all quiet on the western fron
All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, is an anti-war novel from the opening chapters. Many people did not want to believe his novel represented the truth about World War I. In many ways, people were like Paul's schoolmaster, Kantorek, and they wanted to cling to classical, romantic notions of war. However, Remarque wrote his novel specifically to shatter those idealistic illusions. The young enage men who enlisted in the army on both sides often never recovered from their horrific experiences. They returned home with shattered minds and shattered bodies to an impoverished, ravaged civilian population that often regarded them as unpleasant reminders of a war they wanted to forget. Many civilians were unable to believe that the soldiers suffered horrors far greater than what they had suffered. Many veterans could not talk about their experiences because they were unspeakable. They were the victims, but they were also the killers. What had been done to them, they had done to others as well. There are many reasons that the generation of men who entered their young adulthood during the war is called "the lost generation." The Great War seemed utterly senseless. Countries slid unknowingly into a conflict th
Around this same time is when Paul realizes that they are not fighting this war for themselves, they do not believe in it, the fight it because that is what their politicians and generals wanted them to. The empty words of the people who are supposed to comfort the country in a time of need no longer mean anything to the ones that are actually fighting the war. The men in the war and the bystanders of the war have completely different views as to what is going on, no one really understands the other one's problems. It is difficult to estimate the scale of The Great War's casualties. Many of the dead were never buried in marked graves. They lay and rotted in the trenches or in the No Man's Land between the trenches. Turning off their emotions and becoming violent killing beasts was the only way that these men survived the brutality of the war. Paul's generation has no other way to deal with their actions other than to shut off their emotions and feel no remorse. The problem with shutting off their emotions is once they are shut off they can never regain them. Things that once moved them or touched them are now just a hollow past that is cloudy and hard to recognize, their happy, carefree pasts seem like dreams. Paul realizes how much he has changed and that his emotions are non-existent when he goes home on leave. He feels out of place at his own home and does not know how to react to people, they do not understand, only his comrades know. His collection of books that use to mean so much and touch him are in Paul's words, "Words, Words, Words-they do not reach me." He says that he is a soldier and he must cling to that. Paul also says that, "Images float through my mind, but they do not grip me, they are mere shadows and memories." The war is what caused these won
Some common words found in the essay are:
Man's Land, World War, Paul Paul, Paul Images, Maria Remarque, Words Words-they, paul's generation, fighting war, paul's schoolmaster kantorek, politicians generals, paul's comrades, generation war, schoolmaster kantorek, paul realizes, paul's schoolmaster, people pushed, words words,
Approximate Word count = 1206
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
