Book Review: All Quiet On the Western Front
Most depictions of war focus on a more glorious aspect, the exhilarating battles and rescues. That one must give it all for their nation, to destroy anything symbolic to what might harm its beliefs and they shall be honored for it. Although at first service and sacrifice seems justified. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque attempts to portray the bitter truth to swallow.
The novel follows a group of German boys who had freshly graduated from their schooling, once becoming enthralled through a rousing political speech for defending the homeland by their once teacher, enlisted within ranks. All considerations and visions of their future service, prior to arriving at the front, had left them drastically unprepared for the reality at hand. The only hope one can have in this place is for survival. Violence and fear lock the mind into such a state that little else matters, animal instinct and disregard for human life run rampant.
Whether it was a mortar shell, toxic gas, barb wire, fire, bullets shot from any direction, a knife, a shovel, or god forbid the failure of these to fully do so, leading to a slow agonizing death, crying for help. The western front was a meat grinder of men, destroying dreams and possibilities, leaving broken pieces behind that scarred the Earth. Thousands would die in a death, with little to no remembrance or significant feat to justify their sacrifice. As privates initially terrified, they are either left behind dead or must keep up with the blinding instinctual transformation.
However, this story is not about the monsters made by war, instead the battle that those have to never become one. When not on the front, the reader is quickly realized to the truth that these are still boys and young men, eager to experience life, crack jokes and make the best of any situation; yet being more comfortable running towards machine gun fire than approaching a group of girls. Inside this duality, a message is clear and the book shines. A connection between life and death, how both can exist so closely. Two forces greatly opposed to one another, yet somehow meaningless without the other.
In its most peaceful moments, this book leaves you with a ghostly feeling on the meaningless nature of war. How little that was done to start the conflict is fixed through perpetual violence and the individuals making the decisions are in no real urgency to change. Often are the characters contemplating the meaning of their struggle, probing for a purpose not so easily torn apart. Can any of them even live what would be called a normal life afterwards, or have they become too warped and damaged. Leaving familiar senses of existential dread, reminiscent of the reader's own search for purpose in life. Carrying harsh depictions of how reality can get in the way of dreams. These are the words of young men, unaware of the death sentence they’ve had from the beginning, searching for a deeper connection to life; a truth all can understand.
