all quiet on the western front by erich maria remarque

Not many books are so eloquently anti-war, both in overt statements and also structured into the story. It's easy to see why the Nazis banned and burned the book. also, how do we live during times when all actions are futile, when the world becomes a prison- such situations and realizations occur again and again through life, and the book intensifies this understanding because it takes place in horrific circumstances. There is much about the nature of life and the loneliness that comes with understanding that no one can truly know the depths of our experiences. A+Īll Quiet on the Western Front reaches much farther than the battlefield and stretches to ages well beyond youth.

The narrator is perfect and really does the material justice. War is hell.' and 'There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.' I finished this book thinking, for mankind to evolve, wars should simply be banned (or, as suggested by Paul and his comrades, turned into life-and-death tournaments between the world leaders and generals who declare them). It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. Sherman said: 'I am tired and sick of war. All Quiet is written by a WWI combat veteran and tells tells the story of Paul Baumer who, along with his classmates is encouraged to join the war with a great deal of patriotic talk by those who, by virtue of their age or position, need never fight themselves. Ryan and read “All Quiet on the Western Front”. I never felt I knew what he was getting at until after I'd seen Saving Pvt. In his view war was a senseless “meat grinder”. My father fought in WWII and never told war stories or even talked about combat other than in vague ways. There are countless war movies and books, but these are the only two I am familiar with that were capable of bringing home the horror of war. Ryan” did (especially that movie’s initial D-Day scene). This book moved me in the way the movie “Saving Pvt. You think war is all glory, but it is all hell.

All quiet on the western front by erich maria remarque