All Quiet on the Western Front

In All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque narrates a fictional story during World War I through the eyes of a young German soldier named Paul Baumer. Paul’s narration takes us into the experiences of a soldier on the bleak war front. To describe the war front, Baumer often uses imagery of carnage and destruction. Paul also comments on the war’s lasting effects upon its soldiers. He admits he would not know what to do if the war ended, because the war is all he knows. Paul struggles to regain his innocence, but fails to relieve himself from the trauma, both while visiting his family and meeting with French girls at a lake. Paul also questions a war’s implications. He discovers that his enemies, such as the Russian prisoners-of-war and French soldier he killed, are in fact just as human as he. The unusual format of the book, focusing on ideas rather than chronological order, draws attention to many main themes of the book rather than emphasize a storyline. Remarque comments on war’s ability to make enemies of people with no grudge against each other, and implies that a soldier is never truly at peace until he is dead.