All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front

In All Quiet in the Western Front, Paul Baumer and his classmates volunteer to join the

German army during World War I. Barely out of school, these young men go through

degradation of soldiers fighting in the trenches. They are transformed into primitive beasts,

struggling for survival. Their battlefield actions make them question their humanity as they

become more and more numb to the killings. Even though the war has stolen their souls, it has

also made the soldiers more human, because it taught them to bond like brothers, to be more

sensitive towards others, and to appreciate the comforts in life.

In attempts to keep their humanities intact, the victims of the war, whether they are

fighting soldiers or confined prisoners of war, are forced to form strong bonds with one another.

For example, when Paul Baumer visits his mother and sister at home, he feels that "there is a

distance, a veil between [them]" (160) which is a result of the trauma that the soldiers share.

Paul is aware that his family could never understand it. The battlefield has transformed into

Paul's real home because it is where he and the other victims of war grow and survive together.

They all share one crucial fact, which is that they entered the war as innocent souls without war

experience, who are then turned into primitive beasts, struggling for survival. As Paul observes

that the war "has transformed us into unthinking animals in order to give us the weapon of

instinct- it has reinforced us with dullness, so that we do not go to pieces before the horror,

which would overwhelm us if we had clear, conscious thought...it has lent us the indifference of

wild creatures"(140 ). The Russian prisoners also reflect this notion of comradeship. For them,

the war is over so far as they are concerned, waiting for dysentery to strike the last piece of flesh

they have. As they slowly suffer, "they rarely speak and then only a few words. They are more

human and more brotherly towards one another, it seems to [Paul], than [the soldiers] are. But

perhaps that is merely because they feel themselves to be more unfortunate than [the soldiers]"

(192). This conveys that Remarque is trying to show that the less you have, the more reliant you

are on others. For both the soldiers and the Russian prisoners, they lose so much of their

humanity, so all that they have left is each other.

Paul grows to see his enemies as real people who each have their own story, rather than

as lifeless targets. Since the soldiers are taught to kill large numbers at once, they brainwash

themselves into autopilot, in which they attack without trying to sympathize with the pain and

feelings

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