1. What attitude does Remarque exhibit toward World War I? Does he condemn war or glorify it? Erich Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front absolutely condemns war. The entire story is a constant reminder of the true horror that young soldiers on every side of the fight face each and every moment while at war.
Charles Yale Harrison’s novel Generals Die in Bed strips away the misconception that war and is glorious and in doing so strongly conveys to the reader the horrible reality that was the First World War Harrison emphasises the harshness of this reality through the constant bombardment of gruesome and desensitising events experienced by the Narrator. The dramatic degree of different between the fictional views held by the public and the truth is highlighted by the contrast of the soldier’s experiences and society’s false impressions. Furthermore the novel shows war for what it truly is, a dominant force with the power to consume, transform and scar all that stands in it’s way. Through GDIB the reader is given a raw and truthful depiction of the
Eric Bogle’s poem, The Green Fields of France, depicts the detrimental effects of war on individuals and the society. The use of hyperbole in, “The killing and dying was all done in vain…whole generation that were butchered and damned,” reflects how the society was ripped apart due to the death of loved ones, which lead to an unhealthy community. It further explains that families had to go through so much grief and anxiety for a war that did not achieve anything. Likewise, Bogle demonstrates the pointlessness of the war. “…Did they really believe that this war would end wars…it all happened again, and again, and again,” this use of rhetorical question and repetition emphasises the anti-war sentiment that both Bogle and Dawe capture.
The book “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque is a novel which although very profound and harrowing, depicts the story of a young German soldier, Paul Baumer, during World War I. The novel was written to reflect the horrific nature of war, and to illustrate some of the effects which it has on individuals who are embroiled in it. The novel illustrates the process of war through the eyes of a young man, who initially believes, along with his friends, that war is a glorious conflict however this viewpoint begins to change during the course of the novel. This paper has been written to provide a comprehensive critique of the book and to demonstrate an understanding of whether the writer succeeded in their aims, and it will also present a thesis about the book. The thesis which will be investigated and illustrated is how Paul Baumer is representative of the Lost Generation, and that his character development throughout the book reflects this change in attitudes towards war of the young men who went to fight in World War I.
All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel about World War I. It is narrated by Paul Bäumer, who is the main character. Paul discusses how his life changed instantly after witnessing the horrors of war life. This novel brings up many aspects of the effects of war. The element that really stood out from this novel was how ordinary everyday matters were highlighted.
Paul Baumer, the narrator, starts off with him and the other members of the Second Company, a unit of German soldiers, recovering after being taken back after two weeks of fighting in the front line. He reveals that only eighty soldiers from the original company of hundred fifty man were left after the last attack. Paul introduces himself and his fellow soldiers Leer, Muller, and Kropp - all nineteen years of age. All four boys were from the same class in school and each enlisted in the army as volunteers. He also introduces their close friends Tjaden, a locksmith that eats a lot and remains thin, Haie Westhus (also nineteen of age), a peat-digger, and Katczinsky, a forty year old soldier - the unofficial leader of Paul’s small group of comrades.
In the book “All Quiet on the Western Front” Paul Baumer tells that the war is a dehumanizing experience. I on the other hand believe that the hardships of war make the soldiers become more human. In the book Paul not only talks about his and others experiences in the frontline but also about their home front. War makes young soldiers see real human life. Soldiers throughout the war are constantly exposed to death, so that it becomes a part of their normal day to day life.
The Horrors of War War has been around for many centuries from the very moment man started to become civilized. War has always been brutal and ruthless from the past all the way to the present. The epigraph of Erich Maria Remarque’s novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” states an accurate statement about war always leaving a soldier physically and emotionally destroyed. One main reason that makes this story so good, besides it being story of how life of a soldier is, is that it is being told in a first-person point of view. Remarque did an excellent job explaining the dangers soldiers had to go through.
Throughout the story, Paul develops from a child-minded youth to a mature yet disturbed adult. In the last few sentences an omniscient narrator replaces Baumer and announces, “He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front.” By the saying of “all quiet” the narrator seems to say that Baumer’s death appears so insignificant, as with many other deaths, that a reporting did not exist. In All Quiet on the Western Front, the men sacrifice everything for nothing. They give up their lives for a set of ideals that are either incomprehensible or false. Corrupt idealistic governments, assembled individual men like pawns and threw them into trenches of hell with their enemies.
Reid Fuhr Mr. Laughary World Cultures Honors English 10 March 7, 2012 pAll Quiet on the Western Front War changes people. In All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Baumer, a German soldier during the Great War, is changed. As the war rages on, Paul begins to live in a more modernist way. In the war novel, Paul Baumer’s failure of language and pessimism leads to his quiet and calm death. Receiving 17 days of leave, Paul travels to his hometown, knowing he must go see Kemmerich’s mother, “I was beside him.