All Quiet on the Western Front
Being part of Gen-Z means I have a standoffish vibe towards violence, so I might’ve already come to the conclusion that I don’t support the idea of war, but my thoughts were finalized as I completed reading All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Often, war is romanticized and argued to a point of necessity, but this infamous anti-war novel allows for a peak into the destroyed humanity of individuals and how there is no good in what happens on the battlefield for those that have to experience it.
The novel surveys the life of Paul Bäumer, a 19-year-old German, as he experiences the great war. Although war retold can focus on comradery, the chivalry it takes to fight against evil, or maybe even the greater evil being fought against, All Quiet on the Western Front tells a different story. In contrast, Remarque takes the approach of acknowledging the average men that were chosen to fight, and how their normalcy is utterly destroyed in the end, and in this case, the destruction of the youth and innocence of Paul. This destruction of humanity comes through the breakdown of authority, the rawness of human reaction, and the personal traumas that come with war.
The takeaways begin before the setting ever shifts toward the battlefield. Paul and his peers are eager to enter into military training, but once their 10 weeks are up they realize that all the speeches about patriotism they digested had nothing to do with real war. The breakdown of authority is seen through Paul’s thought process, “The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom. But the first death we saw shattered this belief. We had to recognize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs. . . . The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces.” This quote shows how easy it is to place one’s trust in authority figures, specifically for Paul, his whole concept of the world was through the lens of those in charge of him, but his realization that there is no wisdom in sending soldiers into battle is the beginning of his breakdown.
This theme of blighted youth continues throughout the story arc as Paul experiences various incidents at war. From being sent into a lethal battle, then divvying up his dead friend’s clothing, followed by passing on hated adaptability to the new soldiers, and then all these events compiling to him taking the life of another man. Although these moments captured at the front line show the active deconstruction of Paul’s youth, the most real moment of heartbreak occurs when Paul goes home on leave to visit his family. Then the real damage toward not only the soldiers but the family unit is seen when someone as young as Paul is sent off to war. Without spoiling too much, his family is suffering, his mother is diagnosed with cancer, and he is completely out of place at home. Even in the midst of his mother’s illness, she worries for him the most, but he cannot connect with her the same because he has to hide his experiences at war, and there is no perfect approach to the brokenness of their lives. The hard lesson to be learned for the reader is it isn’t simply the soldiers, but also the families that are heavily impacted by the circumstances of war.
It takes a moment of reflection to perceive why violence in entertainment is so prevalent and popular, but reading through a book like this gives a real dose of true torment. All Quiet on the Western Front exceeds the example of why literature must be created to truly capture the rawness of human depravity. The encompassing storyline and emotions in the novel show why the glorification of war is not something to jump into, rather, war is an event that wreaks havoc on everything it touches, and the glory flags need to be put down.
