Lost and Forgotten Many times people realize that if they miss out on something, they can never take it back. What if that something is a generation of soldiers, an army of men losing knowledge, morals, friends, memories and family. Every absence is something less they learn or realize in life. When that generation’s replacement is war, a boy’s simple life turns into a man with formidable memories and a constant effort to survive. The innocent human ways are forgotten, and violence becomes the replacement. The liveliness and spirit that once was in the heart is now full of their loneliness and desolation. It’s almost as if their life is on pause, and they never know when it could resume. The plot of All Quiet on The Western Front exemplifies …show more content…
At this point, their bodies are fragile, their spirit is empty, and they wonder why they should live any longer. They find no value in life, and when the freedom returns all that crosses their minds is confusion. In the last chapter, this statement clearly represents the theme when Paul mentions, "Now if we go back we will be weary, broken, burnt out, rootless and without hope. We will not be able to find our way anymore” (294). The war is like a maze; it can be intriguing, but once people become lost during the time inside, finding their way back almost seems impossible to achieve. Moreover, war is something that people have to take part in in order to understand. Seeing and hearing about it isn’t enough. For that reason, the generation of men in war become easily forgotten, as Paul says in this quote, “And men will not understand us...now it will return to its old occupations, and the war will be forgotten- and the generation that has grown up before us will be strange to us and will push us aside” (294). War itself is memorable, but what people tend to forget are the actual soldiers. The generations of men in war will pass over like a breeze, and sadly very few people actually know the hardship of being in battle. Being in the shoes of Paul, a soldier, this is extremely difficult because not only do they lose a generation of their life, but their generation is forgotten as …show more content…
The timeline of the soldiers lives goes in the order of peacetime, wartime, and postwar time and each period affects the emotions and personality of the soldier differently throughout the book. Although, people’s views on soldiers are vastly different from that of an actual soldier; citizens back home see them sacrificing themselves for their country and that they will come back unwounded and heroes. The reality is that no one comes out of war without scars, no one comes home unbroken. They come back heroes, but the celebration only lasts for a short period of time. The sacrifice looks as if it is easy, but it ends up changing their entire lives, and recovery to normal life is so far away it isn’t even realistic. The country gets the reward instead of the soldier that risks their life. The only reward they are getting is for others, but when it comes down to the individual soldier, all that is left is a lost, confused man with the feeling of no place in