Book Review/Recommendation

All Quiet on the Western Front was not just a regular book about war. Sure there were the thrilling battle scenes with gory details, but this book was deeper. You see how Paul, the main character was affected by war – how it transformed him from a youthful schoolboy into a seasoned war veteran, who witnessed death more than he could have ever imagined. There is both an outward struggle on the battlefield, and inward struggle of the soldier, who finds himself lost in the world after war is the only thing that he ever knew as an adult.

            Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. While it was quite sad at times, (or most of the time), All Quiet on the Western Front eloquently displayed an entire generation of young men, whose lives were taken from them. Perhaps my favorite aspect of the book was how it questioned war in general. Why do millions of men have to risk their lives for the wants of just a few leaders? What did those men of a different nationality do to me personally that I should throw a hand grenade at them and blow them to pieces? These were the struggles of the soldiers of World War 1 and author Erich Remarque displays them brilliantly.

            I would recommend this book to every human being that can read it and understand it. The struggle and comradeship of the millions of young men who fought in the First World War makes you think about war in a new light; you will find yourself questioning if war is really necessary and whether it is appropriate that millions of common people risk their lives for the wants of their rulers.

Two Sides to Every Story

     There are multiple sides to every story, and this principle applies to World War 1 just as it applies to smaller-scale conflicts. Both sides believe that they are right and the other is wrong and they have been convinced of this by propaganda. Paul says how in Germany, the French are made out to be evil while in France, the Germans are made out to be evil. It is this lack of understanding of the men you are fighting that leads you to take their lives. Paul seems to come to the realization that his enemies are real people with real families, friends, and aspirations while he is the in shell-hole with the French-man he had just stabbed. Before that moment, he had not come that close to his enemy. Before, they were just an idea, a lurking evil that wanted him to die, and therefore Paul had to kill them before they killed him. As Paul spent several days with the French man, Paul put a face to his enemy, and he saw that these were fellow human beings. He learned his name, and saw pictures of his family. This was a real person that he had just killed, and this person was fed the same lies and that had made millions of men from all different countries believe that it was right to kill other men, just because they wore a different uniform and spoke a different language.

The Price of War

If you do not die in the war, you will likely return home, but you will not return home the same person as you left. Paul explains how his mind is being destroyed by the war. The innocence of youth is lost through killing other humans and seeing friends being brutally killed. The transformation can be seen through Remarque's symbolism of the bread. When the soldiers were comfortable in their hut, they cut off the parts of their bread that the rats ate. When they were fighting, and were starving, they wished that they had those parts back, and they even ate bread that had blood on it.     

Paul says the war has destroyed their dreams. The apathy that comes from battle makes sensitive dreams impossible. War gives a wake-up call, that everything cannot be fine and dandy while men die horrific deaths at the hands of other men. Millions of men went to World War 1 because of the glorification of the war.  Millions of men returned from the war with haunted minds that were incapable of feeling purity ever again. The war destroyed these men, it desensitized them, and we can and will continue to see it through Paul and his comrades.

The Goose

Kropp and Tjaden are in jail temporarily while Kat and Paul went out to steal a goose for themselves. Paul breaks into the farm’s backyard while Kat waits outside and stands guard. Paul struggles to capture a goose, having to keep a hold on flailing birds while fighting off a ferocious bulldog. Eventually Paul succeeds to capture a goose and him and Kat bring it back to their hut and roast it. I wondered why Remarque included this in the book. What does the goose represent?

In the incessant struggle of marching, building trenches, fighting battles, and more, Paul and Kat found a way to enjoy themselves with some freshly roasted meat. Originally I thought this could mean that war could still be enjoyable, but then I remembered that previously in the chapter, Paul came to the realization that the war had ruined their lives for the future. They would no longer be able to believe in a life of discovery and wonder after seeing their comrades blown up into pieces before their very own eyes. To me, the goose represents the only true enjoyment these men will have for the rest of their lives, because the only place that they can feel accomplishment any more is at war. The goose is gone after being consumed by Paul and Kat, just like their lives have been consumed by the war.

Forboding

Chapter Four was extremely eventful, with Paul and his comrades being bombarded by enemy troops. The chapter begins with the men riding closer to the front lines. It is a warm night and they are not worried. They even pass a house with geese that they think they will eat later on. As they move along, the setting changes, “the air becomes acrid with the smoke of the guns and the fog. The fumes of powder taste bitter on the tongue.” Their vehicle starts to shake and and their faces change for they are now in the midst of danger. 

The rest of the chapter is a chaotic scrambling of Paul escaping death while others around him become wounded or killed in the attack. I think that Chapter Four will be a model for the entire book. When everything seems fine and dandy, the war will take over and give a wake-up call that everything still stinks. Just as Katczinsky simply felt that a bombardment was coming, I feel that this book will not end happily. Just as everything seems to get better, such as the soldiers begin to find safety or a way home, things will take a turn for the worse.

Chapters 1 and 2

Kemmerich is dead. Paul and his friends, including Kemmerich, joined the German army with excitement. There were going to defend their country, and become heroes. They would kill the enemy and then sleep well at night. The first two chapters of the book showed how much war changes people. Back home, death is horrifying and to many, unfathomable;  at war, death is a normal thing. When Kemmerich was in the hospital and had his leg amputated, his long-time friends came to see him, and it seemed as if they only cared about the boots that he is going to leave behind. For most of us who have never been to war and never seen death first-hand, boots would be the last thing on our minds as a friend is painfully lying on his or her deathbed. In the harsh reality of war, however, the boys are forced to move on from the death of their friend, and if his pair of boots will alleviate some of the hardship they are facing, then is it wrong for them to desire them? These young men are forced to shake off the old ways of home and get used to a new world - the world of death and violence. The unsettling apathy of Kemmerich dying in the novel captures the normality of death in the bloody war.