The novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque made me feel very emotional. Considering that I am a sensitive person finding a novel about war heartbreaking wasn’t very unusual for me. However, I found the way Paul described his emotions and behaviour in this novel very fearsome and unnerving rather than sadness or pity. This behaviour is the animalistic and survival state of mind Paul described himself and his comrades being driven to.
A depiction of the animal-like state that was constantly described throughout the novel was when Paul Baümer volunteered to crawl through no man’s land to collect information on the enemy’s current state. Paul finds himself in a shell hole as the enemy begins to send waves of soldiers, a French soldier falls into his shell hole and Paul’s instincts to stab him ensues,” I do not think at all, I make no decision–I strike madly home, and feel only how the body suddenly convulses, then becomes limp, and collapses.” (p. 209). In this example, Paul describes the instinct to kill any soldier who falls through the shell hole he is hiding in. That moment of having no control and desperately trying to survive he regretted no more than a few minutes later, after recovering. It was as if he had lost consciousness, his mind had gone into survival mode. This scene felt very disturbing to me and helped me connect to Paul as I was trying to imagine what I would do in such a situation.
Paul Baümer even describes some of his comrades or other soldiers directly using the word animal. The animalistic behaviour that is described is also connected to survival instincts that they had to learn in training. For example, in this quotation Paul’s division and some recruits are assigned a dangerous task, to set up barbed at the front. A shell bombing begins, Paul and the older recruits in the division bury themselves underground and fold their bodies to dodge the shells, “By the animal instinct that is awakened in us we are led and protected. It is not conscious; it is far quicker, much more sure, less fallible, than consciousness. One cannot explain it.” (p. 59). This quotation emphasizes how the young boys who joined the war did not originally have such instincts, as many of the new young boys who were conscripted died in this scene. This segment of the novel sparked many feelings, I felt mortified at the thought of having these animal instincts induced by the war. This contributed to Erich Maria Remarque’s goal, to write a novel about war that did not romanticize it. Instead, it showed the truth behind war the people who fought for their lives, not for glory. The soldier’s reliance on animal instincts to survive.