All Quiet On The Western Frontanalysis – College Essay

the gun range, nothing could have prepared the young men for the horrors of war. The sounds of gunfire and bombs exploding, witnessing the deaths of comrades and people having their heads blown off, killing other humans and the stench of dead bodies were unimaginable. The mere fact of witnessing those close to him dying took a toll on Paul and his friends.

Describing the events that occurred on the battlefield, Paul recounts how he unintentionally stabbed a man to death when the man stumbled into his shell hole. The narrative suggests that Paul had become habituated to killing to the extent that it had become a reflexive action.

The Western front witnessed a bloody war that left Germany with only a few miles of gain after their initial attack, shattering the soldiers' spirit. The loss incurred by Germany was not limited to just shattered morale, but also relinquishing land and citizens at the end of WWI, which ranks as one of the most catastrophic wars in the twentieth century. Paul Baumer shares his first-hand experience of the atrocities of war in this book, which includes witnessing gruesome deaths and hearing heart-wrenching sounds that could move a person to tears. It is evident that the loss of loved ones had a profound impact on Paul.

Recognizing that he could no longer operate within society, he understood that he needed to resist. He was the sole survivor among his group of friends, as six of them had perished. He joined them in death in October of 1918, only two years following his graduation from school.

Paul was merely 20 years old.