All Quiet on the Western Front

     

All Quiet on the Western Front

    I first tried to read the book All Quiet on the Western Front a couple of years ago, but I found the first chapter, which talks about rations and doesn’t contain as much combat, to be really boring, so I stopped reading after a chapter or two. However, last year, I decided to try reading the book again, and I found it a lot more interesting.

    All Quiet on the Western Front was written by World War One veteran Erich Maria Remarque. It follows the story of Paul, a soldier for the German Army fighting on the Western Front of World War 1. Paul enlists in the army alongside his friends at the urging of his teachers, but quickly discovers the horrors of war.

    The soldiers are always tired, hungry, and lacking equipment, perhaps best exemplified by when one soldier takes the boots of a dying friend. But worse than that is perhaps the loss of their dreams. Having known nothing but war his entire adult life, Paul can not imagine his life after the war. The books he used to once love reading no longer have any meaning to him, and when he returns home on leave, he finds trouble communicating with the civilians who haven’t experienced war.

    The ending of the story is what stuck out to me the most. Having survived so much of the war, outlasting many of his friends who died throughout the conflict, Paul is killed on a relatively calm day on the front lines. So calm, in fact, that it was reported that it was “all quiet on the western front.” The idea that the death of the main character, with friends and family, and who survived so much, could occur, and yet still be described as all quiet affected me deeply.

    The book, based on Remarque’s own experiences, would become very popular after its publication, but also controversial. It was banned or censored in many different countries, most notably in Nazi Germany itself, where it was thought to be promoting pacifism and betraying the honor of the German soldiers it portrayed. The book would even be burned.

    Ultimately, I would recommend All Quiet on the Western Front. Remarque’s great descriptions help you truly understand what war is like and it provides a valuable perspective on the experiences of soldiers. The book serves both as a vivid account of the horrors millions of young men went through and a warning for the future.

Jaehyun Yi