Escaped the Shells essays

Escaped the Shells essays Erich Maria Remarques All Quiet on the Western Front is famous as one of the most powerful war stories of all time. It is a story, not of nations, but of men who, even though they may have escaped the shells, were destroyed by the war. The novel centers on Paul Baumer and his classmates, through whom Remarque depicts a generation of men that enlist for their idealized notions of war, but quickly degenerate into "weary, broken, burnt out, rootless [men] without hope. Through Pauls eyes, Remarque shows the inhumanity in this, mans first war, called for by no higher entity or cause. Paul and his generation were denied a transition between childhood and adulthood and upon entering the war at such a young age, they gained their identity as soldiers and once the war is over, their identity is all they have to live on. Baumer and his classmates enter the war as innocents; coming fresh from school, they knew nothing outside of their boyish hopes and idealizations. Setting out on the threshold of their adult lives, these soldiers knew war to be an opportunity for personal and national greatness, to be somebody and stand up for what they believe in. Labeled the Iron Youth these young Germans faced an explosive reality of meaningless death, pain, and rapid maturity into a world being reborn. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war (p88). Remarque quickly establishes the emotional disconnection felt by the soldiers brought on by their forced stage of rapid maturity. While his friend Kantorek is inches away from death, Paul and his friends, although grieved, eagerly debate the custody of Kantoreks boots with the orderly. ...