“All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque is not merely a novel itself, but an honest picture of the devastating war to its every corner. Throughout the story, all characters undergo continuous changes, from their appearances to their personalities, from their actions to their thoughts, from their previous lives to the brutal present. As a result, a man coming out of the war turns into a different person as he adapts to the changes. This general idea embraces the whole story and links the details together.
Most of the soldiers in the story are Paul’s comrades. Despite their different backgrounds, they are all young and just standing at the threshold of life when they are pushed into the war. In their pre-war lives, they were taught at school about the mind, literature, and other subjects. They strived for freedom and happiness. For such a long period of over 10 years, they were surrounded by teachers, friends and the culture, which were important and had great impression over our men. However, on coming to the training system, they are now taught in the army with guns. They put an end to all dreams and habits. The only things that matter are drill and more drill, boot brush and surviving in the harsh system. Specifically, the narrator, Paul, used to write a play and a bunch of poems earlier, which indicates that he has an artistic mind and a sense to melody and rhythm. Sadly after being trained for the war, not only does he stop writing and composing, but he cannot even understand his own pieces of work. Probably in a place where one can only see deaths and brutality everywhere, there is no futile soil for such artistic seeds to grow in one’s mind.
As the story goes on, readers have a chance to witness the scary changes slowly taking over the characters. From innocent and warm-hearted people, they become hard, suspicious, pitiless and tough robots.