Analysis Of Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

“Let months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more” (Remarque 295). This sentence is one that may have passed through the minds of many soldiers during World War I. This war was a transformative event that stripped these soldiers of their humanity, shifted their thoughts on nationalism, and it eventually killed most of them. This “Great War” was anything but great. These young men were often tricked into volunteering for the war without any knowledge of what lay ahead of them. But it did not take them long to learn of the misfortunes that they would soon face. Many recruits died very quickly without the needed training, but the ones that survived were no longer the same men that entered the war. They too, in some ways, died. They were, “insensible, dead men, who through some trick…are still able to run and kill” (Remarque 116). All they knew anymore was to survive; it did …show more content…
Throughout the book, there are many instances of people close to Paul being injured, and eventually dying. He says, “On every yard there lies a dead man” (Remarque 135). This process helped lead to the loss of his humanity. He no longer allowed himself to become attached, because death was inevitable. In the beginning of the book, the reader is told about the early death of Behm, but Kemmerich is the first of Paul’s good friends that dies in the book. He contracted gangrene, and had to have his leg amputated. After him there is a series of soldiers that fall to their death for various reasons. Paul described war as “the cause of death” (Remarque 271) as if it was a disease that took over the body. Paul’s friend Kat even died on his way to safety as Paul carried him on his back. At the very end of the book, Paul himself loses his life. He was the last of his group to die. The day of his death was described as being: “all quiet on the western front” (Remarque296), because of the lack of