Free Essays - All Quiet on the Western Front :: All Quiet on the Western Front Essays

Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front , is a novel set in World War I, and centers around the changes wrought by the war on one young German soldier. During his time in the war, Remarque's protagonist, Paul Baumer, changes from a rather innocent Romantic to a hardened and somewhat broken-in veteran. More importantly, during the course of this metamorphosis, Baumer disaffiliates himself from those societal icons—parents, elders, school, religion that had been the foundation of his pre-enlistment days. This rejection comes about as a result of Baumer's realization that the pre-enlistment society simply does not understand the reality of the Great War. His new society, then, becomes the Company, their fellow trench soldiers, because that is a group which does understand the truth as Baumer had experienced it. In All Quiet on the Western front the novel is told from the first person point of view, the reader can see how the words Baumer speaks are with his true feelings. In his preface to the novel, Remarque maintains that "a generation of men ... were destroyed by the war" (Remarque, All Quiet Preface). Baumer's closest comrades fall one after the other. The conditions in the German army are to harsh, they have no food, ammunition, moral is low they could not keep fighting. An important episode in the novel is when Baumer is issued a period of leave when he visits his home town. This leave is disastrous for Baumer because he realizes that he can not communicate with the people on the home front because of his military experiences and their limited, or nonexistent, understanding of the war. When he first enters his house, for example, Baumer is overwhelmed at being home. His joy and relief are such that he cannot speak; he can only weep (Remarque, All Quiet VII. 140). When he and his mother greet each other, he realizes immediately that he has nothing to say to her: "We say very little and I am thankful that she asks nothing" (Remarque, All Quiet VII. 141). But finally she does speak to him and asks, "'Was it very bad out there, Paul?'" (Remarque, All Quiet VII. 143). Here, when he answers, he lies, profusely to protect her from hearing of the chaotic conditions from which he has just returned. He thinks to himself, "Mother, what should I answer to that! You would not understand, you could never realize it.