Herbert Hoover once said, “Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die” (War Quotes). Erich Remarque, the author of All Quiet on the Western Front, wrote the novel to show parts of war that one can only understand with a similar struggle, including the cowardice of the older generation, the horrors of war, and the effects war has on the soldiers. War is hard to understand by those who have not experienced it. “Yet paradoxically, we are greater removed from the fighting now than we were then. That’s because there’s no draft, no sense that every young man is called upon to make a stand… Instead the burden is borne by a few--volunteers and their families” (Pitts). People are untouched by these wars now more than ever because
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Many current soldiers and veterans are experiencing similar situations to what Paul and his comrades encounter in All Quiet on the Western Front. Paul Baumer and his comrades begin questioning authority, experience emotional effects of war, and understand the futility of war. Many soldiers and veterans experience similar struggles during combat regardless of the specific war. Young men of Paul’s generation join the war because they are deceived by authority figures. The older generations describe the war as a way to show patriotism but fail to understand and explain the horrors and emotional effects of war. In All Quiet on the Western Front the young soldiers have a conversation about traditional authority: “‘But what I would like to know,’ says Albert, ‘is whether there would not have been a war if the Kaiser had said No.’ ‘I’m sure there would,’ I interject, ‘he was against it from the first.’ ‘Well, if not him alone, then perhaps if twenty or thirty people in the world had said No’” (Remarque 203). The men begin to question the war and authority. Tjaden, one of Paul Baumer’s comrades in the second company, is changed by the war like all of the other soldiers, and it makes him see the Kaiser, leader of Germany, as a normal man …show more content…
“The only carnivorous species that kills its own kind for no good reason” (Soloman). Millions of men die fighting a war they have no reason to fight. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a United States President and World War I veteran, once said, “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.” Many soldiers start to understand the futility of war after experiencing it. In the last chapter of All Quiet on the Western Front, After Paul’s Comrades die he loses hope and his purpose for living. When Paul dies, the narrator takes over and writes a paragraph about Paul’s silent
Many current soldiers and veterans are experiencing similar situations to what Paul and his comrades encounter in All Quiet on the Western Front. Paul Baumer and his comrades begin questioning authority, experience emotional effects of war, and understand the futility of war. Many soldiers and veterans experience similar struggles during combat regardless of the specific war. Young men of Paul’s generation join the war because they are deceived by authority figures. The older generations describe the war as a way to show patriotism but fail to understand and explain the horrors and emotional effects of war. In All Quiet on the Western Front the young soldiers have a conversation about traditional authority: “‘But what I would like to know,’ says Albert, ‘is whether there would not have been a war if the Kaiser had said No.’ ‘I’m sure there would,’ I interject, ‘he was against it from the first.’ ‘Well, if not him alone, then perhaps if twenty or thirty people in the world had said No’” (Remarque 203). The men begin to question the war and authority. Tjaden, one of Paul Baumer’s comrades in the second company, is changed by the war like all of the other soldiers, and it makes him see the Kaiser, leader of Germany, as a normal man …show more content…
“The only carnivorous species that kills its own kind for no good reason” (Soloman). Millions of men die fighting a war they have no reason to fight. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a United States President and World War I veteran, once said, “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.” Many soldiers start to understand the futility of war after experiencing it. In the last chapter of All Quiet on the Western Front, After Paul’s Comrades die he loses hope and his purpose for living. When Paul dies, the narrator takes over and writes a paragraph about Paul’s silent