All Quiet On The Western Front Humor Analysis

In Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, war makes the soldiers act indifferently towards their surroundings, and it shows the demoralizing impact of losing oneself through the character Paul Baümer. Throughout the book, there are many examples of black humor that emphasize the effects that war has had on the soldiers’ identities. Especially when the soldiers are on the front line or going to the front, they are forced to behave in the stereotypical soldier manner of being tough and unsusceptible to pain. However, this is just a coping mechanism used by the soldiers to deal with the traumatic experiences they have faced. After the soldiers see stacks of brand-new coffins while they are on their way to the front line, the only …show more content…
The coffins are really for us” narrates Paul(Remarque 99-100). This demonstrates that by cracking jokes about their death, that is all too possible, the soldiers have found a way to endure the brutality prominent in the war. However, even though they act apathetic and stoic, the soldiers use their humor to push through their problems without really addressing or trying to solve them. The soldiers are feeling everything on the inside, without talking about any of their concerns with the others that surround them. This causes them to feel secluded from their comrades and the war, and makes them believe that they are all alone with their problems since they were never openly discussed. By using the word “carcase”, it gives the sense that the soldiers are animalistic, since the word is commonly used to describe dead animals. This plays into the common stereotyping of soldiers, which makes the soldiers feel even more isolated and press down their feelings since they do not want to be thought of as weak and different for breaking the status