There were many books and films written depicting the horrors of World War I. Today we tend to forget this conflict as one that occurred in the distant mists of history. The idea of men fighting conflicts from the trenches seems outdated and unrealistic compared to how war is fought today. The toll of war in human terms though never changes. In reading All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque’s brilliant testament to that misery, we find a gut-wrenching recounting of the horrors of war and the physical and emotional toll it inflicts on the men in the trenches. It is the reality of war and its effects set against the patriotic and glorious notion of war perpetrated by those who rarely fight them.
There are several themes running simultaneously through the plot. Of course, the horrors of war and its brutality appear in every line. Other themes, however, depict the effects of war on the individual men who fight it. Others depict the promotion of nationalism and the pressures all around put upon young men to fight for the glory of nation. This latter theme strikes a chord. Much of the dialogue in the book seems eerily similar at times to speeches we hear today that promote conflict as a “glorious battle” for the good of country, as usual, always in the right. Mittelstaedt encourages Kantorek in wild patriotic rhetoric that “we have the good fortune to live in a great age, we must brace ourselves and triumph over hardship.” (83) Whether a young man has misgivings or not, it is a hard job not to succumb to the pressures of patriotic nationalism, either from a public point of view or even from families who might see reluctance as “cowardice.” (6) In the book, the narrator speaks of Joseph Behm, “a plump, homely fellow” who when urged to volunteer for duty at first demurs but then goes along “otherwise he would have been ostracized.” (6)
One cannot ignore the theme of betrayal that runs throughout the story. From a government intent on preserving power, to families who pressure their young into battle, to the very society that lives and loves while young men die, characters are constantly confronted with truth in the face of lies. Paul complains, “We became soldiers with eagerness and enthusiasm, but they have done everything to knock that out of us.” (12) He says, “We were trained for heroism as if we were circus ponies” (12), only to find most of it in little use in the trenches. In short, they were being prepared for one type of battle, their trainers fully aware that the skills they were learning would be useless. They now see their previous life at school and what they learned there as “not being of the slightest use to us” (41) in their current situation. The ultimate betrayal however comes across toward the end of the novel, as Paul confronts the human tragedy he finds in a hospital and its ravaged occupants. Overwhelmed, he says “I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow.” (125) He is betrayed….
Conclusion
Remarque’s characters represent a generation of young men “talked into war” by old men grasping for power. This is not an isolated theme. Considering our ongoing thirst for war and bloodshed, it is apparently an eternal one. The themes of how a society engages and pressures its younger members into believing that war is always in a nation’s best interest, and that as members young men are responsible to fight them without question is a discussion ongoing. One only has to look at history to understand the significance of that ultimate betrayal: that neither the existing generation which had not experienced battle, nor that which will come after will “understand us…will be strange to us and push us aside.” (139) Those who have sent them on this “patriotic” mission of destruction will not care either. If this sounds familiar, it should. With veterans home with PTSS and other residual effects of war in many instances ignored, we have only to look at our own situation to understand what Remarque was trying to convey.
- Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/esimpson/files/AQWF%20-%20full%20text.pdf
