...WAR LITERATURE ASSIGNMENT ON PAUL BAUMER’S CHARACTER AS A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ‘LOST GENERATION’ IN REMARQUE’S NOVEL, ALL QUIET ON THE WEATERN FRONT All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque. The novel is about the experiences of ordinary German soldiers during the war. It is based on Remarque’s own experiences at war which enabled him to capture the realism and authenticity needed to exemplify the feelings of a soldier. Through the novel he was able to capture the feeling of seclusion and loneliness among the soldiers. In 1916, he was drafted into the German army to fight in World War I, in which he was badly wounded. In 1926, after the war ended, he published Im Westen Nichts Neues which he later translated into English as All Quiet on the Western Front. The novel has been heralded by critics throughout the world as the greatest war novel of all time. It helped capture every thought that went through a soldier’s mind who belonged to the "lost generation". War changes life. Conditioned by the aggression and lifestyle of being a soldier, young adult Paul Baumer in Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front, over the course of four years, changed from a naive high school graduate to a mature but disillusioned adult. The violence and trauma in the trenches of World War I exposed Paul to the horrors of injuries and infections, the fragile state of life, the terrors of death...
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...War is a life changer. In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Bäumer engaged in what would be the fight for his country and life. Paul was a 19 year old boy who was persuaded to join the German Army shortly after World War 1 by his schoolteacher. Unknowingly, he and his schoolmates have signed up for their own deaths. During the war, they matured both physically and mentally with concise thoughts and actions, eventually feeling disconnected and out-of-place when entering society. Through its gruesome and emotional moments, Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front portrays the grim reality and rare glories of war. The inevitable constituent of war is death. With deaths from both sides of a battle, families are broken apart and friendships are broken. War changes people from innocent individuals to killing machines. Many are deprived of their sense of feeling for others, which restrains their ability to connect with the outside world, since it becomes a challenge to connect with people in a personal level. As Remarque stated, “even though they may have escaped shells, [they] were destroyed by the war”. Fortunately for Paul Bäumer, only his mental state suffered through the conflicts, but many of his close friends have died in the line of duty, leaving him a shell of what he once was. Their deaths were...
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...Remarque’s anti-war novel tapped into the global sorrow and sense of nationalism created by World War I. His inspiration stemmed from his own time spent as a German soldier. War novels before All Quiet on the Western Front tended to romanticize war, as well as emphasize patriotism, nationalism, and glory. Remarque refutes this tradition by exposing its meaningless violence of war. “While they continued to write and talk, we saw the wounded dying. While they taught that duty to one's country is the greatest thing, we already knew that death-throes are stronger” (64). Dying for one’s country is the greatest sense of nationalism, however this novel argues that there is never a just cause for war. Remarque characterizes Paul Baumer as an expression of his own political standpoint of opposition to nationalism, a major “ism” of the twentieth century. Nationalism played a valuable role in the twentieth century and is arguably one of the main causes of World War I. Although nationalism can serve for unifying a country, it can also cause intense pride and competition between countries. In the early 1900s, nationalism created a fierce competition and rivalry between Europe’s powers. These powers were the nations of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, and France. In order to advance and be the greatest nation, competition both militarily and economically broke out. Germany, especially, took advantage of this immense since of nationalism, by seducing young...
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...Destruction of War on Soldiers The novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque is one of the best books featuring the atmosphere of World War I, including trench warfare. It illustrates how young men were forced to participate in the battle even when they do not fully comprehend what they are fighting for. The novel does not directly decide who is right or wrong, but only who is left when it is over. It provides a wonderful insight about the tribulations and trials encountered by common soldiers. The author accurately accounts the people who did the fighting and their reactions. The main character of the story is a volunteer soldier named Paul along with his fellow soldiers. They argued about the real purpose of war and they have strong worries on what the war has done to them and what will happen to them after it ends. This paper aims to explore on the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Remarque and its attitude towards WW1. Generally, the book provides a clear picture about the horror of war and what it is really like to be in the battlefield. It elaborates the gruesome war based on the perspectives of German soldiers. Its author presented an amazing imagery about the war including the details such as, how soldiers lost their legs after being amputated along with all the pain they experienced. Furthermore, it also demonstrates how the soldiers missed their families while on the battlefield, and how they yearned for love. Having a cigarette and plenty...
