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

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, is a story about war and the lost generation told through the perspective of a soldier. Some books attempt to romanticize or cover up the true face of war, but, All Quiet on the Western Front is an example of what being on the trenches was actually like. Throughout the story, Paul goes through many struggles equally physically and mentally scarring. All Quiet on the Western Front is an excellent demonstration of the Lost Generation because it provides an accurate depiction on what the horrors of war did to the soldiers. When Paul first arrives at the front, he describes how it changes people so drastically. “We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers – we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals.” (Remarque 27). Most people who were not in the war, or did not have direct contact with someone who was in the war, would not necessarily expect the things that soldiers experienced to be as powerful as they were. Remarque uses detailed and accurate events to illustrate how war changes people very drastically from the moment they enter the front lines. They lose everything, but their basic human instinct to survive. The horrors they see during war physiologically damage them, to the point of almost being animals. Losing not only the …show more content…
The war the soldiers were forced to fight them destroyed them physically and psychologically, the majority of younger soldiers had not made a life for themselves back home, and had nothing to go back to. The soldiers that had a home life, would never live their lives the same. All Quiet on the Western Front serves a glimpse of what the soldiers who fought in the war were like as people, rather than just soldiers. Without Remarque’s book, the Lost Generation would be