced World War I. The novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, is narrated by Paul Bäumer, who gives his feelings and reactions during the war. He thought there was no point to return home after war because of how much he had experienced and all his thoughts about life had changed drastically. He says, “We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves.
Denisse Peralta Period 2 All Quiet on the Western Front is a very famous novel about World War I. Written by Erich Maria Remarque, a veteran of the WW1, the book was banned in Nazi Germany because Hitler believed it portrayed the Wehrmacht (German military forces) in a bad manner. The novel is in Paul Baumer, a 19 year old soldier’s point of view, who is persuaded by his schoolmaster to join the army. He is stationed in the western front where he witnesses the horror and brutality of the war. War previous to this book did not seem so bad by comparison- soldiers stabbed or shot, blood here and there.
Wade Berrigan 5-26-07 The Moral Ambiguity of War In the novel Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Meyers, shows us many examples of soldiers struggling between making morale choices or staying alive. New soldiers look at other soldiers who have been in the war for a while as if they are sick soulless creatures killing everything in their way. Later we find these same characters that are doing the questioning doing the same thing. For example Perry wonders to himself how someone can die in front of them and no one remember it the following day. This shows his morals are still intact.
While violence and death are common elements in the film, the real propaganda message comes through during the slow progression of the protagonist Paul Baumer from a boy into a hardened soldier; the film warns of the loss of innocence and the crime that war inflicts on a boy's humanity, forever restricting his ability to regain his role as an average citizen. In this paper, the transformation of Paul Baumer and its effects will be critically analyzed to show the relationship to the overall anti-war propaganda message the filmmakers intended to produce. Throughout the film, Paul becomes increasingly more distant from his school days, eventually leading to his inability to cope with civilian life. Clearly, the most profound anti-war
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.
All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel dictating a view of World War I from the German’s side. Paul Baumer was the original narrator until the final page in which he passes. Before his passing the book showed a detailed account of his psychological hardships. The book shows these hardships in many ways, but the three that stood out to me were his time at the front, dealing with the new recruitments, and the many deaths of the soldiers. In all actuality “the front” seemed to be the most difficult for Paul to endure, it brought about several pains that burdened his mind and changed his outlook on life.
In paragraph two, when Hanks talks about the change that he goes through and wondering if his wife will even recognize him, he uses a much more depressed state of parallelism. The big mystery that he is in almost plays as a two-faced role, separating his battle experiences from his personal life back home. In the same paragraph, there is also a small quantity of amplification. Hanks says,”But over here it’s a big, a big mystery.” This amplification amplifies the fact that what these men are going through is indeed a life-altering ordeal. When he is talking about his big mystery, he is referring to his dedication to the war.
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.