Custom essays on “All Quiet at the Western Front”

World War I was caused by a high impact of nationalism on people. Nationalistic ideas led people to the front and encouraged Paul to join the army. Remarque shows that these ideas are hollow and hypocrite. The majority of people going to the front ultimately struggle not for nationalistic ideas but for their survival. Their desire to survive, eternal fight for life, the view of death do not back their spirit, but instead kill their feelings, make them get used to sufferings and pain, both their own and of other people too. Paul sees that the leaders of the army are people guided not by patriotism but by the desire of power. They are humble and paltry but being at the helm they feel significant.
“For us lads of eighteen they ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity… to the future… in our hearts we trusted them. The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom. But the first death we saw shattered this belief. We had to recognize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs…”
Is it worth to sacrifice life for principles that hardly signify anything in this world? Aren’t the people who seem to be enemies just the same victims of the war? The author vividly describes the carnage of the war in order to highlight the senselessness of war for the ideas of nationalism which were used to enlarge power of certain leaders.
The author shows us the impact of the war on both body and mind of people. If by chance they returned from the front, they remained crippled either physically or psychologically. War changes people and makes the animal instinct prevail in their essence.
From my perspective this book is a revelation for people who live today and do not what war is in reality. Reading the book you shudder from the horror described by the author and begin to reappraise old values. It is hard to believe that young people who had the entire life ahead of them had to die or to become invalids for nothing, for hollow ideas that were imposed on them. The main character Paul arouses compassion as we watch his disappointment and feeling of doom. What stroke me the most is his thought that he would have nothing to do when the war ended. Actually, the war broke the lives of hundreds of young people, not mentioning carrying away hundreds of lives. Today’s generation does not understand the true meanings of the words “life” and “war”. Therefore I would recommend everybody to read this book because it makes the reader to take a look upon life from other perspective. Moreover, the novel reveals the senselessness of war and its dedication to hollow ideas. The ideas of nationalism and patriotism were imposed on young people, who did not find at the front anything of what they had been said.
To make a conclusion, the impression that this book leaves is truly incredible. Firstly, due to its description of cruel realism of the war, it gives the feeling of extreme compassion and despair. The destiny of young people who die first spiritually and then physically cannot leave a person cold. Secondly, the themes that are covered in the book provoke more thinking of the ideas of patriotism and nationalism and give us a new perspective. There is no wonder that this book was highly appraised in the world, because it showed that people all over the world are the same and they are made enemies by those who are interested in power and who do not value a human life. Perhaps on a large scale this novel teaches us not to be so subject to the ideas that are dictated to us by the leaders, to have one’s own point of view and to be more compassionate.

 
Bibliography
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. Vintage, 2005