The book All Quiet on the Western front by Eric Maria Remarque is a book that will forever stick with me throughout my life. It was things like the context and the emotions of this book. It was things like the ironic sense of reality that soldiers can be boys and death can be normalized. Even the outlook on life, which was so blunt and simplistic, was almost animalistic. It is the things that most other books do not possess are what I remember from this book.
Today’s novels that I have read have very different outlooks on wars and their soldiers. The soldiers at war are always strong, admirably brave, smart and willing do anything for their leaders. The leaders are always smart, kind and always do the best for their country. The enemies are always evil, cunning and evenly matched with the ‘good guys’. Granted it is natural for people to fantasize things, however it put things out of context. To read the nitty-gritty experience of war from the eyes of a soldier boy was flooring. To see the soldiers be ripped of their dignity on the trench lines like the young recruit from the German trench lines. An example being in chapter four when Paul, Albert and Katczinsky were placed in the front trenches and the bombing began. The story of military glory and bravery was ripped from my mind when the reality struck me. When the young recruit literally crapped his pants and cowered in fear from the bombing. Especially when even in the stillness of the night the mad sound of horses screaming in pain could be heard. The realization that soldiers were no more than boys who had lost their way was almost humbling.
Living in the society I live in today and seeing the ways of life presented in All Quiet on the Western Front increased the impact. To see what Paul saw as normal or everyday was bizarre and almost scary for me. I feel almost childish thinking that I fear such trivial things. One thing that especially bothered me was when Paul came home on leave. In my mind I had built up this mentality that his friends and family would rejoice in Paul’s return. I had imagined that Paul would come and never want to leave. What I would not have expected was for him to become distant and vague with his friends and family. When his mother pleaded him to tell her if he was hurt from the war, he dismissed her and told her that he was fine. But what shocked me the most was how Paul felt as if he belonged nowhere in his home. He described hometown it as foreign and the people: unfamiliar. Even trivial things like the screaming of tramcars reminded him of the shrieks of shells from the frontlines. The people I thought would be open with Paul were telling him about war. No one ever listened except for his mother who he could not even bring himself to tell the truth.
The perspective I have now on war has changed and warped over the span of reading this book. It showed me how different life can be. How simplistic and even terrifying it can be. Even as I end this personal response and move on with my life, this book has given me a tool. A tool to look at the past and the future with a new lens.