All Quiet on the Western Front: Encyclopedia II - All Quiet on the Western Front - Themes

All Quiet on the Western Front - Themes

There are many central themes in the book. Among them is that war is total nonsense. For example, none of the characters have ever seen a Frenchman before the war, much less have reason to kill them, but that is now what they are doing. Some of the soldiers ponder how the war was started, what is it for, and who it benefits. Nobody has any answers.

All Quiet on the Western Front - The horror of war

The main theme in All Quiet on the Western Front is the brutality of war. The archetypical war novel romanticizes war and extolls the heroes of the story, however this book shows a vivid, realistic, and horrible portrait of war. World War I saw the development of many new horrible innovations such as poison gas, machine guns, and tanks; all of which made killing easier and even more impersonal. The novel shows these weapons being used for butchery on a grand scale; for instance, battles lasting for four months.

Paul describes the horrors of war throughout the book. The trenches and fortifications are shelled continuously, poison gas blankets the battlefield, snipers shoot at anyone with their head above ground. Finally, the French troops come and the German lines disintegrate. Vivid descriptions are presented throughout the book. Nothing short of being there could show the sheer numbers of dead and wounded every day in the war.

The day Paul is killed was otherwise militarily uneventful: the German army despatches just noting Im Westen nichts Neues - "All Quiet on the Western Front" in the original, evocative translation (by A. W. Wheen in 1929). However, a literal translation reveals a different kind of irony - the dispatches on the day of Paul's death read "Nothing New on the Western Front".

All Quiet on the Western Front - Effect on soldiers

Another of the central themes is how war completely ruins soldiers. Physically, they are in constant danger of being shot and bombed. The never-ending attacks and counter-attacks destroy their nerves. They live in unending fear and in atrocious conditions: inhabiting muddy earthen dug-outs infested with rats, alongside rotting corpses, having no food or water for days on end. They are forced to deal with the emotional shock of watching the violent deaths of their friends. If war does not actually kill the soldiers fighting it, the physical and mental anguish of war destroys them. Paul finds much to his horror when he returns home that he can no longer feel joy even in simple acts like reading. The soldiers metaphorically change from humans into animals.

All Quiet on the Western Front - Nature

The landscape on the front is barren, but when Paul goes on leave, he sees nature. Nature represents escape, it is beautiful and pure. When traveling by train, Paul describes the beautiful mountains and plains of Germany. He wonders why this nature is being destroyed on the front, he wants to preserve this beauty not destroy it. Also, when he sees the French countryside, he sees it is not different from the German countryside, why should he destroy this either? When wanting to change the tone of the book to a nice tone, the author uses nature as a tool to achieve that.

Paul and his comrades from the trenches cross a river to get together with some young French women who live in a farm house away from the front. For a short period of time, the soldiers are taken away from the war, the trenches, and the destruction and death that has been part of their lives for many months.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Themes", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki