Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel that deals with the reality of war. In the novel, the terrible experiences of Paulclimbeder, the protagonist, and the people he is with dispel any glorious notions of war. The anti-war themes explored in the novel include the impact of the war on the soldiers and the futility of war. The impact of the war on the young men fighting in it is particularly relevant as Paul and his comrades are fighting in it. At the beginning of the book, before the first chapter, it says “This book. will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped death, were destroyed by the war.” This is the “lost generation,” which refers to those who came of age during the First World …show more content…
At certain points throughout the book, they discuss what will happen after the war. Although some of them had jobs that they will return to, most have difficulty imagining what will happen during peacetime or if peacetime will ever happen. At one point in the novel, Paul is given leave to return to his family temporarily. However, he feels alienated from civilian life: “A sense of strangeness will not leave me, I cannot feel at home amongst these things” (160). He feels awkward when talking to his family members, and it’s implied he feels more comradery with his friends at the front than his family. The war has distanced him from everything he once knew and robbed him of a peaceful coming of age. Another theme is the futility of war. The novel shows how war involves horrific amounts of death and destruction that doesn’t achieve anything that comes close to being worth the cost. In chapter 6, “attacks alternate with counter-attacks and slowly the dead pile up in the field of craters between the trenches” (124). Both sides are fighting each other without any progress, but as the fighting continues more and more soldiers are

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Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front