All Quiet on the Western Front is a story of combat fatigue, mental stress, and the horrors of war as a frontline soldier. It tells the story of Paul Baumer, a soldier in the German Army during World War I. Paul endures the grisly slog of the war while his friends die one by one, eroding Paul's self-confidence and desire for life. The novel firmly establishes the insignificance of the individual in the theater of war.
One of the major themes of the novel is the difficulty of soldiers to revert to civilian life after having experienced extreme combat situations. Remarque comments in the preface that "[This book] will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war." This internal destruction can be found as early as the first chapter as Paul comments that, although all the boys are young, their youth has left them. In addition, the massive loss of life and negligible gains from the fighting are constantly emphasized. Soldiers' lives are thrown away by their commanding officers who are stationed comfortably away from the front, ignorant of the daily terrors of the front line.
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