Describe a Weighty Message in the novel All Quiet On The Western Front
“All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque is a powerful Anti-war novel portraying a weighty message of war’s deep effects on the human spirit. Set during WW1 the story revolves around a group of young German soldiers specifically through the eyes of young Paul Baumer who are fresh out of high school fresh with new ideas and able to live freely and their experiences on the brutal and unforgiving nature of the western front, Through vivid imagery descriptions and descriptive language.
Erich Maria Remarque was born on June 22, 1898, in Osnabruck, Germany and died on the 5th of September 1970, in Locarno, Switzerland. during his time Remarque fought in World War One and uses his experiences fighting to add an extra piece of personal experience to add to the reader’s sense of how the young men are feeling during the continuous fighting and noise or terror. Remarque vividly portrays the dehumanizing effects war has on soldiers. The constant exposure to violence, death and destruction stripes them from their humanity turning them into mere instruments of war.
The soldiers witness unimaginable horrors, endure physical and psychological trauma and become desensitised to human suffering. “Beside me a lance-corporal has his head torn off. He runs a few steps more while the blood spouts from his neck like a fountain.” This shows that the men are experiencing new ways of horror every day the many men who fought in World War One experienced terrifying things above the normal standard that no man should ever have to witness. During off times of combat, the men tend to develop a sense of humour for violence because they have witnessed so much of it, The soldiers make jokes about the numerous lines of coffins that have been laid before them to cover up the fact that those could be the exact coffins that they will be laid to rest in under 15 minutes.
In conclusion, this book perfectly defines the horrifying life the men lived under constant pressure and having to use their animal instincts just to keep them alive and the terrifying things they have witnessed on the Western Front.
