All Quiet on the Western Front
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literature
school essay
date published 23/10/2007
review : not yet assessed
level : General public
requested 4 times
eight and a half million people dead and another 20 million injured, it was a disaster unparalleled in human history. There was nothing great about this Great War except for the death and destruction. Erich Maria Remarques novel, All Quiet on the Western Front describes the pointlessness and brutality of this war from a German foot soldiers perspective. When the book was first published in January 1929 in Germany it sold one million copies in its first year. The next year it was turned into an Oscar-winning Hollywood movie. The title of the book itself, All Quiet on the Western Front, has become a popular phrase in todays terminology, meaning lack of action. Hitler banned this book in the beginning of World War II and it was also banned in numerous countries such as Austria, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and New Zealand. The movies premiere in Germany was disrupted by Nazi soldiers carrying mice and stink bombs; they called it a Jewish hate film and a lie slandering German soldiers. The movie was not seen again in Germany until 1952.
- Most war stories or other historical epics portray battle as glorious, its characters as heroes, and usually attach some sort of a love story, to make it more entertaining of course.
- This is somewhat ironic because he is standing on a battlefield, refuting everything he has been taught about human wisdom and decisions.
- However, as the story goes on we see that Paul and the other characters have learned to adapt to their situation, even though they would never accept it.
- The event that has the most impact on Paul is his meeting with a French soldier that ended in murder.
- Paul dies in a quiet day in 1918. Perhaps that was a better ending for him.
- This book was popular in its own time as well as even today because it was relatable to everyone.
- The question, did Remarque achieve his goals with this book, is a complicated one.
- Remarque's novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, tells the story of Paul and his friends and their experiences on the battlefield on the Western front during World War I.
