All Quiet on the Western Front
Introduction
The book provides an overview and a different perspective concerning the World War I. Through the experience of Paul as depicted in the book, one is inclined to sympathize with the enemies while attempting to identify what defines an enemy. The experience of Paul as depicted may steer one to questioning the reasons for war. “All quiet on the Western Front” provides an overview of the World War I through six German fighters who offered to fight in the war. It includes an overview of their death logically, psychologically, and physically. The book offers an overview through the angle of Paul Baumer.
Paul reveals the details of experiencing life on the Western Front. It includes the involvement of gas outbreaks, to deadly illnesses, to rat invasions. The book portrays the actual terrors of trench warfare. All Quiet on the Western Front searches the necessity and tenacity of engaging in war. The book is detailed from the perspective of an American enemy soldier (German soldier), yet, it is regarded as one of the books that addresses and provides an outline of the WWI efficiently.
The Impacts of Trench Warfare in Reference to the Experience of Paul Baumer The book provides an overview of the men who fought in the World War 1. Despite the fact that the men survived, they returned mentally and physically destroyed. One of the key impacts of trench war as depicted in the first chapter of the book is death. It starts with an overview where Paul among other members rests after getting relieved from the front lines. The past two weeks, Paul’s group consumed it in battle. They went to the front lines as a group of 150 people and returned with a group of eighty individuals (Remarqque, 1975, 5).
The first impact of trench war as the narrator (Paul Baumer) represents, stands as death. The death of their members distorts them mentally where the next morning they are all could not fathom to eat the food that that the fallen comrades could have consumed (Remarqque, 1975, 6). As Paul described, his friend wounded in the hospital with a wound on the thigh also stood as an impact of the trenched war.
The dreadful fact of the war stand in that all individuals volunteered to show their patriotism to their country. Many members of Paul’s group joined the army since a respectable individual coaxed them to join the army and fight for their countries (Remarqque, 1975, 9). One of the friends coaxed to join the army identified as John Behm, died first, died horribly (9). The impact of the trenched warfare may also be identified through the fact that after the death of Behm, Kammerich is depicted having nightmares of his death. It affects his mind negatively leading to mental illnesses as he experiences intellectual shock.
The individuals who coaxed such young men to encounter the horrors of war was a shameful individual. Kemmerich is also a member of Paul’s group who is in the hospital. He stands unaware that his leg has been amputated. Paul distinguishes from his pale skin and amputated leg that Kemmerich will not return to the war zone (Remarqque, 1975). According to the narration of Paul, one recognises the impacts and terrors of war and its influence on the normal soldier.
Former stories concerning war as well as soldiers inclined to lay emphasis on the bravery, passion, and splendour on the trenches. They did not include the horrors and dehumanizing fierceness of military war. The introductory section of the book portrays a diverse spectre. Remarque’s fighters are unpaid assistants or recruits. For Paul and his colleagues, the defence force has turned into a manifestation of nationalistic duty; they do not distinguish it as a profession. Outside the schoolroom, young males of their time faced exclusion and criticism from society on the stipulation that they did not stand to fight in the warfare as volunteers.
World War I developed from patriotism, a political philosophy that cleared Europe for the