John Steinbeck's All Quiet On The Western Front
“This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war” (Epigraph). In All Quiet on the Western Front, there are many themes present throughout the text. The most important of which, being the psychological effects that the war has on the soldiers. Out of all of the men fighting throughout the war and those who physically survived in the end, they were destroyed mentally from their experiences. This theme occurs throughout the war on many soldiers and has an even larger impact on nineteen-year-old Paul Baumer in chapter
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His mother was very ill, but no one knew what the cause of her illness was. When Paul was sent off for war, he knew in the back of his mind that there was something entirely wrong with his mother, but he had to keep moving forward. Paul and a few other soldiers, Kropp, Muller, and Leer, were all from the same class at home and all volunteered to join the war at the same time. However, they were all heavily persuaded to join by their home schoolmaster, Kantorek. As the four men go to visit their wounded comrade, Kemmerich, Albert Kropp pulled out a letter from their schoolmaster and said, “Kantorek sends you all his best wishes” and the men laughed (Pg. 10). Paul goes on to say that he and his men used to look up to Kantorek and trust him and the idea of authority would associate them with more wisdom, but he said it all changed when “the first death we saw shattered this belief and the first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces” (Pg. 12-13). By that quote, Paul is saying that at first, he and the other men were ready to join the war and take on the authority and wisdom that they thought they would receive while joining, however, the little of what they have seen so far was so brutal that they think Kantorek was lying and they don’t believe anything good will come from
His mother was very ill, but no one knew what the cause of her illness was. When Paul was sent off for war, he knew in the back of his mind that there was something entirely wrong with his mother, but he had to keep moving forward. Paul and a few other soldiers, Kropp, Muller, and Leer, were all from the same class at home and all volunteered to join the war at the same time. However, they were all heavily persuaded to join by their home schoolmaster, Kantorek. As the four men go to visit their wounded comrade, Kemmerich, Albert Kropp pulled out a letter from their schoolmaster and said, “Kantorek sends you all his best wishes” and the men laughed (Pg. 10). Paul goes on to say that he and his men used to look up to Kantorek and trust him and the idea of authority would associate them with more wisdom, but he said it all changed when “the first death we saw shattered this belief and the first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces” (Pg. 12-13). By that quote, Paul is saying that at first, he and the other men were ready to join the war and take on the authority and wisdom that they thought they would receive while joining, however, the little of what they have seen so far was so brutal that they think Kantorek was lying and they don’t believe anything good will come from