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Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

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The Tragedies of Youth in War

In WW1 over 10 million young men were killed. This took away all of the soldiers hopes and dreams. In All Quiet on the Western front a novel by Erich Remarque about the evils of war shown through Paul Baumer a German Soldier, It also shows how the men all lost their youth and their lives as young men. The worst place for a young man to be is in war because of the deaths of soldiers, the loss of their youth, and the loss of their sense of home.
Death is horrible for any young man, specifically when there is death in huge amounts like in war. The novel shows this horror many times. For example, when paul is describing how he saw stacked up coffins on the schoolhouse that are waiting for him and his comrades, Paul describes them as “stacked up against it’s side is a double wall of yellow unpolished, brand new coffins” (p.99), showing that death is waiting for them. Later, when all of Paul’s comrades have been killed, he says, “I am so alone and so without hope”.(p.295) This shows how death …show more content…

Paul says, “And men will not understand us, for the generations that grew up before us, though it has passed these years with us already had a fame and a calling; now it will return to its old occupations, and the war will be forgotten--and the generation that has grown up before us will be strange to us and will push us aside. we will be superfluous even to ourselves, we will grow older, a few will adapt themselves, some others will merely submit and most will be bewildered; -- the years will pass by and in the end we shall fall into ruin."(p.294). This shows how the older generation has a life to go back to after war, but his entire life is consumed by war. Paul says, "Trenches, hospitals, the common grave--there are no other possibilities."(p.283) meaning that he has nothing but war. The soldiers have no house and no life to go back

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