By Erich Maria Remarque

Reviewed by Rebecca Stickel

The novel is told from the viewpoint of a young German soldier, Paul Baumer, who is influenced by his professor’s patriotic speeches to volunteer for the draft with his classmates. Once the eager students arrive at training camp, they meet their commander, the merciless Corporal Himmelstoss, who seems delighted to torture his new recruits.

Once Baumer and his peers survive Himmelstoss, they are sent to the front. There they take part in active combat and learn the gruesome realities of war. After much time in combat, Baumer receives leave and goes home to visit his family. Upon his visitation he begins to realize how the war is changing him, his views on life and his opinions of the past. He feels out of place at home, and soon returns to the front with his comrades.

After his return he experiences several clichéd war situations; he watches an enemy Frenchman die, witnesses the gore of an army hospital and then eventually sees the death of all his comrades. The final paragraph of the book has an anonymous narrator telling of Paul’s death on the field on a day when reports relayed that all was quiet on the western front.

Erich Maria Remarque returned from World War Two and found himself in a state of severe depression that was stemming from his experience with the Second World War. His cure was presented to the world a year after his realization, in the form of an international bestseller: All Quiet on the Western Front. Through this novel Remarque single handedly captured a view from the front that no one but the participants related to, but portrayed that experience in a way that readers connected with by voiding his novel of aesthetic exaggerations and filling it with simple terminology and realistic characters. He revealed a side of war that was unapproached by other authors of the time; one in which no truths were held back and resent for fighting was accurately expressed. Although the novel was merely the author’s way of relieving the tension in his mind from his war encounter, Remarque unintentionally created an antiwar masterpiece that expressed the realism of war in a manner that regular simpletons could connect with.

Everyone cannot relate to a war veteran, however anyone can easily sympathize with someone who is expressing their disgust towards a horrid situation they are in. Because Remarque’s characters are not hyperbolic, they allow readers to understand and commiserate with them, "Baumer’s words and thoughts are devoid of aesthetic, tortured fabrication . . .Baumer’s language reflects . . .the reality of a soldier at war" (Firda 41). This simple realism is essentially what makes the novel a success. Other critics also agree that Remarque successfully portrays the realism of war by also sticking with realistic characters and avoiding insignificant logistics.

By keeping it simple, Remarque has mastered the complexities of a successful portrayal of war and has won over the reader’s compassion for his characters.

In his novel, Remarque exposes his war experience to the public in a way that anyone can appreciate, sympathize with and connect to. Because Remarque can connect his reader to his emotions through his characters, he creates a believable atmosphere for his tail. This relationship between the author, characters, and readers is responsible for making his novel such a renown and enjoyable read for anyone.

Bibliography

Firda, Richard A. All Quiet on the Western Front: Literary Analysis and Cultural Context. New York: Twayne Publishing, 1993.

Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. New York: Ballantine Publishing Group, 1929.

Wagener, Hans. Understanding Erich Maria Remarque. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1991.