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Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet On The Western Front

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Every autumn, the leaves change colors. The breathtaking reds, yellows, and oranges fill the trees with life. However, when the dull and wilted browns come, many feel dismayed at the change which takes away the pleasantness of autumn. Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front, shows a similar heartbreaking change that can be seen in Paul and his comrades. They soldiers leave home as vibrant, red, leaves, and come back as a shriveled, brown leaves. They feel the affect of the catastrophic events thought the brutality and despair they experience. The war destroys the soldiers’ former selves and causes them to lose their innocence, their identity, and their hope. The war strips innocence away from every soldier. From the very …show more content…

All the soldiers have identifying features back at home. But when they fight, they are no longer the same teens as they are a home. The war takes their identity. They “march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers” and “reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animal”(56 Remarque). This metamorphosis into barbaric creatures, develops as a result of the toll that war has taken on these men. As they approach the front, they turn into animals with beastly instincts which they cling onto for survival(Wagener). They have no identity which causes them to feel confused at times. Paul claims, “We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost”(123 Remarque). With this paradox, Paul understands that his past no longer defines him. He only knows life as a soldier on the front. Paul know he can never return to a normal life as he says, “A terrible feeling of foreignness suddenly rises up in me. I cannot find my way back, I am shut out”(172 Remarque). When Paul goes home to see his parents, it feels like years have past. This distance that he feels, results from the war taking over life and identity. No longer a studious and creative child, Paul takes on his new role as a strong and experienced soldier, giving testimony to the horror that occurs from

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