Quiet on the Western Front

¶ … Quiet on the Western Front

The novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is a rather gloomy consideration of World War I, where absurdly young soldiers were recruited to fight the battles of the powerful. The main characters are all either at the end of their teens or the beginning of their twenties. In life, as the narrator notes in the beginning chapters of the book, they were just beginning to exchange their childish concerns for more adult ones. It was a time of detachment, where they were no longer sufficiently attached to their parents and childhood passions to retain them, nor were they yet sufficiently attached to their future, more adult concerns to take much of this to the war either. In effect, the young characters in the novel come to the war as a blank slate, to be filled with all the horrors it held.

The effect of the war on these young minds are easily discernable from the beginning of the novel. The physical hardship of daily battle and lack of sufficient nutrition or hygiene result in an almost excessive concern with the physical. Indeed, Paul, the main character and narrator, mentions that the soldiers have a much better "relationship with their intestines" than those who are used to the conveniences of civilian life. Furthermore, those who died are not so much a concern as the fact that the food rations can now be almost doubled for those who remain.

What would horrify a normal person is taken in stride by the young men at the battlefront. Furthermore, there is a dichotomy between the old and the young, which is also an effect of the war. Older men are for example regarded as a type of enemy, to be distrusted. In civilian life, on the other hand, parents and older people were generally respected by men as young as those sharing the story.

All these effects are imposed upon the young minds by the war, and are part of the cumulative effect of ruin experienced by all the characters. Each character then brings with him a story and a camaraderie that help the others, and particularly the main character, to survive the horrors of the war. The necessity of each character is demonstrated by the fact that, once Paul's last friend dies, he is also destined for his own demise. His physical decay and mental demise is followed by his physical death.

As the narrator, Paul Baumer is the one who holds not only the story, but also the other characters together. Paul also instils in the others the comradeship he feels with them, subject to the tragic but bonding effect of the war. This is his main function in terms of the other characters. When new recruits are introduced, Paul takes a leadership and almost fatherly role for them. This is his necessity.

From the beginning of his own involvement with the war, the main character has felt an inner dichotomy between the romanticism of the war that he learned from the civilian society where he grew up. This same society hailed him and his friends when they marched away to be "heroes." The beginning of the novel depicts Paul when he has already been fighting for two years. The only thing that maintains his survival is his friends and his sense of belonging with them. Indeed, they have their own culture and their own way of living, which he is well aware would be unacceptable to mainstream society. This same society is also completely unaware of the horrors experienced by the soldiers.

Having been abandoned by society, the soldiers need to depend upon each other for their survival. With all the death and horror facing them, Paul does not feel like hero, and nor do his friends. They feel like old men at twenty. This is perhaps the most tragic of the war's devastation.

Kantorek, the schoolmaster who recruits Paul, Albert Kropp, Muller and Leer into the army, is the authority figure that teaches the narrator distrust. It is he who perpetuated the romantic picture of the war as creating heroes. The reality was however far different, where young soldiers die as if their lives are worth nothing. This type of heroism also frequently meant severed limbs and other horrifying injuries that "normal" people shy away from. His function in the novel is one of recruitment, but also as demonstration of the concept dichotomy of the war. Kantorek believes in his vision of the war. However, it is only a vision in the minds of the rich and powerful, who have no idea what the reality of the war entails. Those who are at the battlefront, like Paul, experience a resultant separation from their former, innocent selves.

Paul and his friends were at the brink of their lives as adults, but both their childhood innocence and their adult potential were forcibly removed by the violence of the war. When Paul for example returns home on leave, there is nothing left for him; he has lost all his enthusiasm for books and for writing. Earlier in the novel, when he remembers his work ethic on a piece of literature he was constructing, he feels as if he is thinking about a stranger.

Each character in Paul's vicinity brings with him or her some element of the war's effect upon the psyche of young men. As such, each is necessary in order to provide the reader with the full spectrum of the horror at the time. The author spares nothing in his depiction of these horrors.

Joseph Behm for example represents the senseless death of the young. All the more ironic is the fact that Behm did not want to enlist in the first place. Lieutenant Bertinck serves as a counterpart to Behm. Bertinck survives two years without a single wound, but dies a hero's death close to the end of the war. A further irony in these two characters is the fact that there is not much difference between them besides the luck of survival. In war, the only requirement of a hero is simply to survive.

Detering, another of Paul's friends, represents the anti-hero of war who cracks under the pressure. He is a quiet man, but the reader knows that he is a farmer, and that the farm is being managed by Detering's wife while he is at war. Detering projects his worry and fear regarding to war into his farm to such an extent that he deserts the army to ensure that his wife is handling her farm duties well.

Corporal Himmelstoss in turn represents everything that Paul has learned to distrust in authority. Having been misled by a trusted teacher, Paul's view of the older generation as liars and victimizers of the weak is reinforced by Himmelstoss. He uses his power to perpetuate his brutality, a trait that is exacerbated by the fact that he does not like Paul and his friends. He considers them to be difficult trouble makers. Himmelstoss also however represents the way in which the war can completely change even the most brutal heart. When he is sent to the front, the corporal finally learns to work on his connections with others.