All Quiet on the Western Front
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 t!hem, 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
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 wonderful memories of Paul's to turn into somethi! ng that is no longer really part of him, he is separated from his past life. As he would have been separated in his future life had he survived the war. What was left of Paul's generation at the end of the war had a very hard time fitting back into the society that they once belonged to. They could no longer find comfort in the words of their countries leaders. They could no longer relate to the world around them. They also had no clue as how to relate to people emotionally and physically. In the war, they would have never survived if they had not been able to separate themselves from what they were doing and they will never be able to regain that pa
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1158
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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