Essay/Term paper: All quiet on the western front

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Cliff Notes

Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the

greatest war novels of all time. It is a story, not of Germans, but of

men, who even though they may have escaped shells, were

destroyed by the war. The entire purpose of this novel is to

illustrate the vivid horror and raw nature of war and to change the

popular belief that war is an idealistic and romantic character. The

story centers on Paul Baümer, who enlists in the German army with

glowing enthusiasm. But in the course of war, he is consumed by it

and in the end is "weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without

hope." Through Baümer, Remarque examines how war makes man

inhuman. He uses excellent words and phrases to describe crucial

details to this theme. "The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in

our hearts." Baümer and his classmates who enlisted into the army

see the true reality of the war. They enter the war fresh from school,

knowing nothing except the environment of hopeful youth and they

come to a premature maturity with the war, their only home. "We

were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had

to shoot it to pieces. We are not youth any longer." They have lost

their innocents. Everything they are taught, "the world of work,

duty, culture, and progress" are not the slightest use to them

because the only thing they need to know is how to survive. They

need to know how to escape the shells as well as the emotional and

psychological torment of the war. The war takes an heavy toll on the

soldiers who fight in it. The terror of death will infest the minds of

soldiers and bring about horrible images of death and destruction

until they break down and go to pieces. "Every hour and everyday,

every shell and every death cuts this thin [line of sanity], and the

years waste it rapidly." In these dangerous moments, anybody

would have gone mad, have deserted their post, or have fallen. It

takes a special kind of soldier to deal with this emotional abuse; a

soldier who will not go to pieces at the sight of a mutilated body; it

takes a soldier like Baümer. Baümer has "grown accustomed to it;

war is the cause of death like influenza and dysentery. The deaths

are merely more frequent, more varied and terrible." He has rid

himself of all feelings and thoughts. His emotions lie buried in the

earth along with the soldiers who fell prey to them. His dullness

protects him from going mad at the sight a slaughtered comrade or

butchered friend. He wants to live at all costs so "every expression

of his life must serve one purpose and one purpose only,

preservation of existence, and he is absolutely focused on that." For

the cost of life is the death of his emotions, his survival depends on

it. Every shell that falls, every shot that fires, a soldier must face the

possible certainty of death. To Baümer, death carries hand grenades

and a bayonet, and a rifle really to take what he has long

protected-his life. Whenever he looks into the eyes of an enemy

soldier, he does not see a man, but sees death staring back at him.

What can you do but fight back? He can not and will not coexist

with you. It does not matter that he is a man of your same

distinction; it does not matter if he has a mother, a father, a sister or

a brother. All that matters is that he wants to take your life. The only

way for you to live is to destroy him before he does destroys you.

Your salvation means his sacrifice. The life of a man is the price you

pay for your continual existence. Baümer would destroy him

because he threatens his survival and his survival is most important.

"We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers-we reach the zone

where the front begins and become on the instant animals." The fate

of Baümer and the fate of all soldiers depends on their faith in their

primal instincts. "The menace of death has transformed us into

unthinking animals in order to give us the weapon of instinct..." His

instinct protects him from the madness and the horror of mutilation.

He says "...We have become wild beasts. We do not fight... we

defend ourselves against annihilation." It is survival of the fittest;

killed or be killed. Baümer not only believes this but also reinforces

this idea with every shot he that fires and every man he that kills.

"They are different men here, men I cannot properly understand,

whom I envy and despise." This is how Baümer feels, he cannot

relate with men who have not fought the war. They are disillusioned

by the war because they have not experienced it. "And of that you

are not able to judge. You see only your little sector and so cannot

have any general survey." They believe they can command the war

without personal fighting in it. Baümer and all soldiers are different,

changed from when they entered the war. "We will not be able to

find our way any more." They are the lost generation; they dread

the end of the war almost as they dread wound and death. They

have nothing to forward to but years of rage. They have

experienced the horrors of war but not experienced enjoys of life.

They will be pushed aside and forgotten and the years will past, and

in the end they will fall into ruin. All Quiet on the Western Front

tries to explain the purpose of war and its uselessness. It is a story

of an almost obliterated generation that fought for nothing but the

principle of hate. Change the names, and it could have been the tale

of a Frenchman, an Englishman, or an American. It is perhaps the

most tragic generation our human records tell of. It bears the

overwhelming accent of simple truth that makes you wonder why

war still exists. May 11, 1998 English III Honors