There are two accounts of every war; one for each side. No story is completely told without telling both accounts. All Quiet on the Western Front is the German account of World War I. The author, Erich Maria Remarque, tells the German account from the first-person viewpoint of a German soldier named Paul. Paul tells the horrors of the front-line in battle as well as about life in camp. The struggles and hardships Paul identifies show the reader in many ways the destructiveness of war and its lasting effects.
The destruction of war is a theme that is identified in many ways throughout the novel. For one, the war takes away everything the soldiers have; there is no past or future. In the present, there is nothing but war.
The war has ruined us for everythingwe were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world and we had to shoot it to pieces. (Remarque 87)
Just when these soldiers had discovered the world and life, they had it taken away. They were forced to go to battle and kill other human beings. When they set foot on that levy to go to the front-lines they were signing away their lives and their future.
The war not only takes away your past and future but also your innocence. The horrors of the war and the terrible byproducts of it jade the soldiers in the war.
The dead lies on his face. There, where the arm wounds are, the earth is black with blood. Underfoot the leaves are scratched up as though the man had been kicking.
Thats no joke, Kat, says I.
No more is a shell splinter in the belly, he replies, shrugging his shoulders.
But dont get tender-hearted, says Tjaden. (Remarque 208)
Once these young soldiers enter the war, they no longer have any sympathy for human life. They constantly remind each other not to get soft-hearted and give in to their emotions because that is the only way for them to deal with all the terrible things they encounter in the war. The only way for the soldiers to survive the war is to emotionally step away from everything that is going on the front-lines.
Any war has a tendency to strip away a soldiers humanity; this action is emphasized strongly in this novel.
By the animal instinct that is awakened in us we are led and protected. It is not conscious; it is far quicker, much more sure, less fallible, then consciousness. (Remarque 56)
Throughout the novel it was insinuated that to survive a battle a soldier has to turn off his brain and pay attention only to his instinct. The war causes the soldiers to strip away their humanity and give in to their animal instincts.
The effect World War I has on the soldiers is another theme of All Quiet on the Western Front. The soldiers are forced to live in horrible conditions, given barely enough food to keep from starvation, and subjected to battle which could take their lives at any moment. The front is a cage in which we must await fearfully whatever may happen. (Remarque 101) These entire conditions combine together to leave a deep psychological impact on the soldiers. This psychological impact changes the soldiers entire lives. For example, when Paul returns home on leave he cannot talk to his mother because he does not know life outside of the war. He also cant imagine life after the war. The war takes over their entire lives and becomes the only thing they know.
Nationalism was one of the major causes of World War I. Nationalism can cause a person to commit extreme acts for ones country that they normally would not do. However, the strongest sense of nationalism is usually instilled in the children of a country from the moment they are born. They grow up hearing that it is their duty to join the army and that their first duty is to their county. The young men of Germany are not forced to join, but they are alienated if they do not. Because of all this, the young men of Germany enlist in the army the moment they turn eighteen. They do not stop and consider whether they agree with the reasons for the war being fought but enter blindly into the war with glorified ideas of bravery and patriotism.
But what I would like to knowis whether there would have been a war if the Kaiser had said Nowell, if not him alone, then perhaps if twenty or thirty people in the world had said No. (Remarque 203)
Nothing could prepare them for the horrors of the war. Once they enter the war, the soldiers stop and consider the reasons for it being fought and whether it could have been prevented. Once they get to the front-lines of battle they do not fight to kill their enemies; they fight to save their own lives.
The soldiers take on life changes completely once they get to the front lines. Their ideas of their enemy are no longer the same.
Its queer, when one thinks about it, goes on Kropp, we are here to protect our fatherland. And the French are over there to protect their fatherland. Now whos in the right? (Remarque 203)
Perhaps both, say I without believing it. (Remarque 203)
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