All Quiet On The Western Front By Erich M. Remarque

Brutalities in WWI In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front Erich M. Remarque realistically describes the brutalities of war through the protagonist Paul Baumer. Adults encourage the young men to become soldiers since they are the â€Å"Iron Youth†(18) as told by their society. The war turns out to be a hellish world where the young men experience horrors such as witnessing the innocent suffer, and taking the lives from men on the other side of the battlefield. As the novel draws to a close, Paul is seen alone, losing his family of comrades to death; including his best friend Kat, who he found to be like a father. War has broken him down to the point that he slowly begins to find death more appealing. Erich’s ability to use forlorn†¦show more content†¦Remarque presents the negative in animals in the novel as well, â€Å"corpse rats†(102), they are so massive â€Å"they attacked two large cats and a dog, bit them to death and devoured them† ( 103). These â€Å"repulsive†(102) rats pose a threat as they fight for food from the soldiers some even â€Å"run over [their] face[s] to get at it (102) and they taunt the young men as the rats are seen eating at the corpses of dead soldiers â€Å"gnawing†(102) into the flesh of humans while their comrades must watch as they wait for the bombardment to finish, leaving a lasting impression on the soldiers The brutalities of war is not just in the battlefield, as a classmate of Paul’s, Kemmerich, is slowly dying of gangrene, and only the use of morphine will get him through the days while in the hospital. When he realizes he no longer has both his legs he loses hope of living at all as he argues and laughs â€Å"I don’t think so†(27) while Paul tries coming up with excuses of why Kemmerich should fight to live. As Kemmerich dies, readers are left with images of how Kemmerich’s â€Å"flesh melts† (28) as â€Å"the forehead bulges†(28) and how his â€Å"skeleton is working itself through†(28) The first death readers experience is Kemmerich’s, young and naive he symbolizes innocence and the brutalities within aShow MoreRelatedFictional Novels and Historical Information in Novel All Quiet on the Western Front829 Words   |  3 Pagesabout. All Quit on the Western Front, for example, can be used to show the troubles of War World I . The author Erich Maria Remarque himself had been in the war. Nevertheless, there is one negative thing about using nonfiction. For example, a person would still have to do research. A nonfictional novel could be used for historial information depending on the author and their experiences, and if the author has used factual information; however, extra research is still needed. 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