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...In the war novel All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Baumer is a very significant character. Paul is a character that conveys Remarque’s experiences and point of view to the readers. Paul and his friends are faced with the intensity of the war, which causes them to disconnect their feelings and lose their emotions. Soon, Pauls lifestyle is shaped to be around war. The war diminished Paul and turned his life into constant suffering. Paul’s character undergoes a changes throughout the novel, when he is induced with the horror and anxiety of the war. Paul Baumer is a character representative of all soldiers because he faces the same difficulties a typical soldier would face. In the war, Paul had seen his close friends...
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...“Human Animals”: Dehumanization Through Words in Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front “We cloak ourselves in cold indifference to the unnecessary suffering of others, even when we cause it.” – James Carroll War ruins men. It is a beast, which destroys their bodies, minds, and morals. Facing the all too personal horrors of war, Erich Maria Remarque places his protagonist, Paul, and his comrades into situations where detachment is one of the few ways out, leading to their eventual regression. They begin to lose themselves into an abyss of shockingly unaffected and detached behaviour in order to cope with the war and the loss of their comrades. Through the use of the first person point of view, recurring motifs, and strong characterisation, Remarque explores the isolation brought about by this dehumanization on the front lines of the First World War in All Quiet on the Western Front. In choosing to use the first person point of view, Remarque allows the reader to identify more closely with, as well as understand more clearly, Paul’s evolving detachment from the world around him. From the novel’s opening it is Paul’s thoughts which set the tone. Paul first appears to be an optimist who does not dwell on the deaths of those whom he does not know. Despite the fact they left one hundred and fifty men strong and returned with only eighty, Paul describes the day as “wonderfully good”, after all “the mail has come, and almost every man has a few letters...
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...Paul Baumer of Erich Maria Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” doesn’t discover his identity, he creates it through a series of life-altering decisions. His evolution from 19 year old student to soldier, then to killer, and ultimately to a victim of war, can be attributed to each seemingly insignificant choice he makes. The first decision Paul makes that will change the trajectory of his life and the way he perceives himself is volunteering to join the army. The act of joining the military gives Paul the steadfast and resolute identity of soldier, a role in his community that suggests honour as opposed to shame. Baumer expresses that “At that time everyone’s parents were ready with the word ‘coward’”, implying that the threat of ostracization pushed the boys towards their new, society-approved identities of heros. Through sharing traumatic experiences with their fellow classmates, often in close-quarters, the group of young men develop their own distinct identities within the larger ‘umbrella-identity’ of soldier....
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...troops were capable of meeting the promised outcome. These situations are the foundation for the perception that the public held about the concept of war that differed from what the young men on the front actually faced. Prior to World War I, the Napoleonic Wars took place almost 100 years prior from 1792 to 1815. Only stories existed about the horrors of battle with those who fought long dead. Without an oral history of what the troops experienced on the battled field the public perceived service and death in combat as the ultimate sacrifice to support ones county. This also dovetailed into the perception that society was only going to get better with the improvement in science and technology (Meyers). In Rupert Brooke’s “Peace” he wrote “And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping” and “Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move” (Brooke). These phrases in his poem established that young men at home were ignorant of what was going on around them and ignoring their duty to country if they did not serve. Once overseas the young faced the realities of war. Robert Graves, an Englishman that served in the trenches of World War I, provides details of what he experienced in the trenches in his autobiography Good-Bye To All That. After his arrival at the front, he describes one of his first trips through the trenches. During his stroll to wake up the other officers he...
