Raquel DonbatallaAP English LitBosch11 August 2007All Quiet On the Western FrontErich Paul Remark ( Erick Maria Remarque is his pseudonym for his name) was born on June 22, 1898 in Osnabruck, Lower Saxony. At the age of 18 he was drafted into the German military. Served in World War I under the commander of the Second Company of the Fifteenth Reserve Infantry Regiment, Trench Batallion Bethe. Remark was wounded in battle and was sent to a German hospital, where he stayed for the remainder of the war. He changed his name from Remark to Remarque after the war. After the war, he had many different jobs, he was a teacher, an editor, librarian, and a writer. With his experiences in WWI, Remarque published, All Quiet On The Western Front, using the pseudonym for his name in 1929. The impact of his work on history is major. It is one of the few books that describe the hardships of war and the transition of behavior in a person before, during, and after war. This book was banned by the Nazis in 1933, for accusations that Remarque was a descendent of a French Jew. In 1939 he moved to the United States and stayed until the end or World War II. He then moved back to Switzerland in 1948 with his wife, Paulette Goddard. He died on September 25, 1970 at the age of 72. Remarque was considered, “spokesman of ‘a generation that was destroyed by war, even though it might have escaped its shells.’” (kirjasto).The book, All Quiet On The Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque is about a man, Paul Baumer, who is in the German Army in WWI. It begins with Baumer, as a soldier who is eager to be a soldier and how he and his friends view war. However, hiseagerness soon fades away when he is presented with the destruction of war. When Baumer sees a soldier die in front of him, he realizes that he is no longer a young man fighting a war, but is now a lost soul. Throughout the novel Baumer deals with the notion that he is no longer himself, even after the war when he comes home. He feels that there is a tension between his generation and the generations that came before his and the generation that come after his.War affects not only the economy, government, businesses, the common wealth of a nation and it citizens, but more importantly the soldiers. Any soldier that fights in a war runs the risk of losing his or her life or being injured or developing mental problems after war. However, many do not think of the mental problems as much as they do the physical. Although, they should because that is the most likely to occur, whether or not a person is injured. After World War I, the soldiers that fought that war were considered the lost generation. The lost generation, is a generation whom had lost hope in their countries, they are described as being, “disillusioned by the large number of casualties of the First World War.” (wiki). In the book, All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, the main character Paul Baumer represents the lost generation. Amongst familiarity he feels like an outcast, “ ‘You are at home, you are at home.’ But a sense of strangeness will not leave me I cannot fell at home amongst these things.” (Remarque, 160). In this quote, Paul is demonstrating a trait of the “lost generation”, which is the sense of being uncomfortable among the people and things that should make him feel at home. Towards the end of the book, the feeling of strangeness is even stronger, “ We will be superfluous even to ourselves, we will grow older, …and most will be bewildered; -the years that will pass by and in the end we shall fall into ruin.” (Remarque, 294). This excerpt from the book demonstrates the character’s feeling of singularity and how he feels that no one but his own generation will understand what he had gone through. That is a representation of how the men and women of that era felt lost and were hopeless, it is the representation of the lost generation.War time can cause changes in the behaviors of not only political leaders, but ordinary people and soldiers as well. During war, a person may behave in an uptight, strict fashion. However, that same person may behave laid back and calm during peace time when there is no war. War has a way of giving ordinary people power that they may not have during peace time. An example of this is shown in the book. The commanding officer of Paul Baumer, Himmelstoss, works for the post office when he is not in the army. This demonstrates a change in behavior by Himmelstoss when he works as a post man has very little power but when he is in the army he has much more power. Since he has a lot of power in the army, he abuses it. He makes his company of soldiers run drills over and over again because he has the power to do so, and he is commemorated for being strict with his men. In a quote by Kat he says that, “The army is based on that; one man must always have power over the other.” (Remarque, 44). From this quote, Kat is saying that in the army its power that drives most men. That the thought of being having control for a certain amount of time is grand. Another example of how war changes behavior of men is the behavior of the main character, Paul Baumer. Throughout the book it shows how, Baumer, was a young soldier eager for war and then how war changed everything for him. In this quote by Albert, “ The war has ruined us for everything.” (Remarque, 87). This quote demonstrates how Albert realizes that war had changed every aspect of their lives and how at that very moment nothing would ever be the same for any of them. Power and authority often get the best of people, especially those in the military.The main character Paul Baumer, in the book, undergoes the transition from a young, energetic soldier to a soldier damaged both physically and mentally from his experiences in WWI. In the beginning of the war Baumer was a youthful soldier who did not mind being involved in war. However, after the first bombardment, his attitude quickly changes. He realizes the change in attitude when he states, “We were eighteen and had begun to love life…The first bomb…burst in our hearts…we believe in the war.” (Remarque, 87-88) This quote demonstrates how Baumer acknowledges the fact that he was in a war and how the war ruined his chance of taking his time to grow up. Instead he was forced to grow up a lot quicker than he should have. Paul Baumer represents the men who were in WWI, he represents the lost generation. Remarque uses this character to not only represent his feelings towards war, but to also show how war can change a person. He uses fist person point of view in his book. By doing this the audience is experiencing what the character is experiencing and what knows what the character is thinking. The use of that point of view help Remarque enforce the emotions of the character, Paul Baumer, onto his audience by allowing them to connect with the character and visualize his transformation in the book. The character and the point of view are connected to the theme of the book by they both represent the effects of war. Paul Baumer is used a symbol representing the lost generation of WWI. The point of view helps the reader connect to the emotions of the character and helps them see the mental and physical destruction of war. The setting of the book is in Germany during WWI. This helps the readers visualize the time period and allows them to connect with the character easier by giving the reader something familiar to connect to. Remarque uses these to convey his audience it to seeing and feeling what he wants them to feel.All Quiet on the Western Front should be included in the list of High Literary Merit. This book demonstrates the authors knowledge of World War I. It also demonstrates the authors usage of symbols and imagery. This book is more than qualified for the list of High literary merit not only for its grammatical uses, but for the message that it conveys to its readers. The message that is conveyed is that war changes soldiers, regardless of what war a soldier was or is in. It demonstrates not only the physical hazards of war, but also the psychological hazards. This book also showed how the World War I generation felt. By demonstrating the change in behavior of a soldier in World War I. All Quiet on the Western Front should be included in the list of High Literary Merit for its literary terms and its historical references.Works citedRemarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. The Random House Publishing Group. New York. 1982.http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/remarque.htm. August 12, 2007.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Maria_Remarque August 11, 2007.
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