The Cause of Death in All Quiet on the Western Front :: All Quiet on the Western Front Essays

The Cause of Death in All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is a very interesting and true-to-heart novel based in the first world war where many men and women died because someone called them the enemy. The main character is Paul Baumer, a nineteen year old man who is swept into the war, along with his friends, not one day before he is out of school. They are sent to the front to "protect the fatherland" or Germany as it is called. Paul and his friends go from this idealistic opinion to disillusionment throughout the book as they discover the truth that the enemy is just like them, and Paul's friends start being killed one-by-one. This novel is a gripping account of how war is most of the time bloody and horrid. The few who came out of this war were not the people they were when they left. They become pale and emotionless, without feeling or thought. Some killed themselves, they had experienced ultimate horror, the horror of war. The novel starts two years after Paul and his friends first reached the front and then goes back and forth between present and past. The main topics throughout the book is the change from idealism to disillusionment, the loss of Paul's friends, and especially the loss of Paul's innocence. The change from idealism to disillusionment is really the driving force behind the novel. From young school boys, listening to their schoolmaster asking "Won't you join up comrades?"(11) to "weary, broken"(294) men, idealism and disillusionment play a major role on Paul's decisions and thoughts. For example, on the second page of the novel, Paul says, "It would not be such a bad war if only one could get a little more sleep." (2) Later in the book, a disillusioned Paul says of the same war, "I see how people are set against one another and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another."(263) Even though he has been in the war two years, the first quote shows how Paul's idealism is still strong. In the second quote, Paul sees the war for what it truly is, a waste of time, food, money, and young men. The