The text that has stood out to me the most so far in our unit has, without a doubt, been the book All Quiet on the Western Front. Something the author, Erich Maria Remarque, did really well is the way the book is narrated. The text is narrated by a man called Paul Bäumer. He is a young German soldier whose life has been ruined by World War One.
I think that Paul, as a narrator, is a really great and important aspect because you are getting the perspective of a man who has experienced trauma from the war. Paul explains how war actually is, not just the idea of war. Something that Paul said that impacted me was, “We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation” (Ch. 6, p. 141).
To me, this means that the idea of fighting for your country—being a brave hero saving lives—is not the case when you go to war. Instead, you feel like a monster fighting to stay alive, knowing that most likely you are going to die and suffer. This impacted me quite a bit. I always thought the perspective of soldiers must feel like they’re heroes saving their country and fighting for freedom, but this book explains the opposite.
Another thing that this book has taught me is that war has destroyed the soldiers spiritually and has killed their purpose in life: “The war has ruined us for everything” (Ch. 5, p. 87). The message here has impacted me because the phrase shows that the war doesn’t just physically injure and kill people—it permanently destroys people’s souls and minds. It causes trauma that lasts forever.
This novel shows that the stereotypical mighty hero is really just a traumatized young man wishing he had died on the battlefield.