Themes from Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front

1. Themes from Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (Ideas and articulations from Prentice Hall’s novel study guide for All Quiet)

2. The Destructiveness of War • War is not only destructive on life and property; it also destroys the human spirit. • Throughout the novel, Remarque uses grotesque imagery of the physical torment of the soldiers to indicate a mere fraction of the memories a survivor would possess in post-war time.

3. The Lost Generation • The young soldiers in this war are just boys when they enter. They grow up too fast, as war grossly distorts their perceptions of life. They have no opportunity to pursue youthful idealism. • They will never again find comfort, hope, or inspiration in politics. They have no innocence. • They are never really able to return “home” after this war. The trench, in all its filth and danger, becomes their home. They are permanently alienated from the comforts of daily life.

4. Camaraderie • Fellow soldiers keep the men from being driven insane by the horrors around them. • Even adolescent pranks are checked by “adult” behavior. • Remember that most of these characters went from the classroom to the barracks. Their immaturity is indicative of the moment from which they were plucked from normal life. • Paul Baumer has to watch his friends die around him. This feeds his reclusive behavior and shatters his chances for assimilating back to normal life.

5. Shared Humanity • Paul’s youth also gives him the opportunity to recognize that all soldiers share a brotherhood, even enemy soldiers. • The irony of a brutal war is that these “brothers” are forced to kill one another. • Remarque seems to say that the more one sees human suffering, the more likely he is to realize that we’re on the same boat, that there is no fundamental difference between nations. The narrator is a German soldier, which serves little significance to impact of the book.

6. Power Corrupts • Remarque seems to be saying that the young men who are maimed and die in this war are victims of those in power. • Those in power, in this novel, abuse it at the expense of ordinary people. • Himmelstoss only regains his humanity after he is forced to function as an ordinary soldier. • Ironically, doctors and orderlies abuse their power over life and death in this novel. This is another example of Remarque showing the numbing effect of war on the human spirit.