The passage that encapsulates the book best is “I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another.” I have heard it mentioned that only wars in the last one hundred years that were worth fighting were World War I and World War II. No matter if that is true or not the ideas of this book ring true. Which is the people involved in the actual combat of the war is that their lives are changed forever, regardless if they are killed, maimed, or only psychologically harmed.
The author has bias against war of any kind because of his experience. In 1933 when Nazi ideology began to take hold Remarque’s books were burned. He eventually left Germany to live in Switzerland, and later when the war started he left to live in seclusion in the United States until the war concluded. His sister was also put on trial for “undermining morale” and was beheaded. These actions were all based on on Remarque’s perceived biases against war and