All Quiet On The Western Front: The Effects Of War Warning, Long Read Essay and has spoilers

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In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque progressively shows the brutality of war through the eyes of soldiers claiming their innocence. Remarque describes the war as a beastly adversary to these soldiers; furthermore he depicts the killing of enemy soldiers as a game for the Germans. Throughout the duration of the book, Paul Baumer, the main character, is portrayed as a once innocent adult that becomes emotionally desensitized by the war. The goal of All Quiet on the Western Front is to show how unromantic war truly is. War novels are known for emphasizing honor, glory, and patriotism, but Remarque contradicts all these points, showing the true colors of war. Through the soldiers, Remarque portrays the unromantic views of war which are fear, insignificance, and needless slaughter. As soldiers enter the war, they quickly realize how beastly they war indeed is. ?We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers ? we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals,? (Remarque 56). In this passage, Paul describes the effect of war on the psyche of his fellow solders and himself. The war itself was too much for these soldiers so that they have to go to their primal states. It seems as though these soldiers, overtime, realize that their enmity ?is not against men? but against the war itself (Remarque 103). Remarque implies that, for a soldier to survive in battle, he must turn off his mind and operate only off instinct, becoming less human and more like an animal. To the soldiers, a bomb is a ?blast . . . like a blow from the paw of a raging beast of prey,? (Remarque 3). Remarque uses every chance he gets to show the beastliness of war, he also wants to show that it is only war that makes humans into savages. The Russians in the POW camp are great examples of what the war really does to a soldier. Remarque illustrates how Russian POWs are more ?human and more brotherly towards one another?? then the German soldiers only because the war was ?over so far as they are concerned? (Remarque169). The author is trying to prove his point that war dehumanizes soldiers. Soldiers are now indifferent to the death of another individual; it is as though the war has desensitized the Germans to death. While Kropp and Katczinsky are arguing over how war should be dealt with, ??they lay a bottle of beer on the result of an air-fight that?s going on above,? (Remarque 41). Remarque subtly shows in this sequence how the soldiers are so bored in the time of war that they are wagering on air fights, and essentially the lives of the men inside them. ?Meanwhile the German aeroplane has been shot down ? Kropp has lost the bottle of beer? (Remarque 43). Out of the while airplane fight, all Kropp loses is a bottle of beer, while the pilot of the plane loses his life, but the soldiers are indifferent to this as it seems to be a natural occurrence in their environment. Remarque also begins the story with the death of Kimmerich, Paul?s school friend. The death of Kimmerich spans a whopping 2 chapters, where as the deaths of Paul?s other friends seem to hasten all the way till the end of the book, until they are not to even be mentioned anywhere. Even the death of Paul himself is short and it seems as though Paul is only content in death as he ?had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come? (Remarque 296). This technique used by Remarque shows that, overtime, Paul and the other soldiers have become accustomed to death, and now is indifferent. There are many things these young soldiers never get to experience. Amongst them is the pleasure of having a romantic sexual experience. These young men are brought from their early teens into the war, without ever having a girlfriend, let alone going through sexual intercourse. Paul Baumer was brought into the war at the ripe age of 20 and like many others, he had never had any experience in the art of sex. When passing the poster of the woman wearing the white dress with the red belt, Paul states ?we can hardly credit that such things still exist? (Remarque 141). Remarque?s main reason for this is to show that these soldiers have been cut-off from society that they cannot even believe that such things as beautiful women even exist. There is a point in the novel where Remarque makes the soldiers meet 3 beautiful French women. The soldiers are invited to have some fun at their little cottage. Paul, being excited, believes that he will truly have a romantic experience that night. The soldiers bring along food and other rations, and the French women take it as a payment and they go off to do their duty. Paul is with a brunette, but all he can think about is the brothel for the soldiers and how they had to wait in line for their turn. ?I wish I had never thought of them? (Remarque 150). Since Paul had never had any romantic sexual encounters and only been with a prostitute, it is as though the war had desensitized him to sex as well. Paul, for a couple of weeks gets leave from the war to return home. Paul feels distraught and isolated even when he returns home. It is evident when Paul blatantly states that ?I prefer to be alone, so that no one troubles me? (Remarque 168). ?I stand on the steps, miserable, helpless, paralyzed, and against my will the tears run down my cheeks? (Remarque 158). Remarque shows how war has crippled Paul from being able to freely interact with others in society, in this case, his family. When Paul couldn?t turn to anyone, he turned to his books to find some familiarity. Unfortunately the books did not help Paul in any way, this resulted in him saying, ?Words, Words, Words -- they do not reach me? (Remarque 173). Even when walking through the streets of his hometown all he could thing about was watching out for a shell when a car muffler blew. By the end of the visit, Remarque uses a creative way to show the psychological effects of war. The ?Ah, Mother, Mother? (183) sequence at the end when Paul is interacting with his ailing mother shows how Paul cannot freely express his feelings to his mother; he is bottling up all of his emotions. War is tricky business, as it lures one in with fame and glory and spits the individual out with deep depression and thoughts of meaninglessness. Remarque?s portrayal of young soldiers in battle is phenomenal in showing how war itself is to be fought with, not enemy combatants. All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel in which Remarque, with his use of Paul Baumer, sends a message to all of his readers; war dehumanizes a soldier.