War’s Innate Ability to Degenerate
“How senseless is everything that can ever be written, done, or thought, when such things are possible [...] a hospital alone shows what war is” (193). This depressing analysis of WWI through the eyes of Paul Baumer shows how war consists of nothing but death, destruction, and degradation. The fact that only a hospital is needed to show how war destroys society makes it even more difficult to process these gruesome horrors that, ultimately, humans bring onto themselves. War has been fought throughout history to solve problems; however, much to their disappointment, humans have experienced war as creating more complications rather than eliminating them. In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich …show more content…
As the fighting drags on, both Paul’s physical and emotional conditions begin to take a dark turn; there is only so much that a young man of twenty years can experience before his mind and body start to break down beyond repair. The war in which Paul fights slowly strips him of his humanity to his most brutish and primitive state, in which his experiences become meaningless and utterly unbearable for him. Throughout the novel, Paul is steadily stripped of his humanity through lacking a sense of belonging, being desensitized by the horrors of war, and seceding from the civilized world.
In losing a sense of belonging, both at home in Germany and on the Front in France, Paul’s experiences become meaningless for him progressively throughout the novel. Paul first strongly hints at this during a rather routine intellectual discussion with his close-knit companions. Talking about what each fellow will do when it is peace-time again, Paul responds with the depressing realization of what war did to them: “we were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had
“How senseless is everything that can ever be written, done, or thought, when such things are possible [...] a hospital alone shows what war is” (193). This depressing analysis of WWI through the eyes of Paul Baumer shows how war consists of nothing but death, destruction, and degradation. The fact that only a hospital is needed to show how war destroys society makes it even more difficult to process these gruesome horrors that, ultimately, humans bring onto themselves. War has been fought throughout history to solve problems; however, much to their disappointment, humans have experienced war as creating more complications rather than eliminating them. In the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich …show more content…
As the fighting drags on, both Paul’s physical and emotional conditions begin to take a dark turn; there is only so much that a young man of twenty years can experience before his mind and body start to break down beyond repair. The war in which Paul fights slowly strips him of his humanity to his most brutish and primitive state, in which his experiences become meaningless and utterly unbearable for him. Throughout the novel, Paul is steadily stripped of his humanity through lacking a sense of belonging, being desensitized by the horrors of war, and seceding from the civilized world.
In losing a sense of belonging, both at home in Germany and on the Front in France, Paul’s experiences become meaningless for him progressively throughout the novel. Paul first strongly hints at this during a rather routine intellectual discussion with his close-knit companions. Talking about what each fellow will do when it is peace-time again, Paul responds with the depressing realization of what war did to them: “we were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had