World War I: All Quiet on the Western Front Book Report

Book Report-War Documentaries: All Quiet on the Western Front

All quiet on the western front was published in 1929, and was written by Erich Maria Remarque. Remarque based the book off his own experience during the Great War. He is also known as one of the greatest War novelist. The reason I chose this book was because it was recommended by a friend of mine. I’d also chosen this book because I thought it’d be interesting to see what the war was like from a soldier from the western front’s point of view. In addition the German culture has always fascinated me. Overall, this story is about a “lost generation” seen by the eyes of a fresh out of high school teenage boy, who had volunteered, named Baumer and is during the later part of World War I.
With the style of first person and present tense, the novel consists of short stories, and has entries on the everyday life of a young German foot soldier. In the beginning of the novel, the main character, Paul Baumer, volunteers to join to military with his fellow classmates as well as friends. Paul Baumer, a young boy, plays out Erich Maria Remarques experience during the war. It talks about the young boy’s daily wants, needs, interests and thoughts. It also starts off with a bang right away and catches my attention. It goes straight into the harsh and cruel situation the young soldiers had sadly put themselves in unknowing of how much this War would truly affect them, not only physically, but emotionally and mentally as well. From then on the men then don’t take for granted the every now and then pleasures like food or simple pleasures of things like candy or tobacco for instances. And every chance they get of a good meal they definitely take advantage of it. Later on in the chapters Paul encounters flashbacks of his previous early years of how things used to be, and how he’d write poetry and stories, which were some of his interests. He also realizes how much he took for granted while he had the everyday lifestyle that had then been taken from right under his feet. Even though he had volunteered it was a tad bit too late to turn back for both him and his fellow classmates. Baumer also thinks back to how much they have changed from being in this war, from the beginning to where they are at now. He talks about how they went from young naïve yet civilized boys, to uncivilized men by forgetting their fears and not letting any emotions get in the way. Those who couldn’t do so could not survive the intolerable misery caused by the war. In addition he talks about how the older men who had enlisted, at least had a wife or family to hold onto to keep them civilized and hopeful of a home to return to, yet fear still lingered for everyman no matter how many times they were told they had no reason to be frightened. Many of the things the soldiers who adapted to the new way of lifestyle were often considered heartless by their “insensitive” actions. Yet it would all depend on whose perspective you were looking at it from. When one of Paul’s friends had his legs amputated, another one of his friends knew that he would no longer need his shoes. But was it insensitive to want them, when his friend no longer needed them? If you look at it from one angle, it could be considered selfish, but if you look at it from another, it could be considered just being resourceful. Resources were scarce during the war so whatever a soldier lost and could no longer use, another would learn to take it and use the resources for their own necessities; Which is also an example of how the men became “uncivilized”. Overall through the book, the bloodiness of the war shown through the descriptions, really got to me. I could not even imagine or visualize realistically how a person could act towards another after seeing bodies torn to bits. Bodies of people they just spoke with or knew. Not only that but the aftermath of the attacks, after seeing the results and how many people were slaughtered or wounded. During the book Paul talked about how he felt he’d never be able to be the same person he was after the war had ended, since he had become so tolerable of things that are so inhumane. Through-out the book he focuses on how he will ever be the same again and how he has no idea what he will do with his life after the war finally ends. Eventually later on Baumer finally gets to visit home for a couple of weeks, unfortunately finding out that there were problems back at home as well. While there though he comforts his loving family and his classmates’ families telling them that their sons were doing just fine or that they were brave when they lost their life and never goes into detail of how much they suffered. He also found it quite awkward since no one back home could even relate to what he had experienced. As the visit comes to an end, Paul is sent back to once again accompany his troops and fellow classmates. While another battle arises, Paul is faced with a scarring incident that haunts him from then on. When him and his fellow soldiers were out at field, he trailed off and was abandoned. Unfortunately he runs into a soldier from the opposing side and ends up having to stab him before he ends up getting killed himself. Although Paul had been fighting all along, he never had killed another so up close before. This was especially hard for him as well because he never just saw the Allies as just face-less enemies; he saw them as innocent people like himself. This event in the book, is also a turning point. After the event occurred, eventually Paul dies being reuniting with all his fellow classmates who passed on as well.
Overall I really enjoyed this book since it was full of action and was really descriptive. Before reading this I never knew what it was like from a soldiers stand point on the war. I had no idea of what all they had to do and to cope with just to make it through to another unpromising day. The only thing I did not like about the book was how the names of the characters were very distracting since I would always pause and try to pronounce them. But one thing that I learned from this book is that no matter how much Paul was exposed to such cruel situations, he still was a sensitive caring person. When it came time to telling his friends mother, that her son had died, he chose not to tell her how out of sake of her feelings. Instead of telling her what actually had happened he told her he died a courageous, quick and painless death. Thus showing that Paul Baumer still held on to some of his morals even through such harsh times.