All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front

In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, he describes the horror, and actual factors of life of soldiers during World War I. It is in the words of a young, new, recruited soldier named Paul Baumer and how he goes through the phases of war with a few of his friends that include Kemmerich, Muller, Detering, Kropp, and Kat.

There are many themes depicted in this novel which make the book have meaning. One of the many themes include the horrors of war.

The horrors of war are represented a lot in this novel mainly because it is what the war is all about. One example includes, “The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more human wisdom. But the first death we saw shattered this belief”(pg.12). This quote is when Paul and his comrades finally get their first taste of what war is about. They feel betrayed by their elders who had convinced the young ones to join the army with lies that had no such connection to the actual war. In this it shows how the horrors of war change a mans perspective of what they are actually fighting for. And because of such a young age, they are shocked and frightened for what is yet to come for them.

Another quote from the book that signifies horrors of war is, “We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war”(pg.81-82). This quote is how Paul feels about the war now that he has experienced enough to realize it’s not what he expected. The war has cut off a lot of his friends lives and he explains how they were barely beginning to enjoy life, but the war ruined it.

Another quote that explains the horrors of war includes, “I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of...