All Quit on the Western Front essays

All Quit on the Western Front essays All Quit on the Western, by Erich Maria Remarque, is a book that explores the true horrors of World War I thought the eyes of a German solider. This story is shows how World War I was not the glorifying war that some people envision it to be. The author uses the character of Paul to tell a realistic story of what the average WWI solider had to endure. This book raises the issue of how destructive war can be not only to a country, but also to a generation of a nation. One of the major themes in the story is that of the lost generation. What Remarque was trying to show, is that an entire generation was lost because of the war. Not only were millions of people killed in the fighting but also many of them were distorted mentally because of the horrible experiences that many of then had to endure. Paul talks about the faceless enemy and how the fight was not with anyone he hated. Paul was affected the greatest when he had to kill the French soldier in the ditch and hear him die a slow painful death. This one experience, of not only killing a man but also to do it close enough that he could put a face with his enemy, haunted Pauls mind. This was most likely a shared feeling with the soldiers at this time. They had to live though watching their countrymen die by being shot or blown up and continue fighting as if nothing should affect them. To deal with death is hard enough without having it shoved in your face. The fact of the matter is that an entire nation suffers when fighting a war. The county is physically destroyed and needs to be rebuilt. This requires money that has already been spent in a war effort. The major lost is that one generation of young adults that were forced to fight a war that they didnt understand. They were almost wiped out and those that did survive must live with the atrocities that they have seen. This is one of the main points illustrated by Remarque though the s ...