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...The War’s Effect’s Towards Soldiers World War I was one of the most significant wars in U.S. history. It was significant because it created a gateway for new tactics, weapons, and it carved the way for a whole new style of warfare. In the book All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Baumer, the main character, and his comrades go through horrifying experiences that affect them both physically and mentally. Throughout the book Paul shows how war is a dehumanizing experience, but he continues to find ways to make him more human by appreciating the little things that he didn’t notice before his previous war experiences. Throughout the war Paul witnesses things that make him more empathetic and compassionate. These specific war experiences have influenced Paul in both negative and positive ways. For example when Paul comes to realize that the Russian prisoners are suffering he suddenly shows sympathy towards them by, “I take out my cigarettes break each one in half and give them to the Russians.” (194) As Paul overlooks the violence and fighting of the war he realizes that the so called “enemy” is just another man fighting for the same reason as he is. Paul now has a new outlook on the war and he is showing a very unexpected sensitive side, which is most definitely him being “human”. During the intensity of the war Paul was holding nothing back while being in battle with the men shooting at them with no feelings or regret. As Paul now looks at the enemy...
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...Destiny Boynton Guss, P.3 English 10 VADA H 7 March 2017 All Quiet on the Western Front Essay Throughout the book, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the book shows us Remarque’s thoughts on war through the main character Paul. In the book Paul is put through many traumatizing situations that ends up having a great effect on him, which changes his personality throughout the book. War pressures Paul into acting a certain way he was not used to back at home, which slowly breaks down Paul’s self being all through the book. This shows us the effects war has on people’s thoughts and actions in the military, which is an important reason why Remarque believes war to be unfortunate. Paul’s emotions were constantly changing,...
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...audience’s emotions by using facts or lies. Its ultimate purpose after all, is to persuade people, as shown through the propaganda post “Men of Britain!” as it offers factual information to recruit soldiers to fight in WWI. The piece employs propaganda techniques such as argumentum ad metum as it displays the mortality rates of children and women in order to make the population fear of another German attack. It also displays the death of innocent beings and emphasizes the evilness of the enemy troops. Although the men of Britain have free will, the propaganda attempts to create a sense of responsibility within men to enlist by listing “Will you stand this?”. Alongside with the emotional appeal, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Fron demonstrates another example of how propaganda appeals to the people. In the novel, the soldiers respect the Kaiser due to propaganda posters glorifying their leader. However, when the protagonist Paul and his friends observed their leader, they felt “really disappointed; judging from his pictures [they] imagined him to be bigger and more powerfully built, and above all to have a thundering voice” (Remarque 202). Due to propaganda, Paul and his friends were manipulated into thinking that the Kaiser was superior than any men. Yet because their their expectations were high, when they stood in front of the Kaiser they saw someone completely different. In fact, propaganda changes an individual’s perspective. It establishes an unrealistic reality...
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...improved the battles became larger and much more intense. With the Industrial revolution, warfare would change forever. This can be best seen in World War One. The “war to end all wars” gradually escalated to a global conflict, dragging the super powers into a four year struggle. World War One brought many new and horrible inventions to the participants both at the front, as well as at home. There are many reasons why World War I was so much different than all the past conflicts. For one thing, it was the first time in almost one hundred years that all the major super powers were fighting. Not since Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, had England, France, Germany (Prussia at the time of Napoleon), and Russia been fighting at the same time. This in turn made it a global conflict. With all the over sea possessions of these countries, fighting was inevitable in their colonies. This was another first for World War I. Another huge aspect that made this war the first truly “modern” war, has to do with the Industrial Revolution. This revolution did change the nature of battle. No longer was war considered to be one-on-one. With the improvement of the gun and invention of the machine gun, almost anybody could become capable of killing many enemy soldiers. Industrialization of the warring countries meant a better railroad system. In turn, this meant that moving the supplies of war to the front line could be done relatively easily. For the first time also, countries were able use the entire industrial...
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