Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

Erich Maria Remarque’s writing was greatly influenced by his military background. Erich was recruited into the German Army during World War I at the age of 18. As well as serving in the military, Remarque held many careers, including a librarian, businessman, and a writer. In 1928, he published his best known novel All Quiet on the Western Front. The novel was about how the continual stresses of war changed soldiers’ perception of the world, leaving them numb to life outside of the battlefield. Injuries separating the company, the constant struggle for food, and threat of death kept any sense of normal life a fading memory. Injuries separating the company was demonstrated in this novel a plethora of amount of times. Starting from the first word in All Quiet on the Western Front to the last, there are many injuries that the soldiers suffered. In chapter one, a full company of one hundred and fifty men results in only 80 strong, after Englishmen fired high-explosives on the Germans during a fourteen day war. In addition, a solider named Kemmerich is injured in the war, who now …show more content…
In chapter six, the men pass a shelled schoolhouse and there, stacked, are brand-new coffins. As the men make jokes about it, they understand that these coffins are made for them. As for the end of the chapter, these coffins are proved to be necessary. In chapter 11, the men think of war as an illness; the front is very bitter…Paul begins to think of it like cancer or tuberculosis. He begins to appreciate every moment of life as it is unpredictable. Anything can happen. And as it goes for anything, even the most unlikeliest person, Katczinsky is shot in the thigh and later dies. You live every moment and don't know what could happen and what to expect. In this novel, the men learned to not take anything for granted and that the threat of death is lurking around in the mist of

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Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front