Literary Themes In All Quiet O :: essays research papers

Some authors use themes to show the reader some perspective. Erich Maria Remarque&8217s book &8220All Quiet on the Western Front uses some themes but there are four main ones. Those four themes are the Lost Generation, futility of war, sound imagery, and the institutionalization or depersonalization of war. Some of these themes can be unified together to make an alarming yet wonderful set up to draw the reader into the story of &8220All Quiet on the Western Front.One of the near prominent themes book is also the most saddening. That theme is the institutionalization or depersonalization of war. Remarque begins the story with Germany&8217s soldiers fighting aninstitutionalized war. Soldiers were trained to destroy and kill the enemy. By institutionalizing the war, it was made easier to kill someone just like you for no reason. But by depersonalizing the soldiers with their enemy, it left devastating effects on the mind and heart. Soldiers emotions were deadened and they became i rrational. throughout the story, Paul Baumer, the narrator does not talk about killing someone but as the story progresses, this changes. An example of Paul acting irrational because of the effect war had on him was when he was in the trenches and all of a sudden, a French soldier comes into the trench and Paul immediately stabs him without thinking about, for Paul is scared and emotionally scarred. After stabbing him, Paul leaves him alone to let him bleed to death. In that part of the story, Paul regains a little bit of his emotions because after he stabbed the man, he starts to feel very guilty about it. He tries to talk to the dead man and help the man&8217s wounds. When Paul looks at the mans wallet, he finds some information about the soldier and realizes that the soldier was very much like himself, the only difference wasthat they were fighting on different sides. Paul thence starts to feel he killed himself and wishes no more of a part in the war.The institutionalization of the war led to people thinking how futile this war really is. Because the war was so depersonalized for the soldiers of Germany, they start to feel this isn&8217t their war to fight. Their loyalties are lost. What could have been solved between world leaders in a peace confrontation had been made into an all out war, making millions of people lose their lives.