Transformations Through War (all quiet on the western front)

A detailed Summary of Transformations Through War (all quiet on the western front)

The novel All Quiet on the Western Front depicts World War I, the most devastating war up until its time. The author Erich Maria Remarque gets across a few forceful themes. Perhaps the strongest theme is the transformations that war induces. All Quiet demonstrates through the character Paul, that going through war transforms many different things. It changes a society and individuals in many ways. War can have a temporary positive effect but for the most part it corrupts everyone involved. The way that war can have a slightly positive outcome is through changing how people view war. It distorts things by making humans act primitively, changing the way they see life, and by corrupting a society.

There are a few ways that war can improve the way a person sees things. One slightly positive effect of war is that it can change people's patriotic outlook on killing people. Before going to war everyone has a positive view of what war is. All Quiet demonstrates this when Paul reminisces back to when he was going to enroll. He talks about how one of his teachers had influenced him and his friends to participate in the war. The teacher influences them by telling them what an honor it is to fight for you

r country and how everyone will look up to them. When they actually got out there and were fighting they saw that it's not worth it for their country. "It's queer when one thinks about it, we are here to protect our fatherland. And the French are over there to protect their fatherland. Now who's in the right?" Knowing that the other countries are there for the same reason as they are makes them question what they're fighting for. It's horrible that it had to get to the point of war, but at least sooner or later the soldiers have to realize that what they're doing is not for a good cause.

Another meager positive effect also has to do with the way that the soldiers change how they see things. It ties in with not justifying killing someone because of patriotism. Before being in war everyone has hate for the people that they are going to fight. They have no problem with killing because they have their entire nation on their side. At some point while in combat every soldier has to notice that they are killing people the same as them. A character in All Quiet says, "I had never seen a Frenchman before I came here, and it will be just the same with the majority of Frenchman in regards to us. They weren't asked about it any more than we were." They realize that these people probably don't want to be killing them anymore than they do. This shows a significant transformation in the way people think.

War transforms a variety of things. There can be positive results but the negative ones over rule them by far. War is not worth any of the pain, anguish, and corruption that it causes. Using Paul as a vehicle Remarque illustrates this beautifully. He

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Approximate Word count = 1114
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels