The brutality and horrors of the war are only one of the major themes in the book. It also addresses the alienation of the soldiers. Although remaining alive to the end of the war, many men return either physically or mentally maimed or both. Spiritually, they are empty shells who can no longer believe in a just world. Remarque comments in the epigraph that his novel is primarily for "a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped the shells, were destroyed by the war."
Author Erich Maria Remarque was 18 years old when he start fighting in WWI, and like Bomer witnessed the horrors of the battles first hand. He wrote his book in 1928, and it became well-known throughout the world as the first novel that realistically portrayed the actualities of present-day war. Anyone who may think there is something worthwhile about war will quickly change his/her mind. This war, with its new types of weapons of destruction, such as tanks, airplanes, guns, much more accurate artillery and, worst of all, poisonous gas, is living hell. He also criticizes the nationalistic spirit. Through Bomer and the other soldiers, who recognize that their real enemies are not across the trenches, but in high offices in their own country. It comes as no surprise that the men in the battles grow apathetic and non-emotional...
It is bad enough to fight a war truly worth fighting for, but so much worse when fighting for a nationalistic hoax.
When the Nazis came into power in the 1930s' Remarque's book was banned and he left the country. He said his avowed purpose in writing the novel was "to report on a generation that was destroyed by the war -- even when it escaped the shells." This indeed he did. If he had written such a book, how long would it have taken someone else to fight the strength and emotion to write such a difficult piece of literature. Because of Remarque, millions of people all over the world living at that time and ever since have had the ability to read about what truly takes place during war.
The unfortunate thing, however, is that despite the fact that so many people read his book in the 1930s and called World War I "The War to End all Wars," it was not long before numerous countries across the globe were once more immersed in such a terrible event again. And, even though millions more people have read his book, and others like it, since World War II, too many wars have been fought in the following years. Surely, if Remarque were alive today, he would be very disappointed that his bitter yet true words did not keep the world from declaring war over and over again.
