All Quiet On The Western Front Rhetorical Analysis

War is a terrible thing. In All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Remarque illustrates that very image. In the book, Paul and his comrades experience the horrors of war and learn a lot along the way. About each other, about war, and about life. In All Quiet On The Western Front, Remarque uses destructiveness of war by showing loss of innocence, to explain the character’s emotional problems, and to show the reader the damage the character’s take.

The Roman poet Horace famously wrote, “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.” Many have pondered these words, the meaning of which being, “It is sweet and fitting to die for your country.” In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, German soldiers begin to realize that these words may not be as perspicacious as they appear. In the first five chapters of the novel, the ideas of war being noble and soldiers gallant are quickly thrown out the window as the reader is introduced to France’s notorious front lines during the First World War. Remarque uses a shocking first person narrative and realistic tone to show the reader that in reality, soldiers are nothing more than children who have gone to fight without the faintest of ideas

All Quiet on the Western Front is a story about the horrors of World War I from the perspective of a German soldier named Paul. Throughout Paul’s service he sees and does horrible things, becoming disillusioned with the ideals of the German high command and of world leaders in general. This book makes it clear not only that the generation of boys and men that were sent out to fight feel betrayed by the previous generation and by their government, but also that there was a huge gap between the soldiers and everyone else around them.

Often times writings with the general theme of war and battle juxtapose the symbol of nature with brutal events in order to create contrast between. In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich M. Remarque, the author uses the method of juxtaposition to convey the contrast of beautiful nature to war and potentially emphasizing the brutality of battle. Away from combat, down-time is given to the men fighting, where things are peaceful and no longer chaotic. As they are relaxing, their surroundings are described as a “flowery meadow” with “white butterflies...in the soft warm wind” which symbolizes peace or happiness. (Remarque 9). Although the men are experiencing a time and setting of tranquility, death is also occurring near them, ultimately

The novel All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, is the story of young Paul Baumer and Troop 9 as they battle in World War I on the Western Front for Germany. This novel differs from most every war novel in that it shows the true emotions and feelings of a soldier on the battle field. It does not portray the men as valiant soldiers protecting their country, but strips away the romanticized view of soldier’s war to portray the raw feelings that soldiers have in the midst of warfare. The troop does not die all together but they are seen dropping one by one. As both Paul Baumer’s life and the battle on the Western Front move forward, Paul’s values, along with those of other the soldiers, evolve until they culminate in Baumer’s

Society often masks the true horrors of war in order to promote patriotism. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque captures the reality of war through the horrific imagery, which he portrays through similes. The narrator, nineteen-year-old Paul Bäumer, and his comrades look over the trenches to witness horse suffering in no man’s land. Prior to ending the horse’s misery, the soldiers see the last one “[prop] itself on its forelegs and [drag] itself round in a circle like a merry-go-round” (Remarque 64). Remarque compares the dying horse to a merry-go-round to create situational irony through imagery. Associated with happiness and nostalgia, merry-go-rounds portray purity as they are ironically compared to a tortured

The novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is a tale about a group of young gentlemen in Germany who decide to join the army, and fight in World War I for their country. The boys become interested in fighting for their country after their schoolmaster informs them about the importance of this war. With much excitement, the young men have high expectations of what they want the war to be like. Throughout the course of the novel, the attitudes and opinions of the boys change as they develop an anti-war perspective. The war really takes a toll on the main character, Paul, as he often finds himself anxious and uncomfortable. This gives the feel that the novel has anti-war themes that are exhibited by this negative perspective on the part of Paul. The novel All Quiet on the Western Front shows an anti-war perspective that is demonstrated by Paul’s personal struggles in war, how Paul is changed by the war, and the theme of fearing war.

“This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war” (Remarque Prologue). All Quiet on the Western Front recounts the tale of six German warriors who volunteered to battle in World War I, and it reports their hardships mentally, religiously, and physically. The novel is told from the point of view of one staggeringly perceptive youthful warrior, Paul Bäumer, who uncovered subtle elements of life on the Western Front. Creator Erich Maria Remarque himself had battled on the Western Front when he was eighteen years of age, and he endured a few wounds. The repulsions of what he saw as an officer stayed with him.

Envision what it would be like, living during the time of WWI, also known as The Great War, in which 10 million people died. You’ve just graduated secondary school, and are looking forward to seeing what’s next in your life. However, a teacher pressures you to enlist in the army and talks about the glory and honor you could gain. As a result, you wouldn’t have the same thoughts, feelings, personality about life, as you do in war. In the novel, All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is the testament of Paul Bäumer, who enlists with his classmates in the German Army during World War I. Through the years of vivid horror, Paul holds a single promise to fight the act of hate that absurdly pits people of his generation against each

Paul embarks on a journey of explicit detail expressing what horrors arise for a young soldier while at variance with bloodshed, “We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation “ (113). It is as if the point of battle in the physical aspect strips the soldier of human like qualities, and instills, an unrelenting manner of brutally extinguishing the opposing force. Paul demonstrates this unfortunate tainting of character in this excerpt, “… fills us with ferocity, turns us into thugs, into murderers, into God only knows what devils..” (114), and in this quote, where he further etches the violent presence, by referencing even the element of slaying a family member, “If your own father came over with them you would not hesitate to fling a bomb at him”(114). The physical war is one that has instilled an unwanted sense of violence, that has drained livelihood from the soldiers, and that has aided in the silent, slow destruction, of a civilized concept of

Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front brings the reader directly into the harrowing battlefields of World War I, where the young German soldier Paul witnesses frequent bloodshed and attempts to keep himself alive. The author, a veteran himself, chooses to leave a political overview of the war from his book in order to truly reveal the anguish of those serving at the front. He criticizes the brainwashing of young men into joining the army, using the narrator’s story to convey the ways in which the conflict desensitizes soldiers to killing. Paul realizes how the war has affected him when he stabs a French soldier and must remain hidden in a shell-hole with him. As he witnesses the man’s slow death, he finally understands that

Through the use of symbolism, setting, and character, Erich Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front demonstrates the psychological effects war has on the soldiers.

The novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is a story about young German men fighting in the trenches during World War One. The soldiers are in the front line trenches of the Western Front and see and experience war in all of its dreadful nature. Nearly the whole book is set on the front lines and in the trenches, but the protagonist and other characters are placed at the base camp and training camp at times. The protagonist also visits back home in Germany once. The author does a splendid job of portraying the battlefield and war accurately. The culture of the Western Front of the first World War is well represented in Remarque’s novel.

However, in order for a soldier to protect himself and his sanity, he must learn to detach himself from his emotions and do his duty. An example of doing what needed to be done as a soldier is when Paul kills someone in close combat for the first time. He says to the dead man, “Comrade, I did not want to kill you…But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction…It was that abstraction I stabbed” (223). After watching someone die by his hand, Paul comforts himself by explaining that he had not seen this other soldier as a man; but as a threat to his life, which thus provoked an instinctual response to protect himself. And although he shows remorse afterwards by addressing the dead man as “Comrade,” Paul’s necessity as a soldier was to survive, which in this situation required detachment and the will to do what needed to be

All Quiet on the Western Front uses symbolism, or the use of symbols to show different, connoted ideas, to stage a subtle, overarching theme. Depicting the frank and irrefutable callousness of trench warfare for the Germans in World War I, this novel, at first glimpse, seems to have a sole, fixated goal to enlighten the reader about war’s fatal paradox. Yet, it is within this theme that author Erich Maria Remarque is able to exemplify this powerful message with the simple act of merely passing boots from soldier to soldier.