The book All Quiet on the Western Front tells the story about a group of young German men that volunteered their duty to the war. The main character Paul entered the war with his lifelong friends. The young comrades were in their twenties and didn’t have a lot of life experiences. The story shows what the young men go through while in the war. You learn just how close Paul is to his friends. The book also shows what Paul goes through as each one of his friends are taken down by the war. This definitely effects Paul psychologically. Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front uses a lot of literary devices to illustrate what soldiers go through while at war. He does a good job showing the psychological impact on Paul during the war
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At first he acted like he was excited. When he finally arrives home he realizes things are not the same. Paul says to himself, ‘“You are home, you are home.” But a sense of strangeness will not leave me, I cannot feel at home amongst these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies and there the mahogany piano—but I am not myself there”’ (Remarque, 160). This shows that the war has got a hold of his mind. This is the first hint that Remarque shows that Paul has PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). They didn’t have such a thing in World War I, but now we have a better understanding how war effects the soldiers psychologically. The things they have to do and have to see certainly impact how they think. When he is home he is always being reminded of the war. No matter who he is with, they want to know how the war is. He holds back from giving detail. He doesn’t think they will understand. He just implies that it is good. This questioning does not allow his mind to be free from the war. And because all he knows is war he wishes he had stayed with his …show more content…
Soldiers are impacted physically and mentally. As you can see in my analysis these young men went through a lot. They didn’t get to experience life without war. It impacted them even when they went home. Nothing was normal in their lives anymore. All they knew was the life in war. Like Paul said, “Through the years our business has been killing; ---it was our first calling in life” (Remarque,264). Even if they would have made it through the war they would have been psychologically
At first he acted like he was excited. When he finally arrives home he realizes things are not the same. Paul says to himself, ‘“You are home, you are home.” But a sense of strangeness will not leave me, I cannot feel at home amongst these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies and there the mahogany piano—but I am not myself there”’ (Remarque, 160). This shows that the war has got a hold of his mind. This is the first hint that Remarque shows that Paul has PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). They didn’t have such a thing in World War I, but now we have a better understanding how war effects the soldiers psychologically. The things they have to do and have to see certainly impact how they think. When he is home he is always being reminded of the war. No matter who he is with, they want to know how the war is. He holds back from giving detail. He doesn’t think they will understand. He just implies that it is good. This questioning does not allow his mind to be free from the war. And because all he knows is war he wishes he had stayed with his …show more content…
Soldiers are impacted physically and mentally. As you can see in my analysis these young men went through a lot. They didn’t get to experience life without war. It impacted them even when they went home. Nothing was normal in their lives anymore. All they knew was the life in war. Like Paul said, “Through the years our business has been killing; ---it was our first calling in life” (Remarque,264). Even if they would have made it through the war they would have been psychologically