All Quiet on the Western Front

Many people have different views about the Great War, anyone who sees the war as a glorious adventure should read all quiet on the western front. All quiet on the Western front shows the dreadfulness of the war through the eyes of a young German soldier. There is a lot of evidence and quotes made by Paul during the story in this book that clearly states that this is an anti-war novel. This book also shows the sacrifices, courage, and determination made by the soldiers to survive the harsh circumstances of the war. For this reason.

When soldiers go to war they do not merely risk their lives, they go to war with the guarantee that it will destroy them regardless of whether or not they survive in a physical sense. When Paul and other soldiers and recruits were in the dugout withstanding hour upon hour of continuous shellfire many of the new recruits went green and threw up others just sobbed and a couple of them that suffered shellshock tried to make a run for it because the stifling air in the dugout was getting to much for them. In the novel Paul said “that sort of thing is contagious” because if you see one soldier go insane other soldiers would get panicky and also go mad. Watching a soldier get shot in the leg so the don’t run outside and kill themselves is the sort of image that stays in you're head forever. They are not physical scars but mental scars that simply cannot heal. This indicates how the war is not a glorious adventure but a devastating experience.

When Paul enlisted in the army his mind was filled with glorious ideas about war by authority figures back home, Paul quickly discovers that the blood-drenched trenches of the Western Front are a quagmire of misery and violent death. As soon as the first shells exploded in the mud Paul and his friends realized everyone back home was a liar, that war is not the glorious transformation of boys into men but rather the systematic destruction of all that is decent and healthy. As Paul's friends slip away one by one through death, desertion, and injury, Paul begins to wonder about his own life and whether he will survive not only the war but also a world without war. In the novel Paul says “when we came out here we were cut off, whether we liked it or not, from everything we had done up to that point.” because the war had destroyed any hope for a good future for the young